Happy Mother's Day (1976) from WLVI-TV 56 in Boston!

Sunday May 9, 1976 was Mother's Day.  With Mother's Day 2012 upon us it seemed like a nice time to show a little ad from TV Guide (the May 5-11, 1976 issue) that's appropriate for the day.  It is from WLVI-TV 56.  This independent Boston TV station used to show a ton of great movies throughout the week as part of its programming.  They had regularly scheduled movies at 8:00 every night as well as afternoon films on the weekends (4:00 PM on Saturdays, 12:00, 2:00 and 4:00 on Sundays).  Around this time they also put a lot of great-looking ads in TV Guide for these movies.  But the absolute best thing about channel 56 for a Monster Kid growing up in the Boston area in the 1970s and 1980s was its Saturday afternoon Creature Double Feature show.  Two wonderful (and frequently terrible) monster/horror/sci-fi movies would be shown at 1:00 and 2:30 every Saturday afternoon for many years.

Anyway, before I get too carried away, let's get back to the point of this post.  On Mother's Day of 1976 WLVI-TV 56 commemorated the day by showing the movie "I Remember Mama" (1948) at 1:30 in the afternoon.  Here is the special ad WLVI put into TV Guide for that presentation:

The May 5-11, 1976 issue of TV Guide also featured a number of other WLVI TV-56 movie ads in a similar style to the one above.  Since we're already talking about this issue why don't we take a look at a few of these ads.  Note that they're all from just two days: Saturday May 5th and Sunday May 6th.

Creature Double Feature ad for Saturday May 5, 1976

WLVI would frequently follow up Creature Double Feature

with a beach movie or a Doris Day one like this at 4:00
(I've also included an ad from WBZ-TV Channel 4,

mainly because it was right below the WLVI one)

Here's the 12 Noon movie that came on before the
"Mother's Day Special" at 1:30 on Sunday

And here's the 4:00 movie that followed
the "Mother's Day Special" at 4:00
(along with another WBZ-TV 4 ad)

So, Happy Mother's Day to all the Mom's out there.  I hope your special day will be at least as entertaining as tuning into channel 56 in 1976 to watch "I Remember Mama" at 1:30.  Actually, I hope that it's a LOT more exciting than that must have been!

ENJOY YOUR DAY!

S.O.S. Titanic (September 23, 1979)

Today (April 14th, 2012) is the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. There has been so much written and on film about the 1912 tragedy that I don't think it's really necessary to go into the details of what happened that night. Instead, this post will detail TV Guides coverage of one of the many, many movies that have been released over the years about the Titanic. The most famous movie on the sinking is, of course, James Cameron's 1997 Academy Award winning blockbuster "Titanic". Among the earlier film versions a couple of the most respected ones were "Titanic" (1955) and "A Night To Remember" (1958)--which was based on Walter Lord's extensively researched and meticulously written book of the same name.

I've decided to focus here on a version that I figured would have received a lot of coverage in TV Guide. It is the film "S.O.S. Titanic" from 1979. The reason I thought there wold be a lot of material about it in TV Guide is that it was a made-for-TV movie. On a personal note, it's very possible that I saw the premiere of this movie on September 23, 1979. It was sometime around 1980 that I first discovered and became interested in the story of the Titanic. I don't know exactly how I was introduced to it, but it could have very well been this movie. I know that not long after this time I read Clive Cussler's book "Raise the Titanic" for the first time and was really hooked. And I also know that I saw "S.O.S. Titanic" when it was replayed on ABC a couple years later.

But now let's look at what was in TV Guide in reference to the debut of "S.O.S. Titanic". Here's the cover of the September 22-28, 1979 issue (the week of the premiere of the movie):

I expected a pretty big write-up in Judith Crist's "This Week's Movies" section. But apparently ABC didn't make the movie available for a preview. Because of that it only got a minor mention in the article. Here it is anyway:

TV Guide also didn't have it's usual "Close-Up" article about the movie--most likely also because of the lack of preview screenings. Here is the listing for 9:00 on Sunday, September 23, 1979 (Page A-50). The description here seems to have benefitted from some sort of a screening though--as it mentions that the movie is "salvaged" by it's "realistic sets and special effects. This would indicate that the person who wrote this had seen the movie--and felt that the acting, writing and/or directing weren't all that great, but the special effects and sets were of good quality.

