Tv Guide

ONE OF the great things about this business is that you get to nit-pick and second-guess others, something that's so much fun, it's almost indescribable. So today we take on the folks at TV Guide, who this week list the "50 Greatest Shows of All Time" and have so thoroughly botched the job that ... OK, I take that back. Botched is too strong a word. Let's just say I have issues with some of their selections. Quite a few of their selections, actually. Look, I have no problem with Seinfeld at No. 1. Seinfeld was consistently brilliant, at least until its later years when each episode was juggling three and four story lines, one more inane than the next.

Stacy Keibler is inching closer to becoming TV's next Heidi Klum. Fans might recall last summer Lifetime announced Keibler would host a new reality show, "Supermarket Superstars. " But until now, no one's heard much more about it. UK's Daily Mail has posted pictures of Keibler leaving the set -- which means the show is moving along and just might be ready for public consumption soon. Keibler's reps tell Insider to expect the show to air in July. The program sounds a lot like "Fashion Star," but with food.

When Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. paid nearly $3 billion three years ago for TV Guide, the little digest with the giant circulation became the most expensive magazine ever acquired. Many people wondered at the time if it was worth it.Since then, circulation has declined by 949,000. Advertising pages are down 20 percent so far this year. And some industry experts question whether the weekly magazine is moving aggressively enough to combat competition from local Sunday newspaper supplements that are carrying more and more television listings.

Mark McEwen, the affable television weatherman who had 16 years with the CBS morning show and who once was listed among the 10 most trusted people in the industry by TV Guide, was twice a contestant on "Celebrity Jeopardy." He won it both times, too - an impressive accomplishment even if Cheech Marin and Rob Schneider were among Mr. McEwen's opponents. So, the other night, while we're talking on the phone about the stroke that ended Mr. McEwen's television career, he asks if I like trivia.

A week or two ago on "60 Minutes," Andy Rooney did his entire closing segment on the loose stuff in his office drawer -- paper clips, rubber bands, things like that. It looked and 'N sounded more like a parody of an Andy Rooney report than an actual "60 Minutes" piece, and I wondered why he would take up that much time on something so obviously tossed off without much effort. Then it hit me: There are times when there is absolutely nothing going on, and when the ideas simply don't flow. Which leads me to tonight's dishwater-dull TV lineup, and why today's column lead is so unusually long and rambling . . .* "TV Guide's 40th Anniversary Special" (8-10 p.m., WBFF, Channel 45)

PASADENA, Calif. -- Gemstar International Group Ltd., the maker of the VCR Plus technology, said yesterday that it will buy TV Guide Inc. for about $9.2 billion in stock and debt to boost its electronic program guides.Gemstar said it will swap 0.6753 of a share for each TV Guide share, giving TV Guide shareholders 45 percent of the combined company.Gemstar makes technology for interactive TV program guides, which are expected to gain in popularity with the rise of digital ca- ble. TV Guide runs a weekly magazine with TV listings.

The 50 worst TV shows of all time? Oh, that the list could be stopped at a mere 50. For that matter, that the worst shows of the past five years could stop at 50. OK, maybe that's an exaggeration. Truth is, I'd probably have trouble naming 50 shows from the past five years. But I think that's proof not so much of my fading memory as of the distinct lack of memorable programming. True, TV in the last half-decade has given us The Sopranos and The West Wing, 24 and Freaks and Geeks (even if it did last a single season)

Stacy Keibler is inching closer to becoming TV's next Heidi Klum. Fans might recall last summer Lifetime announced Keibler would host a new reality show, "Supermarket Superstars. " But until now, no one's heard much more about it. UK's Daily Mail has posted pictures of Keibler leaving the set -- which means the show is moving along and just might be ready for public consumption soon. Keibler's reps tell Insider to expect the show to air in July. The program sounds a lot like "Fashion Star," but with food.

"TV Guide is still the bible of television," says Anthea Disney, editor in chief of America's largest weekly. "We're a magazine like few others."Ms. Disney, whom Advertising Age named "Best Editor of 1992," has been making that point since her arrival at TV Guide in September 1991.And this month offers perhaps the best opportunity. The magazine marks its 40th anniversary with an edition commemorating four decades (the '50s through the '80s) of television's "Best of the Best." (The issue hits newsstands April 12.)

LOS ANGELES -- Steve Friedman, former executive producer of NBC's "Today" show, said anchorman Bryant Gumbel did not sexually denigrate female staffers, especially Jane Pauley, whom, a new book charges, he nicknamed with a four-letter vulgarity."

