Welcome to the New TV Guide

Baby boomers will remember their parents clutching the newest issue of TV Guide, as they checked to be sure they would not miss their favorite new shows and to get the scoop on TV gossip. It was the size of a small book and you sure didn't want to get smacked with it. However, times change. With the advent of cable television and other electronically delivered guides, TV Guide became a bit obscure. It's back with all the glitz, glamour and people appeal that it garnered in years past.

The new TV Guide has both a paper version and an online version. The paper version is more the size of your average magazine and this may be a comforting format to those who are not overly friendly with the computer or just like to curl up with a good magazine rather than an electronic device. Of course, the online version offers more than print on a page, because the Internet is a visual medium and because people like it that way.

While there are numbers of websites in cyberland, where you can watch television episodes online, TV Guide online brings them all to one place-convenient. In the online TV Guide, you can look up shows, find out when they are on and get the capsule of info about a specific episode, but there is much more to do. There are celebrity video interviews, clips from popular shows and commercials, plenty of behind the scenes tidbits and, of course, the part I like best-you can actually watch episodes of your favorite shows. Go NCIS!!!

If you are a true TV connoisseur, you can register at the site and post to forums, create your own blog, start or join groups and receive daily and weekly email newsletters. You can even schedule recordings to your TiVo or DVR.

The fastest way to find a video of your show is to click on "Video" in the top tool bar, then click the red "Browse Video" box on the top left of the screen. From the drop down menu select where you want to look, such as "Top Shows and Movies," then scroll the alphabetic list and find what you want. You will then be shown a screen where you can choose from full episodes or specific clips. In small print at the top of the columns, you will find "See: free paid all." Click on free only, if it isn't the default, then pick your episode. If you click paid or all, you may end up at iTunes, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. It appears that some of the older episodes are housed at iTunes and you must download the payer to see them. There may be similar situations with other shows archived with other servers.

Remembering that this is about television and TV Guide has always been an advertising medium, even the online version will bring you advertisements and commercials, but fortunately, any commercials that they sneak in are ultra short. I can live with that.

So, whether you are a fan of American Idol, Dancing with the Stars, Top Chef, House, CSI, NCIS, Ghost Whisper or others, you may want to check out the TV Guide online and relive favorite moments, get the scoop from behind the scenes, watch that missed episode or watch the other show you like that comes on at the same time as your most favorite.

NCIS fans: Because life often prevents me from seeing an episode of my favorite show, I am happy that I can still "get my fix" at TV Guide online. Watch the "Abby Understands" clip. This is such a perfect example of how the undertone of humor in the show makes the characters seem more real. Speaking of real, it took me about 6 episodes of NCIS to stop getting up to answer the phone in my home, when the phone rang in the background on the show. Talk about creating a "real" environment. Has anyone else had this problem?