Andy Warhol! Norman Rockwell! Who Were TV Guide Magazine’s Most Famous Illustrators?
Name a famous artist, and chances are their work has graced the cover of the world’s most popular and historic TV publication — TV Guide Magazine. Here we take a look back at some of the most renowned and most frequent contributors to TV Guide Magazine:
ANDY WARHOL
Andy Warhol/TV Guide Magazine
Andy Warhol (1928-1987) — One of the best-known artists of the pop art movement, Andy Warhol created two different covers for TV Guide Magazine: Agent 99 Goes Pop, Get Smart’s Barbara Feldon as seen by Andy Warhol (March 5-11, 1966), and Marilyn Monroe (pictured, May 12-18, 2001). “I would imagine that Warhol had a subscription to TV Guide,” says Matt Wrbican, the chief archivist at the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh. “We found several old copies in his archives. … He was a pretty voracious consumer of pop culture, and TV Guide certainly was a big part of pop culture.” Warhol, who was born in 1928 in Pennsylvania, was known for printmaking, painting, cinema and photography. His most notable work is Chelsea Girls (1966 film), Exploding Plastic Inevitable (1966 event), Campbell’s Soup Cans (1962 painting) and Marilyn Diptych (1962 painting). Many of his creations are very collectible and highly valuable. His works include some of the most expensive paintings ever sold. In 2013, a 1963 serigraph titled Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster) sold for $105 million. In 2022, Shot Sage Blue Marilyn (1964) sold for $195 million, which is the most expensive work of art sold at auction by an American artist.
NORMAN ROCKWELL
Norman Rockwell/TV Guide Magazine
Norman Rockwell (1894-1978) — Rockwell created a name that is now known around the world. He was born in 1894, in New York City. Rockwell would later move to Arlington, Vermont, which turned out to be a pivotal career choice, later writing in his autobiography that “Moving to Arlington had given my work a terrific boost. … I’d met one or two hundred people I wanted to paint. And ideas were jumping in my brain like trout on the Batten Kill at sunset. I knew I’d found what I’d wanted — new people, new surroundings. … Now my pictures grew out of the world around me, the everyday life of my neighbors. I didn’t fake things any more. I just painted the things I saw.” His works had a broad popular appeal in the United States for their reflection of the country’s culture. Rockwell is most famous for the cover illustrations of everyday life he created for The Saturday Evening Post over nearly five decades. Some of his most notable pieces include: Rosie the Riveter, Four Freedoms, and The Problem We All Live With, which was displayed in the White House in 2011. His artwork for TV Guide Magazine includes “Another challenge to the television industry” (May 16-22, 1970) and “How One-Parent TV Shows Affect Your Family” (pictured, Aug. 15-21, 1970).
RICHARD AMSEL
Illustration by Richard Amsel/TV Guide/courtesy Everett Collection
Richard Amsel (1947-1985) — One of the most frequent illustrators for TV Guide Magazine, Richard Amsel had a career that was brief but prolific, including movie posters, album covers and magazine covers. His portrait of comedian Lily Tomlin for the cover of Time is now part of the permanent collection at the Smithsonian Institution. Commissioned by TV Guide Magazine in 1972 to design a cover (Dec. 16-22, 1972) featuring the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, in conjunction with a telefilm about their love affair, Amsel then went on to enjoy a 13-year association with the publication, during which time he produced more than 30 covers. Some of the covers created by Amsel included portraits of Donny and Marie Osmond (Oct. 8-14, 1977), Grace Kelly (Feb. 5-11, 1983), Nancy Reagan (June 22-28, 1985), John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy (Nov. 12-18, 1983), Bob Hope (May 21-27, 1983), Elvis Presley (pictured, April 9-15, 1983), Mary Tyler Moore and James Garner (Sept. 29-Oct. 5, 1984), and more.
SALVADOR DALI
Photo by Philippe Halsman, Painting by Salvador Dali. TV Guide/courtesy Everett Collection
Salvador Dali (1904-1989) — Dali was a Spanish surrealist artist renowned for his technical skill, precise draftsmanship, and the striking and bizarre images in his work. He told TV Guide Magazine editors at the time: “Logique, alone, is sterile. Madness, alone, is sterile. I am mad and, at the same time, implacably logique.” The article went on to explain that he is known in the art world for two correspondingly different kinds of paintings. One is logique — “a superbly stylized realism” — and the other is mad — “a superbly stylized surrealism” — which is portrayed by the cover pictured above. His best-known work, The Persistence of Memory, which features the melting of pocket watches, was completed in August 1931 and is one of the most famous surrealist paintings. Salvador Dali gave his view on television in his only illustration for the magazine in 1968 with the Johnny Carson/Hugh Downs cover (June 8-14, 1968), which he called “Today, Tonight and Tomorrow.”
AL HIRSCHFELD
Illustration by Al Hirschfeld.TV Guide/courtesy Everett Collection
Al Hirschfeld (1903–2003) — “After looking at people for 90 years, you learn a thing or two,” Al Hirschfeld said in a documentary about his life. Hirschfeld, born in Missouri, got his start in art when his friend, fabled Broadway press agent Richard Maney, showed one of Hirschfeld’s drawings to an editor at The New York Herald Tribune, which got Hirschfeld commissions for that newspaper and then, later, The New York Times. Some of his TV Guide Magazine covers included: George Burns and Gracie Allie for My Wife Jane (Dec. 1, 1956); Arthur Godfrey (Jan. 5-11, 1957); Sid Caesar (May 25-31, 1957); Jerry Seinfeld (May 9-15, 1998); M*A*S*H‘s Alan Alda (April 25-May 1, 1981); Sonny and Cher (pictured, June 1-7, 1974); and more.
BERNARD FUCHS
TV Guide/courtesy Everett Collection
Bernard Fuchs (1932-2009) — Fuchs was another frequent contributor to TV Guide Magazine, having created 10-plus pieces of art for the title. Born in Illinois in 1932, Fuchs originally had hopes of becoming a trumpet player until he lost three fingers on his right hand after an industrial accident the year after he graduated high school. Fuchs was the youngest illustrator ever elected to the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame. In 1991, Fuchs was named Sport Artist of the Year by the American Sport Art Museum and Archives. His artwork for TV Guide Magazine includes “What Are Your Children Watching Saturday Mornings?” (pictured, March 23-29, 1968), and “Eyeball to Eyeball with David Janssen” (Jan. 29, 1972).