The 50 worst TV shows of all time? Oh, that the list could be stopped at a mere 50. For that matter, that the worst shows of the past five years could stop at 50. OK, maybe that's an exaggeration. Truth is, I'd probably have trouble naming 50 shows from the past five years. But I think that's proof not so much of my fading memory as of the distinct lack of memorable programming. True, TV in the last half-decade has given us The Sopranos and The West Wing, 24 and Freaks and Geeks (even if it did last a single season)

ONE OF the great things about this business is that you get to nit-pick and second-guess others, something that's so much fun, it's almost indescribable. So today we take on the folks at TV Guide, who this week list the "50 Greatest Shows of All Time" and have so thoroughly botched the job that ... OK, I take that back. Botched is too strong a word. Let's just say I have issues with some of their selections. Quite a few of their selections, actually. Look, I have no problem with Seinfeld at No. 1. Seinfeld was consistently brilliant, at least until its later years when each episode was juggling three and four story lines, one more inane than the next.

PASADENA, Calif. -- Gemstar International Group Ltd., the maker of the VCR Plus technology, said yesterday that it will buy TV Guide Inc. for about $9.2 billion in stock and debt to boost its electronic program guides.Gemstar said it will swap 0.6753 of a share for each TV Guide share, giving TV Guide shareholders 45 percent of the combined company.Gemstar makes technology for interactive TV program guides, which are expected to gain in popularity with the rise of digital ca- ble. TV Guide runs a weekly magazine with TV listings.

THERE is something absolutely annoying about the way some culture gurus take for granted that, come tomorrow night, we will all sit glued to our televisions watching the last episode of "Seinfeld."To do otherwise is to be uncivilized, un-American, someone unworthy of calling herself a New Yorker.Well, excuse me. I have been a New Yorker for 22 years. But I am not a "Seinfeld" fan. And, from what I have gathered from various folks I've talked to in recent days, I am not alone.I am not one of those snobs who insist that they never watch television.

The 100 best TV show episodes of all time, and no Jack Benny? No Jim Rockford? No "Masterpiece Theatre"?For shame, for shame.To be honest, TV Guide did a pretty fine job with the Top 100 list it published in this week's edition. You'll get no argument here that the "Chuckles Bites the Dust" episode of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" deserves to be No. 1; nowhere else has great writing and great acting come together so seamlessly and so hilariously. And the Vitameatavegamin episode of "I Love Lucy" is a worthy No. 2, as Lucy gets drunk while making a commercial for a magic elixir that's mostly alcohol.

Imus now believes he caused Clintons inappropriate painFinally, somebody feels President Clinton's pain. Of course, he caused it in the first place.At last year's Radio-Television Correspondents' Association Dinner in Washington, radio personality Don Imus joked about the president's alleged extramarital affairs and Hillary Clinton's alleged financial peccadilloes. The Clintons were sitting just a few feet away.Now, Imus says in the June issue of George magazine: "It wasn't whether it was funny or not; it was whether it was appropriate.

Imus now believes he caused Clintons inappropriate painFinally, somebody feels President Clinton's pain. Of course, he caused it in the first place.At last year's Radio-Television Correspondents' Association Dinner in Washington, radio personality Don Imus joked about the president's alleged extramarital affairs and Hillary Clinton's alleged financial peccadilloes. The Clintons were sitting just a few feet away.Now, Imus says in the June issue of George magazine: "It wasn't whether it was funny or not; it was whether it was appropriate.

The winter sweeps ratings period starts tonight, which means prime time television is going to be very intense for the next few weeks -- intensely good and intensely bad.Because the viewing audience is the largest of the year during the cold month of February, the networks really crank up the special programming.No single theme or pattern can ever hope to encompass the grab bag of specials, movies, stunts and weird ploys used to hype ratings, but there is one storyline viewers are going to see a lot: Women-in-conflict.

The winter sweeps ratings period starts tonight, which means prime time television is going to be very intense for the next few weeks -- intensely good and intensely bad.Because the viewing audience is the largest of the year during the cold month of February, the networks really crank up the special programming.No single theme or pattern can ever hope to encompass the grab bag of specials, movies, stunts and weird ploys used to hype ratings, but there is one storyline viewers are going to see a lot: Women-in-conflict.

A week or two ago on "60 Minutes," Andy Rooney did his entire closing segment on the loose stuff in his office drawer -- paper clips, rubber bands, things like that. It looked and 'N sounded more like a parody of an Andy Rooney report than an actual "60 Minutes" piece, and I wondered why he would take up that much time on something so obviously tossed off without much effort. Then it hit me: There are times when there is absolutely nothing going on, and when the ideas simply don't flow. Which leads me to tonight's dishwater-dull TV lineup, and why today's column lead is so unusually long and rambling . . .* "TV Guide's 40th Anniversary Special" (8-10 p.m., WBFF, Channel 45)