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| NBC Saturday Night at the Movies |
Back for a fifth season, NBC Saturday Night at the Movies comes out swinging with several titles that are still well thought of today. Unlike Tuesday night's selection, Saturday was for prestige movies as well as some other miscellaneous titles that covers several genres, especially musicals and comedies.
Like last season, the movies come from the MGM and Paramount vaults, and include such titles as A Place in the Sun and Vertigo and Billy Wilder classics Stalag 17, Ace in the Hole, and Sunset Boulevard. While there aren't many high-tier musicals and comedies, the stars include Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnez, Bob Hope, and Danny Kaye.
And like previous seasons, many of the 30 total movies ran over the allotted two-hour timeslot and 11 are black and white.
Like last season, the movies come from the MGM and Paramount vaults, and include such titles as A Place in the Sun and Vertigo and Billy Wilder classics Stalag 17, Ace in the Hole, and Sunset Boulevard. While there aren't many high-tier musicals and comedies, the stars include Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnez, Bob Hope, and Danny Kaye.
And like previous seasons, many of the 30 total movies ran over the allotted two-hour timeslot and 11 are black and white.
Programmer's Corner: For the first time since 1956, NBC had a hit Saturday night lineup. Newcomers I Dream of Jeannie and Get Smart really struck a chord, lifting the network above both CBS and ABC whose once powerful veterans were showing age. NBC Saturday Night at the Movies was the weak link, but it's slow-but-steady eating into Gunsmoke had almost put it out of the top 30 — just 5 years ago, it was the #1 show and CBS dominated the night. The Eye's newcomers The Trials of O'Brien and The Loner didn't match up. Midseason, the network brought back British import Secret Agent (aka Danger Man) for another run of episodes. The Lawrence Welk Show remained a steady and strong performer for ABC, which had a complete Saturday fall lineup in color. Welk's and the band's outfits, now in living color! CBS' lineup was still in black and white.
NBC SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE MOVIES, 1965–66
Regular season
18 Sep 1965: Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957, 2 hours 30 minutes)
Lawman Wyatt Earp and outlaw Doc Holliday form an unlikely alliance which culminates in their participation in the legendary Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. (Western / Color, Paramount)
Director: John Sturges; with Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, Rhonda Fleming, Jo Van Fleet, John Ireland
More: Wikipedia, Rotten Tomatoes, Letterboxd
Programming Note: This was premiere night for Saturday shows on all 3 networks. (This season was also the first time all three networks had the same premiere week.)
Ratings Report: In Arbitron's overnights, Gunfight (18.6) didn't beat Lawrence Welk (19.0), but it had a comfortable lead over everything else, including Gunsmoke.
Programming Note: This was premiere night for Saturday shows on all 3 networks. (This season was also the first time all three networks had the same premiere week.)
Ratings Report: In Arbitron's overnights, Gunfight (18.6) didn't beat Lawrence Welk (19.0), but it had a comfortable lead over everything else, including Gunsmoke.
25 Sep 1965: The Time Machine (1960, 2 hours)
A Victorian Englishman travels to the far future and finds that humanity has divided into two hostile species. (Science Fiction Adventure / Color, MGM)
Director: George Pal; with Rod Taylor, Alan Young, Yvette Mimieux, Sebastian Cabot, Whit Bissell
More: Wikipedia, Rotten Tomatoes, Letterboxd
Ratings Report: In Arbitron's overnights, The Time Machine had fairly steady at a 20.0 rating through its two hours, which was also a comfortable lead over all the competitors.
Ratings Report: In Arbitron's overnights, The Time Machine had fairly steady at a 20.0 rating through its two hours, which was also a comfortable lead over all the competitors.
