Talk:TV Guide

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Comment[edit]

Guys, what's with the sudden explosion of 50+ subtopics in this article? Vesta 05:37, 19 Jun 2004 (UTC)

It's gone. RickK 05:43, Jun 19, 2004 (UTC)

No, it's not. TheCustomOfLife 17:54, 19 Jun 2004 (UTC)

If I'd caught this today, I would have blocked the user because they've been warned, but since it was done yesterday when I was almost completely unable to get into Wikipedia, I won't worry about it. If they come back and do it again, I will block them. RickK 20:00, Jun 20, 2004 (UTC)


The cartoon character guy is back. Mike H 23:00, Jul 27, 2004 (UTC)

The Prevue Channel Wiki in this article redirects to another TV Guide channel page rather than one describing the Prevue Channel at the verry least it should be a stub telling you what it once was.

I don't know how to edit this in, but there is no reference to current circulation in this article. It is apparently only 1,093,150 for the first six months of 2022, a steep drop from just a few years ago: https://abcas3.auditedmedia.com/ecirc/magtitlesearch.asp — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2600:4040:B284:E700:F4C5:DAA:609F:C94 (talk) 21:41, 27 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

New TV Guide[edit]

If I remember correctly, the new TV Guide will start with the October 17 listings, meaning that it will actually hit the shelves as much as a week earlier, on October 10. Mike H (Talking is hot) 23:55, 23 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

The "New" TV Guide sucks. They only have prime time listings. It's mostly entertainment news, and it's not very good. They should have left it alone. The old format worked. Bring it back! 74.100.48.167 (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 16:07, 31 May 2009 (UTC).[reply]

Source[edit]

Does anyone know where TV Guide gets its information from? Is it sent to them from the broadcasting companies? Because a lot of tv shows listings they have I cannot find any place else. Also, would TV guide be credible enough to use as a legitimate source? ArgentiumOutlaw 01:39, 27 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

For TV show times or networks/channels it should work - they're virtually always correct. And I think that they get their information directly from the networks.

Still wondering... (or: a non-US/CA perspective?)[edit]

The article doesn't make clear whether (which I suspect) TV Guide is the only publication of TV listings. I'm wondering, since here in Germany, we have a number of (national (for what that's worth ;) )) TV program publications.

So, is it, or is it not, a monopoly? --jae 17:43, 29 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I've lived here my whole life, and I've never seen or heard of a different publication that shows tv listings on a regular basis. I wouldnt call it a monopoly tho, TV guide was the first to do it and they dont seem to abuse their standing as the only source of tv listings in my opinion. ArgentiumOutlaw 01:01, 30 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Newspapers also publish local TV listings. These are essentially free if you already subscribe to the paper, whereas TV Guide is an additional weekly expense. Sluggoster (talk) 04:31, 12 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Saturday-Friday always until 2005?[edit]

"The magazine also changed format to start the week's issue with Sunday listings, rather than Saturday listings, changing a tradition that started from the magazine's first issue."

Not so sure that's true. Certainly, they started with Saturday by the late 1960s, and probably much earlier than that. But the first few issues in the 1950s definitely were Friday-Thursday - the cover with Desi Arnaz Jr. is dated Apr 3-9, 1953. April 3, 1953, was a Friday. At some point, they must have done an eight-day issue (Friday to Friday) to change over to a Saturday-Friday period.

It should also be noted that, at least into the 1970s, the listings began a broadcast day between 4 and 5 a.m. Originally, there were no 24-hour television sources, so TV Guide listings for a day started with the earliest program scheduled on any station, and ended with the last program before sign-off. Sometimes, the listings might stretch past 3 a.m. into the next day; the first morning listings might be earlier than 5 am, but only rarely. This in an era when the only channels viewers had were local and nearby over-the-air stations, or cable channels of the same and slightly further away. There were no satellite stations, and rarely any stations more than 250 miles away.

The advent of 24-hour programs on other than "wheel-format" (e.g. CNN, Weather Channel) info channels would have triggered the need to come up with 24-hour listings, and therefore a rigid cut-off time, which ended up as 5 a.m.

Historically, too, TV Guide did not list consecutive movies separately. They would show:

(channel number) MOVIE - Double (or Triple) Feature

then underneath, starting with "(1)", list the movie titles and description. Early in the 1970s, they simply listed the second (and third) features at their respective scheduled start times (in increments of 5 minutes).

GBC 20:06, 21 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Fair use rationale for Image:TV Guide first issue.jpg[edit]

Image:TV Guide first issue.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Wikipedia:Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.

