Description
Collector's Note – Why This Issue Matters
The September 1979 issue of Teen Machine Magazine featuring Erik Estrada and Greg Evigan — with original posters intact and additional coverage of Andy Gibb, Lorenzo Lamas, Rex Smith, and other figures — is a primary document of the late 1970s teen celebrity culture at one of its most specifically interesting moments. The roster of names in this single issue captures with unusual precision the specific constellation of celebrity that defined teenage popular culture in the final months of the decade: Erik Estrada as Officer Poncharello on CHiPs, which had premiered in 1977 and was in its third season by September 1979 as one of the highest-rated series on American television; Greg Evigan as BJ McKay on BJ and the Bear, which had premiered in January 1979 and was in its first full season; Andy Gibb, whose solo career had produced three consecutive number-one singles between 1977 and 1978 and who remained one of the most visible pop figures of the period; Lorenzo Lamas, who had joined the cast of The Young and the Restless in 1977 before transitioning to Falcon Crest; and Rex Smith, whose 1979 hit "You Take My Breath Away" had made him one of the year's breakout pop figures. Together, these names document the specific intersection of television drama and pop music that defined teen celebrity culture in 1979, and a single issue that contains all of them is a more historically instructive primary source than any individual publication featuring just one of these figures could be. Collectors interested in the full landscape of late 1970s American popular culture publishing will find the 1979 magazines collection at OriginalMagazines.com a valuable resource for exploring the broader context this issue inhabited.
September 1979 occupies a specific and revealing position at the end of one of the most culturally distinctive decades in American popular entertainment history. The television landscape of 1979 was in the final months before the decade's defining shows would give way to the programming that would define the 1980s — CHiPs and BJ and the Bear were quintessentially late-1970s network products, and the teen celebrity culture that Teen Machine was documenting was about to undergo the significant transformation that the arrival of MTV in 1981 and the Reagan-era cultural shift would produce. Publications like Teen Machine occupied a specific and important niche in the celebrity media ecosystem of this period: they were the primary vehicle through which teenagers without regular access to entertainment industry journalism could track the personal lives, careers, and appearances of the television and music figures they followed. In the pre-internet era, the poster pullout and the celebrity profile in a teen magazine were the primary means by which a fan's relationship with a celebrity was mediated and sustained, and a September 1979 issue with original posters intact is therefore a complete and functional document of that relationship in a way that a poster-removed copy simply is not. The survival of the original posters in attached condition is the single most significant collecting attribute this issue possesses.
The specific pairing of Erik Estrada and Greg Evigan as the issue's primary cover subjects is also worth examining as an editorial choice that reflects the specific moment in 1979 television. Both were stars of action-adventure series built around vehicles — motorcycles in CHiPs, an eighteen-wheeler in BJ and the Bear — that represented the decade's specific cultural fascination with the open road, male freedom, and the particular American mythology of mobility and escape that had been one of the 1970s' defining popular culture themes. Both were also among the most visually prominent young male actors on American network television, making them natural subjects for a teen magazine's poster and pinup format. A Teen Machine cover pairing them together in September 1979 was a precise editorial reading of its audience's specific interests at a specific cultural moment, and the issue is a primary document of how that audience was being understood and served.
About the Publication
Teen Machine Magazine was one of several American teen celebrity publications of the 1970s and early 1980s that served the specific market of young fans — primarily female — who were deeply engaged with the television and music celebrities of the period. Its format was characteristic of the genre: color cover photography of the featured celebrities, interior profile articles and interviews, full-color pinup pages, fold-out poster inserts, reader mail and contests, and the kind of intimate personal detail — favorite colors, career aspirations, relationship status — that its readership specifically sought. The genre as a whole functioned as the primary media infrastructure connecting teenage fans with the celebrity culture they were following, and individual issues like the September 1979 number serve as primary documents of both the specific celebrities they featured and the specific fan culture they were serving and shaping.
Key Highlights Inside
- Erik Estrada cover feature — coverage of the star of CHiPs, then in its third season as one of American network television's highest-rated series, at the peak of his late-1970s celebrity as one of the most photographed and most discussed television actors in the teen celebrity media ecosystem.
- Greg Evigan feature — coverage of the star of BJ and the Bear, in its first full season following its January 1979 premiere, representing the specific category of action-adventure television celebrity that was one of the most commercially significant in the teen magazine market of the period.
- Andy Gibb, Lorenzo Lamas, Rex Smith coverage — profiles and/or pinup content featuring three additional figures who collectively document the full range of the late-1970s teen celebrity universe: Gibb as a pop music figure whose 1977-1978 hit run made him one of the decade's most visible performers, Lamas as an emerging television presence, and Rex Smith as a breakout pop figure of 1979.
- Original posters and pinups intact — the confirmed survival of original posters and pinup content in attached condition is the primary collecting attribute of this issue, distinguishing it from the large majority of surviving Teen Machine copies whose poster inserts were removed by original recipients for display — the standard fate of virtually all teen magazine posters from this era.
- September 1979 — final months of the decade's defining celebrity culture — published in the penultimate season of the 1970s television era, before the MTV-era transformation of celebrity media would permanently alter the landscape this issue documents, giving it the quality of a document from the final phase of a specific cultural moment rather than from its middle.
Condition & Rarity
A good condition grade with all pages intact and original posters in place represents a significantly more favorable condition profile than the typical surviving example of a late-1970s teen celebrity magazine, for reasons that are specific to this category of publication. Teen magazines of this era were produced for active use by a young readership — they were read, shared, and their poster inserts were almost universally removed for display. A September 1979 Teen Machine in good condition with original posters still attached has therefore survived in a state that places it in a meaningfully smaller subset of the available pool than good condition alone would suggest for most other publication categories. The plastic protective covering indicates deliberate preservation effort and more careful storage than an unprotected copy would have received. For an issue documenting the specific celebrity constellation of September 1979 — Estrada, Evigan, Gibb, Lamas, and Rex Smith in a single number — with poster content intact, condition grades in the good range represent a combination of physical and collecting attributes that the collector market for this category specifically values and specifically distinguishes from poster-removed examples.
Looking for More Issues Like This?
Late-1970s teen celebrity magazines with original posters still attached are among the more genuinely rare survivals in the category — the vast majority of examples that reach the market have had their posters removed decades ago — and a September 1979 Teen Machine with the complete roster of Estrada, Evigan, and their contemporaries is a particularly specific and historically instructive find. If you're exploring the full landscape of American popular culture in the final months of the 1970s, the 1979 magazines collection at OriginalMagazines.com brings together a wide range of publications from the decade's closing year — well worth browsing for any collector of the era's distinctive celebrity and entertainment culture.