While there wasn't a whole heck of a lot written about "S.O.S. Titanic" in this issue of TV Guide, ABC did spring for a very nifty ad for the movie that covered the bottom two thirds of a two-page spread on pages A-50 andA-51. Here it is:

I remember liking "S.O.S. Titanic" as a kid, but have not seen it in many years. I'd like to check it out again and see if it lives up to my hazy memory of it--or if there was a glaring reason why it didn't warrant a preview screening and why TV Guide indicated it was mainly worth seeing because of it's sets and special effects.

Reach Out And Crush Someone

It's pretty amazing just how many interesting stories and tid-bits can be found in the pages of a single issue of TV Guide. This will be the third post I've written that's based on the March 22-29, 1980 issue (after Smokey and the Bandit and More TV Guide Blurbs).

It would seem that one could almost devote an entire blog to an issue of TV Guide! After this post I'll have written three pieces about this issue and we've barely scratched the surface of it. In fact, this post really does only scratch the surface. That's because this story focuses on the cover of the magazine (or "the surface" as it were). The covers of TV Guide have always been an important part of its popularity, and just who or what was featured on the cover has a lot to do with a particular issue's value to collectors. An early Lucille Ball cover from the 1950s or 60s would fetch a lot more than, say, a cover featuring the Olsen Twins from the 1990s.

First issue of TV Guide from 1953

December 8-14, 1990 issue

Anyway, the March 22-29, 1980 cover features the cast of the show "The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo". I'm not sure what the collectibility of that issue would be (especially in the less-than-pristine condition that my copy is in), but we're actually not going to focus on the front cover. No, we're going to check out something interesting on the back cover this time. I suppose there might be some interest in what's on the back cover of certain issues of TV Guide. There used to be a lot of cigarette and beer ads there in the days before they were banned from print advertising. The Marlboro Man and the "You've come a long way baby" lady from Virginia Slims jostled for space with Budweiser and Miller Light. I'm sure some of these ads hold interest for someone out there.

But this back cover features none of that stuff. It's pretty bland as far as color ads on the back cover of a magazine go. About the only interesting thing about it is the fact that it's an ad for the Bell Telephone System, which has gone on to have many different names since 1980 (including AT&T). What caught my eye about this one was the photo on the lower half of the ad.

More specifically, the dog in the lower photo caught my eye. It's pretty obvious that the dog is lying on the ground and yawning in front of the tractor--a very tranquil and pleasant scene indeed. But, when I first took a look at the ad I kind of saw the second photo in my periphery vision while looking at the top photo. Instead of a dog lazing on a hot summer afternoon I saw a poor dog yelping in agony as it is being crushed by the guy on the tractor--who's paying more attention to his phone conversation than to where he is going (or what he might be crushing).

Photoshop out the tail and rear leg and it'd be even more convincing!

While I realize that I saw something in this ad that wasn't meant to be what I thought it looked like, I can't help but wonder if the photo was somehow set up to look like this (either intentionally or subconsciously). And when you think about it, the unintentional apparent horror in the photo actually provides a pretty good lesson for people today--more than thirty years later. There was no such thing as cell phones in 1980. A "car phone" was something big and expensive that you mostly saw in the movies. Of course today tiny cell phones are ubiquitous and no one seems to remember a time when we could actually survive without one of these things stuck to our ear (or without our fingers constantly on the little buttons). Nowadays driving while talking or texting on a cell phone is a major problem (and a major annoyance, in my opinion). The general populace doesn't tend to drive tractors much these days, but the big tractor in this photo could be looked at as a metaphor for the humongous, gas-guzzling SUV's that I'm surprised are still seen in such abundance on roads today. If only we could learn from this cautionary tale and stop texting and talking while driving (or stop talking on the kitchen phone while driving a tractor) and stop crushing poor defenseless dogs!

TV Guide Celebrates Christmas (1974-1983)

There was a time when it was okay to actually say "Merry Christmas" without fear of offending the world. I grew up in that politically incorrect, culturally ignorant time and enjoyed many wonderful Christmases before "Christmas" became a bad word.