If there is other other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images uploaded after 4 May, 2006, and lacking such an explanation will be deleted one week after they have been uploaded, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.BetacommandBot 04:38, 6 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Proposed split of article[edit]

This article has two topics, each of which should have their own article. If no one objects, they may be split into two articles. Any support or objection? -- Jreferee 15:48, 10 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I like to contact the author of the TV guide history.

Wilbur.springer (talk) 11:55, 20 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Canada[edit]

I support a creation of a site for TVGC since it ceased publication.

--K3vin (talk) 12:22, 6 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Removed unsupported opinion and material of little interest[edit]

I removed things like "It no longer filled a need and struggled to justify its existence." I believe that added little to the previous sentence, which noted an 85% circulation fall. I moved the international TV Guides to the top, to remove a U.S. Canadian bias. I noted teh term is in common usage, and supported that by adding examples of such usage going back to 1995. —Preceding unsigned comment added by DaveBurstein (talkcontribs) 18:58, 19 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Canada[edit]

The openingparagraph still talked about the canadian print edition in present tense. I first started to change that. Then I felt a Canadian page for the former publication made more sense so in good faith, I aped a lot of the Canada section to a new page called TV Guide (Canada) I also moved the existing redirect TV Guide Canada to the new page. It was previously pointing to the canada section. I believe I may have reversed history, because I would not be surprised if the canadian edtion had a previous page. This made the most sense. Having ONE article about Two Magazines published in Two countries by Two publishers, one of which is no longer in publication was just too much. or is the TWO? In good faith, I did what I felt ammounted to common sense. --K3vin (talk) 13:10, 6 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Removed from main page[edit]

  • The Lost Boys- a bored Sam notices a TV Guide magazine in Grandpa's house and excitedly asks Grandpa if he has a TV. Grandpa responds "No, I just like to read the TV Guide. You read the TV Guide, you don't need a TV."
  • Curb Your Enthusiasm - Larry David (Seinfeld co-creator) playing a fictional version of himself, upon his deathbed (S05E10 'The End') tells his friend and manager Jeff Greene (Jeff Garlin), that he should not have let him do the Seinfeld TV Guide cover because he " ... really looked like an asshole" - referring to the actual TV Guide of November 21-27, 2004.
  • Mama's Family, Vinton Harper reveals that he has been collecting TV Guides for more than 25 years. He knows offhand how many times Mister Ed (Naomi's favorite TV character) has made the cover: twice.
  • The Bundys from the TV show Married... with Children also enjoy reading TV Guide; in fact, it is their only reading material, especially for Al Bundy.
  • The Simpsons, Homer says the 'three Rs' are "reading TV Guide, writing to TV Guide and renewing TV Guide."
  • On the Family Guy episode Boys Do Cry, Brian is on the telephone with his dimwitted girlfriend, explaining the Cheers And Jeers section to her.
  • In the 5th episode of Season 2 of Hell's Kitchen, the reward for completing the challenge was a photo shoot at TV Guide.
  • The X-Files, Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) holds up an issue of TV Guide to a bunch of mental patients, asking if the person on the cover (Jay Leno) was the person they claim committed the crime. They all agree he was. (She is holding up a copy of the Canadian edition of TV Guide; while the show at this point was filmed in Vancouver, this episode was set in the United States.)
  • In the Animaniacs song "I'm Cute", Dot mentions that TV Guide has her on the cover.
  • In the sitcom Roseanne, Dan (played by John Goodman) has many issues of TV Guide.
  • In the sitcom Friends, Chandler has a TV Guide subscription. The name on the address label is Ms. Chanandler Bong.
  • On an episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Geoffrey makes Will promise something, and Will's response is "I swear on the stack of TV Guides."

Ikip (talk) 15:31, 25 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

advertising? TV Guide back issues from 1948–2005[edit]

This is an external link in the article. The linked site is a place that sells physical copies of TV Guide. Is it a reasonable service for wikipedia to direct people to a business? I haven't looked at policy. Perhaps it is a completely normal thing to do.Fotoguzzi (talk) 17:41, 20 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Article being split.[edit]

It's been 12 years since TV Guide Magazine LLC was spun off from TV Guide. As they have been separate businesses for more than a decade.

  • TV Guide = Main company, trademark holder. Focus: digital media
  • TV Guide = company that licenses the right to use the TV Guide Name to create print magazines.

-- Davodd (talk) 03:44, 14 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Too specific in detail?[edit]

Hi, came to look at this article and was overwhelmed with the amount of detail here. Is it too excessive for Wikipedia? Likeanechointheforest (talk) 22:20, 19 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]