Sunday, June 14, 2009

Welcome To Old Time TV!

Just a quick welcome to everyone who has found this blog. I started it because of my love for old time TV and my dislike for what passes as television today.

When it comes to TV, I'm a product of my time. Quickly, I grew up in the 60's and 70's living in the NY Metro area and my love for TV was immediate and has stayed with me to this day. Seven channels and everything was on! WCBS-TV Channel 2, WNBC-TV Channel 4, WNEW-TV Channel 5, WABC-TV Channel 7, WOR-TV Channel 9, WPIX-TV Channel 11 and WNET-TV Channel 13.

More to the point of this blog is my love and adoration of the movies that appeared on the above mentioned channels and the movie showcases that presented them. Remember THE LATE SHOW on channel 2? THE 4:30 MOVIE on channel 7? FRIGHT NIGHT on channel 9? Well, you get the picture. Those days may be gone and it's a shame but they are not forgotten. That is what this blog will celebrate. As time goes on, I'll post about various movie showcase programs from that era and the movies I saw on them and remember to this day. Hopefully, as I learn the ropes, I'll post some videos and pictures as the days pass. I hope everyone who remembers will comment and although this blog celebrates stations from the NY Metro area, I'll always welcome those folks who have similar memories from whatever part of the country you are from. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy.

19 comments:

  1. Channel 4 had its fair share of movie shows - "Movie 4," "Midnight Movie," "The Great Great Show," "Festival of Thrillers" (their stab at a horror-movie series, that only lasted as long as they had rights to the 1930's/'40's Universal Horror library - 1965-68), "Saturday/Sunday Film Festival" - yet despite the impressive array of films they showed (including a good amount of prestigious foreign movies such as "8-1/2," "Boccaccio '70" and "Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow"), these are long-forgotten compared with the other stations' efforts. Perhaps by the time of the VCR, Channel 4's movies were limited solely to late nights and weekend afternoons (folded, by 1978, into the "Cinema 4" banner), with an increasingly inferior array of films, the itinerary of which hearkened back to the pre-1956 status quo, before the Hollywood studios opened up their vaults to TV stations.

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  2. WNBC-TV's SUNDAY FILM FESTIVAL is one I well remember. Saw many a decent film on late Sunday nights thanks to the program. Many foreign movies as you mentioned as well as a lot of the "Carry On" films. An important part of NY movie/TV history.

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  3. Yep, "Sunday Film Festival." Debuted as the "Saturday Film Festival" in 1966, then a year later switched nights with weekend Carson repeats. In its last few years, the program was preempted once every three weeks for one-off specials such as those by Sammy Davis, Jr. (not to be confused with his "Sammy & Company" talk show that premiered in 1975) and The 5th Dimension - also a repeat of Sonny & Cher's "Nitty Gritty Hour" that had been aired on WCBS-TV in 1971. The "Sunday Film Festival" left the air March 3, 1974 - more than a month before "Movie 4's" demise. It was replaced by "My Partner the Ghost" (re-titled from the original "Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)").

    The "Carry On's" were also seen on "The Great Great Show" - I presume its ribald humor was considered not so suitable for airing on "Movie 4."

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  4. Great information once again. Thanks for contributing.

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  5. Hi! I was born in 1964 and I am desperately trying to recall info about the movies that were on channel 5 on Saturday afternoon. I remember titles like the beast under the stairs, or some such thing...but what was the deal with that? Does anyone remember? Thanks - Allison

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  6. Does anyone remember "Picture For A Sunday Afternoon?" I can't remember the channel or time slot, but it was in NY and I tend to think it was channel 5 but I'm not sure.

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    1. If I remember correctly - the intermission spot had a picture of a sun with a face and had "The Syncopated Clock" as the theme song. Ring a bell?

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    2. Correction - the "Picture For A Sunday Afternoon" did not have the Syncopated Clock as a theme song but I think it did have the sun face.

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    3. Picture For A Sunday Afternoon was shown at 1pm Sunday it was Channel 2 in NY...I can still here the theme song in my head. (it was NOT the syncopated clock. Does anyone remember the name of that theme song?

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  7. "A Picture For A Sunday Afternoon" was aired on WCBS TV CH2. It usually came on before or after a sporting event. there was not a fixed time.

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    1. As I remember, this show came on Sunday afternoon at 1:00 or 2:00 PM. That was in the '50s. During the '60s the varying schedule began. I think it went off before the Early Show became the Mike Douglas Show in the '70s.

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  8. Picture For A Sunday Afternoon played on WCBS at noon in the late 50s; by the early 60s channel 2 played a Sunday 1:00 film, excepting sports pre-emptions, til the late 70s. Depending on the athletic season, there could be a later Sunday afternoon movie as well, at 3 or 4. The Early Show ended March 1968 when the Mike Douglas Show was given the 4:30 slot. The Saturday Early Show succumbed to sports in 68 as well.

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  9. To clarify: the Sunday 1:00 film could be moved up as well as down in the schedule to accommodate sports in the 50s.

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  10. A Picture for a Sunday Afternnoon was on CBS and I recall watching it before my family moved from East Meadow in 1962. I watched movies with my mother probably as early as 1957. Most of the films were from the 1930s and 40s. I have clear memories of Errol Flynn and Tyrone Power jr.

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  11. A Picture for a Sunday Afternnoon was on CBS and I recall watching it before my family moved from East Meadow in 1962. I watched movies with my mother probably as early as 1957. Most of the films were from the 1930s and 40s. I have clear memories of Errol Flynn and Tyrone Power jr.

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  12. anyone remember the airing of a Christmas movie, called "The Story of Silent Night?" It was one of the Rheingold features and was a short film about how the song Silent Night was written. A few of us have tried to find a copy of it, but never have. Any help?

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  13. supernatural theatre, was on wor channel 9. where is the intro to this great horror movie show? used to watch when I was a kid along with chiller theatre.

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  14. A music teacher told me the theme used on "Picture for a Sunday Afternoon" was "Night on Bald Mountain" by Mussorgsky.

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  15. I saw a movie on Picture for a Sunday afternoon . Likely in the early 60's. Possibly late 50's. It played back to back on one afternoon. Opening seen is man and a women poling down a river on a raft or boat. Movie goes on to trace the history of the family through at least the 1929 stock crash. What is the movie?

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