LOOK-IN

'''Look-in''' was a long running children's comic magazine centered around ITV's television programmes in the UK, and subtitled "The Junior ''TV Times''". It ran from January 9 1971 to 12 March 1994^[1] . Briefly, in 1985, a BBC-based rival appeared called ''BEEB'', and later in 1989, ''Fast Forward'', which went on to outsell ''Look-in''.
''Look-in'' had interviews, crosswords and competitions, and it had pictures and pin-ups of TV stars and pop idols of the time. Its main feature however was the many comic strips of the favourite children's television programmes. These included ''Timeslip'', ''The Tomorrow People'', ''The Six Million Dollar Man'', ''Charlie's Angels'', '', ''"CHiPs"'', ''Magnum, p.i.'', ''Knight Rider'', ''The A-Team'', ''Airwolf'', and ''Robin of Sherwood''.
When the magazine started, it was edited by Alan Fennell and the strips were written by Angus Allan. Fennell left in 1975, and the art editor, Colin Shelborn took over as editor.
The covers in the 70's were oil paintings by Arnaldo Putzu, who painted a lot of the cinema posters of the 60's and 70's; among his more famous ones were a lot of the Carry On posters.
Introduced mainly as a vehicle for children to find out what was on ITV, it included highlight listings for each ITV region, of programmes likely to appeal to its target market, but 'Look-in became more than that, it was at the hub of every fashion throughout it's run, things like Skateboarding, BMX and YoYoing all had their profiles raised and became more popular through Look-in.
Although primarily a television magazine, it also often featured articles on sport such as On The Ball with Brian Moore, as well as science articles written by Peter Fairley.
Look-in always had the most current music stars too, from ABBA and Bay City Rollers in the 70's to Take That in the 90's amongst others. All became the subjects of posters, strips and features, or sometimes all three.
A ''Look-in'' annual and Summer Special were released yearly for many years.
In 1981 'Look-in changed its look, with photo covers replacing the oil paintings.
Sales began to dwindle in the early 1990s, and the final issue was in 1994.

Contents

Trivia

References

External links

Trivia

The tag-line during the magazine's television commercials was: "Look out for ''Look-In''".
DJ Ed Stewart became a regular face in Look-in, appearing in the first issue in a feature about a day in his life, he was later given his own pages called 'Stewpot's Newsdesk' which ran until 1980.
Alan Fennell who edited Look-in wrote episodes of most of Gerry Anderson's series.

References

Copy of the First issue at @John's Look-out' - http://www.geocities.com/juniortvtimes2006/71No01/1971_no01_Pg01_cover.htm
1. Copy of the final issue at ''John's Look-out''

External links

★ The Look-in Picture Strip Archive

★ Interview with artist Mike Noble

★ Interview with Angus Allan

★ Interview with editor Colin Shelbourn

★ John's Look-out