This article first appeared in Entertainment Weekly.
I TURNED 25 shortly after moving to New York City, and to mark my birthday I threw my first “sophisticated” party (Triscuits and wine coolers) and prayed that Eric, a crunchy recent grad from Bard College, would pay me an iota of attention. (Hi, Eric, if you’re out there!) EW is celebrating its 25th in a slightly more dignified manner:
- We’ve rounded up some terrific movie and TV cast reunions this year, lovingly assembled by our senior West Coast editor Danielle Nussbaum with the help of news director Gina McIntyre. In fact, if you’re a fan of The WB TV network circa 1999, I suggest you drop everything you’re doing and turn to page 18 immediately.
- Contributing editor Erik Jackson led a team that pored over pretty much every back issue of EW to unearth a treasure trove of classic articles and trivia about our 25 years.
- The Shaw Report as well as the former writers of What to Watch are back for guest appearances!
- Jennie Chang, our brilliant managing art director who designed the issue, even dug up the font we used in our original issues.
Of course, our anniversary will continue far beyond these pages. Be sure to head over to EW.com for behind-the-scenes video of many of our reunions, as well as amazing photo outtakes. And if you live in the NYC metropolitan area, please stop by our first-ever EW Fest on Saturday, Oct. 24—a daylong celebration of the very best in pop culture, presented by sponsor LG OLED TV. Events include: a discussion with The X-Files creator Chris Carter; an appearance by Aziz Ansari, who’ll chat about his new Netflix series; and an evening with Tina Fey. Get tickets and more information at ew.com/ewfest. If you don’t live in the area, you can check out highlights on EW.com or EW Radio on SiriusXM Channel 105. Most important, though, I wanted to turn this space over to the incredibly talented editors who preceded me, because we all owe them thanks for making EW the brand it is today. I’ve asked them to recall their favorite and least favorite covers of their tenure; of course, I want to hear about yours, too, so feel free to tweet me @HenryGoldblatt.
