Bookshelf: TV Guide, October 3rd, 1964 Edition

TV Guide, Volume 12, Number 40 (Issue #601)
Published October 3rd, 1964
Published by Triangle Publications, Inc.
96 Pages

NOTE: In October 2014 I revisited this issue of TV Guide as part of my A Year in TV Guide project.

Mia Farrow of Peyton Place fame graced the cover of this issue of TV Guide. Not surprisingly, most of the issue consists of television listings, but there are also 28 pages of articles, split between a front and back section. The front section contains Neil Hickey’s New York TV Teletype, a table of contents, an editorial column, an article by ABC News Analyst Edward P. Morgan regarding presidential campaigns, another about Kansas University football coach Jack Mitchell and a profile of actress Jill St. John. Every edition of TV Guide contained the same article sections; only the listings section was changed. This particular issue is from the Western New England Edition.

TV Guide Cover, October 3rd, 1964 Edition

TV Guide Cover, October 3rd, 1964 Edition – Triangle Publications, Inc.

The listings section, which runs 68 pages, opens with Henry Harding’s “For the Record” section, in which he briefly covers the television industry. There are four stories: CBS News calling upon Walter Cronkite for election night coverage, Steve Allen and Westinghouse Broadcasting ending his syndicated talk show, RCA’s combination television/electronic microscope and the producer of NBC’s The Doctors wondering if he should rename the show The Doctors and the Very Good Nurses after CBS changed the name of The Nurses to The Doctors and the Nurses.

Following “For the Record” is a letters page, a sports guide and a list of specials, time changes and debuts.

TV Guide Letters Page, October 3rd, 1964 Edition

TV Guide Letters Page, October 3rd, 1964 Edition – Triangle Publications, Inc.

Then the listings — which cover sixteen stations in Connecticut and Massachusetts — begin.

TV Guide Page A-37, October 3rd, 1964 Edition

TV Guide Page A-37, October 3rd, 1964 Edition – Triangle Publications, Inc.

There are also advertisements for specific programs, some for local stations and others for network fare. Additionally, there a variety of TV Guide close-ups focusing on specific programs (including The Hollywood Palace, the Rome Olympics, the World Series and Shindig). Additionally, there are advertisements for TV Guide itself, including one for TV Guide Young Merchants, a special introductory subscription offer (just $5.85 for 65 issues, or $7.15 in Canada), and previews of the next issue. Finally, there are also advertisements for products like Allbrands Wax Remover, Jolly Time Popcorn and Underwood Liver Spread.

The second article section opens with Marian Dern’s cover story about Mia Farrow, followed by a recipe for Indian Pudding, an article about auditioning at CBS and a crossword puzzle.

TV Guide Page 16, October 3rd, 1964 Edition

TV Guide Page 16, October 3rd, 1964 Edition – Triangle Publications, Inc.

It closes with Walt Anderson’s Hollywood TV Teletype and a brief “Ten Years Ago This Week” section, which covers Dick Powell’s first live television role on Climax!, the debut of December Bride and Allen Ludden’s Dancetime in New York City.

TV Guide Back Cover, October 3rd, 1964 Edition

TV Guide Back Cover, October 3rd, 1964 Edition – Triangle Publications, Inc.

The first article section contains one full-page advertisement for Tareyton cigarettes (“Us Tareyton smokers would rather fight than switch!”) while the back cover is an advertisement for Philip Morris Multifilter cigarettes, featuring rare coconut-shell charcoal.


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5 Replies to “Bookshelf: TV Guide, October 3rd, 1964 Edition”

  1. It was kind of neat to read ‘Letters to the Editor’ and see Bewitched and Addams Family be considered new network shows when I only remember them on my local UHF channel late afternoon when I was growing up…And the cigarette ad was interesting to see too.

  2. I LOVE browsing through back issues of “the original” TV GUIDE [NOT that watered-down ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY clone it is, these days]- ANY regional edition- because you can gain a LOT of valuable information by browing through the listings and the articles…even the advertisements on the listings pages…

    *for example, “THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E.” was primarily sponsored by Chevrolet in its first season, because General Motors took out a small ad promoting their sponsorship during the early weeks of the show, on the Tuesday night listings page of TV GUIDE…and that 1964 Chevy promotional film featuring the casts of “BONANZA”, “U.N.C.L.E.” and “BEWITCHED” that’s been on YouTube for a while now, confirms that obscure fact!}

    *”THE JACK BENNY DAYTIME SHOW”, repeats of Jack’s 1954-’64 filmed episodes, which was seen on CBS’ daytime schedule nationally at 4:30pm(et) in the 1964-’65 season, was shown in Boston an hour later (at 5:30) because the CBS affiliate scheduled an hour-long local edition of “BOZO THE CLOWN” at 4:30 [much more profitable for the station and their local sponsors than carrying the Benny repeats at its nationally scheduled time]

    *TV GUIDE used to publish a LOT of cigarette ads on their inner front and back covers- and those ads were also a reflection of the brands’ TV commercials as well. I believe several of Philip Morris’ “Multifilter” ads were also seen on “JACKIE GLEASON’S AMERICAN SCENE MAGAZINE” because they were one of his primary sponsors during the ’60s.

