NBC Saturday Night at the Movies was the first regularly scheduled network movie night to feature post-1948 films when it premiered in September 1961. The movies were broadcast uncut and unedited and longer films that would not fit in the regular 9-11PM time slot were allowed to run past 11PM.
The third season premiered on September 21st, 1963 and ended on September 26th, 1964. It included 30 films and 23 summer repeats, several of which were films that had originally aired as installments of NBC Monday Night at the Movies.
Due to coverage of President Kennedy’s assassination, the November 23rd, 1963 broadcast was pre-empted. Imitation General was due to air that evening; it eventually aired in January 1964.
Season 3: 1963-1964 | |||
---|---|---|---|
Ep. # | Title | Airdate | Format |
61. | The Seven Year Itch | 09/21/1963 | Color |
62. | The Journey | 09/28/1963 | Color |
63. | Ask Any Girl | 10/05/1963 | Color |
64. | The Asphalt Jungle | 10/12/1963 | B&W |
65. | The Tall Men | 10/19/1963 | Color |
66. | Something of Value | 10/26/1963 | B&W |
67. | Let’s Make Love | 11/02/1963 | Color |
68. | The Diary of Anne Frank | 11/09/1963 | B&W |
69. | Untamed | 11/16/1963 | Color |
PRE-EMPTED: Coverage of President Kennedy’s Funeral | 11/23/1963 | ||
70. | Count Your Blessings | 11/30/1963 | Color |
71. | The Left Hand of God | 12/07/1963 | Color |
72. | The Opposite Sex | 12/14/1963 | Color |
73. | A Man Called Peter | 12/21/1963 | Color |
74. | The Secret Partner | 12/28/1963 | B&W |
75. | Daddy Long Legs | 01/04/1964 | Color |
76. | Imitation General | 01/11/1964 | B&W |
77. | The Naked Spur | 01/18/1964 | Color |
78. | Until They Sail | 01/25/1964 | B&W |
79. | Lust for Life | 02/01/1964 | Color |
80. | The Band Wagon | 02/08/1964 | Color |
81. | Edge of the City | 02/15/1964 | B&W |
82. | The Story of Three Loves | 02/22/1964 | Color |
83. | Violent Saturday | 02/29/1964 | Color |
84. | Rally Round the Flag, Boys! | 03/07/1964 | Color |
85. | Black Widow | 03/14/1964 | Color |
86. | Man on Fire | 03/21/1964 | B&W |
87. | Wild River | 03/28/1964 | Color |
88. | Fourteen Hours | 04/04/1964 | B&W |
89. | The Vintage | 04/11/1964 | Color |
90. | Girl in the Red Velvet Swing | 04/18/1964 | Color |
*Summer Repeats Begin* | |||
REP | The Reluctant Debutante* | 04/25/1964 | Color |
REP | The Seven Year Itch | 05/02/1964 | Color |
REP | Executive Suite* | 05/09/1964 | B&W |
REP | Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing* | 05/16/1964 | Color |
REP | Untamed | 05/23/1964 | Color |
REP | Something of Value | 05/30/1964 | B&W |
REP | The Opposite Sex | 06/06/1964 | Color |
REP | The Asphalt Jungle | 06/13/1964 | B&W |
REP | The Left Hand of God | 06/20/1964 | Color |
REP | Lust for Life | 06/27/1964 | Color |
REP | Let’s Make Love | 07/04/1964 | Color |
REP | Edge of the City | 07/11/1964 | B&W |
REP | View from Pompey’s Head* | 07/18/1964 | Color |
REP | Until They Sail | 07/25/1964 | B&W |
REP | A Man Called Peter | 08/01/1964 | Color |
REP | Rains of Ranciphur | 08/08/1964 | Color |
REP | The Journey | 08/15/1964 | Color |
REP | Rally Round the Flag, Boys | 08/22/1964 | Color |
REP | Wild River | 08/29/1964 | Color |
REP | Naked Spur | 09/05/1964 | Color |
REP | Diary of Anne Frank | 09/12/1964 | B&W |
REP | The Mating Game* | 09/19/1964 | Color |
REP | The Tall Men | 09/26/1964 | Color |
*Originally aired as installments of NBC Monday Night at the Movies
NBC Saturday Night at the Movie remained on the air until September 1978. It has reappeared sporadically ever since.
