Got a copy of this myself. A few things of note:
The picture of Vanna on
The Price Is Right in 1980 (Page 16) has a late-90s GSN logo plainly visible. I just found that humorous.
I suspect Emily Aslanian, who wrote the article on the show's history (Pages 26-33), has seen the History Wiki, as there's a number of things mentioned that wouldn't be known to most people (the 1989 and 1991 sections particularly stood out to me).
See also Dylan Ford's article on the show's most memorable puzzles, which includes the THRILL OF VICTORY puzzle (Page 36) and a mention that $62,400 "would have - should have - been the single largest one-round win to this day."
Also, frickin' Megaword (Page 38). I wouldn't have picked the PRISTINELY round, though (the OXIDIZED one was just a giant fail all-around which Pat quipped was "akin to a root canal"), and frankly Megaword as a whole fits under the magazine's "Just Plain Silly!" header (between the general idea, Pat snarking on it even on days it didn't show up, Vanna and Charlie getting quips in, and the fact it stuck around for seven months despite everything).
The 1980 article (Pages 62-64) is pretty interesting:
* Unlike what Robert said, this has nothing to do with Judy Bongarzone outside of an image of her and Chuck (Page 62).
* Nancy Jones explains that the championship limit was dropped from 5 days to 3 days because "audiences didn't like to see someone win that much money."
* Speaking of audiences, they apparently didn't like a bunch of things, such as "whenever someone's winnings go over $15,000" (prompting a viewer to suggest bringing back the losers instead of the winners, which...uh, not how game shows typically work) or whenever a pretty lady won (going so far as
accusing the show of rigging). Mentioned is that some letters had a visible impact, such as giving Susan less-skimpy outfits, apparently instituting the "when you solve the puzzle say it exactly as it says on the board" rule (mention is made of a TWEEDLEDUM AND TWEEDLEDEE puzzle where a contestant transposed the first and third words but still got credit), and disqualifying a lady who'd appeared on the show a second time "within a period of months", having put on a disguise and fooled the contestant coordinators.
* All viewer complaints are checked out "either on video tapes of the show, or on audio tapes". This suggests the wipe-and-reuse policy wasn't done to tapes immediately but
was in place to some extent.
* The picture of Susan, Nancy, and Pat on Page 64, from Susan's last show, is straight from the History Wiki. (Seriously, it's identical.) Hey,
TV Guide people: I appreciate that you found us worthy to be cribbed from, but at least have the kindness to cite your sources.
* Most interestingly,
TV Guide happened to sit in on a taping which had the control booth express not-even-thinly-veiled disdain for a female contestant Nancy calls "icky" (and other staff "yelling horrible insults") - seemingly the "middle-aged, female, persnickety, finicky, bossy, pluperfect" type of person Nancy cites as being the type of winner her audiences are "unhappiest" about, who evidently fooled the contestant coordinators - who has apparently "been talking too much while winning" and "passing up all lavish offerings" in favor of "a time-consuming string of small, mundane choices", "turning an expectant moment of hedonism into an exercise undertaken with the care of a trigonometry lesson", a series of events that leaves Nancy desperately wanting someone else to win the next round because "This is the kind of contestant, if she's on three days, we won't have a viewer left." Said lady wins the next round, resulting in boos from the control booth and Nancy saying "On a one-to-five rating, this show isn't a zero, but it's close."
...Yeah, so there's a bit of luster from the shopping era - and probably Nancy's entire 20-year stint of producing the show, for that matter - gone. Lovely.
The 1989 article (Pages 72-75) is primarily about Vanna but includes a taping report from a Benirschke taping day, including a celebration (probably on-air?) of his 34th birthday. Rolf was born February 7, 1955 and the article is dated March 4, 1989, so I'm not sure if the show was taped or was to air on 2/7, but the article's wording (mentioning what seems to be the first two shows of the day, with the latter having the celebration) may imply the latter.
The article on other noteworthy game show hosts (Pages 82-93) includes Bill Cullen. Always nice to see him acknowledged.
All in all...yes, there's some factual errors here and there (such as repeating the show's claim that Vanna has only repeated a dress once), but still a nice pretty-much-a-50th-Anniversary book.