2 Oct 1965: Sunset Boulevard (1950, 2 hours 15 minutes)
A hack screenwriter writes a screenplay for a former silent film star who has faded into Hollywood obscurity. (Film Noir / Black & White, Paramount)
Director: Billy Wilder; with William Holden, Gloria Swanson, Erich von Stroheim
More: Wikipedia, Rotten Tomatoes, Letterboxd
Ratings Report: According to Nielsen, Sunset ranked #15 for the week, just behind Gunsmoke (#12) but ahead of Lawrence Welk (#28). It's lead-ins were gangbusters (Flipper, #40; Jeannie, #8; Get Smart, #2). According to Arbitron's overnights, Sunset started strong (18.4), but dropped down to 14.6 before a small rebound to 16.7.
Ratings Report: According to Nielsen, Sunset ranked #15 for the week, just behind Gunsmoke (#12) but ahead of Lawrence Welk (#28). It's lead-ins were gangbusters (Flipper, #40; Jeannie, #8; Get Smart, #2). According to Arbitron's overnights, Sunset started strong (18.4), but dropped down to 14.6 before a small rebound to 16.7.
9 Oct 1965: The Honeymoon Machine (1961, 2 hours)
Lieutenant Fergie Howard, Ensign Beau Gilliam and navy scientist Jason Elderidge use their ships computer, designed to calculate missile trajectories, to calculate a roulette ball’s trajectory and hit the Venice Casino. Things get complex when Admiral Fitch arrives at the same Casino. (Romantic Comedy / Color, MGM)
Director: Richard Thorpe; with Steve McQueen, Brigid Bazlen, Jim Hutton, Paula Prentiss
16 Oct 1965: Boys' Night Out (1962, 2 hours 15 minutes)
Fred, George, Doug, and Howie are reaching middle-age, and they want something different in their lives. In secret, they get themselves an apartment with a beautiful young woman, Kathy, for romantic rendezvous. But Kathy is also a sociology student researching the sexual life of the white middle-class male. (Comedy / Color, MGM)
Director: Michael Gordon; with Kim Novak, James Garner, Tony Randall, Howard Duff, Howard Morris
23 Oct 1965: Stalag 17 (1953, 2 hours 30 minutes)
It's a dreary Christmas 1944 for the American POWs in Stalag 17 and the men in Barracks 4, all sergeants, have to deal with a grave problem — there seems to be a security leak. (War Drama-Comedy / Black & White, Paramount)
Director: Billy Wilder; with William Holden, Don Taylor, Otto Preminger
Ratings Report: Averaging Stalag and Boy's Night, the Saturday movie ranked #8 in the two-week span on Nielsen's chart. Get Smart was #7. Lawrence Welk was #33.
30 Oct 1965: Merry Andrew (1958, 2 hours)
Downtrodden but creative English school-teacher on archeological trip discovers joys of love and circus life with acrobat. (Romantic Comedy Musical / Color, MGM)
Downtrodden but creative English school-teacher on archeological trip discovers joys of love and circus life with acrobat. (Romantic Comedy Musical / Color, MGM)
Director: Michael Kidd; with Danny Kaye, Pier Angeli
6 Nov 1965: The Desperate Hours (1955, 2 hours 15 minutes)
Escaped convicts terrorize a suburban family they're holding hostage. (Film Noir / Black & White, Paramount)
Escaped convicts terrorize a suburban family they're holding hostage. (Film Noir / Black & White, Paramount)
Director: William Wyler; with Humphrey Bogart, Fredric March, Arthur Kennedy
Ratings Report: Averaging Desperate and Merry Andrew, the Saturday movie didn't make the Nielsen top 40. Lawrence Welk was #21 and Gunsmoke right behind at #22. Get Smart was #16.
13 Nov 1965: Vertigo (1958, 2 hours 30 minutes)
A retired San Francisco detective suffering from acrophobia investigates the strange activities of an old friend's wife, all the while becoming dangerously obsessed with her. (Romantic Thriller / Color, Paramount)
A retired San Francisco detective suffering from acrophobia investigates the strange activities of an old friend's wife, all the while becoming dangerously obsessed with her. (Romantic Thriller / Color, Paramount)
Director: Alfred Hitchcock; with James Stewart, Kim Novak, Barbara Bel Geddes
20 Nov 1965: Please Don't Eat the Daisies (1960, 2 hours 15 minutes)
A university professor leaves his job to become a theater critic, creating problems with his family and friends. (Comedy / Color, MGM)
Director: Charles Walters; with Pat Crowley, Mark Miller, Kim Tyler
More: Wikipedia, Rotten Tomatoes, Letterboxd
Programming Note: The TV adaptation of Please Don't Eat the Daisies premiered this season in the Tuesday lineup.
