The Power of TV Guide

[tvrandywest]

[quote name=\'rugrats1\' date=\'Jul 17 2004, 09:29 PM\'] I don't know the announcer's name, but I can never forget the electronic sounds that accompanied the TVG ads in the 1970s, which practically reminded me more of TVG than TVG itself. [/quote]
Sadly, I've forgotten the announcer's name, and the friend of mine who worked at Triangle and knew the voicer left us in 1999. BUT... on a happier note... I dug out the sounder and sent the audio and a brief story of its composer to Matt to see if he could post it, link it, or whatever the kids today do so we can all hear it   ;-)

Randy
tvrandywest.com

[Don Howard]

[quote name=\'tvrandywest\' date=\'Jul 18 2004, 11:22 AM\'] [quote name=\'rugrats1\' date=\'Jul 17 2004, 09:29 PM\'] I don't know the announcer's name, but I can never forget the electronic sounds that accompanied the TVG ads in the 1970s, which practically reminded me more of TVG than TVG itself. [/quote]
Sadly, I've forgotten the announcer's name, and the friend of mine who worked at Triangle and knew the voicer left us in 1999. BUT... on a happier note... I dug out the sounder and sent the audio to Matt to see if he could post it, link it, or whatever the kids today do so we can all hear it   ;-)

Randy
tvrandywest.com [/quote]
 Oh, that's terrific. Thank you, Randy. I can hear the voice in my mind's ear, but haven't actually heard the voice in at least 20 years--probably closer to 25.
So, tell us, Randy West, did you ever grab your Mr. Microphone and pretend you were the voice of the TV Guide ads? Or did working on Johnny Olson's delivery take up most of your leisure time?

[tvrandywest]

[quote name=\'Don Howard\' date=\'Jul 18 2004, 08:24 AM\'] So, tell us, Randy West, did you ever grab your Mr. Microphone and pretend you were the voice of the TV Guide ads? Or did working on Johnny Olson's delivery take up most of your leisure time? [/quote]
I've had a firm grip on Mr. Microphone since the age of 12.

I never emulated (or truly appreciated the art) of the big voiced "straight" pronouncers until I got into the game. I spent those early years emulating Johnny O, Don Pardo and my radio hero Dan Ingram... that is, when I wasn't playing hide and seek with security at 30 Rock. What a simpler time.


Randy
tvrandywest

[aaron sica]

[quote name=\'DjohnsonCB\' date=\'Jul 18 2004, 11:21 AM\'] I just got an old 1967 Fall Preview issue in the mail yesterday (an eBay win) whose program listings contain nothing more than five VHF stations serving St. Louis.  But amazingly, except for a couple of NBC cartoons missing from the Saturday Morning pages (one pre-empted, the other delayed till Sunday Morning), and a trio of ABC shows (two non-game daytimers and the Wednesday Night Movie) picked up by indie KPLR-11 instead of then-ABC station KTVI-2, the entire three-network program lineup is included on the affiliates for all dayparts!  Snap Judgment, The Match Game, Eye Guess, American Bandstand, Joey Bishop in late night, all the old and new prime-time shows--they're all there.  Oh, and the color section with all the new shows is a lively and fun read, too.  TV Guide Fall Preview issues just didn't get any better than the ones between 1966 and 1990.

I also miss "As We See It", which ought to come back. [/quote]
 For years and years, I always jumped right to the Friday listings, because TV Guide would let you know when daytime changes were going to be made, whether it be the good:

10/28/83
3pm (4, 8, 28) FANTASY
[Last show of the series. Beginning Monday, "The Match Game-Hollywood Squares hour" premieres here.]

or the bad:

6/20/80
NOON (27) $20,000 PYRAMID-Game
[Last show of the series. Beginning Monday, "Family Feud" moves here.]

I won't go off on my "TV Guide sucks now" tangent.

[rugrats1]

In case anyone's interested, this site has a couple of audio clips of TV Guide commercials from the 1970s (1976 and 1979):

http://dt.prohosting.com/70s/adulttv/adulttv.html

[Matt Ottinger]

Here's the story Randy sent me:
------------------------

As half of Johnson-Siday, Eric Siday created this memorable ditty for TV Guide. The pair worked in advertising for decades; having created the 1939 "Pepsi Cola hits the spot" commercial jingle. Eric was an innovator in the development of electronic music, and is also responsible for the electronic sounds that became memorable as the Maxwell House percolating coffee pot. He also did the audio for ABC radio news themes and some of the early studio musical IDs heard at the end of TV shows, the Screen Gems electronic logo among them.

------------------------

And here (hopefully) is a link to it.  It's just the "beeps", there's not an announcer.

http://userdata.acd.net/ottinger/cullen/so...VGuideBeeps.mp3

[Ian Wallis]

I just got an old 1967 Fall Preview issue in the mail yesterday (an eBay win) whose program listings contain nothing more than five VHF stations serving St. Louis. But amazingly, except for a couple of NBC cartoons missing from the Saturday Morning pages (one pre-empted, the other delayed till Sunday Morning), and a trio of ABC shows (two non-game daytimers and the Wednesday Night Movie) picked up by indie KPLR-11 instead of then-ABC station KTVI-2, the entire three-network program lineup is included on the affiliates for all dayparts! Snap Judgment, The Match Game, Eye Guess, American Bandstand, Joey Bishop in late night, all the old and new prime-time shows--they're all there. Oh, and the color section with all the new shows is a lively and fun read, too. TV Guide Fall Preview issues just didn't get any better than the ones between 1966 and 1990.

Those were the days.  I have all those old TVGuides too, and love looking through old issues from the '60s and '70s.  It was kind of fun back in the days when network affiliates didn't pre-empt very much, and when TVGuide's listings were very detailed.  I think the best Fall Preview issues were probably in the '60s and '70s.

What I especially like about reading those old listings is that just about all the network game shows were seen in every city.  In some cases, if a network affiliate didn't air a show, a local independent would pick it up.  Or sometimes the network affiliate would air it later in the day.  They were great for doing lists of celebrities who appeared on the shows as well.

There were also quite a few TVGuide articles that pertained to game shows over the years.  Those were neat times...

[rmfromfla]

TV Guide issue #906 for the week of August 8-14, 1970:
      Listing for Monday, August 10, 1970:

    11:00     7     12     WARREN BURGER SPECIAL      C
    Special:  Chief Justice Warren E. Burger delivers his
    State of the Judiciary message.  See the Close-Up on
    page A-29  (Live)
    ["Jeopardy!" is pre-empted.]


   Gee, but CBS didn't pre-empt their soap opera
  "Where the Heart Is"  for that speech.......

[uncamark]

[quote name=\'Don Howard\' date=\'Jul 17 2004, 09:55 PM\']Anyone know the guy who voiced those TV Guide commercials? Those were terrific! That was when the stories were all reader-friendly with no dipping into the controversy vat.[/quote]
I believe the announcer for the TV Guide commercials was Taylor Grant, a longtime radio news anchor in Philadelphia.  He did afternoon drive newscasts for many years on WCAU, the CBS-owned station.  It's been some years, but I do remember the name and his voice from the few years as a kid I lived in the Philadelphia area.  And of course, since this is back in the days when Triangle Publications ran the mag and world headquarters were in beautiful Radnor, Pennsylvania near Valley Forge (I recall my parents driving by the TV Guide HQ and my mouth dropping open in wonder), so it's totally possible that they used Philly talent for the ads.