Something that you wouldn't see these days, but which was a staple in the 1970s was TV Guide's yearly tradition of putting a Christmas-themed cover on the issue of the magazine that included December 25th in its listings. I don't know when this tradition started, but it was still going strong while I was growing up. It must have been a nice thing to get the latest issue of TV Guide in the mail and see the annual holiday cover. Along with having the house decorated, the Christmas tree up, getting all the Christmas cards in the mail and everything else that would be happening during the week or so leading up to the big day, the TV Guide would probably be a small but welcome addition.

I wasn't really aware of this little tradition back then. My family didn't generally get TV Guide at that time, and I was much more occupied with making lists for Santa, waiting for school to close for a week and watching shows like "Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer", "Merry Christmas Charlie Brown" and "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" to be cognizant of such a small detail as the cover of the latest TV Guide. Now that I've re-discovered TV Guides as an adult I can see those old covers and appreciate what a nice little "present" they were from the magazine to its subscribers/buyers. Instead of featuring stars of the latest and most popular shows, or interesting sounding cover stories to sell the magazine, TV Guide put all that aside for one week in honor of Christmas.

So let's look at some of those Christmas covers. I'm going to concentrate on a ten year span from 1974 to 1983. While the Christmas covers had most likely been a staple of the magazine for many years at that point, this decade is important to me because it roughly frames my childhood--an era that included a lot of great times watching TV. In 1974 I would have been five years old at Christmas, and in 1983 I would have been fourteen. Any younger and I probably wouldn't have very clear memories of what was going on in my life (not to mention what I had been watching on TV). Any older and I would have been of an age where I'd be working, and my interests would have veered away from watching so much TV and toward girls, hanging out with friends and going to places like the movies and the mall with those friends. But between 1974 and 1983 I had many wonderful Christmas seasons, and it's a lot of fun to look through the TV Guides from this period to see what kinds of holiday programming I might have been watching at the time. While this post will focus only on the covers of those magazines, the actual listings and ads within are a treasure trove of memories. Perhaps that will be covered in future posts. In the meantime, here are the covers:

December 21-27, 1974

The 1974 Christmas cover featured an illustration by Ray Ameijide of Santa Claus and one of his reindeer that appears to have been a sculpture of sorts made out of pieces of what appears to be multi-colored felt.

December 20-26, 1975

This cover features a cute illustration (a common theme in these covers) by Andre Francois of Santa under a Christmas tree-shaped umbrella and a colorful snowstorm or rainstorm.

December 25-31, 1976

This one features another Santa illustration--one by Ronald Searle this time, and shows a cartoon Santa flying over the top of a bunch of Christmas trees and ornaments. He seems to be spreading rainbows from his hands.

December 24-30, 1977

1977's Christmas cover seems very appropriate for TV Guide. Charles Saxon's illustration shows Santa sitting forlornly on a snow covered roof next to a chimney with a TV antenna attached to it. The sky around the house is filled with more antennas. I don't know it the antenna is supposed to be keeping Santa from being able to go down the chimney (it seems like there's still plenty of room as the antenna doesn't cover the top of the chimney). Not only is the sea of antennas appropriate for the magazine, it also hearkens back to a different time-- a time before cable TV (satellite TV, FiOS, DSL...) when pretty much everyone was dependent on an antenna of some type to pull in the signals of the stations that were within the antenna's range.

December 23-29, 1978

Here's a funny illustration by Ronald Searle (who also did the 1976 cover). This one shows Santa Claus on a psychedelic motorcycle, racing across the globe with his bag of toys on the back of the bike. Unfortunately I only have one copy of this issue and the address label really detracts from the image.

December 22-28, 1979

Here's a very simple illustration (by Michael Foreman) of Santa rolling a giant snowball up a hill. Simple, but effective. While neither of my two copies has a mailing label I've included both to showcase the image. The one which is in better shape is unfortunately marred by the remnants of a previously removed label.

December 20-26, 1980

After six straight years, this is the first cover we've seen that doesn't feature Santa Claus. Instead we see a group of musicians performing in the snow in an illustration by John Alcorn. Whether this is just a coincidence or TV Guide's first attempt to show sensitivity toward its readers who weren't from a Christian background I'm not sure. While the scene is definitely a wintry one, it doesn't actually contain anything that could really be considered of a Christmas or religious nature. Though I can't say whether this was a conscious effort by TV Guide or not, I can say that we won't see another cover with Santa on it through the rest of our ten year journey...