Programming Note: The TV adaptation of Please Don't Eat the Daisies premiered this season in the Tuesday lineup.
Ratings Report: Averaging Daisies and Vertigo, the Saturday Movie ranked #24 (22.9). Lawrence Welk was #20 (23.4), while Get Smart was #8 (25.2).
27 Nov 1965: The Long, Long Trailer (1953, 2 hours)
A newly wed couple, Tacy and Nicky, travel in a trailer for their honeymoon. The journey is a humorous one that could end up destroying their marriage. (Romantic Comedy / Color, MGM)
A newly wed couple, Tacy and Nicky, travel in a trailer for their honeymoon. The journey is a humorous one that could end up destroying their marriage. (Romantic Comedy / Color, MGM)
Director: Vincente Minnelli; with Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz
4 Dec 1965: Ace in the Hole (retitled The Big Carnival) (1951, 2 hours 15 minutes)
A frustrated former big-city journalist now stuck working for an Albuquerque newspaper exploits a story about a man trapped in a cave to revitalize his career, but the situation quickly escalates into an out-of-control media circus. (Film Noir / Black & White, Paramount)
A frustrated former big-city journalist now stuck working for an Albuquerque newspaper exploits a story about a man trapped in a cave to revitalize his career, but the situation quickly escalates into an out-of-control media circus. (Film Noir / Black & White, Paramount)
Director: Billy Wilder; with Kirk Douglas, Jan Sterling, Robert Arthur
11 Dec 1965: Bells Are Ringing (1960, 2 hours 30 minutes)
A Brooklyn answering service operator becomes involved in the lives of her clients, including a struggling playwright with whom she begins to fall in love. (Romantic Comedy Musical / Color, MGM)
A Brooklyn answering service operator becomes involved in the lives of her clients, including a struggling playwright with whom she begins to fall in love. (Romantic Comedy Musical / Color, MGM)
Director: Vincente Minnelli; with Judy Holliday, Dean Martin, Fred Clark
18 Dec 1965: A Ticklish Affair (1963, 2 hours)
When the kids of a young widow inadvertently send an SOS while playing with their uncle Cy's Navy Signal Lamp, the Navy sends their top man to investigate and he falls for their mother. (Romantic Comedy / Color, MGM)
Director: George Sidney; with Shirley Jones, Gig Young, Red Buttons
25 Dec 1965: Here Comes the Groom (1951, 2 hours 15 minutes)
Foreign correspondent Pete Garvey has 5 days to win back his former fiancée, or he'll lose the orphans he adopted. (Romantic Comedy Musical / Black & White, Paramount)
Director: Frank Capra; with Bing Crosby, Jane Wyman, Alexis Smith
1 Jan 1966: 1966 Rose Bowl
The UCLA Bruins upset the undefeated Michigan State Spartans 14-10.
