was it or is it a practice for popular TV shows to ocasionely "plug" a movie that's in theaters?
Because, there's an episode of THE BEVERLLY HILLBILLIES where they mention the Rock Hudson/Doris Day movie SEND ME NO FLOWERS and they show a clip from it, there's an episode of LEAVE IT TO BEAVER where Beaver and his friends are talking about seeing the movie SPARTICUS and in the scene, a poster for the movie is behind them, and they show a clip from the movie, and once on THE BOB NEWHART SHOW they show Bob and some others waiting in line to see STAR WARS and there's a poster for it behind them, and another time on that show they mention THE GODFATHER, and another time they mention THE POSIEDON ADVENTURE. Also, once on TAXI they mention E.T. . And once on THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW they mention THE GUNS OF NAVORONE.

Interesting that you should mention this. I remember a Happy Days episode where Howard and Marion go out to the movies to see The Music Man. So Marion points to the poster at the movie theater and goes, "Howard, I like the boy in the movie. He looks just like our Richard when he was little." Well, of course, he is Richie. Ron Howard played one of the little kids in the movie (even before his Opie Taylor days). The reference in the Happy Days script was obviously intentional. I don't think it was a commercial plug for the movie The Music Man, since the movie was long past being released--plus, when Happy Days was on network TV, it was just before the time you could go rent or buy a movie. I think it was just a way to plug trivia, which was kind of neat how they did it.

When John Wayne is on Lucy they plug Blood Alley, even show the poster.

Interesting that you should mention this. I remember a Happy Days episode where Howard and Marion go out to the movies to see The Music Man. So Marion points to the poster at the movie theater and goes, "Howard, I like the boy in the movie. He looks just like our Richard when he was little." Well, of course, he is Richie. Ron Howard played one of the little kids in the movie (even before his Opie Taylor days). The reference in the Happy Days script was obviously intentional. I don't think it was a commercial plug for the movie The Music Man, since the movie was long past being released--plus, when Happy Days was on network TV, it was just before the time you could go rent or buy a movie. I think it was just a way to plug trivia, which was kind of neat how they did it.no, that wasn't before he played Opie Taylor. "The Music Man" was made in 1962, and "The Andy Griffith show" started in 1960.

When John Wayne is on Lucy they plug Blood Alley, even show the poster.
was that "The Lucy show" or "Here's Lucy"?

was that "The Lucy show" or "Here's Lucy"?

I Love Lucy (http://www.tv.com/i-love-lucy/lucy-and-john-wayne/episode/17227/summary.html)

Thank you for the correction. I guess I was thinking about the Broadway version from the 1950's, which obviously preceded the movie. Robert Preston was also in the Broadway version. I don't know who played the character that Ron Howard played in the stage version.