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Post by topbilled on Jan 3, 2024 15:10:26 GMT
FEBRUARY 1981
7 February 1981
East of Eden: Jane Seymour
Note: This was a three-part miniseries adaptation of John Steinbeck’s highly regarded novel. Seymour took the role played by Jo Van Fleet in the 1955 motion picture. James Dean’s role, Cal, was played by Sam Bottoms who had been born in 1955. Interestingly, the father in the story is played by Timothy Bottoms, Sam’s real-life brother who was just four years older. Also featured in supporting roles were Anne Baxter, Howard Duff, Warren Oates and Lloyd Bridges.
14 February 1981
WKRP in Cincinnati cast
Note: This was the last cover for the hit CBS sitcom. Previous covers for the series were published in 1978 and 1979.
21 February 1981
Evita Peron: Faye Dunaway
Note: This TV movie was broadcast on NBC and predated the musical film EVITA starring Madonna by 15 years. The Argentinian leader died in 1952 at the age of 33, after serving her country for about four years. Faye Dunaway was 40 when this production aired on television. James Farentino and Signe Hasso costarred.
28 February 1981
Hollywood’s Cocaine Connection
Note: This is a special issue looking at behind-the-scenes drug problems affecting the television industry. A later cover would feature Lauren Tewes openly discussing how her coke addiction cost her the long-running role she had on The Love Boat.
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Post by topbilled on Jan 4, 2024 10:01:55 GMT
MARCH 1981
7 March 1981
The Dukes of Hazzard: Sorrell Booke, Tom Wopat, John Schneider & Catherine Bach
Note: The third cover for the popular CBS action-adventure show, this one featured supporting player Sorrell Booke known for his role as Boss Hogg.
14 March 1981
Three’s Company: Suzanne Somers
Note: This was the first cover for the popular ABC sitcom to feature Suzanne Somers solo. She was chosen as a subject because she was in the midst of a battle with the show’s producers for increased wages. Somers would be denied a pay raise and ended up in litigation after she was dropped from the program at the end of the 1980-81 season.
21 March 1981
House Calls: Wayne Rogers & Lynn Redgrave
Note: Lynn Redgrave complained that Universal, the studio producing this hit sitcom, wouldn't allow her to breastfeed on the set. Redgrave was fired at the end of the season, and like Suzanne Somers, she went to court against her former bosses suing for wrongful termination. But while Three’s Company continued for another three years, House Calls would only last one more year, with Sharon Gless taking over the lead female role opposite Wayne Rogers.
28 March 1981
The Tonight Show: Johnny Carson
Note: TV Guide liked putting Carson on the cover. He had already been featured earlier in the year as part of a tribute to Jack Benny.
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Post by topbilled on Jan 5, 2024 13:40:12 GMT
APRIL 1981
4 April 1981
Baseball
Note: TV Guide’s annual ‘spring training’ type issue for baseball fans.
11 April 1981
Lou Grant: Ed Asner
Note: The fifth and final cover for the controversial CBS drama with Asner in a role he had first played for laughs on The Mary Tyler Moore Show.
18 April 1981
Nightline: Ted Koppel
Note: Koppel had been a reporter and news anchor at ABC News for twenty years before he was handed the job of hosting Nightline starting in 1980. He continued to host broadcasts of the popular late night series until 2005.
25 April 1981
MASH: Alan Alda
Note: Though Alda is associated with his lead role in the long-running CBS sitcom MASH on this cover, it is likely TV Guide selected him as a subject because a new film that he wrote, directed and starred in with Carol Burnett and Rita Moreno was about to be released in movie theaters. THE FOUR SEASONS would become a bonafide hit and was adapted by Alda as a television series in 1984.
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Post by NoShear on Jan 5, 2024 16:44:15 GMT
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. Jack Davis, the celebrated cartoon artist, was an old pro at both television caricatures and football caricatures by the time he created the above entry.
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Post by topbilled on Jan 5, 2024 17:28:52 GMT
I often wonder how much money TV Guide paid those artists to do the covers. I am sure those covers didn't come cheap! But they helped sell the magazine.
Have you noticed how the price of the magazine starts to go up? Though I bet if Carter had remained it office, inflation would have been worse. Reaganomics revitalized the American economy during this decade.
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Post by topbilled on Jan 6, 2024 14:47:06 GMT
MAY 1981
2 May 1981
That’s Incredible!: John Davidson, Cathy Lee Crosby & Fran Tarkenton
Note: Due to the success of NBC’s reality series Real People, ABC put this program into production. Unlike Real People, it explored more unusual situations and phenomena. That’s Incredible was a hit and ran for five seasons. When it was rerun in syndication, the producers cut the episodes in half, so that the old one-hour episodes aired as half-hour episodes…meaning there were twice as many episodes available for fans to enjoy.
