From Publishers Weekly
The engine of American culture receives an affectionate and often perceptive overview in this retrospective from the nation's biggest weekly magazine. Classic shows from I Love Lucy and Howdy Doody to The Sopranos and Survivor are given lavishly illustrated spreads along with quirkier cult favorites like The Prisoner and I, Claudius. TV's milestone discoveries of politics (All in the Family), social realism (Hill Street Blues) and nihilism (Seinfeld) are duly noted, while through-the-years thematic comparison of news broadcasts, sit-com families and TV detectives-and even the antics Ozzy and Harriet and The Osbournes-remind us that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Excerpts from TV Guide back issues include essays by literati like Alistair Cooke (on the "one of a kind" Mash) and Jay McInerny (on Seinfeld, which he initially thought would fail because it was "way too good to be on TV"), as well as nuanced analyses of television's impact on political campaigns and the Vietnam War. Best of all are the funny and thoughtful capsule appreciations of individual shows: Bewitched is pegged as a 60s microcosm in which a clueless, gray-flannel-suited Darrin goes to the office while "back at home, everybody else was on acid;" while Hawaii Five-O's Jack Lord "looked like a film-noir refugee who had wandered onto the set of a beach-blanket movie." Leafing through this volume will provoke floods of nostalgia, followed by the unsettling realization of just how much our memories consist of the TV shows we have watched. Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From School Library Journal
Adult/High School-This visual feast has a heaping helping of narrative about trend-setting programs and an interesting dollop of celebrity essays. YAs might find themselves surprised to realize that what they consider innovative programs today have parallels with shows of the past. The book is categorized by time slot: weekend, daytime, evening, prime time, and late night. Teens may read for pleasure, perhaps to test their parents' or grandparents' memory on the novel days of TV, or for information. The book is a plum for a report about American culture from the 1950s to the millennium. Also, the pages are stuffed with photos of TV Guide covers that are perfect for art and photography students learning design and layout. An index of every TV Guide cover is included, along with photographer. This coffee-table-sized book will be popular because of its balanced and colorful account of each decade.Karen Sokol, Fairfax County Public Schools, VACopyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Book Description
Imagine the greatest week of television ever. In celebration of its 50th anniversary, TV GUIDE has done just that. Picking and choosing from classic programs, unforgettable characters, hilarious moments and broadcast-interrupting tragedies, TV GUIDE has created in this deluxe and nostalgic history the ultimate week of programming. Here are fifty years of riveting innovation distilled into one unforgettable book.

From Saturday morning cartoons through prime time and late night, Fifty Years of Television pays tribute to hundreds of the most important shows of all time. More than 250 color and black-and-white photographs capture the giants of TV in their prime—from "The Great One," Jackie Gleason, to his latter-day descendant Homer Simpson, from Jack Webb of Dragnet to James Gandolfini of The Sopranos. The exciting, graphic covers of TV GUIDE offer a fantastic voyage through generations of pop culture. More than 400 collectible covers are included, featuring the work of artists such as Charles Addams, Salvador Dalí, Al Hirschfield, Norman Rockwell and Andy Warhol. Landmark essays from the pages of TV GUIDE by Oprah Winfrey, John F. Kennedy, Alex Haley and other American icons shed light on the seductive power of the medium. In original interviews, some of TV's best known and most beloved personalities reminisce about the shows that made the country tune in. A sweeping appreciation of TV, this is the ultimate book of its kind.


From the Inside Flap
Imagine the greatest week of television ever. In celebration of its 50th anniversary, TV GUIDE has done just that. Picking and choosing from classic programs, unforgettable characters, hilarious moments and broadcast-interrupting tragedies, TV GUIDE has created in this deluxe and nostalgic history the ultimate week of programming. Here are fifty years of riveting innovation distilled into one unforgettable book.

