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Post by topbilled on Dec 23, 2023 19:23:04 GMT
I am going to start posting images of every TV Guide cover from the 1980s. TV Guide listings in the 1980s always started on Saturday and ended the following Friday.
There were 522 total editions of TV Guide from early January 1980 through late December 1989.
1980: First edition was published January 5th. Last edition was December 27th. There were 52 editions.
1981: First edition was published January 3rd. Last edition was December 26th. There were 52 editions.
1982: First edition was published January 2nd. Last edition was December 25th. There were 52 editions.
1983: First edition was published January 1st. Last edition was December 31st. There were 53 editions.
1984. First edition was published January 7th. Last edition was December 29th. There were 52 editions.
1985: First edition was published January 5th. Last edition was December 28th. There were 52 editions.
1986: First edition was published January 4th. Last edition was December 27th. There were 52 editions.
1987: First edition was published January 3rd. Last edition was December 26th. There were 52 editions.
1988: First edition was published January 2nd. Last edition was December 31st. There were 53 editions.
1989: First edition was published January 7th. Last edition was December 29th. There were 52 editions.
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Post by topbilled on Dec 24, 2023 16:55:52 GMT
I spent several hours yesterday afternoon looking at TV Guide covers online from the 1980s.
One thing I realized is how thorough the magazine's editors and writers were...they did feature a variety of programs across genres, they talked about specific Hollywood trends affecting the television industry, they had articles about political leaders and how those folks made an impact on the TV landscape, etc.
Also, you can tell when a big TV name is about to leave the airwaves...like someone is quitting a hit series in its prime, or a hit series has run its course and has finally been cancelled...they will devote a cover (sometimes two covers) to that important person leaving the airwaves.
A few individuals and shows appear on the cover more than others. I expected Michael J. Fox and the cast of Family Ties to get a bunch of covers and they did. I expected Bill Cosby and cast members from The Cosby Show to get a bunch of covers and they did. I also expected the primetime soaps to be well-represented, and yes, they all were, especially Dallas.
Some stars received a cover, because they were well-known for their work in previous decades and were now appearing in a variety special or in a new TV movie or miniseries. These included people like George Burns and Mary Tyler Moore.
Also there were several old-school stars attempting a new weekly series. Not every comeback attempt was successful. For example, there is a cover from the fall of 1986 that features Lucille Ball and Andy Griffith with the phrase 'two favorites return' or something along those lines. Of course, Life with Lucy was a flop and was cancelled by Christmas; whereas Matlock was a hit and ran for nine seasons.
The covers can be found on TV Guide's website and on various collector sites. Some of the images are faded, even at TV Guide's website. So I will put them through my photo app and sharpen them before I start posting them in order. As the expression goes, stay tuned!
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Post by topbilled on Dec 25, 2023 19:18:28 GMT
1980
JANUARY 1980
5 January 1980
MASH: Jamie Farr, Alan Alda & Loretta Swit
Note: There would be several more MASH covers up to the show’s landmark finale in February 1983.
12 January 1980
CHiPs: Erik Estrada & Jon Wilcox
Note: There would be one more cover for this series, and Estrada would appear on another cover devoted to TV hunks.
19 January 1980
Super Bowl
Note: Super Bowl XIV took place on the 20th of January. The score was Pittsburgh Steelers 31 and Los Angeles Rams 19.
26 January 1980
Soap: Richard Mulligan & Cathryn Damon
Note: This show had one previous cover in November 1977 shortly after it debuted. Richard Mulligan would appear on another cover during the 1980s for his subsequent sitcom Empty Nest.
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Post by topbilled on Dec 25, 2023 19:42:38 GMT
FEBRUARY 1980
2 February 1980
Diff’rent Strokes: Conrad Bain, Todd Bridges & Gary Coleman
Note: There were would be several more covers for Diff’rent Strokes in the first half of the 1980s, most notably one that featured Coleman with special guest Nancy Reagan.
