The Broadcast Log: NBC's Night at the Movies, 1960s

NBC Saturday Night at the Movies

The following is a quick hits list of all 493 movie premieres on NBC during the 1960s as part of its Night at the Movies banner. Yes, four hundred-ninety-three movies. Because this is a general overview, this list isn't nearly as detailed as the specific-nightly posts. If you want to know what was black and white or color or the stars or the network runtime, links are provided to those pages. If you want a complete list of original NBC airdates, this is your kinda page.

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

NBC Saturday Night at the Movies

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.

Saturdays: Perhaps playing against the competition, this season's Saturday lineup was largely absent of typical Hollywood comedies. Instead, there were more thrills and adventure, and note the release dates; some of the movies were in theaters only a year prior, often British imports. They were becoming more common to use to fill the lineup. Since Saturday didn't having any specials or recurring series, there were 5 movie repeats, all movies that aired during the prior season, so it'd been several months since they last aired. And after stumbling a bit last season, NBC Saturday Night at the Movies was back in the top 30 programs. Despite their overabundance, movies were popular with viewers.

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 Monday 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 Monday: Filling in for the movies about once a month in the fall and occasionally in the winter and spring was a Bob Hope special followed by another high-profile entertainer: Flip Wilson, Mitzi Gaynor, Tennessee Ernie Ford, the Smothers Brothers, or Bing Crosby. They consistently brought in ratings. NBC also aired some movie repeats later in the season.

Like previous years, the new movies, comprised of 20 titles, are predominantly from Universal (11) and United Artists (4) libraries. The Universal titles include 4 made for TV projects, including one pilot, one sequel, and one crime drama that has some historical intrigue because it features a before-he-was-famous Tom Selleck. Another TV movie came from MGM. Given the popular competition was sitcoms, only a small handful of movies are comedies.

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

NBC Saturday Night at the Movies

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 Saturday: Unlike Monday and Tuesday, NBC only aired one night of specials during the season, instead airing a couple movie repeats to fill a full schedule, but also still airing a fairly strong 25 movies, 4 of which were made-for-TV from Universal. One was a pilot that went to series.

With NBC continuing to mine United Artists' library for movies, not all of their titles were television premieres. While Some Like It Hot, The Misfits, and Birdman of Alcatraz, among others, were quite popular, they had previously aired on ABC. Of the 25 movies, 14 were from United Artists and 9, including those made for TV, were from Universal.

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 Monday 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 Monday, freshman The Danny Thomas Show and three-season drama I Spy was axed to make way for the return of Monday Night at the Movies. Of the 24 movies, Universal supplied 14 of them, including 4 made for TV titles. NBC's other big movie supplier, United Artists, supplied 6. An MGM pilot movie would go to series for next fall.

Since the popular competition was comedy shows, many Monday movies are dramas, but there are some comedies in the mix, including musical comedies. The night has several westerns, too, which might've been NBC's attempt to stamp out the westerns in ABC's Monday lineup. This is also NBC's first foray into the "two-night movie event." Both Exodus and El Cid were split into two nights.

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

NBC Saturday Night at the Movies

With a 23.6 Nielsen rating for the season, this season was the peak for NBC Saturday Night at the Movies.

NBC had hopes for their nights. Affiliates pushed back on adding more commercials, so NBC increased its advertising rate. One minute was $57,000 on either Tuesday or Saturday. The two movie nights were successful enough, by January, NBC planned to add a third movie night to the fall schedule.

While 1 movie from United Artist aired on Tuesdays, 5 aired on Saturdays, the first bigger showcase of a deal that was to last well into the next decade, plus another one was set with Universal, which was behind 17 of this season's Saturday titles. Of the 3 other movies, 2 were from 20th Century Fox and 1 was from Warner Bros. — Saratoga Trunk, the oldest movie NBC would air under the banner. (Of note, the cost of Hollywood movies was soaring. CBS was paying MGM about $800,000 per movie, twice the average price in 1965.)