    *The “Letters” pages were a good barometer of what the “average” TV GUIDE reader thought of their articles and the TV programs they watched. For instance, “L. Moga of Reseda, Calif.” needn’t have worried about “THE CELEBRITY GAME” {Heatter-Quigley’s emrbryonic version of what became “THE HOLLYWOOD SQUARES”}, emceed by Carl Reiner- after its original run in the spring and summer of 1964, CBS brought the show back in the spring of 1965 (again, it only lasted through the summer)…and aired selected repeats on their Sunday afternoon schedule in 1967. And the opinions about “BEWITCHED” (which became THE #1 sitcom of the 1964-’65 season) and “THE ADDAMS FAMILY” were quite accurate. The man in Amarillo, Texas who said of “SHINDIG!”, “Surely someone is joshing?”, obviously wasn’t a teenager, for teens made it THE highest-rated show among their age group, which led NBC to schedule their own version {along more “traditional” lines of “THE ED SULLIVAN SHOW” and “THE ANDY WILLIAMS SHOW”, as it was produced by variety show veteran Gary Smith}, “HULLABALOO”, in January. Note the subtle shift in viewership from NBC’s “HUNTLEY-BRINKLEY REPORT” to “THE CBS EVENING NEWS WITH WALTER CRONKITE” [he’d become the top-rated national nightly newscast by the end of the decade], as evidenced by the letter from “Jim Carter of Kansas City, Mo.” And the letter from “Shirley Karr of Massilion, Ohio”, who bemoaned the fact that “10 year old movies” were becomng more prominent in prime-time…boy, she didn’t know the half of it! By the early ’70s, there was a network movie night EVERY NIGHT OF THE WEEK (some 90 minute originals, as in ABC’s “THE MOVIE OF THE WEEK”, and NBC’s occasional two-hour “World Premiere Movies” [some doubling as pilots for potential series] on their “TUESDAY/SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE MOVIES”).

    *As for “PEYTON PLACE”- although one response in the Letters column gave it an “ah, fooey!” reaction, nobody could deny the fact that it WAS somewhat addictive {it WAS a “soap opera”, pure and simple, only it was filmed}, and it, alongside “BEWITCHED” (which it followed on Thursdays), became one of the most talked-about and highly-rated shows of the 1964-’65 season. By the end of the season, it was on three nights a week {which prompted a topical joke in “THE FLINTSTONES” episode “The Long Long Weekend”, in January 1966: while visitng the 21st Century version of Bedrock [courtesy of The Great Gazoo], the stewardess on the “flight to Mars” asks Fred and Wilma if they’d like to watch TV on the portable set she’s holding. When Wilma wonders what’s on, the stewardess says offhandedly, “You’ll have to watch ‘PAYROCK PLACE'”. “Why?’, Fred wonders. “‘PAYROCK PLACE’ is the only show that’s on- 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, on ALL the networks!”. “Ohh, boy”, Fred groans}. And it turned Mia Farrow, better known these days as Woody’s Allen’s former leading lady and wife, into an international STAR- as noted by her picture on the cover and the feature article on her. By the end of the series’ second season in 1966, Mia had departed…and was soon to briefly become Mrs. Frank Sinatra. And “Rosemary’s Baby” was yet to come….

  3. Speaking of local editions Barry, When I was growing up here in Cleveland we had two newspapers; The Plain Dealer (daytime) and The Cleveland Press (evening).
    Each of them had their own version of the TV Guide, The Plain Dealer’s version was called TV Week and the Cleveland Press version was called TV Showtime, both came in the Friday paper and the listings were from the from the following Saturday to the Friday of the following week.
    I also remember the listings having only 6 channels; the three network channels, two UHF independants, and the PBS station. All this across two pages, and after the listing grid there was about 2-3 pages of synopses and a page for a local advertisement between each days listing.
    Sadly, The Press was gone by 1982, and all we get now is what looks like a Parade magazine in the Sunday Plain Dealer with both local and cable listings and very few synopses…God I miss the old days

  4. You’re lucky, ‘Cee Jay’- the ASBURY PARK PRESS only prints a six page “TV Week” insert these days, with a program grid of most of the cable and broadcast stations in my area, with episode titles in prime-time in lieu of full descriptions. In the ’60s, they used to print a “basic” schedule, with “highlights” above the schedule on several “interesting” prime-time programs in detail. By the end of the decade, they printed more detailed listings, with titles and descriptions [even for local syndicated repeats!]. Eventually, they began issuing a weekly “TV WEEK” booklet on Sundays, which lasted into the ’90s. Now, it’s just six pages of “grids”….I also like browsing through obscure newspaper TV booklets as well!

  5. You got the right one here, baby! Uh-huh, This IS the Western New England edition. Covering 16 stations in Conneticut and Massachusetts (and Rhode Island) was a daunting task. There would be a 17, Boston’s channel 38, which went on the air in October 1964 as WIHS-TV. I’m not sure if it would be added to that edition or not. Please let me know if it was.
    And how cool was the weekday afternoon slate on WHNB-TV channel 30 (now WVIT, NBC30)? After Match Game at 4 PM, they had a thing called “Comedy Time” at 4:30, “The Adventures of Superman” at 5 and “Maverick” at 5:30 leading into The Huntley-Brinkley Report at 6:30. After a day of NBC’s top programs, including The Today Show plus the game shows Jeopardy and You Don’t Say (all in color, mind you), you get to kick back and enjoy some classic short subjects (Three Stooges, Little Rascals, et al) and spend 90 cool minutes with the man of steel and brothers Bret and Bart Maverick.
    That is one fun-filled Monday-to-Friday spread. Did i sound Seinfeldish?

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