9 February 1980
Winter Olympics
Note: The 1980 Winter Olympics took place in Lake Placid, New York. The 1980 Summer Olympics would occur in Moscow, but the United States and many other countries decided to boycott the summer event due to protests over the Soviet-Afghan War.
16 February 1980
Barnaby Jones: Buddy Ebsen & Lee Meriwether
Note: This was the last TV Guide cover for the long-running crime show. The series ended production soon afterward. Previous covers for Barnaby Jones occurred in 1973, 1975 and 1978.
23 February 1980
Selecting Our Leaders: The TV Drama Begins
Note: This edition focused on TV news coverage during the early days of the campaign for presidency. The election would occur in November.
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Post by topbilled on Dec 26, 2023 12:56:56 GMT
MARCH 1980
1 March 1980
Fantasy Island: Herve Villechaize & Ricardo Montalban
Note: This was the third and final cover for Fantasy Island. Previous covers were published in 1978 and 1979. All of them featured Ricardo Montalban.
8 March 1980
Dallas: Mary Crosby, Larry Hagman & Linda Gray
Note: This cover capitalized on the increasing popularity of Dallas, thanks to the story arc involving Mary Crosby’s character. Crosby would appear on another cover as part of the cast of Hollywood Wives. Hagman and Gray would be seen on subsequent TV Guide covers promoting Dallas. Interestingly, the first TV Guide cover for Dallas did not feature Larry Hagman; instead, it featured Jim Davis, Patrick Duffy & Victoria Principal and was published in June 1979.
15 March 1980
Family cast
Note: Undoubtedly this cover was commissioned because the show was ceasing production and had been a critics’ darling. Meredith Baxter would appear on other TV Guide covers in the 1980s as part of the cast of Family Ties and for a TV movie in which she costarred with her husband David Birney. Kristy McNichol would appear on an Empty Nest cover.
22 March 1980
The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo: Claude Akins, Brian Kerwin & Mills Watson
Note: This was the only TV Guide cover for the short-lived spinoff of BJ and the Bear, in which Akins had been a guest star. The program would be retooled during its second season whereby the title was shortened to Lobo.
29 March 1980
Archie Bunker’s Place: Martin Balsam & Carroll O’Connor
Note: Carroll O’Connor had been featured on many TV Guide covers in the 1970s as part of the cast of All in the Family. This continuation series ran from 1979 to 1983 and had four covers of its own.
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Post by topbilled on Dec 26, 2023 13:00:15 GMT
APRIL 1980
5 April 1980
Baseball
Note: During the first few years of the 1980s, TV Guide devoted a cover to the new baseball season. This was in addition to a special World Series cover later in the year. Eventually this ‘spring training’ type issue was discontinued.
12 April 1980
Olivia Newton-John Special
Note: Propelled by her success in movies and several recent hit songs, Olivia Newton-John was seen by network execs as someone who might garner strong ratings. Thus she was given her own TV special.
19 April 1980
Alice: Linda Lavin, Vic Tayback, Beth Howland & Diane Ladd
Note: Most likely this cover was meant to publicize Diane Ladd’s having recently joined the cast of the popular CBS sitcom. Ladd had costarred with Tayback in the movie version ALICE DOESN’T LIVE HERE ANYMORE for which she received an Oscar nomination. However, she was creating a new waitress character, since her first role had been taken by Polly Holliday and was spun off into another series. There would be no more covers for Alice, though the show ran until 1985. But there was a cover for Holliday’s show.
26 April 1980
United States: Beau Bridges & Helen Shaver
Note: This NBC sitcom was created by Larry Gelbart and starred Bridges & Shaver as a young married couple with domestic issues. Gelbart had been responsible for the success of MASH and probably NBC had high hopes for United States, and TV Guide’s editors expected it to be a hit. But only 13 episodes were produced, and it was pulled from NBC’s schedule after nine episodes had aired.