While comedy was the most dominant genre on the schedule, it also included some high profile dramatic and thriller titles, including Mirage and Freud. There was even a musical, Flower Drum Song. But no movie would do nearly as well as The Birds, which set records.

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 Saturday Night at the Movies, 1966–67

NBC Saturday Night at the Movies

The battle for the top TV movies was on. (See Tuesday intro)

NBC's first original movie of the season and first one in nearly two years was the detective/reporter drama Fame Is the Name of the Game. It was followed in following months by How I Spent My Summer Vacation, The Longest Hundred Miles, and The Borgia Stick, and adding to the four (The Doomsday Flight, Wings of Fire, Winchester 73, and Ironside) that aired on Tuesday — and all aired under the NBC World Premiere banner. Fame and Ironside were picked up to series for the following season, and Universal found a new business venture: cranking out TV movies for NBC. By summer 1967, more than a dozen were in the pipeline.

In the ratings, the 8 movies averaged 23.9/40, above the average theatrical movie. As far as NBC was concerned, it would take Universal's movies for as long as it would produce them.

With the drying up of and increasing price of popular theatrical movies, NBC also went to Universal for its movie catalog for new titles, ending its agreement with MGM. The era of 30 movies per season was over. 28 movies aired this season — 15 from Paramount, 12 from Universal (8 theatrical, 4 TV movies), and 1 in-house  Can anyone explain that one? There were also a few repeats during the season.

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 Saturday Night at the Movies, 1965–66

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.

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.

The Broadcast Log: NBC Saturday Night at the Movies, 1964–65

NBC Saturday Night at the Movies

As stated Wednesday, NBC wasn't in the best shape by the mid-'60s, but the network carried on with its popular Saturday Night at the Movies. While Wednesday featured the first made for TV movies and plenty of dramatic titles, Saturday featured bigger spectacles and plenty of titles that are remembered today, 55 years later. 

The three-season deal with Fox expired, so to fill the movie schedule along side MGM titles, Paramount's library was mined for 31 of the 60 new movies airing on Wednesday and Saturday this season. The Saturday lineup is largely bigger, lavish movies covering several genres, but much more variety than Wednesdays. Here you find plenty of musicals and comedies alongside westerns and war flicks. (White Christmas, Last Train from Gun Hill, Adam's Rib, Bad Day at Black Rock, Annie Get Your Gun)

The Broadcast Log: NBC Wednesday Night at the Movies, 1964–65

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

By the mid-1960s, NBC was in distress. Most nights were becoming problematic, so near any night could be better served with a movie. With the 90 Bristol Court experiment on Monday, Wednesday night was chosen as the second movie night.

Wednesday nights had been a lackluster night for a while, even as The Virginian remained a solid replacement for losing mega-hit Wagon Train. Counter-programming smash hits like The Beverly Hillbillies and The Dick Van Dyke Show was exactly what a movie could achieve. Espionage and The Eleventh Hour certainly didn't do the trick last season. (It also helped that CBS moved The Beverly Hillbillies back a half hour this season. The move didn't kill the show, but it went from #1 to #12 in no time.)

This season also introduced viewers to made for television movies. NBC ordered three original movies from Universal. Two (See How They Run, The Hanged Man) would air in the fall while the third (The Killers) was deemed to violent for TV and instead went to theaters.

The Broadcast Log: NBC's Saturday Night at the Movies, 1963-64

NBC's Saturday Night at the Movies (via CLG)

In its third season — as mentioned in Monday's log — movie nights now included some MGM titles, comprising 29 of the 60 theatrical movies for NBC's 1963-64 season. Having some movies from MGM also (in retrospective?) helped lift the night with more memorable titles. Fox still offered a few, including The Asphalt Jungle and Let's Make Love.

The Saturday lineup continued to have movies that ran well over the two-hour timeslot. It also featured more dramatic movies than Monday, which usually had lighter movies. Saturday had its share of lighter movies, too, but also had its share of movies with dramatic subject matter, like The Diary of Anne Frank and Wild River.

