Bygone magazines that MeTV fans miss flipping through

Remember opening the mailbox and getting excited at the sight of your favorite magazine inside?

The Everett Collection

Recently, we asked our fans on MeTV social media what discontinued magazines of yesteryear you miss. We got hundreds of responses, but there were a few names that kept coming up!

Omni

MeTV fans said that they missed Omni, a sci-fi magazine with writing about science, and parapsychology. Omni featured short fictional works from Orson Scott Card, George R.R. Martin, and Stephen King. Fans said the artwork was always top-notch and that Omni was one of the best science magazines out there.

Famous Monsters of Filmland

With an audience that loves Svengoolie, should we be surprised to see this name mentioned so frequently? This genre-specific magazine inspired many other horror-focused periodicals that still exist today. There have been attempted reboots and an annual issue, but that's just not the same. In a pre-internet era, our commenters talked about rushing to the mailbox to get the first look at what creatures Hollywood was creating next.

McCall's

Our commenters fondly remember anxiously waiting for their mothers, aunts, and grandmothers to finish reading so they could cut out the paper dolls within McCall's. In addition to the dolls, this magazine contained a write-in column from Eleanor Roosevelt and a cartoon called It's All in the Family by the creators of the Berenstain Bears.

Hit Parader

This music magazine started as a rock and pop-focused publication but shifted to hard rock and heavy metal in the '80s. Some commenters missed the general music magazine, while others pined for their favorite heavy metal subscription. 

16

Our fans waxed nostalgic about getting the lighthearted, teenage girl-focused 16, which featured swoon-worthy teen idols like Elvis, The Monkees, and Herman's Hermits. One commenter mentioned reading the magazine solely for pictures of Donny Osmond.

National Lampoon

It's likely that some younger folks only know the name National Lampoon from the Vacation movies. But our commenters know better! This satirical, often surreal humor magazine shaped the humor of a generation.

Is your favorite on this list? Did we miss any? Tell us what magazines that aren't around anymore you miss and why in the comments!

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116 Comments

redmuse 1 day ago
I liked Mad,Cracked,and Crazy,"The magazine that Dares to be Dumb".I first read Howard the Duck in Crazy.I also read Marvel Comics,and Archie Comics.
Ajax 5 days ago
Loved Famous Monsters of Filmland !
Runeshaper 7 days ago
Not sure I've read any of these, but some of them sound interesting.
sseiger 8 days ago
Dynamite is where I learned about all the origins of the DC and Marvel superheroes and MAD let me learn a little about movies that I wasn't allowed to see at that age, although twisted!
ElwooodBlues 11 days ago
Saturday Evening Post, MAD, LOOK, LIFE. I liked to read.
SalIanni 12 days ago
My favorites used to be: Hockey Illustrated, Hockey Pictorial, 16, Tiger Beat, TV Guide, MAD, and Cracked.
WordsmithWorks 14 days ago
They got Hit Parader but missed Creem and Circus.
Marye 14 days ago
Hummmm...I couldn't afford school clothes, much LESS magazines...
WordsmithWorks Marye 14 days ago
I believe there are magazines available at your pubic library.
justjeff WordsmithWorks 14 days ago
that was a hair-y response!🤣🤣🤣🤣
JHP 14 days ago
well ; I had 3 favs

