The first films from Universal that were syndicated to TV were pre-1949 features, marketed by Screen Gems; followed by 1949-1960 product syndicated by Seven Arts Associates (which became Warner Bros.-7 Arts after the latter acquired the former in 1967, and then Warner Bros. Television following post-1969 owner Kinney's deemphasis on the "7 Arts" part of the nomenclature after 1970). By the mid-1960's, Universal's by-then parent, MCA, began marketing post-1960 films of the studio for television, first via network airings and then to local TV stations. (The company's development of the made-for-TV movie is a story in and of itself, and will not be brought up here.)
One of the early packages offered to local stations by MCA of post-1960 Universal product, after network airings (invariably on NBC) had passed, was of 50 features whose original releases were up to 1966, and made available in or around February of 1968. This particular one is notable in that in New York City, this was initially had by two TV stations - one for "first run" local airings, the other for second and later runs. The former was WABC-TV in New York, which in January 1968 finally settled their late afternoon movie show at 4:30 PM after being on at 6 PM up to then (though it wasn't until another year that The 4:30 Movie title was applied to the series; in its first year in the soon-to-be-titular time slot, WABC used the ancient title of The Big Show that had previously been used for its late afternoon movies between September 1963 and October 1966), and helped bring about the end of the weekday editions of WCBS-TV's long-running The Early Show after a nearly 17-year run (April 2, 1951 - March 8, 1968; replaced effective March 11 by The Mike Douglas Show; The Early Show ran thereafter on Saturdays only into the 1980's); the latter was WNBC-TV, whose Movie 4 had long played second-fiddle to the said WCBS movie show up to that point, but would in time be clobbered by WABC's offerings (and be effectively out of the "grindhouse" business after 1974, when NewsCenter4 got started). Many of the titles actually had their local "first-run" airings on The Big Show / The 4:30 Movie between 1968 and 1970, with a few choice titles being shown one-time-only on the Saturday night edition of their late-night showcase of the time, The Best of Broadway; WNBC's first airings came anywhere from three months to a year afterward, with some being shown for the first time on their own prime showcase by that point, the Sunday Film Festival.
As with the 145-film "MGM/7" package (whose splitting in NYC has been documented upon), I have not all the titles, but certain ones. These are films that are known to have been run on both WABC and WNBC:
- The Art of Love
- Back Street
- Bedtime Story
- The Birds
- Blindfold
- The Brass Bottle
- Captain Newman, M.D.
- The Chalk Garden
- Come September
- Flower Drum Song
- For Love or Money
- 40 Pounds of Trouble
- Freud
- A Gathering of Eagles
- The Ghost and Mr. Chicken
- The Last Sunset
- The List of Adrian Messenger
- Lonely Are the Brave
- Lover Come Back
- Madame X
- A Man Could Get Killed
- Man's Favorite Sport?
- Marnie
- Mirage
- The Rare Breed
- Send Me No Flowers
- The Spiral Road
- Strange Bedfellows
- Tammy and the Doctor
- Tammy Tell Me True
- That Funny Feeling
- That Touch of Mink
- The Thrill of It All
- To Kill a Mockingbird
- Wild and Wonderful
Other films in this package included Charade and Father Goose, though this writer does not know at this time when these aired on WABC (it has been determined, however, they did not run on The 4:30 Movie). From what I could gather, there were also these (if any of these are in error or belong to another of their packages - one of their 123-film groups, for example - please advise):
- Bus Riley's Back in Town
- I'd Rather Be Rich
- If a Man Answers
- Island of the Blue Dolphins
- McHale's Navy (1964 movie version of TV series)
- McHale's Navy Joins the Air Force (sans McHale, alas)
- Moment to Moment (1966)
- The Phantom of the Opera (1962)(?)
- Six Black Horses
- The Truth About Spring
- The Ugly American
- Wild Seed
- Wild Wild Winter
I can't determine, however, which package these would be in:
- Fluffy (1965, with Tony Randall and Shirley Jones)
- The Lively Set (1964, one of two films that year starring James Darren and Pamela Tiffin)
- Love and Kisses (1965, with Rick and Kristin Nelson and Jack Kelly)
- No Man Is an Island (1962)
- The Raiders (1963, with Robert Culp and Brian Keith)
- The Sword of Ali Baba (1965)
(These titles all aired on WNBC in the last years of their Movie 4.)
One title of note whose syndication history has been convoluted and complex is That Touch of Mink. Initially part of this package, by 1972 it was taken out of the group (which meant that WNBC, which had these Universal films by this point, lost the rights to this particular title) after ownership reverted to star Cary Grant, and it and a few other of his pics (including Indiscreet and Operation Petticoat) were made part of a package offered by National Telefilm Associates (NTA). This new package was snapped up by WABC - which was how the station got back That Touch of Mink after its early 1969 one-time-only-up-to-that-point airing. (The reshuffling also meant that WCBS-TV, which ran Operation Petticoat and Indiscreet for years on The Late Show and its other movie venues, lost the rights to those two titles which, I.I.N.M., had previously been part of packages syndicated by Seven Arts / W-7.)
