The Broadcast Log: NBC Tuesday Night at the Movies, 1969–70

"The following is brought to you in living color on NBC"

1969–70: The fall of 1969 was included a TV milestone: 1,000 broadcasts of post-1948 movies. The achievement took the Big Three a mere 8 years. Despite mixed results overall, NBC stuck with its three nights of movies of Monday, Tuesday, and Saturday. To keep the number of new titles low, Monday included semi-regular Bob Hope specials and Tuesday had First Tuesdays once a month while Saturday repeated previous seasons' movies. A few years ago, that could've been an expensive solution, but now the price of Hollywood movies was dropping. In three years, the cost had dropped 25%. The market had become too flooded. This fall, NBC's asking price for 1-minute of advertising was $53,000 on Monday and Tuesday and $60,000 on Saturday.

On Tuesday: NBC kept First Tuesday as it certainly came with some prestige for the news division and ensured there wasn't a need for that many movies. Only four years ago, 30 films was seen as the minimum number needed for one night for a single season. This season of NBC Tuesday Night at the Movies was comprised of only 17 new titles, of which 13 were from Universal. Of the batch, 5 were original movies. One served as a pilot (McCloud) and two others (My Sweet Charlie and Silent Night, Lonely Night) went on garner some awards recognition. While they weren't the first NBC movies to go on to garner some Emmy consideration at the primetime ceremony, they were the first ones that aired as part of a Night at the Movies lineup.

The Broadcast Log: NBC Tuesday Night at the Movies, 1968–69

"The following program is brought to you in living color on NBC"

1968–69: The massive success of the '67–'68 season, alongside a solid stockpile of TV movies and plans for a monthly long-form news series, prompted NBC to add a third movie night. After 4 seasons away, the movies were back on Monday. Through the three evenings, NBC would insert more occasional specials giving the movies off-weeks. Nevertheless, the number of good, recognizable movies titles continued to thin, and while successful in filling time and satisfying its audiences, the ratings for its movies declined. However, NBC was putting a bigger target on young people, which led to higher ad rates. In that sense, the nights were successful.

On Tuesday: Not long after announcing it was expanding movies to Monday, NBC announced it was producing a long-form news program for 1969. It took a year for First Tuesday to go from announcement to series debut, but it helped fill the movie slot once a month (the first Tuesday) and extend the season. It also upped the news competition between NBC and CBS because it was directly going against CBS News Hour.

Only 22 movies comprise the lineup, and the fall schedule included coverage of the election and the famous Elvis comeback special. The movie selection was a mix of several genres with several comedies in the fall and more dramatic films in the winter and spring. 15 were from Universal, including 5 made for TV productions — two being pilots for a Bold Ones series.

The Broadcast Log: NBC Tuesday Night at the Movies, 1967–68

"The following program is brought to you in living color on NBC"

After the movie successes in 1967, why rattle the cage too much?

The cost of the Hollywood premieres was going up, but affiliate backlash got NBC to back down from adding more commercials, which stood at around 14 minutes per hour. Instead, the network continued to mine titles from Universal, which made up a majority of this seasons 26 new Tuesday movies — 19 from Universal (even including some horror flicks), 4 from Paramount, 1 from Fox, and 1 from United Artists.

NBC had some fun with its logo when presenting A Hard Day's Night, which was also part of the network's first double feature. Tuesday night titles also included Sandra Dee-Bobby Darin films, Elvis flicks, the McHale's Navy movies, and four original productions, including the first appearance of Lt. Columbo.

The Broadcast Log: NBC Tuesday Night at the Movies, 1966–67

"The following program is brought to you in living color on NBC"

The battle for the top TV movies was on.

Entering its sixth season of airing Hollywood movies, NBC lowered the number of new studio titles, which used to be 30 for both nights. The network was stepping up its original movie venture, but it wasn't alone. With three networks fighting for popular theatrical features (almost 20% of the primetime schedule), the selection was starting to fizzle. As part of its Project 120 experiment, NBC aired the first two made for TV movies to good but not great ratings during the 1964-65 season and didn't order any for the following season. For this season, NBC ordered eight original features from Universal, which produced its first two, and would air under the new NBC World Premiere banner. However, ABC and CBS were also dipping their toes in making original features — ABC ordered 6 from MGM and CBS, which was late the movie craze, ordered 12 from Warner Bros., but they'd go to theaters before airing on the Eye. This was an unknown market. Would viewers want movies without the lavish Hollywood production value and big stars? Could TV movies be the next generation for the dramatic anthology?

The 8 movies split between Tuesday and Saturday averaged 23.9/40 in the ratings, which was above the average theatrical movie. In July, NBC execs said they were committed to the form for the long haul, and two of the Tuesday movies went to series — Ironside and Fame Is the Name of the Game.

The Broadcast Log: NBC Tuesday Night at the Movies, 1965–66

"The following program is brought to you in living color on NBC"

With a new programming strategy planned for Wednesday (Bob Hope and I Spy), NBC moved its weekday movie to Tuesday in a lineup that was a complete reboot to the night. It wasn't a bad move because both ABC and CBS were leaving NBC in the dust in the '64-'65 season with Combat!, The Fugitive, Red Skelton, and Petticoat Junction.

With two freshmen sitcoms and a medical veteran now splintered into two half-hour episodes per week, the NBC Tuesday Night at the Movies aired 30 films from the MGM and Paramount libraries — except for The Proud Rebel, so if anyone can explain that one, please do. Like the Monday and Wednesday movie nights, the lineup was usually a lighter selection but included comedies, war, westerns, and adventure titles. However, there were no original movies. Those would return next season.

The movie night started a few weeks early with some repeated titles, which are included here. Perhaps NBC was eager to ax its summer lineup of Moment of Fear, Cloak of Mystery, and Hullabaloo.