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Post by topbilled on Dec 27, 2023 8:55:56 GMT
MAY 1980
3 May 1980
Mork & Mindy: Robin Williams & Pam Dawber
Note: This zany sitcom was an immediate hit with viewers and ran until 1982…at which point Williams would concentrate on a motion picture career. The show’s first TV Guide cover was back in 1978. Pam Dawber would appear on another cover promoting the show in late 1980. She also appeared on a cover for her subsequent sitcom My Sister Sam.
10 May 1980
One Day at a Time: Mackenzie Phillips, Bonnie Franklin & Valerie Bertinelli
Note: This popular CBS sitcom had many TV Guide covers during its run from 1975 to 1984. As time went on, Valerie Bertinelli became the show’s breakout star. Later covers promoting One Day at a Time just featured her.
17 May 1980
The Jeffersons: Isabel Sanford, Sherman Hemsley, Franklin Cover & Roxie Roker
Note: This was the show’s third TV Guide cover. Previous covers were published in 1975 and 1978. There would be a few more before The Jeffersons ended its successful run in 1985. Sherman Hemsley appeared on every cover related to this series, and he was also featured on covers connected to his subsequent sitcom Amen.
24 May 1980
Situation Comedies overview
Note: This is a more generalized cover about a specific TV genre. Included are images of Three’s Company, WKRP in Cincinnati and Taxi, as well as Mork & Mindy which had just been featured on a cover three editions ago.
31 May 1980
Vega$ cast
Note: Robert Urich would also appear on a cover later in the decade promoting his subsequent crime drama Spenser: For Hire.
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Post by topbilled on Dec 27, 2023 8:58:25 GMT
JUNE 1980
7 June 1980
Knots Landing: Joan Van Ark & Ted Shackleford
Note: This was the first TV Guide cover for the popular Dallas spinoff. Van Ark and Shackleford had brought their characters over from the parent show and initially were regarded as the main couple of Knots Landing. Things changed when Donna Mills was added to the cast in the second season, and as Michele Lee’s character became identified more as the maternal anchor of the program. Though ratings were not huge for the show in the beginning, Knots Landing would soon hit its stride and run for fourteen seasons until 1993. There is a later TV Guide cover in the 80s comparing Knots Landing to Dallas and Dynasty, with the claim that it had become the best primetime soap of the decade.
14 June 1980
House Calls: Lynn Redgrave & friend
Note: Born into a famous acting family in Britain and already with an Oscar nomination to her credit, Redgrave became an unlikely American sitcom star. She took over a role that was initially played by Glenda Jackson in Universal’s hit movie of the same name from 1978. Redgrave had good chemistry with costar Wayne Rogers, and House Calls became a top 10 series in its second season. But the momentum didn’t last. The show declined in popularity when Redgrave was abruptly fired and made headlines suing Universal.
21 June 1980
Hart to Hart: Stefanie Powers & Robert Wagner
Note: This was the second of four TV Guide covers dedicated to the popular mystery series. The first one was in 1979 shortly after the program debuted on ABC. The next one was in 1983. Another cover was published in 2019 with Powers & Wagner celebrating the show’s 40th anniversary.
28 June 1980
Trapper John M.D.: Gregory Harrison & Pernell Roberts
Note: There were five TV Guide covers for this popular CBS medical drama that aired from 1979 to 1986 on CBS. Earlier covers focused on Roberts who was already an established television star,. The last one focused on Harrison who would go on to other series, though none as popular with viewers as this one. Roberts played the title character who was said to be an older and wiser version of a character that had previously been played by Wayne Rogers on the sitcom MASH. Though humorous elements were still present, the focus was now on drama at a busy San Francisco hospital.
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Post by topbilled on Dec 28, 2023 3:29:09 GMT
JULY 1980
5 July 1980
Little House on the Prairie cast
Note: This was the sixth of seven TV Guide covers for Little House on the Prairie. All of them featured Michael Landon. In the mid-80s, Landon would appear on covers publicizing his next series Highway to Heaven.
