The complete guide to Richard Amsel’s TV GUIDE art…so far!

fThe immense popularity of Richard Amsel’s work isn’t limited to his movie posters or album covers. In fact, if you were to ask Americans in the early 1980s what he was best known for, many would have cited his work for TV GUIDE.

Throughout his 13-year association with the magazine, Amsel’s covers ranged from such high profile stories and figures as the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, the television premiere of GONE WITH THE WIND, the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana, John and Jackie Kennedy, Frank Sinatra, Katherine Hepburn, and, perhaps most famously, Lucille Ball.

Amsel’s contributions make for a fascinating episode within the documentary. I was fortunate to have done an interview with the magazine’s art director, Jerry Alten, a few months before his passing. Under Alten’s creative guidance, sales of TV GUIDE surged from 3 to 4 million to a whopping 20 million, and an estimated readership of 60 million people each week. Not bad for a pocket sized, grocery counter magazine.

There were 37 published “Amsel covers” in all – a full breakdown that you can see on my original (though very antiquated) richardamsel.info website.

Special thanks to Rick Carl for providing this image!

But what other works did Amsel contribute? There were at least three other, fully completed covers that weren’t used, including:

·       Lindsay Wagner for THE BIONIC WOMAN

·       Georg Stanford Brown, Sam Melville, and Bruce Fairbairn for THE ROOKIES.

·       Gary Coleman for DIFF’RENT STROKES.

Of these, only the Gary Coleman illustration would be published; the would-be cover story was relegated to a glossy color spread inside the magazine.

Amsel did some preparatory sketches for two TV movies, both of which I suspect were either proposed covers, or interior ads. I’ve never been able to find any completed, polished versions, however.

TV movies:

·       Charles Durning and Stephanie Faracy for EYE TO EYE.

·       Helen Hayes and Mildred Natwick for SNOOP SISTERS.

Amsel also created a number of pencil drawings for ads within the magazine’s interior pages. So far, I can confirm these:

TV series:

·       At least two published interior, black and white ads for DYNASTY.

·       A black and white sketch for NBC’s THE JOE NAMATH SHOW, though I’m still trying to confirm if it was published.

With all the covers Richard Amsel did for TV GUIDE over the years, one would think the publication would have given him a fitting tribute in their celebratory issue released years ago, in TV GUIDE MAGAZINE BEST COVERS - VOLUME 1. But alas, they had a little screwup...

The good news: Amsel was mentioned in the issue. The bad news: the one "Amsel" cover they featured was actually done by another artist. (I write about it on my old site, within the MISCREDITED WORKS page.)

The cover, featuring Angela Lansbury in MURDER, SHE WROTE, was illustrated by David Wesley Jarvis -- a contemporary of Amsel's who even has the Lansbury illustration featured on his web page! If VOLUME 2 should come to pass, here's hoping the magazine editors do a little more homework.