I think I have pretty much determined that once you hit the age of about 50, TV Guide tracks you down and sends you a complimentary subscription. For those of you under about the age of 30, you might not really know about TV Guide. Sure, you may have the TV Guide channel on your cable system and you may have seen it in the grocery store, but you really don't know. Until a few years ago, TV Guide was the number one selling magazine in the US. By a lot. It had been in number one for like 40 years. Every week people get a free tv guide in their Sunday newspaper, but when you got the TV Guide from the store it was like a whole other world. Every channel and every program. Summaries of every movie. Color photos of your favorite airbrushed stars. People would get into fights at grocery stores trying to get the Fall Preview issue. Prior to the internet, you didn't know what the fall television shows were going to be until you read it in TV Guide.
Well, apparently they still have the same readers because they just did a poll of the toughest action stars in the history of television, and MacGyver won. I know, I know. Richard Dean Anderson was a great character, but I don't know if he was all that tough. Plus, the show ended like 20 years ago. Magnum PI made the top five also. Wow. I must be remembering a different show because all I remember was a lot of beach and bad acting.
Here is the top 5.
1. MacGyver
2. Buffy The Vampire Slayer
3. Jack Bauer (24)
4. Sydney Bristow (Alias)
5. Magnum P.I.
I guess all the readers aren't 80, since Buffy is on there. That's a pretty big mid-20's genre.
ReplyDeleteWho the heck reads TV guide? I thought thats what IMDB was for!
Sigh i miss Buffy....and Xander...and Spike......ooops i have revealed too much
ReplyDeleteIsn't MacGyver still on reruns on Spike or USA Network?
ReplyDeleteI loved that show.
I remember wishing my parents would subscribe to TV Guide...back in the 60's!
ReplyDeleteI can't think of any TV action heroes other than those listed. Does that make me old?
ReplyDeletethe smartest thing tv guiude did was to go online and take over the program guide channel from cable tv. this still ensures its brand.
ReplyDeleteEvery few years TV Guide sends me a free 1 year subscription--I don't know where they come from, but when my year is up they try to get me to renew. My son likes it so he can plan the following week in advance--but I would never subscribe at this point--not when the listings are free.
ReplyDeleteThey should have had MacGruber on the list--that's funny!
Even a decade ago, there would have been no females on the list at all, let alone the top five.
ReplyDeleteBTVS rocked.
ReplyDeleteRiley: I hear ya. Got some, uh, big stories to tell you, too, if we even get half a second.
Buffy: Did ya die?
Riley: No.
Buffy: I'm gonna win.
What about the dudes from Miami Vice?
ReplyDeletewhat about the friggin A Team?
ReplyDeleteHere, not even the local newspaper has the right shows listed for the measly channels we get.
ReplyDeleteAnd what they do list for our channels is often wrong.
So I stopped getting TV Guide 20 years ago when it was *only* $50-some a year, which was a lot for us at the time.
Maybe all the people polled stopped really watching TV back then, too, like we did!
i dunno about toughest, but magnum had the best legs!
ReplyDeleteAND the best 'stache. i still don't know where the phrase "porn 'stache" came from!
Jack would kick all their asses! He's the man.
ReplyDeleteI remember when TV Guide was all small. I think it jumped the shark when they made it regular magazine size. It just wasn't the same. Big ole fail on their part.
LOlz - Apparently Ent, you don't hang out on Fark.com. There's A LOT of sites that reference MacGyver. Not to mention the Hoff (don't hassle the Hoff), the list goes on.
ReplyDeleteI dumped my subscription a year or two ago. Did you know that TV Guide was sold for a $1 last month? I'm not talking about an issue. I mean the magazine company.
ReplyDeleteRe: more timely action heroes -- How about Kara Thrace and Sarah Connor?