12 July 1980
The Dukes of Hazzard: John Schneider, Catherine Bach & Tom Wopat
Note: This popular CBS action-adventure series ran from 1979 to 1985. Wopat would appear on another cover in August 1980 after being identified as one of TV’s hunks.
19 July 1980
The Love Boat: Lauren Tewes, Gavin MacLeod & Ted Lange
Note: This was the third of six covers for Aaron Spelling’s popular cruise ship series. Lauren Tewes appeared on every cover except one; she had a cover all to herself after she was fired by Spelling and returned to the series as a special guest star.
26 July 1980
Taxi: Judd Hirsch, Tony Danza & Marilu Henner
Note: Judd Hirsch appeared on all three of TV Guide’s covers for this hit sitcom. The show was about to begin its fourth season on ABC. It would move over to NBC for a fifth and final season. Hirsch also appeared on a cover that helped promote his subsequent sitcom Dear John.
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Post by topbilled on Dec 28, 2023 3:35:18 GMT
AUGUST 1980
2 August 1980
Real People: Sarah Purcell
Note: In 1980 NBC was in third place among the three big networks. It needed hits badly, and found an unlikely one with Real People, now regarded as one of the tube’s first reality shows. The most popular host of Real People was Sarah Purcell who appears on this cover. There was a second cover the following year that again featured Purcell, flanked by her co-hosts.
9 August 1980
Children’s Television overview
Note: This is a more generalized cover about a specific TV genre. Included are images of Fat Albert, The Flintstones, The Muppet Show & Sesame Street.
16 August 1980
TV’s Incredible Hunks: Tom Wopat, Erik Estrada & Greg Evigan
Note: A cover that featured the medium’s most attractive young male stars at this point in time. (Tom Selleck hadn’t yet debuted as Magnum P.I.) Wopat became a household name playing a good old country boy on CBS’ The Dukes of Hazzard; while the other two had become stars over at NBC, with Estrada appearing on CHiPs and Evigan on BJ and the Bear.
23 August 1980
General Hospital: Genie Francis
Note: There had been TV Guide covers about daytime soaps in the 1970s, but none had been devoted to a specific rising star of the genre. Genie Francis became popular playing long-suffering heroine Laura Webber on ABC's hit soap opera General Hospital. Francis appeared on another TV Guide cover when she made the jump to primetime and starred in the short-lived drama Bare Essence.
30 August 1980
Pro Football
Note: In the early 80s TV Guide’s editors were in the habit of devoting a cover to the fall football season.
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Post by topbilled on Dec 29, 2023 13:44:49 GMT
SEPTEMBER 1980
6 September 1980
Shogun: Richard Chamberlain
Note: Thanks to his roles in Centennial, Shogun and The Thorn Birds, Richard Chamberlain became known during these years as the king of the miniseries. These productions gave him more daring material to play and helped him distance himself from his earlier boy-next-door role of Dr. Kildare. Shogun was based on James Clavell’s bestselling novel and it aired for five consecutive nights on NBC in September 1980. It was successful and earned Chamberlain a Golden Globe Award for his performance.
13 September 1980
Fall Preview
Note: One of TV Guide’s longest and most cherished traditions is its annual coverage of the new fall television season. This special edition provides a lot of information about the networks’ latest series, including articles about returning stars as well as new faces who may become stars of tomorrow.
The 1980-81 season was delayed because of an Actors Strike which meant shows did not premiere in September or October but in November. As a result, not all of these series had full seasons and most of them produced a few episodes less than what they’d made in other seasons.
There weren’t a lot of new series this year to write home about. Polly Holiday’s Flo had begun the previous spring but despite a promising start it lost steam and was gone after a year. Bosom Buddies, with Tom Hanks, received attention because of an unusual premise…Hanks and costar Peter Scolari initially dressed in drag in order for their characters to live at an all-women’s establishment (don’t ask why). But the gimmick wore thin, and the show was canceled in 1982.
