When NBC premiered NBC Saturday Night at the Movies in September 1961, it was the first regularly scheduled network movie night to feature post-1948 films.
In February 1963 the network added a second movie night as a mid-season replacement for its failed Monday line-up of It’s a Man’s World and Saints and Sinners. A total of 16 films, most of them in color, were broadcast during the first season of NBC Monday Night at the Movies, followed by 15 weeks of repeats and one pre-emption.
Season 1: 1963 | |||
---|---|---|---|
Ep. # | Title | Airdate | Format |
1. | The Enemy Below | 02/04/1963 | Color |
2. | The Bravados | 02/11/1963 | Color |
3. | Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison | 02/18/1963 | Color |
4. | King of the Khyber Rifles | 02/25/1963 | Color |
5. | Hell and High Water | 03/04/1963 | Color |
6. | Prince Valiant | 03/11/1963 | Color |
7. | Boy on a Dolphin | 03/18/1963 | Color |
8. | From Hell to Texas | 03/25/1963 | Color |
9. | My Cousin Rachel | 04/01/1963 | B&W |
10. | April Love | 04/08/1963 | Color |
11. | An Affair to Remember | 04/15/1963 | Color |
12. | The Barbarian and the Geisha | 04/22/1963 | Color |
13. | The Hunters | 04/29/1963 | Color |
14. | Harry Black and the Tiger | 05/06/1963 | Color |
15. | The Mudlark | 05/13/1963 | B&W |
16. | Mardi Gras | 05/20/1963 | Color |
*Summer Repeats Begin* | |||
REP | The Enemy Below | 05/27/1963 | Color |
REP | The Bravados | 06/03/1963 | Color |
REP | Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison | 06/10/1963 | Color |
REP | King of the Khyber Rifles | 06/17/1963 | Color |
REP | From Hell to Texas | 06/24/1963 | Color |
REP | Hell and High Water | 07/01/1963 | Color |
REP | Boy on a Dolphin | 07/08/1963 | Color |
REP | An Affair to Remember | 07/15/1963 | Color |
REP | The Barbarian and the Geisha | 07/22/1963 | Color |
REP | Prince Valiant | 07/29/1963 | Color |
REP | My Cousin Rachel | 08/05/1963 | B&W |
REP | April Love | 08/12/1963 | Color |
REP | The Hunters | 08/19/1963 | Color |
REP | Mardi Gras | 08/26/1963 | Color |
PRE-EMPTED: “American Revolution of ’63” | 09/02/1963 | N/A | |
REP | Harry Black and the Tiger | 09/09/1963 | Color |
NBC Monday Night at the Movie returned for the 1963-1964 season before shifting to Wednesdays in September 1964.
Again, as on Saturday night, the network turned to 20th Century-Fox for another “package” of vintage theatrical films, mostly from the ’50s (some of them originally in “CinemaScope”, panned and scanned for “full frame” broadcasts). The Monday night edition [7:30-9:30pm(et)] was successful enough to withstand CBS’ powerhouse lineup of “TO TELL THE TRUTH”, “I’VE GOT A SECRET”, “THE LUCY SHOW” and “THE DANNY THOMAS SHOW”, and continued into the fall of ’63…
In addition, I.I.N.M., 20th Century Fox syndicated this package under the banner “Century II” for local TV stations after NBC’s run with them was over; in New York, these pictures (along with the initial crop from Season 1 of “SNATM” as bundled under “Century I” and a first-run package syndicated by Seven Arts which featured such titles as “The Fly” and “Love Me Tender”) ran for years on the various movie shows of WABC-TV (Channel 7).
That’s right, ‘W.B.’- New York’s Channel 7 had the “Century I” and “II” packages in their film library through the mid-’80s, usually appearing on “THE 4:30 MOVIE”, “LATE MOVIE”, and their “SATURDAY/SUNDAY NIGHT MOVIE”.
“The Fly” was originally part of 20th Century-Fox’s movie package deal with NBC in 1961/62, but the film was rejected by the network because of unsavory horror content (this noteworthy decision is covered in a TV GUIDE article of the period). As a result, Fox’s less-satisfying sequel “Return of the Fly” was part of a WB/7 Arts syndication package at least two years before the original “Fly” was dumped into the Century II syndie group (along with “Horror of Dracula,” no longer a Universal-International property but a WB-owned gem). It’s funny to think of “The Fly” as a golden-age Saturday Night at the Movies offering a la “The Day the Earth Stood Still,” but that was Fox’s original plan…
Wow….I’ve always had a very early memory of the opening titles of Boy On A Dolphin, and wondered when I would have experienced than, and it seems it was July 8th, 1963…I would turn 6 on 18 August…man, that’s amazing to know I have a memory from being 5….