As TV Guide readies its reinvention (complete with ginormous rate base slashes), Slate's Bryan Curtis gets into the nitty gritty history of the dilapidated magazine that's now trying to be one-part In Touch and one part Reader's Digest, complete with Robert Thompson name drop!

Who knew it ventured into politics in its 52 year history? From European suspicion to investigation bias on the news networks (there were only a couple back then, and thus no need for TVNewser).

Just as Wired served as the wry watchdog of the Internet Age, TV Guide's early editors gave their new medium a thorough working over in a weekly editorial called "As We See It." They came down in favor of inter-network bloodbaths and against canned laugh tracks. They mocked the religious quacks who called TV the "cancer of the soul." They jeered the British attempts at commercial-free TV and dinged the masses panting after newfangled color sets ("don't hold your breath").

And now there are publications like this one, that scoff at TV Guide's attempt to stay relevant. But we sure will miss all those grids — Time Warner's interactive guide just isn't the same.