8 Jan 1966: Westward the Women (1951, 2 hours 15 minutes)
A trail guide escorts a group of women from Chicago to California to marry men that have recently began settling there. (Western / Black & White, MGM)
Director: William A. Wellman; with Robert Taylor, Denise Darcel, Hope Emerson, John McIntire
15 Jan 1966: The Gazebo (1959, 2 hours)
TV writer Elliott Nash buries a blackmailer under the new gazebo in his suburban backyard. But the nervous man can't let the body rest there. (Comedy / Black & White, MGM)
Director: George Marshall; with Glenn Ford, Debbie Reynolds, Carl Reiner
22 Jan 1966: You're Never Too Young (1955, 2 hours)
When an aspiring barber becomes inadvertently involved in the theft of a valuable diamond, necessity forces him to masquerade as a 12 year-old child – with humorous consequences. (Musical Comedy / Color, Paramount)
Director: Norman Taurog; with Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Diana Lynn
29 Jan 1966: Arrowhead (1953, 2 hours)
Chief of Scouts Ed Bannon works for the US Army at Fort Clark, Texas and he dreams of aiding in bringing peace to the region, despite opposition from both the Army and the Apaches. (Western / Color, Paramount)
Director: Charles Marquis Warren; with Charlton Heston, Jack Palance, Katy Jurado
5 Feb 1966: Bridge to the Sun (1961, 2 hours 15 minutes)
Tells the true story of Gwen Terasaki, who falls in love with, then marries a Japanese diplomat. When war breaks out they find animosity and trouble from both sides. (Romance / Black & White, MGM)
Director: Etienne Périer; with Carroll Baker, James Shigeta
12 Feb 1966: Maracaibo (1958, 2 hours)
A firefighter is sent to Venezuela to battle a blazing oil well but still finds time for romance. (Adventure / Color, Paramount)
Director: Cornel Wilde; with Cornel Wilde, Jean Wallace
19 Feb 1966: Meet Me in Las Vegas (1956, 2 hours 15 minutes)
Chuck Redwell is a gambling cowboy who discovers that he's lucky at the roulette wheel if he holds hands with dancer Marie. However, Marie doesn't like to hold hands with him, at least not in the beginning. (Musical Comedy / Color, MGM)
Director: Roy Rowland; with Dan Dailey, Cyd Charisse, Agnes Moorehead
More: Wikipedia, Rotten Tomatoes, Letterboxd
More: Wikipedia, Rotten Tomatoes, Letterboxd
26 Feb 1966: My Favorite Spy (1951, 2 hours)
A burlesque comic doubles for a spy in Tangier and meets the spy's girlfriend, who is also a spy. (Comedy / Black & White, Paramount)
Director: Norman Z. McLeod; with Bob Hope, Hedy Lamarr
5 Mar 1966: The Five Pennies (1959, 2 hours 15 minutes)
Country boy Loring "Red" Nichols goes to New York in the 1920s full of musical ambition, but quits to pursue his dream of playing Dixieland jazz. He forms the Five Pennies which features his wife, Bobbie, as vocalist. (Drama / Color, Paramount)
Director: Melville Shavelson; with Danny Kaye, Barbara Bel Geddes, Louis Armstrong
12 Mar 1966: A Place in the Sun (1951, 2 hours 30 minutes)
A poor boy gets a job working for his rich uncle and ends up falling in love with two women. (Romantic Drama / Black & White, Paramount)
Director: George Stevens; with Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor, Shelley Winters
More: Wikipedia, Rotten Tomatoes, Letterboxd
Programming Note: This movie didn't air without trouble. George Stevens tried to prevent the broadcast, arguing in the courts that the insertion of commercials would destroy its artistic quality.
Programming Note: This movie didn't air without trouble. George Stevens tried to prevent the broadcast, arguing in the courts that the insertion of commercials would destroy its artistic quality.
19 Mar 1966: Ten Thousand Bedrooms (1957, 2 hours 15 minutes)
In this musical-comedy, an American hotel mogul who becomes smitten with a young Italian woman when buying a hotel in Rome. To marry this gal, he has to get her three older sisters married off. (Romantic Comedy / Color, MGM)
Director: Richard Thorpe; with Dean Martin, Anna Maria Alberghetti, Eva Bartok
26 Mar 1966: Where the Boys Are (1960, 2 hours)
Good girls Merritt, Melanie, Tuggle, and Angie – all students at mid-western Penmore University – are planning on going to Fort Lauderdale, Florida for spring break to get away from the mid-western snow despite not having much money to spend once there. On the drive down, they admit their real purpose is to go where the boys are. (Comedy / Color, MGM)
Director: Henry Levin; with Dolores Hart, George Hamilton, Yvette Mimieux, Jim Hutton
More: Wikipedia, Rotten Tomatoes, Letterboxd
Programmer's Note: I Dream of Jeannie and Get Smart were preempted for America's Junior Miss 1966.
