Newsday TV Book, Christmas Eve & Day, 1974 (with Celebrity Greetings).

Here it is, Christmas Eve! That's the night my family celebrated and opened presents back in the day, whoop-de-doo! Of course I didn't get to half of the projects I had planned for this season, as far as the nostalgic nonsense I savor, but what I did make was probably plenty--lots of TV guide scans in various Facebook groups devoted to the New York metro TV stations of my youth (WNEW 5, WOR 9, WPIX 11), stuff at the DPiMR FB page, some videos at my Hugo Faces YouTube channel. Do check those out when you have some time to waste!

Now here are the pages from the 1974 Newsday TV Book for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, but first enjoy their annual check-in with the television celebs (both network and local) for tidings of joy, clueless narcissism (I’m looking at you, Bruce Fairbairn) and shameless plugging...

No time for commentary or even a smidge of snark--I still got Christmasing to do!

Merry Christmas!

Newsday TV Book, December 8-14, 1974

Well, I'm a little late on this one, but these old TV Books are worth a look any ol' time...
This week's cover, for the second week of December 1974, features a sultry Faye Dunaway (between Chinatown and Three Days of the Condor) in an Arthur Miller TV adaptation.

The TV Line at last introduces Newsday readers to the guy who writes those humorous, snarkilicious movie reviews (but of course you and I already know him to be John Cashman)...

Takashimaya then introduces readers to scary Japanese Santa Claus.

Christmas + Disneyland = happiness, just as Record World + cheapo LP's = shopping finished!

Some Christmas specials make for festive Sunday night viewing, plus Lou Grant tells us about Chanukah and Sonny replaces Cher with Rufus.

Another ad, from Farmingville's ever-loving Pudgies. This sounds great--I love all different foods!

Rent your holiday shindig from Huntington Village's Good Time Party Rentals. Free coat rack, sweet!

Elliot Gould goes Out to Lunch with some Muppets and the Electric Company, and again Ed Asner breaks down Hanukkah for us, just with a different spelling this time.

Illustrator Gary Viskupic gives the Earth some shapely gams for the Miss World 1974 close-up.

Here, Viskupic (a WWII buff, I've read) depicts Hitler's familiar salute as the barrel of a cannon for a multi-part bio of the that lunatic. Elsewhere, Christopher Connelly Paper Moon-lights on Ironside.

Here's Saturday's late listings, just for fun...

...and that day's movies, plus sports and specials for the week.

Next week (and hopefully sooner than this one arrived): Tony Orlando and Dawn!

Newsday TV Book, December 1-7, 1974

The first week of December, 1974, brought Long Island Newsday readers a 3D cover, with John-Boy Walton earning his Red Badge of Courage--by charging right atcha!

While there are interesting tidbits about Ol' Blue Eyes' heritage, Pa Ingalls fiddling around, and Darren McGavin's resume, I'm inclined toward titling this edition of TV Line "Someone in Wyandanch Gives a Shit about Laurel and Hardy."

The cover story is a real snore (unless you're jazzed to read about Richard Thomas' summer stock experiences) so here instead is the eggnog-flavored cheesecake of Holiday Spas.

In a previous installment, I gave shout-outs to the fellas trodding the sales floor at Eldee. Two years later, Irv and Ken are toast, replaced by Luke Chicco and Sal Paduano. They look like closers to me!

Another Hicks ad (see post from two weeks ago), plus, hey, here's an idea: let's look at some damn TV listings already!

The late listings for Tuesday include a Gary Viskupic illustration for the cover feature.

Let's skip the morose, gender-fluid clown Boris and learn a bisl about Hanukkah, then we'll watch that farchadat Santa Claus come to town.

Screw it, I'm going back to the ads, mostly because I want to sincerely wish all my readers a Waste King Christmas.

And finally, I'll forego the back cover pitch since it's the same as last week's (and will remain there for the rest of the year), and present in its place the ad that preceded it, for Bay Shore Farmers Market. This was the first appearance of Bay Shore Man, seen whipping his nemesis, The Inflation-pillar.

To my knowledge, this was also the last appearance of Bay Shore Man.
See you next time--it will get Christmasier, I swear!