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Christmas Movies On Local Stations

B

briancraig

Growing up in Memphis, my family always looked forward to the many classic Christmas movies that WREG channel 3 showed every year.

From the 1960s to the 1980s, every year you could count on channel 3 to show "Miracle On 34th Street," the 1930s "Christmas Carol," "Christmas In Connecticut," "The Holly and the Ivy," "The Bells Of St. Mary's," "Holiday Inn" (my favorite) and even "Santa Claus Conquers The Martians." Every New Year's Eve, they would show "It's A Wonderful Life."

But looking at TV Guides from other markets, this seems not to have been very common. I have tv listings from the same period from cities where the locals stations didn't show even one Christmas movie.

Did anyone else grow up in a city where there was a local station that had a tradition of showing Christmas movies?
 
I can remember reading that WREG had one of the largest and best classic film libraries in the nation until TCM started. I definitely remember them having movies all night, running from the 30's to the 70's. I couldn't see any sense in why they showed It's a Wonderful Life on New Year's Eve instead of before Christmas, especially after it got where almost every station in the nation was showing it multiple times.
 
Yes for the Minneapolis-St. Paul stations - back in the 60s when CBS did not have late-night programming, WCCO would show movies, which turned to Christmas themes as the date approached. WTCN, the independent station, would always include Christmas movies in their late-night schedule. They included all the movies you mentioned.
 
Have not seen one on a local station since Santa Claus Conquers the Martians
ran on our local LPTV station in Ohio back in the early 90's.
 
WCVB in Boston used to run "White Christmas" in prime-time on a Friday night a week or two before Christmas, preempting ABC programming. IIRC that was between 1995-2005 or so.
 
I can remember seeing the colorized version of Miracle on 34th Street in the early 90's on WJKT in Jackson, TN, which means it was probably also on WLMT in Memphis since they did a lot of simulcasting at that time.
 
WFFT Channel 55 in Fort Wayne ran at least a 24 hour holiday movie marathon from the late 70's to the early Fox years in the late 80's. They showed some that are almost forgotten today, like "Christmas In Conencticut" amd "Meet John Doe".
 
I remember WSBK-TV Channel 38 would show hours of movies during the Christmas-New Year period, including Rudolf Nureyev in "Romeo and Juliet," "War And Peace" with Audrey Hepburn, Biblical dramas like "The Greatest Story Ever Told," Bing Crosby & Debbie Reynolds in "Say One For Me," and Go Nagai's Toei version of "The Little Mermaid," which was dubbed by a Boston company called G.G. Communications and featured "Sailor Moon" star Kristen Bishopric as Marina and her brother Thor as Fritz The Dolphin. And yes, they'd show "It's A Wonderful Life" and many others. I remember that on Christmas Day 1978, they presented 5 movies-3 without interruption-including "Dr. Doolittle" with Rex Harrison! Unbelievable how times change!
 
There are a couple of movies that weren't shown this past Christmas season or else I didn't see them on or listed. One is "Holiday Inn" which featured the first use of the song, White Christmas (as well as some other Irving Berlin songs). "Going My Way" is another. It's not an actual Christmas movie as such although there is a reference in it and the movie ends close to that time of year.

There are a number of the older TV series that have a Christmas episode (or two) that I haven't seen on for a number of years. That includes: Father Knows Best, Happy Days, Dragnet, The Jack Benny Program and even, The Millionaire. With the various nostalgia cable channels that feature the older series, I'm surprised they didn't get some air play on December 24-25.
 
The Digital Networks-MeTv and Antenna TV-Played a lot of the Christmas Episodes mentioned..

WIVM-39-Digital Low Power in Canton, Ohio has done a lot of Public Domain Christmas shows over the years, including Jack Benny, 1950's Dragnet and Loretta Young..

Here's is The Christmas 2012 lineup
From WVM's Facebook Page:

Dec. 4 @ 12:30 PM - The Littlest Angel
■Dec. 5 @ 12:30 PM - The Great Rupert
■Dec. 6 @ 12:30 PM - Homeless for the Holidays
■Dec. 7 @ 12:30 PM - Ozzie and Harriet compilation of Christmas shows
■Dec. 10 @ 12:30 PM - Christmas Without Snow and Beverly Hillbillies Christmas episode
■Dec. 10 @ 8 PM - Babes in Toyland (March of the Wooden Soldiers - Laurel and Hardy)

I will post more next week. Also we have a lot of holiday fillers including Judy Garland singing Silent Night and several specials from the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Because the decision on which to use are last miniute I can't tell you a head of time which fillers we will be using with which movies. Tune in and enjoy



■Dec. 11 - 12:30 PM: The Christmas Wife
■Dec. 11 - 2:00 PM: Puzzle Club Christmas Mystery
■Dec. 12 - 12:30 PM: Heidi (1968)
■Dec. 13 - 12:30 PM: Scrooge (1970) (has a Howdy Doody filler at the end)
■Dec. 14 - 12:30 PM Christmas in Conneticut
■Dec. 14 - 2:30 PM Mormon Tabernacle Choir - Christmas Meaning
■Dec. 15 - 6:00 PM: Scrooge (1970)
■Dec. 16 - 1:00 PM: The Great Rupert (1950)
■Dec. 16 - 2:30 PM: Mormon Tabernacle Choir - Silent Night
■Dec. 16 - 3:00 PM: Heidi (1968)
.
■Dec. 20

12:30 PM - The Littlest Angel
2:00 PM - A Vow to Cherish
3:30 PM - Beverly Hillbillies Christmas episode

■Dec. 21
12:30 PM - 3 versions of Scrooge: 1935, 1951 and 1970

■Dec. 22
5:00 PM - It Happened on Fifth Ave
7:00 PM - The Bishops Wife

■Dec. 23
1:00 PM - Meet John Doe
3:30 - Mormon Tabernacle Choir (MTC) - Bells of Christmas
4:00 PM - Puzzle Club Christmas Mystery
4:30 PM Abbott and Costello Christmas
6:00 PM - Scrooge (1935)

■Dec. 24:
9:00 AM - MTC - Bells of Christmas
9:30 AM - Prince of Peace
10:00 AM - MTC - Christmas Legacy
12:30 PM - The Shop Around the Corner
3:00 PM - A Christmas Carol (1951)
4:30 PM - Meet John Doe
7:00 PM - The Shepherd Boy
8:00 PM - A Vow to Cherish
9:30 PM - Homeless for Christmas;
11:30 PM - The Stable Boy

■Dec. 25: 6 AM - March of the Wooden Soldiers (AKA Babes in Toyland)
7:30 AM - Micah's Christmas Treasure
8:30 AM - Beyond Tomorrow (AKA Beyond Christmas)
12:30 PM - Christmas in Conneticut
2:13 PM - Homeless for Christmas
4:00 PM - The Bishops Wife
6:00 PM - Heidi;
8:00 PM - It Happened on Fifth Ave
10:00 PM - The Shop Around the Corner
12:00 AM - MTC - Bells of Christmas and Wonderous Christmas
1:00 AM - MTC - Silent Night and Christmas Meaning

"Some of the movies run back to back with no breaks so the listings above are as close as we can make them."

Most of this is Public Domain Material or, if not public Domain, probably inexpensive to obtain..
 
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