9 May 1981
Dallas: Larry Hagman & Patrick Duffy
Note: This was the first TV Guide cover to feature Hagman and Duffy together. Undoubtedly, this was to publicize the hit series’ latest cliffhanger.
16 May 1981
Hart to Hart: Robert Wagner, Stefanie Powers & Lionel Stander
Note: The only cover to include costar Lionel Stander. The popular mystery show ran on ABC from 1979 to 1984.
23 May 1981
Harper Valley PTA: Barbara Eden
Note: Barbara Eden reprised her role from the 1978 hit movie, which was based on a popular country tune sung by Jeannie C. Riley. At this point, the series was finishing its first season on NBC and was a hit. But producer Sherwood Schwartz would be fired, new producers brought in over the summer and the series was unnecessarily retooled. The show was renamed Harper Valley when it returned in the fall, to de-emphasize the school and play up the town at large. New opening credits were filmed and the song was re-recorded at a faster tempo with a different singer, so it sounded more like a pop tune than a country tune. These changes alienated the core audience, and the show was canceled in the middle of its second season.
30 May 1981
CBS News: Dan Rather
Note: This cover put Rather in the spotlight. The well-liked anchor from 60 Minutes succeeded Walter Cronkite as the lead anchor on the network’s evening newscast.
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Post by topbilled on Jan 7, 2024 15:27:54 GMT
JUNE 1981
6 June 1981
Taxi: Judd Hirsch & Andy Kaufman
Note: Taxi was canceled by ABC at the end of the 1980-81 season. But it wasn’t over. The producers shopped the program around the dial, and it moved over to NBC for one more season. When Taxi finally concluded its run in mid-1982, those same producers had inked a deal at the peacock network for their next series, the long-running Cheers.
13 June 1981
Trapper John M.D.: Pernell Roberts, Gregory Harrison & Charles Siebert
Note: This was the only cover to include any of the supporting cast members from the popular CBS medical series. Usually Roberts and Harrison were the only ones featured. Siebert had become a fan favorite in his role as a narcissistic doctor, providing comic relief to lighten the mood while more serious issues played out on screen.
20 June 1981
Real People hosts
Note: The second and last TV Guide cover devoted to the popular NBC reality show.
27 June 1981
Dynasty: Linda Evans
Note: This was the first cover for Dynasty, which had premiered mid-season. Dynasty would become one of Aaron Spelling’s most successful series at ABC. Linda Evans was chosen as the focus of Dynasty’s initial cover, though John Forsythe’s character had a bigger storyline. Joan Collins had just been hired, but she wouldn’t debut in her role as Forsythe’s vindictive ex-wife and Evans’ rival until the show returned for its second season in the fall. That’s when the stories really began to gel.
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Post by topbilled on Jan 9, 2024 13:58:22 GMT
JULY 1981
4 July 1981
Diff’rent Strokes: Dana Plato & Gary Coleman
Note: TV Guide’s previous cover for the series had featured Coleman with on-screen sibling Todd Bridges. Now it was Dana Plato’s turn to be in the spotlight with Coleman. She played his older adoptive sister.
11 July 1981
Prime Time Vixens: Donna Mills, Morgan Fairchild & Pamela Sue Martin
Note: Primetime soaps were all the rage by the summer of 1981. Donna Mills had finished her first season as the scheming Abby Cunningham on CBS’ Knots Landing; Morgan Fairchild was in the middle of her two-season role on NBC’s Flamingo Road; and Pamela Sue Martin, more a bratty daddy’s girl than an outright vixen, was costarring on ABC’s Dynasty. If Joan Collins had started appearing on Dynasty in her signature role of Alexis, no doubt she would have been featured on this cover, not Martin.
18 July 1981
BJ and the Bear: Greg Evigan, Judy Landers and friend
Note: The NBC action-adventure series was never a ratings champ, but it had loyal fans. In an attempt to pump new life into the show, several lady truckers headed by Landers, were added to the cast. But this ploy didn’t increase viewership.
25 July 1981
Prince Charles & Lady Diana Spencer
Note: TV Guide featured the young royal couple on several covers during the 1980s. Nuptials for Charles and Diana occurred on the 29th of July at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London.
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Post by intrepid37 on Jan 9, 2024 23:53:04 GMT
Every time I see Dana Plato my heart breaks for her.
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Post by topbilled on Jan 10, 2024 3:15:58 GMT
Every time I see Dana Plato my heart breaks for her. Yeah, the kids from that show suffered a lot of tragedies.
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Post by topbilled on Jan 11, 2024 14:37:50 GMT
AUGUST 1981
1 August 1981
The Muppet Show: Miss Piggy
Note: Apparently Miss Piggy was such a star by this point, she was given her own TV Guide cover! The Muppets’ weekly TV series was ending, but Piggy, Kermit and the rest of the gang lived on in feature films.