From Saturday morning cartoons through prime time and late night, Fifty Years of Television pays tribute to hundreds of the most important shows of all time. More than 250 color and black-and-white photographs capture the giants of TV in their prime—from "The Great One," Jackie Gleason, to his latter-day descendant Homer Simpson, from Jack Webb of Dragnet to James Gandolfini of The Sopranos. The exciting, graphic covers of TV GUIDE offer a fantastic voyage through generations of pop culture. More than 400 collectible covers are included, featuring the work of artists such as Charles Addams, Salvador Dalí, Al Hirschfield, Norman Rockwell and Andy Warhol. Landmark essays from the pages of TV GUIDE by Oprah Winfrey, John F. Kennedy, Alex Haley and other American icons shed light on the seductive power of the medium. In original interviews, some of TV's best known and most beloved personalities reminisce about the shows that made the country tune in. A sweeping appreciation of TV, this is the ultimate book of its kind.

FROM OUR EDITORS

When TV Guide made its newstand debut in 1953, the top-rated television shows were Dragnet, I Love Lucy, and Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts; a far different offering from C.S.I., Temptation Island, and The Simpsons! This giant pictorial registers the changes and continuity that TVG has documented in its first half century as an American standard. The 350 full-color and black-and-white images harmonize with articles, episode summaries, and Top 50 lists of characters, funniest moments, greatest commercials, and much more.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Imagine the greatest week of television ever. In celebration of its 50th anniversary, TV Guide has done just that. Picking and choosing from classic programs, unforgettable characters, hilarious moments and broadcast-interrupting tragedies, TV Guide has created in this deluxe and nostalgic history the ultimate week of programming. Here are fifty years of riveting innovation distilled into one unforgettable book.

From Saturday morning cartoons through prime time and late night, Fifty Years of Television pays tribute to hundreds of the most important shows of all time. More than 250 color and black-and-white photographs capture the giants of TV in their prime-from "The Great One," Jackie Gleason, to his latter-day descendant Homer Simpson, from Jack Webb of Dragnet to James Gandolfini of The Sopranos. The exciting, graphic covers of TV Guide offer a fantastic voyage through generations of pop culture. More than 400 collectible covers are included, featuring the work of artists such as Charles Addams, Salvador Dal￯﾿ﾽ, Al Hirschfield, Norman Rockwell and Andy Warhol. Landmark essays from the pages of TV Guide by Oprah Winfrey, John F. Kennedy, Alex Haley and other American icons shed light on the seductive power of the medium. In original interviews, some of TV's best known and most beloved personalities reminisce about the shows that made the country tune in. A sweeping appreciation of TV, this is the ultimate book of its kind.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

The engine of American culture receives an affectionate and often perceptive overview in this retrospective from the nation's biggest weekly magazine. Classic shows from I Love Lucy and Howdy Doody to The Sopranos and Survivor are given lavishly illustrated spreads along with quirkier cult favorites like The Prisoner and I, Claudius. TV's milestone discoveries of politics (All in the Family), social realism (Hill Street Blues) and nihilism (Seinfeld) are duly noted, while through-the-years thematic comparison of news broadcasts, sit-com families and TV detectives-and even the antics Ozzy and Harriet and The Osbournes-remind us that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Excerpts from TV Guide back issues include essays by literati like Alistair Cooke (on the "one of a kind" Mash) and Jay McInerny (on Seinfeld, which he initially thought would fail because it was "way too good to be on TV"), as well as nuanced analyses of television's impact on political campaigns and the Vietnam War. Best of all are the funny and thoughtful capsule appreciations of individual shows: Bewitched is pegged as a 60s microcosm in which a clueless, gray-flannel-suited Darrin goes to the office while "back at home, everybody else was on acid;" while Hawaii Five-O's Jack Lord "looked like a film-noir refugee who had wandered onto the set of a beach-blanket movie." Leafing through this volume will provoke floods of nostalgia, followed by the unsettling realization of just how much our memories consist of the TV shows we have watched. (Nov.) Copyright 2003 Cahners Business Information.

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