This week in TV Guide: April 1, 1983

It's something of a milestone day here at the blog. Not only do we have an unprecedented Monday edition of "This Week in TV Guide," today's installment represents the 366th edition (including a few repeats)—literally a year's worth of TV Guides. Therefore, it seems appropriate that we'd commemorate such an event on a special day.

But there's more! It's still Monday, so following our review of this week's issue, we'll have the listings from Wednesday of this week. Consider it two for the price of one!

Not only is it a special day, it's also a special issue; as you know, I'm not a big fan of TV Guides from the '80s onward, but I'm making an exception for this one, which came to me in the mail through the courtesy of my great and good friend Jodie Peeler. Therefore, with no further adieu, let's get started.

It's no surprise that this week's cover story, by

It's no surprise that Del Coronado's cover story is the mega-news that the mega-stars of Dynasty are jumping to NBC to star in "the biggest, dirtiest, most expensive adult drama of them all: Supermarket. It's the story of the King Kong supermarket (biggest in the world), owned by John Kong (John Forsythe), and his battle for supermarket supremacy against James Klooger (James Farentino), owner of the rival Klooger supermarket chain. So big is Kong that he has to have not one, but two mistresses: Joan (Joan Collins), who worked her way up from checkout girl to assistant manager of drugs and sundries; and Linda (Linda Evans), whom Kong discovered working in a dime store.

The enormous cast of 75 regulars includes Barbara Stanwyck as Kong's ex-wife; Doug Barr, Michael Sabatino, and Matt Dillon as his sons; Heather Locklear, Valerie Bertinelli, and Jaclyn Smith ans his daughters; and Donna Mills and Tony Franciosa as the in-laws. There's also Peter Graves, Bill Bixby, Bette Davis, Lana Turner, Robert Stack, Hal Linden, Polly Bergen, Lloyd Bridges, Morgan Fairchild, Buddy Ebsen, MacLean Stevenson, Lorenzo Lamas—well, at this point it's probably easier to list the people who aren't in the series.

According to NBC chief Grant Tinker, Supermarket has Number one stamped all over it. "We're going to have the finest nastiness and decadence on the air—deeper, more meaningful decadence and quality nastiness that will appeal to every age group." With all that going, how can Supermarket possibly fail? Says Tinker, "it's about real people, with real feelings. It just comes right through the TV screen and grabs you by the throat."