December19-25, 1981

Ray Ameijide provides another cover image (his first since 1974). This time it's a Christmas tree with presents underneath it. If TV Guide was trying to get away from blatant Christmas (and/or religious) imagery with last year's cover, they returned to a very traditional Christmas scene with this year's. While Christmas trees have taken on a very secular air as Christmas has become more and more commercial over the years, there's certainly still nothing that screams Christmas like a Christmas tree. And it's religious meanings are still there too--even if some people don't realize it nowadays.

December 25-31, 1982

For the second year in a row TV Guide features a Christmas tree on its cover. If you look closely at the bottom though you'll see that this one is HUGE. It towers Godzilla-like over a group of ice skaters in a tiny village that sits under the tree among the presents. This illustration is by Teresa Fasolino. If the tree on last year's cover was prominently featured, this one is even more so.

December 24-30, 1983

In the last year of our look back at TV Guide Christmas covers we seem to have found the end of the line. After two straight years of Christmas trees and who knows how many years of Christmas-themed covers in general, this one features a pretty standard, non-holiday cover. It's a bunch of funny caricatures of the cast of "The Love Boat" by Bruce Stark. The only nod to the holiday season is some garland running along the railing and a big wreath hanging from the bow of The Love Boat.

This concludes our journey back to TV Guide's Christmas covers from 1974 to 1983. My collection of TV Guides doesn't currently contain any newer issues from later Christmases, so I can't say for sure that they discontinued the traditional Christmas covers for good, but I have a feeling that 1982's gigantic Christmas tree may very well have been the final one fully dedicated to the holiday.

Eventually I hope to write more about some of the programming that was on during these years as well as any Christmas-related articles inside the magazines. There's so much more to TV Guides than the covers. But until then...

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

"Smokey and the Bandit" (March 23, 1980)

In one week from today I'll be heading down to the Riverside Drive-In in Vandergrift, Pennsylvania for the 2011 Drive-In Super Monster-Rama. Click on the link to read all about it, but the short version is that the Drive-In Super Monster-Rama is a two night show at one of the dwindling number of active drive-ins left. Each night features four classic drive-in horror movies and a whole slew of intermission ads, short subjects and great old trailers for the kinds of movies that would be featured at drive-ins in the 1960s and 70s. This will be my second trip to the big show (this year marks the fifth edition of the Monster-Rama). Some of the eight movies that will be run include: "The Last Man on Earth" (1964), "The Abominable Dr. Phibes" (1971), "Dr. Phibes Rises Again" (1972), and "Castle of Blood" (1964).

So what does all this have to do with "Smokey and the Bandit" (1977)? Well, nothing really. I suppose that "Smokey and the Bandit" could be considered a drive-in-type of film, but it's quite different from the horror titles featured at the show. The thing is that I'm actually catching a ride down to the show with a friend who lives in New Hampshire. I live in Massachusetts and he will pick me up on the way down. This particular friend is a huge "Smokey" fan. In fact, last year he wore a "Smokey" T-shirt on the trip down to Pennsylvania (we were glad not to be pulled over). One other thing that ties "Smokey and the Bandit" to this trip is the simple fact that we're heading south. No, we're not going to be in the Deep South (like the movie), but Pennsylvania is pretty southern compared to Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Maybe I'll even get a chance to have some of that contraband Coors beer (like the stuff they were hauling in the movie) over the weekend!

Mar 22-28, 1980 TV Guide with "Sheriff Lobo" on the cover

All this seems like a good enough reason to hop into the TV Guide Time Machine and head back to March 23, 1980, when "Proud as a Peacock" NBC featured the film as its Sunday Night Movie. Even though the movie was released in May of 1977, this March 1980 airing was already a repeat on network TV. Here's the the ad for the movie in the March 22-28, 1980 TV Guide (Eastern New England Edition):

Page A-44

And here's the Close Up description from a few pages later:

Page A-48

TV Guide also used to have a section that gave little reviews/previews of the most prominent movies that would be on that particular week. It was called "This Week's Movies", and here's what it had to say about "Smokey and the Bandit" (written by Judith Crist):

"Hal Needham's 1977 Smokey and the Bandit has, of course, Burt Reynolds and Jerry Reed in a wonderfully carefree 1800-mile crash-bang-slammer of a gas-burning car chase, with Sheriff Jackie Gleason in hot pursuit and Jerry Reed's music for a lagniappe."

