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Question on Local TV Airings of "Magical Mystery Tour" Movie

W

wbhist

This is based on FuzzyMemories' (The Museum of Classic Chicago Television) having put up the opening, commercial breaks, and close of The Beatles' 1967 made-for-British TV movie Magical Mystery Tour on WSNS-TV (Channel 44) in Chicago as aired in the early morning hours of May 25, 1980. According to IMDb, the U.S. distributor as of 1973 was New Line Cinema (which also handled the late '70's re-release of the original 1968 Night of the Living Dead), and the original VHS release, in 1981, was distributed by Media Home Entertainment. The question is this: Which other U.S. TV stations aired MMT in the late 1970's/early-mid '80's period? I'm wagering that, like with WSNS' airing, it was in the late-night hours.
 
I recall WTOG in Tampa Bay airing the film sometime in the mid-to-late 1980s, but as an "8 O'Clock Movie" -- due to the film's shortness (60 minutes with commercials), I think they ran an old rerun of a 60-minute series afterward.
 
wbhist said:
This is based on FuzzyMemories' (The Museum of Classic Chicago Television) having put up the opening, commercial breaks, and close of The Beatles' 1967 made-for-British TV movie Magical Mystery Tour on WSNS-TV (Channel 44) in Chicago as aired in the early morning hours of May 25, 1980. According to IMDb, the U.S. distributor as of 1973 was New Line Cinema (which also handled the late '70's re-release of the original 1968 Night of the Living Dead), and the original VHS release, in 1981, was distributed by Media Home Entertainment. The question is this: Which other U.S. TV stations aired MMT in the late 1970's/early-mid '80's period? I'm wagering that, like with WSNS' airing, it was in the late-night hours.
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I have a copy of a Channel 44 airing of MMT on VHS. Mine is from sometime in early 1981 (I forget the exact date), and IIRC it ran at 7 AM and was one of the last unscrambled programs on WSNS-TV before switching to ON-TV 24/7.
 
Wasn't it originally aired on the BBC in black and white? Which partly explains its lack of popularity. The DVD claims to have extra (deleted?) scenes or something, but other than some extra credits, I can't recall any "extras" on the DVD.
 
firepoint525 said:
Wasn't it originally aired on the BBC in black and white? Which partly explains its lack of popularity. The DVD claims to have extra (deleted?) scenes or something, but other than some extra credits, I can't recall any "extras" on the DVD.
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'Twas (on BBC1, which didn't go colour until Nov. 15, 1969) . . . then a few months later, on BBC2 in colour. I was referring specifically to local U.S. airings of the flick.
 
...I don't recall the exact date, but I first saw Magical Mystery Tour over WPNE-TV/38 Green Bay when Wisconsin Public Television aired it in tandem with another Beatle film, IIRC The Beatles at Shea Stadium. I'm under the general impression it was around the same time in '80 that WSNS ran it (and maybe even used the same source print). (I also recall Magical Mystery Tour popping up on USA Cable's early '80s overnight rock music package Night Flight along with The Beatles at Shea Stadium and The Day the Music Died, the latter being a padded documentary/drama featuring footage from the abortive Randall's Island Rock Festival in 1970 around new material of Murray the K hyping the festival over a radio show)...
 
Laura151 said:
I saw it one time late at night on a UHF channel that was in Fort Lauderdale at the time-Channel 51.
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The Channel 51 you're referring to is today Spanish-language WSCV-TV, a Telemundo O&O still licensed to Fort Lauderdale but now serving the whole Miami-Ft. Lauderdale metro region.

As for the movie, I think it most likely aired during the time they were known as WKID-TV, probably before or after they became an affiliate of the ONTV broadcast pay tv service.
 
Channel 8 WTNH in New Haven, CT ran MMT at 6AM one Sunday morning back in the summer of '79. It was at the tail end of their Saturday Night overnight movie block, and was the first time I saw it! Also had my first viewings of "Hard Day's Night" & "Help" on their 4 PM weekday afternoon movie in 1972.
Excluding a showing of MMT in the 80s on the USA Network's "Night Flight", this was the only time I ever saw MMT on television.
 
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