Like the previous two season's, the premiere movie was a Marilyn Monroe movie, The Seven Year Itch. Though in a change from previous seasons, the summer repeats were a mix of movies from Monday and Saturday.

The Broadcast Log: NBC's Monday Night at the Movies, 1963–64

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

In March 1964, NBC announced it had reached a deal with MGM to supply movies alongside the continuing deal with 20th Century Fox. It was necessary since the network was keeping movies on two nights.

With MGM in the mix, the movie selection on Monday was more diverse than the short first season, which was nearly all adventure movies. The number of high-profile Fox titles continued to diminish as MGM gave the lineup some new life. The season led off with the romance Love in the Afternoon and other genres included some musicals, comedies, and dramas, though usually lighter fare. The first MGM movie on Monday was Executive Suite on 30 Sep, two days after the first new MGM movie on NBC (The Journey). Some MGM movies were also edited.

The Broadcast Log: NBC's Saturday Night at the Movies, 1962–63

NBC's Saturday Night at the Movies (via CLG)

Entering its second season, NBC's Saturday Night at the Movies wasn't a regular ratings powerhouse, but it had great name recognition and strong appeal to younger viewers. It was also a strong counter to CBS' dominant lineup of The Defenders, Have Gun Will Travel and Gunsmoke. None of the networks changed their lineup's latter half of Saturday night going into fall 1962. ABC stuck with Lawrence Welk, The Fight of the Week, and Make That Spare.

Like season one, all 30 titles for season two of Saturday Night at the Movies were from the 20th Century Fox catalog and were scheduled for two hours, though also like season one, several ran long. There remained a good variety in the titles, but some genres were much more represented. Science fiction was gone and comedy films were few. The creation of the Monday movie at midseason seemed to have an effect, too, as the number of adventure movies on Saturday dropped. Airing unedited, the 30 movies aired without break for 30 weeks. Two-thirds of the movies were in color.

The Broadcast Log: NBC's Monday Night at the Movies, 1962–63

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

NBC's Saturday Night at the Movies was successful enough to warrant a second night on the schedule, filling in a programming hole for any fall duds the following season. Monday was the winner — er, loser? — where two freshmen dramas failed to bring in an audience. In the two seasons prior, seven new shows had come and gone, alongside four returnees that died upon their moves to Monday. With the cancellation of It's a Man's World and Saints and Sinners and migrating The Price Is Right to Friday, NBC presented another movie night — and CBS' daytime host Art Linkletter returned to NBC primetime for a Candid Camera ripoff.

Most, but not all, the Monday movies were adventure-ish films, which ran to counter CBS' always popular Monday night lineup (Lucy, Danny, and Andy). The new lineup, which premiered Feb. 4, consisted of 16 movies, all but two were in color. I assume Art Linkletter was in color because David Brinkley's Journal was in color. The competition on both CBS and ABC was black and white.

The Broadcast Log: NBC's Saturday Night at the Movies, 1961–62

NBC's Saturday Night at the Movies (via CLG)

Welcome to the first of many posts about the movies NBC has aired through the years. I've been collecting information about the Peacock Network's movie listings (title, year, TV runtime) for years, and I always like having my TV listing collection backed-up somewhere. So this is it, and if you have any corrections please let me know in the comments. I don't consider my research foolproof.

Sources: All the links in the movie listings are for your convenience if you want to learn more about the movie. The synopses are pulled from IMDb, and the listed cast are (usually) the key names on the movie poster. The genre is usually a compromise between IMDb and Wikipedia. For the early years, I note if a movie color or black-and-white. The listed runtime is how long the movie ran on NBC. This is a season with a list that is readily available, but I still double checked the titles, which were primarily from the Cedar Rapids Gazette and the San Bernardino Sun. However, the overruns (movies that ran more than NBC's allotted two hours) rarely has a clear consensus. I found confirmations for the Wikipedia entries, which cites The Lima News, but variations of five or 10 minutes were common to find. Others often search included The Capital Journal (Salem, OR), San Antonio Light, Detroit Free Press, Austin Daily Herald, and The Tampa Bay Times, among others. 

To the movies!