MOVIES ON NETWORK TV: 1961 ONWARD (PART ONE)

[Hal Erickson]

Although there had been a few network showings of theatrical features in the 1950s (notably ABC's daytime FILM FESTIVAL of 1956-57, featuring top British films), it wasn't until NBC unveiled SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE MOVIES in the fall of 1961 that the movie-to-network TV format really took hold. One advantage the NBC series had over previous efforts was that the network was able to show films in color. Also, for the first few seasons the films were shown uncut (the show was seen in the 9-11PM EST timeslot, but was known to run past 11:00 if necessary). Plus, all of the films were post-1948 releases, a reflection of recent legal decisions involving the various performing unions regarding residuals, and all were first-run on American television.

The films were chosen, initially from the 20th Century-Fox vaults, on the basis of star power and box-office appeal. During Season One, NBC really knew the value of "presentation": whenever a film ran too short to fill the two-hour slot (with commercials), the network included a newly-taped "epilogue" relevant to the film at hand. For example, after the conclusion of THE DESERT FOX, Gen. Desmond Young, formerly a prisoner of Rommel who'd appeared in the film as "himself", offered some personal recollections of the German general and narrated newsreel films of the aftermath of the Hitler assassination attempt. STARS AND STRIPES FOREVER likewise featured a brief newsreel clip of the real Sousa conducting his band. And for IT HAPPENS EVERY SPRING, Joe E. Brown showed up to narrate a breezy mini-history of the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Here's the lineup for the first season of SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE MOVIES:

How to Marry a Millionaire (color) (first telecast 9/23/61)
The Snows of Kilimanjaro (color) (9/30/61)
Titanic (1953) (10/7/61)
Garden of Evil (color) (10/14/61)
The Desert Fox (10/21/61)
There’s No Business Like Show Business (color) (10/28/61)
Soldier of Fortune (color) (11/4/61)
The Halls of Montezuma (color) (11/11/61)
Demetrius and the Gladiators (color) (11/18/61)
Dreamboat (11/25/61)
Broken Arrow (color) (12/2/61)
Man On a Tightrope (12/9/61)
Destination Gobi (color) (12/16/61)
O.Henry’s Full House (color) (12/23/61)
On the Riviera (color) (12/30/61)
What Price Glory (1952) (color) (1/6/62)
People Will Talk (1/13/62)
Five Fingers (1/20/62)
Cheaper By the Dozen (color) (1/27/62)
The Frogmen (2/3/62)
With a Song in My Heart (color) (2/10/62)
Monkey Business (2/17/62)
Stars and Stripes Forever (color) (2/24/62)
The Day the Earth Stood Still (3/3/62)
The Black Rose (color) (3/10/62)
Where the Sidewalk Ends (3/17/62)
No Highway in the Sky (3/24/62)
Bird of Paradise (color) (3/31/62)
It Happens Every Spring (4/7/62)
Diplomatic Courier (4/14/62)

30 films in all. There were supposed to be 31, but NBC decided not to show NO WAY OUT (1950) on the grounds that its race-hatred theme was too controversial.

If you'd like to see more of these postings, or you'd like to share memories of watching prime-time movies back in the Day, let me know. I'll be back with the first seasons of ABC's "Hollywood Special/Sunday Movie" and CBS' "Thursday Night at the Movies".

 

[wbhist]

I was wondering where, from the outset, voiceovers for opening titles, ad and ending bumpers etc., had emanated. I know that as of the early 1970's and on into the '80's such V/O's were handled out of NBC's Burbank studios, mainly by "The [West Coast] Voice of NBC," Don Stanley, with (by 1975) Donald Rickles, Peggy Taylor and Victor Bozeman alternating on a rotational basis. Had such V/O's been originated from the West Coast from the start, or was there a case of it being done out of New York at the outset (with voices such as Mel Brandt, Fred Collins, Jerry Damon, Matt Thomas, Bill Rippe or others who in those days handled the evening to sign-off shift at WNBC-TV in New York)? If the latter's the case, then when would such V/O duties have gone over to Burbank?

P.S. By the mid-to-late 1960's, many if not all of these 30 films had gone over to WABC-TV in New York where they were aired on that station's various movie umbrellas (the late-night The Best of Broadway / Saturday/Sunday Night Movie / Movie Matinee; The Big Show / The 6 O'Clock/4:30 Movie; the A.M. Movie of the Day / Prize Movie / The Morning Movie) into the 1970's.

 

[Cincinnati Kid]

I've always felt the opening of "How To Marry A Millionaire" has one of the more interesting openings in movie history. It begins with Alfred Newman leading an orchestra with Slaughter On Tenth Avenue before the actual movie and story begins. That certainly must have seemed different for those who tuned in to that first NBC Saturday Night At The Movies presentation on September 23, 1961.