In the two years prior to 1963, post-1950 releases from Warner Bros. had been marketed for TV syndication in film packages offered by Seven Arts Associated (which, in a fit of irony, later acquired Warners' in 1967). Three different packages each went to a different TV station in New York, as one example - one group was snapped up by WNBC-TV that had films ranging from James Dean's 1955 film East of Eden to Paul Newman's infamous debut in The Silver Chalice; WOR-TV got another group that contained such pictures as The High and the Mighty and the 1954 Judy Garland version of A Star Is Born; and WCBS-TV bought another package that featured such flicks as Mister Roberts and Calamity Jane.
But beginning in 1963, Warners' television division decided to start offering its own packages of different post-1950 films. The first - called "Warner Bros. #1" (per the Nov. 25, 1963 issue of Broadcasting magazine) - consisted of at least 25 pictures, and in New York was acquired by WCBS-TV, which spaced their "New York TV premieres" of these features over the next few years, per their long-standing M.O. (and a few of the "better" titles selected for debuts on their nine-times-a-year, four-commercial-interruption Schaefer Award Theatre presentations). This preceded by a year Warners' release of 100 post-1948 cartoons in a syndicated package that would be snapped up by countless stations across the country (including, in New York, WNEW-TV), some of which already had the pre-1948 'toons originally syndicated by a.a.p. (Associated Artists Productions).
Per Warner Bros. TV's ad in the aforementioned Broadcasting issue, the films in this package included:
- Black Patch
- Cash McCall
- The Crowded Sky
- The Dark at the Top of the Stairs
- The Desert Song (1953)
- The FBI Story
- The Hanging Tree
- Ice Palace
- Look Back in Anger
- Manhunt in the Jungle
- The Miracle
- The Nun's Story
- Pete Kelly's Blues
- Rio Bravo
- The Rise and Fall of "Legs" Diamond
- The Rising of the Moon
- Sergeant Rutledge
- So Big
- The Sundowners
- Tall Story
- –30–
- Up Periscope
- Westbound
- Yellowstone Kelly
- The Young Philadelphians
The following titles as from this package had their debuts on Award Theatre on the following days: The FBI Story - July 3, 1964; Rio Bravo - Sept. 5, 1965; The Nun's Story - Dec. 18, 1965; The Sundowners - Nov. 23, 1966 (the first post-1960 release to be premiered under this prestigious umbrella); and The Hanging Tree - Aug. 5, 1967.
Nowhere was the difference between this film package and the earlier Seven Arts package bought by WCBS evident than when the station began broadcasting color films in color on a regular basis in mid-1965. The FBI Story's debut took place around the same time as other Warners' pictures from the Seven Arts package as The Pajama Game and Auntie Mame. All films were originally made in color, and had their debuts in B&W. When the second runs of these movies occurred in the summer of 1965 on The Late Show, the two Seven Arts-syndicated titles were shown in B&W (apparently, Channel 2 had B&W prints of the films in question back then) . . . but The FBI Story, the second time around, was seen in living color.
As a side note . . . around 1970 or '71, WCBS's rights to this Warners' package expired, and the films then went to WABC-TV, where several select titles were shown on The 4:30 Movie for the next few years after that - notably, Rio Bravo whenever there was a "John Wayne Week," and The Young Philadelphians during various "Paul Newman Weeks."
But beginning in 1963, Warners' television division decided to start offering its own packages of different post-1950 films. The first - called "Warner Bros. #1" (per the Nov. 25, 1963 issue of Broadcasting magazine) - consisted of at least 25 pictures, and in New York was acquired by WCBS-TV, which spaced their "New York TV premieres" of these features over the next few years, per their long-standing M.O. (and a few of the "better" titles selected for debuts on their nine-times-a-year, four-commercial-interruption Schaefer Award Theatre presentations). This preceded by a year Warners' release of 100 post-1948 cartoons in a syndicated package that would be snapped up by countless stations across the country (including, in New York, WNEW-TV), some of which already had the pre-1948 'toons originally syndicated by a.a.p. (Associated Artists Productions).
Per Warner Bros. TV's ad in the aforementioned Broadcasting issue, the films in this package included:
- Black Patch
- Cash McCall
- The Crowded Sky
- The Dark at the Top of the Stairs
- The Desert Song (1953)
- The FBI Story
- The Hanging Tree
- Ice Palace
- Look Back in Anger
- Manhunt in the Jungle
- The Miracle
- The Nun's Story
- Pete Kelly's Blues
- Rio Bravo
- The Rise and Fall of "Legs" Diamond
- The Rising of the Moon
- Sergeant Rutledge
- So Big
- The Sundowners
- Tall Story
- –30–
- Up Periscope
- Westbound
- Yellowstone Kelly
- The Young Philadelphians
The following titles as from this package had their debuts on Award Theatre on the following days: The FBI Story - July 3, 1964; Rio Bravo - Sept. 5, 1965; The Nun's Story - Dec. 18, 1965; The Sundowners - Nov. 23, 1966 (the first post-1960 release to be premiered under this prestigious umbrella); and The Hanging Tree - Aug. 5, 1967.
Nowhere was the difference between this film package and the earlier Seven Arts package bought by WCBS evident than when the station began broadcasting color films in color on a regular basis in mid-1965. The FBI Story's debut took place around the same time as other Warners' pictures from the Seven Arts package as The Pajama Game and Auntie Mame. All films were originally made in color, and had their debuts in B&W. When the second runs of these movies occurred in the summer of 1965 on The Late Show, the two Seven Arts-syndicated titles were shown in B&W (apparently, Channel 2 had B&W prints of the films in question back then) . . . but The FBI Story, the second time around, was seen in living color.
As a side note . . . around 1970 or '71, WCBS's rights to this Warners' package expired, and the films then went to WABC-TV, where several select titles were shown on The 4:30 Movie for the next few years after that - notably, Rio Bravo whenever there was a "John Wayne Week," and The Young Philadelphians during various "Paul Newman Weeks."