8 August 1981
Archie Bunker’s Place: Carroll O’Connor
Note: By this point, Carroll O’Connor was flying solo as the title character, since Jean Stapleton’s character Edith had been killed off. At the end of the upcoming season, Sally Struthers would return to her role as daughter Gloria to set up a subsequent spinoff.
15 August 1981
The Day Elvis Died
Note: Presley died on August 16, 1977 at the age of 42. By this point, four years had passed and the anniversary of his death was still news.
22 August 1981
It’s a Living: Ann Jillian
Note: This was the only TV Guide cover for the sitcom that, like the long-running Alice, focused on a group of hard working wisecracking waitresses. Instead of being set in a Phoenix diner, It’s a Living was set in a ritzy L.A. hotel eatery. Jillian was the most recognizable star from the series. After the show’s second season, it left the airwaves for a few years; but it returned with all new episodes in syndication from 1985 to 1989.
29 August 1981
Pro Football
Note: The new football season was about to get underway, and TV Guide was ready for it.
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Post by topbilled on Jan 12, 2024 14:41:07 GMT
SEPTEMBER 1981
5 September 1981
Miss America
Note: Oklahoma native Susan Powell was crowned Miss America on September 6th. The 54th Miss America pageant was broadcast live on NBC from Atlantic City. It was the first time in 25 years that Bert Parks did not serve as host.
12 September 1981
Fall Preview
Note: Several new series would catch on with audiences. One memorable debut was NBC’s family sitcom Gimme a Break!, which starred Nell Carter & Dolph Sweet; it ran for six years. Meanwhile, ABC had a crowdpleaser with Lee Majors’ latest effort, the action comedy series The Fall Guy, which ran for five years. At CBS, there would be two substantial hits: the primetime soap Falcon Crest which ran for nine years; and the detective show Simon & Simon which ran for eight years.
19 September 1981
The Manions of America
Note: This was a three-part miniseries broadcast on ABC. It starred Kate Mulgrew and Pierce Brosnan. Mulgrew played an English-American woman, and Brosnan was an Irish farmer who came to America after the potato famine occurred. Since Brosnan wasn't known yet to American audiences, the cover was devoted to Mulgrew who had developed a following for her role on the ABC soap opera Ryan's Hope and her subsequent portrayal of Mrs. Columbo.
26 September 1981
The Battle for Northern Ireland
Note: This cover focused on news coverage of the troubles in northern Ireland, which seemed to generate headlines on a daily basis.
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Post by topbilled on Jan 13, 2024 15:51:17 GMT
OCTOBER 1981
3 October 1981
One Day at a Time: Valerie Bertinelli
Note: Another season, another cover featuring Valerie Bertinelli. By this point, she was probably more recognizable to audiences than series star Bonnie Franklin.
10 October 1981
Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy: Jaclyn Smith
Note: Charlie’s Angels had just left the airwaves in the summer after five hit seasons. From this point forward, Smith became one of the mainstays of TV movies. This was her first such production, playing a glamorous former first lady beset by tragedy.
17 October 1981
World Series
Note: This cover focused on the art of baseball pitching.
24 October 1981
Blind Spot in the Middle East
Note: Another cover focusing on the news coverage of an ongoing foreign conflict.
31 October 1981
Hill Street Blues: Bruce Weitz, Daniel Travanti & Michael Conrad
Note: The first cover for the popular NBC crime show. It began as a midseason replacement the previous January, and by the fall of 1981, the series had become a critics’ darling at the Emmys.
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Post by intrepid37 on Jan 13, 2024 18:04:01 GMT
My favorite actor in Hill Street Blues was Kiel Martin. I'd first noticed him in the early 70's when he starred in a couple of now obscure films (Trick Baby, Lolly-Madonna XXX) and always thought he should have had a more illustrious career than he did. In Lolly-Madonna he outshone a whole fleet of better-known actors, I thought.
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Post by topbilled on Jan 13, 2024 18:06:23 GMT
My favorite actor in Hill Street Blues was Kiel Martin. I'd first noticed Kiel in the early 70's when he starred in a couple of now obscure films (Trick Baby, Lolly-Madonna XXX) and always thought he should have had a more illustrious career than he did. In Lolly-Madonna he outshone a whole fleet of better-known actors, I thought. Usually these TV Guide covers focus on the main star (Travanti) and the breakout characters (Weitz especially). So the other ones get overlooked, unless the cover features a photo or drawing of the entire cast. I agree that Kiel Martin did a good job on Hill Street.
In the show's last two seasons, the new breakout star was Dennis Franz who played Detective Buntz...he was set up for a spinoff.
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