Mad
Stereo Review
and one is still ticking...it is sold in a blue plastic sheath:)
WordsmithWorks JHP 14 days ago
Mad absolutely. And Cracked.
Snickers 14 days ago
What about Starlog?
dmarkwind Snickers 14 days ago
Came here to mention StarLog. Had a subscription for it for many years and read it from cover to cover. I remember the articles were usually very long with multiple jumps to other pages. It was like the writers threw in every quote, every scrap of information, to stretch the material as far as they possibly could. Reading those was probably good training for when I was a small-town newspaper reporter and had to fill large amounts of page space!
15inchBlackandWhite 14 days ago
McCall's had been around for 125 years. Then Rosie O'Donnell took it over and managed to tank it within two.
JHP 15inchBlackandWhite 14 days ago
a tank will kill a tank
That doesn't surprise me.
watch what Donny does to America if you think that's bad
ncadams27 14 days ago
I liked Hit Parader (mid-sixties) because each issue contained lyrics to about 20 hit songs. Also had articles about new groups that weren’t yet popular. I read about The Doors in early 1967, months before Light My Fire (their first album, which included this song, was released in January 1967).
BradBeall 15 days ago
I first remember seeing Mad magazine and National Lampoon when I was not quite 8 years old. My dad moved from one office building to another, and his personal stash of magazines that he kept at work became prized property of my sister & me. I remember the Mad magazine with spoofs of songs popular at the time, such as "Downtown" redone as "Ground Round", and "I'm Walking Behind You" redone as "I'm Walking Behind Me". And yes, I can still remember most of the words to "Ground Round"... my sister & I would sing it loudly whenever my mom took us to the grocery store, waiting until we got to the fresh meats section to belt it out! And, does anyone remember "Cheech Wizard" from National Lampoon?
Lillyrose 15 days ago
I really miss the magazine "Reminisce." Published in Wisconsin, it stopped publishing recently. It was a great magazine. Very nostalgic!
CaptainDunsel 15 days ago
Anyone remember? (Don't get in a Snit if you don't. IYKYK)
One of my faves for years! Went perfectly with my original white box DnD first edition which I still have. In the Cauldron we go!
IdaKnow56 15 days ago
Does anybody else remember the illustrated horror magazines "Creepy" and "Eerie"? Both had a grisly host narrating the stories: Uncle Creepy, who was a tall, thin cadaverous fellow, and Cousin Eerie, who was short, fat, and gruesome. Me and my kid brother both loved these magazines and their black-and-white depictions of vampires, werewolves, ghosts and other groovy ghoulies, sometimes disguised as ordinary human beings. Those were the worse kind!
CaptainDunsel IdaKnow56 15 days ago
Threw me right back in memory to (probably) 10 year old me standing in the local soda shop in Maine, scanning the spinning magazine rack for the latest "Eerie" or "Creepy". And Mrs. Gerish, the proprietress, "Tskking" loudly at my choice of reading material.
Loved those mags. Now we have Shudder, Scary Monsters, Castle of Frankenstein. I always liked the old pulp mags printed on newsprint rather than the slick full color ones.
JKMallaber 15 days ago
As a kid, I once bought a huge box full of old Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, and Ellery Queen. Loved them all to shreds, literally!
I still pick up old Analogs and Asimov's Sci Fi mags at estate sales now and then. The covers were luridly awesome.
JohninND 15 days ago
National Lampoon magazine gave my friends and me a few great running jokes in DY High School in the 1970's. Hey Greg, John & Scott-(Elroy)-how goes it? "JP"
Tresix 15 days ago
“Right On!”, a black version of “Tiger Beat”.
“Mad”, as well as the other “mental illness” inspired magazines like “Cracked” and “Sick”.
“Famous Monsters” along with the other titles from Warren Publishing.
“National Lampoon”, I bought that, thinking it was like “Mad” when I was 13. I was shocked, to say the least!
NJUKGAL Tresix 15 days ago
"Mental illness" inspired magazines, lol. I was always reading stuff I wasn't suppose to be at a youngish age, incuding some you mentioned. Oh wow, had forgotten about Right On! Saw an excellent doc on National Lampoon mag several years ago. Think it was on Sky.
NJUKGAL NJUKGAL 15 days ago
Oops, 'including'.
Tresix NJUKGAL 13 days ago
I remember my father picking up my copy of “National Lampoon”. I was nervous as he leafed through it, it got a kind of shocked look then looked at me. “You read magazines like this?” He asked me, I nodded and smiled nervously. All he did was close the mag, set it aside, and went back to watching TV.
KawiVulc 15 days ago
Used to buy National Lampoon in the Navy Exchange & in the ship's store onboard USS Independence. Vacation '58 was printed maybe a year before the movie came out & was a spoof 1950s vacation log about a disastrous trip to Disneyland. It was reprinted around the time the movie was released. One big difference was that Clark bought a real gun & wounded Walt Disney in the leg. The story ended with his family making there way home to Chicago by air leaving Clark behind in jail.
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