Also debuting in 1980 was It’s a Living. This program was retooled after a season and retitled Making a Living, before its cancellation in 1982. It would return in syndication, reverting back to its original title with yet another cast shakeup…but the third time was a charm and It’s a Living ran until 1989 doing quite well away from network interference.
Another sitcom that followed a similar trajectory was ABC’s genial comedy Too Close for Comfort with Ted Knight. Initially, the series did well enough for the network to renew it two more times. But at the end of the third season Too Close for Comfort was abruptly dropped from the schedule. So Knight and the producers took it to first-run syndication where its shelf life was extended for three more seasons.
The only solid primetime hit in the fall of 1980 was CBS’ Magnum P.I. which won over viewers right out of the gate.
20 September 1980
Those Amazing Animals: Priscilla Presley
Note: This was the first edition of TV Guide to feature Priscilla Presley on its cover. She would appear on other covers when she joined the cast of Dallas. There were also covers connecting her to specials about her famous ex, Elvis.
27 September 1980
Cosmos
Note: This cover focused on a 13-part PBS series hosted by astronomer Carl Sagan. The series featured re-enactments with Sagan sharing theories about the universe. Cosmos was later released on home video in the mid-80s.
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Post by topbilled on Dec 30, 2023 13:35:38 GMT
OCTOBER 1980
4 October 1980
Lou Grant: Ed Asner & Mason Adams
Note: This cover was published at the start of the show’s fourth season. A month later Ronald Reagan would be elected president. Asner became very politically outspoken about Reagan’s policies regarding Central America. His stance caused one of the show’s main sponsors Kimberly Clark to withdraw support, and as Asner subsequently claimed, it led to CBS cancelling Lou Grant after the fifth season because of pressure from the White House.
11 October 1980
World Series
Note: The 1980 World Series was broadcast on NBC. The Philadelphia Phillies won their first World Series against the Kansas City Royals.
18 October 1980
Sophia Loren: Her Own Story
Note: This cover is devoted to Sophia Loren, who stars in an adaptation of her bestselling autobiography from 1979. The TV movie aired on NBC and it featured Loren playing her mother in the earlier scenes, then playing herself as an adult. Loren would appear on another TV Guide cover when she made a subsequent telefilm.
25 October 1980
Barney Miller: James Gregory & Hal Linden
Note: This was the fifth and last cover for the venerable ABC sitcom, which would leave the airwaves in 1982. Previous covers were published in 1975, 1976, 1977 and 1979.
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Post by topbilled on Dec 31, 2023 16:40:58 GMT
NOVEMBER 1980
1 November 1980
Election Coverage: John Anderson, Ronald Reagan & Jimmy Carter
Note: This special edition looks at how the network news divisions plan to cover the upcoming election. Americans would cast their votes on Tuesday November 4th. Independent candidate Anderson did not win any states; while incumbent Carter only won six states plus D.C. Reagan’s landslide victory, taking 44 states, easily put him into the White House where he remained for two terms.
8 November 1980
Flo: Polly Holliday
Note: This was the publication’s only cover dedicated to Holliday’s sitcom, where she played the title character. She had become popular in the role on parent show Alice. But while Alice remained on CBS’ schedule for several more years, the network was unhappy with the results of the spinoff and cancelled Flo in 1981 after 29 episodes had been produced. Holliday did not return to Alice, even after her replacement Diane Ladd had left. There were rumors that Linda Lavin resented Holliday’s popularity and did not want the actress back on Alice. The third waitress character on Alice would be recast with Celia Weston who gave a more subdued performance than Holliday and Ladd, and more importantly, didn’t upstage Lavin.
