I love Turner Movie Classics because their air their movies with NO commercials,and AMC is okay,(but they DO air their movies with commercials),but does anyone remember back in the 1960's,local stations aired old movies? In the area where I live,KETV Channel 7 in Omaha,Nebraska aired on weeknights and weekends a movie series called "Movie Masterpiece",and Channel 6 WOWT (then it was just WOW-TV),Channnel 6 in Omaha,Nebraska played a similar movie series on weekends,called "The Million Dollar Movie".Question:What were the names of the series of movies called in your area?

AMC sucks ass now. They not only show commericals but they dont show the classics anymore.


Anyways we used to get a TV station out of Detroit called WKBD and for years they had a program called Bill Kennedy at the Movies. Kennedy basically presented old movies and provided a wealth of information about actors and films. By the way Kennedy was a B movie actor, and he does the voiceover of the 50's TV series of Superman.

In the early 90's in my area, one of the local stations used to play classic movies on Saturday afternoons. They weren't commercial free but they showed some good movies.

Well...TNT used to show classic movies and cartoons.

"The Wizard of OZ" was seen on CBS up until the 90's, and "Gone with the Wind" was seen in 1976 on NBC, I even made a story for a TV Series that I'm working on called "Bertstown"....

Helen Houston and Tony Warner were in High School at Tony's house in his basement on a Monday evening watching "Gone with the Wind". Helen showed-up at the house and asked where the guy who defended me from those football jocks that called her 'ugly' was. Tony Jr. (Tony's "Father") said that he was in the basement and She was 16 at the time and Tony was 15. They both studied until 8 p.m. when the movie "Gone with the Wind" came on. Then Helen looks at Tony once Rhett tells Scarlett "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn"...Tony starts to cry. Then Helen knew that she was in love...but Tony was only crying...because Helen ate all the potato chips and he can't get anymore because the stores were closed!

This was mentioned in an episode called "Hello, my name is ****", where James Paul Warner (Main Character) gets concerned because he has no love life, Tony dogs him for being single and hanging around his friend for too long (If this is on Cartoon Network/Adult Swim and the people of Hanna-Barbera says "Yes"...I'm hoping to have Loopy de Loop as James Paul's friend). Paul would go out with the Girl Next Door (literally) and her name is "****", but she calls herself Holly Holliday because it's a better name. Once Tony and Helen see Paul and Holly huddled together on the couch watching "Gone with the Wind" and both Tony and Helen remember the time they watched that film. The episode ends with the "Flashback/Finale" song. (I can't find the song on YouTube, so you'll have to imagine it)!:mad:

And,in the 1970's,and in the 1980's until David Letterman took over,CBS aired "The CBS Late Movie"series?

Oh God, I miss the days of old movies late at night! I was livid when AMC started showing commercials. I even sent them an email because of that! They responded with "Oh it's getting to expensive to show them uncut, blah blah blah." Actually what really upset me at first was when I saw they were showing an 80's movie, which I felt wasn't "classic" enough. I like REALLY old movies! I avoided AMC for a while, but now I watch it quite a bit. Never say Never I guess.
But I REALLY wish I had TCM... Sigh....

However, we can get Movieplex which shows movies uncut. Not the greatest movies, but every once in a while they will show something good. I'm not sure if we're supposed to get it beause it's part of Showtime, but I'm definitely not going to call up the cable company and tell them about it!

In the 80's we had a UHF channel that aired old schlocky B&W movies. Also in the 80's Commander USA's Groovie Movies on USA Network which aired on the weekends, he would show horror movies from the mainstream to the obscure.

I can also remember coming home from school and one of our local networks would air movies around 3PM, it was hosted by a local car salesman.

Saturday at noon on ABC they would show Japanese monster movies.

And late late at night was Night Flight(ran from the early 80's to the mid 90's) They aired the weirder movies, short films, cartoons....

Local stations used to be awash in old movies. I recall as a kid (in the 70s), even though limited to just three channels, there were sometimes over 25 movies being aired per week. On weekdays, you had 'morning movies,' 'afternoon movies,' and 'late shows,' and the weekends were dotted with all sorts of additions. A great variety of films, too, covering all the decades... from classics to b-films to schlock. In a curious way, the selections seemed almost more diverse than what is now seen on TCM, which leans heavily towards glossy, MGM-ish fare. Local stations used to also run things like Godzilla films, AIP hot-rod films, Italian gladiator spectacles, and all sorts of other oddball things you never really see on TCM.

Most stations played old movies late night on various channels during the '70's.

one of our local stations used to show John Wayne movies on saturday nights, and called it "The John Wayne theater"-this was in the late 60s

I won't even watch AMC anymore!!! They used to show mostly old movies, uncut, commercial free, and they used to have someone introduce them and tell a little trivia about them, also they would occasionaly show movies from the 50s to today letterboxed. And they used to have the ocasional special, and that original sitcom "REMEMBER WENN"-remember that? ( I read somewhere that sadly, chances of a DVD release of that aren't very good-I forget why)

TCM on the other hand is GREAT!!!! They show movies from all eras (mostly old ones-I love some of those old silent ones!), uncut and commercial-free, they have original specials, a host for every movie who tells you a little trivia about the film before and after it, and they show the movies from the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s letterboxed (which is the way they SHOULD be shown!!!)
The only thing I don't like about them though (and I've e-mailed them about it) is they never show certain movies for some reason. Like the "STAR TREK" and "STAR WARS" movies, "MASH", "NATIONAL LAMPOONS ANIMAL HOUSE", the "NATIONAL LAMPOONS VACATION" movies, the James Bond films and some others.

Local stations used to be awash in old movies. I recall as a kid (in the 70s), even though limited to just three channels, there were sometimes over 25 movies being aired per week. On weekdays, you had 'morning movies,' 'afternoon movies,' and 'late shows,' and the weekends were dotted with all sorts of additions. A great variety of films, too, covering all the decades... from classics to b-films to schlock. In a curious way, the selections seemed almost more diverse than what is now seen on TCM, which leans heavily towards glossy, MGM-ish fare. Local stations used to also run things like Godzilla films, AIP hot-rod films, Italian gladiator spectacles, and all sorts of other oddball things you never really see on TCM.
I concur,there were alot of good older movies shown back when there were only 3 main channels and a few local stations.The variety of movies ,as mentioned was much better too.--Heck, you hardly ever see Abbott and Costello movies,or 1950s sci-fi films anymore.And those are just 2 examples of MANY types of older movies that were shown almost every week,and nowadays rarely shown on television,even TCM.

AMC sucks ass now. They not only show commericals but they dont show the classics anymore.


Superman.
Very true.--When AMC turned into AMCommercials,I stopped watching it.

i can remember when only one station would stay on the air for most of the night. they would have the late show,the late late show and then the late,late,late show. they would sign off at 4 am then come back on the air at 5 am with hog reports and agricultural stuff. now all the local channels stay on 24 hrs, but all they show are paid commercials for exercise equipment.tcm seems to be the only channel that caters to the old movie lovers.