This was a really rather nice black & white magazine devoted to the small screen packed full of episode guides and articles. What made it particularly interesting was that it covered shows that were routinely ignored by other titles like TV ZONE, THE BOX and CULT TV.
Unfortunately UK distribution in specialist stores was really hit-and-miss (actually more miss) which made regular purchases impossible. It eventually ran for twelve issues before closing.
Shows covered along the way included (in no particular order) LA LAW, THE FLYING NUN, THE INCREDIBLE HULK, MAGNUM PI, ST. ELSEWHERE, LIFE GOES ON, DOORWAYS (an ambitious unsold pilot), SABLE, THE MONKEES and dozens of pre- Star Age shows which are probably virtually unknown in the UK other than by reputation.
If TC had hit a few years later if might have been able to tap into the nostalgia being created by DVD and the explosion in archive shows hitting the shelves.
As you have said before, there is always something new to discover and I have NEVER come across this one.
ReplyDeletegoing by the covers, it seemed to have a nice mix of shows and looks quite similar to SPECTRUM.
SPECTRUM was the better looking mag and had better production values. This was all b&w newsprint interiors (which made for murky photo reproduction) with some pretty basic typeset layouts.
ReplyDeleteThe editorial thrust was also pretty different. For the most part SPECTRUM covered cotemporry shows whereas this one was much more interested in TV's past. It also lacked the structured and analytical episode guides that SPECTRUM excelled at.