SHORT TAKES : TV Guide Honors Arsenio Hall

Late-night talk show host Arsenio Hall has been named TV Guide’s first TV Person of the Year for outstanding achievement over the past TV season.

The magazine also cited eight other TV personalities for distinguished work.

It was the first time in the magazine’s 37-year history that such an award for individual achievement was made. “For what he has brought to TV and for how he has exploited the medium’s clout--Arsenio Hall is (our) choice for TV Person of the Year,” the editors announced in the June 23 issue of the magazine. The magazine said it will make the awards an annual event.

The eight cited were ABC news anchor Peter Jennings; CNN mogul Ted Turner; NBC’s Jane Pauley; actress Candace Bergen of “Murphy Brown”; actor Bob Saget of “Full House” and “America’s Funniest Home Videos”; Chris Burke, the young actor with Down’s syndrome who appears on ABC’s “Life Goes On”; David Lynch, the co-creator of “Twin Peaks,” and cartoon character Bart Simpson of the smash Fox series “The Simpsons.”