~l[[hile we were doing the research for this book--reading every page of the more<br > VV than 2，000 issues published since Day One， wading through the room of floor-to-<br > . v v ceiling file cabinets stuffed to overflowing with familiar and unique photo<br > images--one piece of information repeated itself and rose above the rest: There has<br > never been anything like TV Guide. No other publication has ever dominated its area of<br > concentration so completely and so successfully as this one has. Not Sports Illustrated，<br > not Popular Mechanics， not Cosmopolitan or Vogue or the National Enquirer or Time or<br > Prevention， not even National Geographic.<br > Here s the test that proves it: Name another mass-audience magazine about televi-<br >sion， with local listings and feature articles， that can be found at the newsstand you fre-<br >quent or the supermarket you shop at. You can t. There isn t one. And those slim，<br >uuderdetailed Sunday-supplement listings booklets are distant cousins， poor relations，<br >trying to get by on gilt by association.<br > For 40 years， without fail， TV Guide has been the world s most popular magazine<br >about the world s most popular entertainment-and-information medium. The two were<br >made for， and grew with and helped nurture， each other` Playing a delicate balancing<br >game--like rolling across a high wire on a tricycle--TV Guide has been television s<br >peppiest cheerleader， its most acute critic， and its chief Boswell. It is a difficult role that<br >it has played with distinction.<br > Merely to skim the pages tells the whole story. Writers as diverse and opinionated as<br >Margaret Mead， Joe McGinnis， S. J. Perehnan， Arthur Schlesinger， Jr.， Garrison Keillor，<br >David Bradley， Katharine Hepburn， Dr. Ruth Westheimel， Isaac Asimov， Peter<br >Bogdanovich， Stephen King， and President Gerald Ford have provided articles for TV<br >Guide. Erich Segal and William E Buckley， Jr.， contributed short stories to it. Betty Friedan<br >examined the woman s image on TV. Gloria Steinem told "Why I Consider Cagney and<br >Lacy the best show on TW Joyce Carol Oates wrote in praise of Hill Street Blues.<br >