15 November 1980
Dallas: Larry Hagman
Note: This cover is devoted to the resolution of the infamous ‘Who Shot J.R.?’ cliffhanger that closed out the third season of Dallas in May. The show’s fourth season had been delayed because of an Actors Strike, and the writers did not reveal the culprit’s identity until the new season’s fourth episode, entitled ‘Who Done It’ which was broadcast on Friday November 21st. This landmark episode of Dallas earned a whopping 53 share in the Nielsen ratings, and it was estimated that 76% of all households that night watched Dallas. The shooter turned out to be J.R.’s devious sister-in-law and mistress Kristin Shepard (Mary Crosby).
22 November 1980
Mork & Mindy: Pam Dawber
Note: This was Pam Dawber’s third and final cover as Mindy on the popular ABC series. She’d later star in the sitcom My Sister Sam on CBS.
29 November 1980
Monday Night Football
Note: TV Guide covers about ABC’s Monday Night Football series tended to focus on the commentators in the booth, instead of what was happening down on the field.
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Post by topbilled on Jan 1, 2024 16:16:46 GMT
DECEMBER 1980
6 December 1980
Diff’rent Strokes: Todd Bridges & Gary Coleman
Note: Coleman appeared on all the covers dedicated to this show.
13 December 1980
I’m a Big Girl Now: Diana Canova
Note: This short-lived sitcom was from the producers of Soap and Benson. It had been developed as a vehicle for Canova after she was written out of Soap. Here she played a different character, matching wits with Danny Thomas as her father. In real life, Danny Thomas was the father of the show’s producer Tony Thomas.
20 December 1980
Holiday edition
Note: At Christmastime each year TV Guide devoted an edition to holiday specials airing on the tube.
27 December 1980
Magnum P.I.: Tom Selleck
Note: It didn’t take long for Selleck or his new hit show on CBS to get a TV Guide cover. The successful crime-action-adventure series— which was filmed in the aloha state and took over production facilities previously used for twelve years by the folks at Hawaii Five O— would run from 1980 until 1988, by which point Selleck had become a bonafide movie star.
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Post by topbilled on Jan 2, 2024 9:19:42 GMT
1981
JANUARY 1981
3 January 1981
Too Close for Comfort: Deborah Van Valkenburgh, Ted Knight & Lydia Cornell
Note: This was the first cover for the semi-popular sitcom starring Ted Knight. He played a much more likable character here than he had on the long-running Mary Tyler Moore Show. Typically these covers featured Knight alongside the actresses who played his daughters: Van Valkenburgh, who was starting to make a splash in feature films; and Cornell who was popular in magazines. Knight’s costar Nancy Dussault, who played his wife, only appeared on one of the covers. That gives an idea of how the show was promoted, as funny dad with sexy daughters.
10 January 1981
Good Morning America: David Hartman
Note: This cover occurred at the height of David Hartman’s popularity as the main host on ABC’s Good Morning America. For years, NBC’s Today Show had dominated the morning airwaves. But because of Hartman’s likability, Good Morning America made considerable strides and would eventually take over as the number one morning news/talk show. Hartman’s young co-host, Joan Lunden, was featured on later covers as she became just as popular as Hartman.
17 January 1981
Reagan’s first inauguration
Note: TV Guide published two presidential inauguration covers in the 1980s. This one in January 1981, and a second one in January 1985. Both featured Ronald Reagan, who was elected president and served two terms. There was no inauguration cover in January 1989 for Reagan’s successor, George H.W. Bush.
24 January 1981
Super Bowl
Note: Super Bowl XV took place on the 25th of January. The score was Oakland Raiders 27 and Philadelphia Eagles 10.
31 January 1981
A Love Letter to Jack Benny: Bop Hope, Johnny Carson & George Burns
Note: This tribute to the late Jack Benny, who died in December 1974, aired on NBC on February 5th. It featured the three hosts reminiscing about their close friendship with Benny and reflecting on his career in radio, movies and television. Clips from Benny’s weekly TV show, subsequent specials and appearances on various talk shows were included. This broadcast began late, since President Reagan was delivering an address to the nation about the economy.
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