I'm not terribly familiar with the lore of "Smokey and the Bandit". In fact, I just watched it last week for possibly the first time in order to gear myself up for the upcoming road trip. I seem to recall some details of the film, but am not sure if I saw the whole movie in the past or if I just saw parts of it on TV (possibly from this very airing on NBC?). I guess that there was simply so much to watch on (pre-cable) Boston-area TV back then that I just never really saw "Smokey" enough to really get into it. It certainly is a fun flick, and it reminds me of that time in the mid- to late-70s when CB radios and trucker culture were all the rage. I'm not sure why trucking became so popular at that time. Big rigs had been hauling food and freight all over the country for decades, and they are still doing that to this very day. Perhaps the new big rigs of the 1970s were extra special in some way that really caught the public's eye. Perhaps it was just because if the popularity of CBs and the fact that truckers used them. Actually, come to think of it, I don't really know if truckers made CBs popular or if CBs made truckers popular. Perhaps it was because of movies like "Smokey and the Bandit", "Convoy" (1978), "High-Ballin'" (1978) and TV shows like "B.J. and the Bear". Whatever the reason (and I'll bet it's possible to figure it out with a little online research), trucking was indeed a big thing back then. I remember the popularity of using the lingo too: "10-4", "convoy", "Smokey", "What's your handle?" and "Keep on Truckin'...".

If you recognize this then you were probably around in the 1970s

In fact, as a young lad I even had a copy of the album (on vinyl of course) "Teddy Bear & the Great C.B. Talk and Trucker Songs". How's that for a title? I think one of my siblings bought it for me as a birthday present when I was around ten or so.

Finally, speaking of "Smokey and the Bandit" and time machines, I stumbled onto a pretty cool website while researching this blog. It's called Atlanta Time Machine, and it has some great then-and-now photos of shooting locations of movies like "Smokey and the Bandit" and shows like "The Dukes of Hazzard" (another CB and trucker culture-fueled bit of the 1970s/early 80s). I've always loved then-and-now studies, and have even attempted to do some of my own. Here's the Atlanta Time Machine's page on "Smokey and the Bandit":

Smokey And The Bandit Then And Now

This is where I "borrowed" the image of the movie poster at the top of this blog, and you can get to the then and now photos from this page.

KEEP ON TRUCKIN'...

More TV Guide Blurbs (1980)

I recently wrote about a small item in a 1974 issue of TV Guide called "Tomorrow's History". I wasn't sure if it was merely a small blurb used to take up empty space on a page to fill it out, or if it was some kind of official or unofficial "mission statement" for TV Guide. I also had no idea whether it was a one-time item or if it was used occasionally in various issues whenever needed. It looks like I now have some answers to those admittedly unimportant questions.

March 22-28, 1980 TV Guide cover

I just found the same "Tomorrow's History" piece in the March 22-18, 1980 Eastern New England Edition issue (#1408) too. It looks exactly the same as the one that appeared in 1974. Obviously this means that it did indeed appear more than once. If I just happened to randomly find it in two issues six years apart, it would seem safe to figure that it is in others as well.

Here's the March 1980 "Tomorrow's History" blurb:

And here is the full page that it appeared on and where it was apparently needed to take up a little otherwise empty space:

TV Guide Page A-60

This same issue actually provided me with three more of these "blurbs"--all very different in topic and size from each other. I'll show each one up close, and also what it looked at on the page that it appeared. Since it does seem that they are little space holders it's useful to see what they looked like on the page.

This one, titled "Vital Statistics" is a tiny and rather uninteresting bit of trivia about how CBS paid six million dollars for the rights to air the last Super Bowl game. Something that makes it a bit more interesting is the thought that companies are now paying close to what CBS paid to telecast the entire game simply for a 30-second commercial slot during Super Bowl games of today! (Note the ad for Channel 4's Evening Magazine with Barry Nolan in the full page scan)

TV Guide Page A-41

Speaking of the Super Bowl, here's another blurb simply titled "Sports". It seems to be a bit like the "Tomorrow's History" bit--with TV Guide relating its importance in a world full of many (televised) sporting events. (Note the cool WLVI Channel 56 ad for the movie "Judgment at Nuremburg" on this page)

TV Guide Page A-68

Finally, here's a blurb called "Network Addresses", which lists just that. It's funny to look back at a time when people not only communicated with something like a television network by writing an actual letter, and also to recall a time before cable took off when there were basically only three "real" networks (plus PBS of course). I wonder what would happen if you were to send a letter to one of these addresses today? Would it actually make it to the offices of ABC, CBS, NBC or PBS? Would it actually be answered by another letter?

