TV stations showing movies daily in the afternoon

[Jul]

During the 60s and 70s, I would like to know why did TV stations not the networks aired movies daily in the afternoon like 4 PM, etc.

 

[anoldguy]

Local stations made a lot of money pre-empting the networks in the afternoon to show local movies. The movies were cheap and all the revenue belonged to the local station.

 

[bhayes1016]

Local stations made a lot of money pre-empting the networks in the afternoon to show local movies. The movies were cheap and all the revenue belonged to the local station.

In most cases, it wasn't a pre-emption; the late-afternoon slots belonged (as they still belong) to the affiliates.

 

[Braves2005]

Many of the movies that were shown in the afternoons and sometimes mornings in the 60's and 70's on TV ranged from Ma and Pa Kettle,Francis The Talking Mule,Abbott and Costello,Shirley Temple movies to teenage movies like Beach Blanket Bingo,Palm Springs Weekend,etc to lower budget B movies that contained several actors and actresses before they became famous.

They basically were a format for either not finding any reruns of shows or were shown on a low budget basis by the station itself. Only if you watched the network movies on CBS,ABC,or NBC would you find classic films on TV.

 

[Tim-In-Houston]

Many of the movies that were shown in the afternoons and sometimes mornings in the 60's and 70's on TV ranged from Ma and Pa Kettle,Francis The Talking Mule,Abbott and Costello,Shirley Temple movies to teenage movies like Beach Blanket Bingo,Palm Springs Weekend,etc to lower budget B movies that contained several actors and actresses before they became famous.

They basically were a format for either not finding any reruns of shows or were shown on a low budget basis by the station itself. Only if you watched the network movies on CBS,ABC,or NBC would you find classic films on TV.

In most cases, those movies are still better than the infomercials low-budget stations throw-up now to fill airtime.

 

[Ultimajock]

Many of the movies that were shown in the afternoons and sometimes mornings in the 60's and 70's on TV ranged from Ma and Pa Kettle,Francis The Talking Mule,Abbott and Costello,Shirley Temple movies to teenage movies like Beach Blanket Bingo,Palm Springs Weekend,etc to lower budget B movies that contained several actors and actresses before they became famous.

They basically were a format for either not finding any reruns of shows or were shown on a low budget basis by the station itself. Only if you watched the network movies on CBS,ABC,or NBC would you find classic films on TV.

...they sometimes also served as saleable assets that one station could sell to an interested competitor in the same market. When KFIZ-TV/34 in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, folded in 1972, it was because the owner had been able to sell the co-owned newspaper (the Fond Du Lac Commonwealth Reporter) and radio station, but not Channel 34. KFIZ-TV was considered part of the Green Bay market for purposes of syndication licensing and ratings classification. Between the announcement of its pending suspension and its actually going dark, KFIZ-TV was able to sell its American International movie packages to WFRV-TV/5 in Green Bay for their 3:30 Early Show movie slot...

 

[FreddyE1977]

up until the early 1980's, WKBN-TV 27 in Youngstown, Ohio, a CBS affiliate, actually carried more local movies in their daytime line-up than network programming. They had a mid-day movie that began right after the noon news and ran until around 2:30. Then at 4PM they ran their Money Movie, with live studio breaks where the host would make random calls to give away a jackpot. I think they squeezed in a couple of time-shifted CBS soaps in between the two movies. I remember living atop a hill in the Pittsburgh area where I could get this channel. On days when I was home sick from school, in the pre-cable era there was nothing else on I would have wanted to watch during early afternoons. At the same time, KDKA in Pittsburgh was running a local afternoon talk show, and WTOV-9 in Steubenville, Ohio (for a time also a CBS station) ran an afternoon movie at 4. I think at some point CBS laid down the law to their affiliates about pre-empting the daytime soap line-up.

 

[oldschooler1]

Then WSYR-TV3 in Syracuse ran two movies weekdays for a longtime: "Hollywood Matinee" ran from 1PM- 230PM (which meant, for years, Syracuse did not see "Days of Our Lives"), and then in the seventies also ran "Films at Four" at 4PM. That was a 2-hour movie slot that would show some pretty good movies -- including some epics (like "Sand Pebbles" or "The Longest Day" they'd split up into two days).

Hollywood matinee, being the shorter slot, would show the "crap". Then again, I remember in high school seeing a Marx Brothers movie in that slot -- you never knew what would pop up. It was also part of their "Dialing For Dollars" format. They didnt do "Dialing" at 4PM.

And the thing about movies -- you can cram as many local spots in as you can -- while butchering the movie -- and it ALL goes to the station.

 

[stdjsb25]

Even for a year or so after their switch from CBS affiliate KLMG, Fox affiliate KFXK would run a movie from 1PM-3PM daily.....then they relegated movies to weekends.....