This was the first season when more than one studio’s “cache” of post-1949 films was featured on NBC’s movie nights. As previously noted, once 20th Century-Fox started making money by leasing several of their more recent films to the network, MGM was the next studio to “take the plunge”, and allow some of their ’50s “classics” [“Executive Suite”, “The Opposite Sex”, “The Asphalt Jungle”, “The Band Wagon”, et. al.] to be shown on NBC. MCA/Universal would take an even bigger step in the fall of 1964 by producing three original feature-length movies {under the “Project 120” banner} for the Saturday movie night [however, the first one, a remake of 1946’s “The Killers”, was deemed “too violent” by NBC, and that was given a theatrical release instead].
“Edge of the City” {February 15, 1964} was a sort of “return engagement”; this 1957 MGM film had its origin as Robert Alan Aurthur’s “A Man Is Ten Feet Tall”, the last scheduled episode of NBC’s “PHILCO TELEVISION PLAYHOUSE” on October 2, 1955 [a kinescope exists]; Sidney Poitier repeated his acclaimed TV role, but Don Murray’s part was played by John Cassavettes in the movie.
The bulk of the 20th Century-Fox films shown this season (if not all of them) wound up by the mid-to-late 1960’s on WABC-TV (Channel 7) in New York after the studio syndicated them following the expiration of NBC’s rights. The Marilyn Monroe film “Let’s Make Love,” for example, was featured in some “Marilyn Monroe Weeks” on “The 4:30 Movie” in the early and mid-1970’s.
Meanwhile, the films from MGM were later scattered amongst two syndicated packages offered by the studio: “MGM/6” (90 films, combo off-network and first-run, the most famous, or infamous, in the latter category being “Lolita”; first made available late 1965 and in New York snapped up by WABC) and “MGM/7” (145 films, ditto; first made available in 1968; in NYC, split between WNBC-TV [Channel 4] and WOR-TV [Channel 9]).
Of the MGM titles that aired this season on “SNATM,” the following were made part of the MGM/6 package: “The Asphalt Jungle,” “Executive Suite,” “Imitation General,” “Lust for Life,” “The Mating Game,” “Something of Value,” and “Until They Sail.” Those that were later among MGM/7 were: “The Band Wagon,” “Count Your Blessings,” “Man on Fire,” “The Naked Spur,” “The Opposite Sex,” “The Secret Partner,” “The Vintage,” “Ask Any Girl,” “Edge of the City,” “The Journey,” “The Reluctant Debutante,” and “The Story of Three Loves” (the first seven going to WNBC, the last five to WOR).
I appreciate your pointing out those “packages”, W.B. Not only did those studios make money leasing those films to NBC, they also cleaned up by parceling them to local stations after their network runs. And to think those very studios were so adamant about TV, when those films were originally released….
“N.B.C. Saturday Night At The Movies” even played Martin & Lewis’ “Jumping Jacks” I think in the 1966-67 season.
“Jumping Jacks” (1952) Premiered on Monday January 06, 1969, repeated Saturday July 12, 1969,
Anyone have the NBC premiere broadcast date for Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis’s “Living It Up†(1954), I have the Tuesday May 09, 1967 repeat telecast date.
Very interesting log to look at! a look back to the early 1960’s,saw many of these movies when originally aired on NBC Saturday Night at the Movies especially,August 4,1962 repeat of: THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL,that i vividly remember watching during summer school vacation,wrote down in my 1962 diary. I would hope you would information on more seasons in a future date! Thank you very much for information presently listed!
LIVING IT UP original air date was Sep.13/1966 with 19.2HH/35% rating (May encore rating was 19.8HH/34%).
Thank you,DuMont so much for the “Living It Up” info.
Interesting that THE BAND WAGON debuted the weekend young America was climbing on another band wagon…Beatlemania.