TV Guide Page A-90

As much as I'm interested in TV Guides from the 1970s and 80s now, I never really saw or read them much when they were new. My parents would sometimes subscribe to the magazine and my mother would give them to me after the cover dates had passed. Since they weren't anything all that "special" at the time I just never seemed to get around to reading the articles and stuff like that. I also didn't really check out the listings, since they were already old by the time I got ahold of the issues. I just held onto them until it came time to toss them out. Perhaps someone who actually bought and read TV Guide on a regular basis in the 1970s and 80s would have a familiarity with these little blurbs and remember seeing them in the magazine from time to time. It's possible that they wouldn't. I've noticed that they're placed in a rather unassuming way that allows you to kind of ignore them as you're scanning through the listings. Unlike paid ads geared to get your attention, these little pieces sort of blend in with the page and don't really stand out. Kind of refreshing actually!

Time Traveling in Style (aka Nice Rack!)

I've been interested in picking up one of those old wire display racks for TV Guides that you used to see near the cash registers in stores back in the day. I sort of stumbled on the idea by mistake while searching for vintage TV Guides on eBay. Every once in a while an old display rack will pop up while doing one of these searches, and of course I always think it would look very smart to have some of my "better" issues sitting in one of these racks. Now, just exactly where one of these racks would actually go in my house is a different question all together. It's a question I didn't think I'd need to address any time in the near future though--as the occasional rack that would show up on eBay always seemed to go for a pretty hefty sum (i.e. out of my price range).

For example, here are the last two TV Guide display racks that I saw come up for auction on eBay and their final selling prices:

This one ended back in the middle of July (2011). It had opened at $7.99 and it ended up going for $88.99 (yes, I just typed Eighty-Eight Dollars And Ninety-Nine Cents!). Shipping on this item was $9.99, meaning that the final cost to the buyer was $98.98. That's almost one hundred bucks for a little display rack!

This second rack was sold just recently at the end of July. Bidding on this one opened at $9.99 and closed at $88.88 (eleven cents cheaper than the first one). With the $7.60 shipping cost the total to the buyer was $96.48.

As you can see, these little oddball items aren't the most common things to find, and thus they tend to go for a pretty high price when more than one interested party sees them up for auction. As a seller I always hope to have multiple people interested in my items. But as a buyer I always hope to be the only one looking for whatever it is I'm looking for, of course.

Last week I was visiting with my Mom. When I arrived at her house I saw a small pile of random stuff sitting on her porch. She said it was stuff she was putting out for a relative's yard sale. Wouldn't you know, there was a TV Guide display rack sitting on top of a box--looking like it was set out specifically for me! I told Mom the story about how I was semi-searching for one of these little items and she let me have it. So now I'm the proud owner of this:

My very own TV Guide display rack!

A few mid-1970s TV Guides sitting in the rack

Closeup of the rack with a '75 Fall Preview and a Bicentennial issue on display

As can be seen, this rack was for both Reader's Digest and TV Guide. It is of the same physical style as the second eBay one above, but it has the same label style ("America's Television Magazine" with a B&W TV Guide logo) of the first one. I'm not really sure how old any of these racks actually are, but it would seem like ones with red labels with the black and white TV Guide logos would be of an earlier vintage (1960s?) than the one with a brown, "wood grain" label and the "Check Out With TV Guide" slogan (1970s?).

This blog obviously doesn't have any insightful tidbits from ancient issues of TV Guides, or interesting television show listings from the 1970s, or anything like that. Instead it's just a chance for me to show off my new "toy". While it's rather mundane-looking, I'm pretty excited to actually have one of these racks, and am looking forward to putting some special issues in it. Perhaps it would be a good place to put issues that I find "bloggable" material in--sort of like a "TV Guide IN/OUT box" as it were. It's also a pretty neat little story about how I came to own this piece of retail history by happenstance and coincidence. Now all I need is a nice La-Z-Boy recliner to sit in while grabbing an old TV Guide from my rack to do a little time traveling...