Programmer's Note: I Dream of Jeannie and Get Smart were preempted for America's Junior Miss 1966.
2 Apr 1966: Off Limits (1953, 2 hours)
Wally Hogan has things going his way. He is the manager-trainer of Bullet Bradley, a fighter who has just won the lightweight championship. However, life suddenly takes a not-so-happy turn when Bullet gets drafted. (Comedy / Black & White, Paramount)
Director: George Marshall; with Bob Hope, Mickey Rooney, Marilyn Maxwell
More: Wikipedia, Letterboxd
9 Apr 1966: The Girls of Pleasure Island (1953, 2 hours)
Dignified, strait-laced Englishman Roger Halyard is informed that 1,500 U.S. Marines will soon arrive to establish an air base on the island. He has lived alone with his daughters and housekeeper for years, and so far, his daughters have never seen another man. (Comedy / Color, Paramount)
Director: Alvin Ganzer, F. Hugh Herbert; with Don Taylor, Leo Genn, Elsa Lanchester, Philip Ober
More: Wikipedia, Letterboxd
16 Apr 1966: A Spanish Affair (1957, 2 hours)
An American architect traveling in Madrid falls in love with his interpreter but is faced by a jealous lover who follows them. (Drama / Color, Paramount)
Director: Don Siegel, Luis Marquina; with Carmen Sevilla, Richard Kiley
Summer repeats
(Movies aired entirely in their allotted timeslot unless otherwise noted.)
(Movies aired entirely in their allotted timeslot unless otherwise noted.)
23 Apr 1966: Merry Andrew (1958)
30 Apr 1966: Strategic Air Command (1955, 2 hours 30 minutes)
7 May 1966: Boys' Night Out (1962, 2 hours 15 minutes)
14 May 1966: Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957, 2 hours 30 minutes)
21 May 1966: Vertigo (1958, 2 hours 30 minutes)
28 May 1966: A Thunder of Drums (1961)
4 Jun 1966: Please Don't Eat the Daisies (1960, 2 hours 15 minutes)
11 Jun 1966: Westward the Women (1951, 2 hours 15 minutes)
18 Jun 1966: Rock-a-Bye Baby (1958)
25 Jun 1966: Ransom! (1956)
2 Jul 1966: Ride the High Country (1962)
9 Jul 1966: The Desperate Hours (1955, 2 hours 15 minutes)
16 Jul 1966: The Five Pennies (1959, 2 hours 15 minutes)
23 Jul 1966: Ace in the Hole (as The Big Carnival) (1951, 2 hours 15 minutes)
30 Jul 1966: The Mountain (1956)
6 Aug 1966: Sunset Boulevard (1950, 2 hours 15 minutes)
Programming Note: Reruns of Flipper and I Dream of Jeannie were preempted for a special about Luci Johnson's wedding.
13 Aug 1966: It Started in Naples (1960)
20 Aug 1966: Ten Thousand Bedrooms (1957, 2 hours 15 minutes)
27 Aug 1966: Secret of the Incas (1954)
3 Sep 1966: The Tin Star (1957)
10 Sep 1966: Class of '67 and Miss America 1967
Class of '67 was a one-hour song and dance review of the American college scene hosted by George Hamilton. Guests included Don Adams, Nancy Sinatra, Jack Burns, Avery Schreiber, and The Doodletown Pipers. Afterwards was the first NBC broadcast of the Miss America pageant. Miss Oklahoma won the crown. Despite starting at 10 p.m., the ceremony was scheduled for two hours.
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NBC's NIGHT AT THE MOVIES
Sources: IMDb and Letterboxd for movie information; Cedar Rapids Gazette, The Daily Banner, and San Bernardino Sun for listing and programming information; Broadcasting for various ratings notes; if you see bad links or incorrect information, let me know in the comments.
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