One of the early packages offered to local stations by MCA of post-1960 Universal product, after network airings (invariably on NBC) had passed, was of 50 features whose original releases were up to 1966, and made available in or around February of 1968. This particular one is notable in that in New York City, this was initially had by two TV stations - one for "first run" local airings, the other for second and later runs. The former was WABC-TV in New York, which in January 1968 finally settled their late afternoon movie show at 4:30 PM after being on at 6 PM up to then (though it wasn't until another year that The 4:30 Movie title was applied to the series; in its first year in the soon-to-be-titular time slot, WABC used the ancient title of The Big Show that had previously been used for its late afternoon movies between September 1963 and October 1966), and helped bring about the end of the weekday editions of WCBS-TV's long-running The Early Show after a nearly 17-year run (April 2, 1951 - March 8, 1968; replaced effective March 11 by The Mike Douglas Show; The Early Show ran thereafter on Saturdays only into the 1980's); the latter was WNBC-TV, whose Movie 4 had long played second-fiddle to the said WCBS movie show up to that point, but would in time be clobbered by WABC's offerings (and be effectively out of the "grindhouse" business after 1974, when NewsCenter4 got started). Many of the titles actually had their local "first-run" airings on The Big Show / The 4:30 Movie between 1968 and 1970, with a few choice titles being shown one-time-only on the Saturday night edition of their late-night showcase of the time, The Best of Broadway; WNBC's first airings came anywhere from three months to a year afterward, with some being shown for the first time on their own prime showcase by that point, the Sunday Film Festival.
As with the 145-film "MGM/7" package (whose splitting in NYC has been documented upon), I have not all the titles, but certain ones. These are films that are known to have been run on both WABC and WNBC:
- The Art of Love
- Back Street
- Bedtime Story
- The Birds
- Blindfold
- The Brass Bottle
- Captain Newman, M.D.
- The Chalk Garden
- Come September
- Flower Drum Song
- For Love or Money
- 40 Pounds of Trouble
- Freud
- A Gathering of Eagles
- The Ghost and Mr. Chicken
- The Last Sunset
- The List of Adrian Messenger
- Lonely Are the Brave
- Lover Come Back
- Madame X
- A Man Could Get Killed
- Man's Favorite Sport?
- Marnie
- Mirage
- The Rare Breed
- Send Me No Flowers
- The Spiral Road
- Strange Bedfellows
- Tammy and the Doctor
- Tammy Tell Me True
- That Funny Feeling
- That Touch of Mink
- The Thrill of It All
- To Kill a Mockingbird
- Wild and Wonderful
Other films in this package included Charade and Father Goose, though this writer does not know at this time when these aired on WABC (it has been determined, however, they did not run on The 4:30 Movie). From what I could gather, there were also these (if any of these are in error or belong to another of their packages - one of their 123-film groups, for example - please advise):
- Bus Riley's Back in Town
- I'd Rather Be Rich
- If a Man Answers
- Island of the Blue Dolphins
- McHale's Navy (1964 movie version of TV series)
- McHale's Navy Joins the Air Force (sans McHale, alas)
- Moment to Moment (1966)
- The Phantom of the Opera (1962)(?)
- Six Black Horses
- The Truth About Spring
- The Ugly American
- Wild Seed
- Wild Wild Winter
I can't determine, however, which package these would be in:
- Fluffy (1965, with Tony Randall and Shirley Jones)
- The Lively Set (1964, one of two films that year starring James Darren and Pamela Tiffin)
- Love and Kisses (1965, with Rick and Kristin Nelson and Jack Kelly)
- No Man Is an Island (1962)
- The Raiders (1963, with Robert Culp and Brian Keith)
- The Sword of Ali Baba (1965)
(These titles all aired on WNBC in the last years of their Movie 4.)
One title of note whose syndication history has been convoluted and complex is That Touch of Mink. Initially part of this package, by 1972 it was taken out of the group (which meant that WNBC, which had these Universal films by this point, lost the rights to this particular title) after ownership reverted to star Cary Grant, and it and a few other of his pics (including Indiscreet and Operation Petticoat) were made part of a package offered by National Telefilm Associates (NTA). This new package was snapped up by WABC - which was how the station got back That Touch of Mink after its early 1969 one-time-only-up-to-that-point airing. (The reshuffling also meant that WCBS-TV, which ran Operation Petticoat and Indiscreet for years on The Late Show and its other movie venues, lost the rights to those two titles which, I.I.N.M., had previously been part of packages syndicated by Seven Arts / W-7.)