You know like when a popular film would first broadcast on NBC about three years later. These days, most end up on basic cable much like any other movie.

My guess is that more people have access to current movies than before so a recent movie being on TV isn't a big thing. Video stores are pretty dead, but you can buy or rent DVDs online and stream through your phone, TV, Roku, etc. There's also a YouTube and all the pirated stuff.

My guess is that more people have access to current movies than before so a recent movie being on TV isn't a big thing. Video stores are pretty dead, but you can buy or rent DVDs online and stream through your phone, TV, Roku, etc. There's also a YouTube and all the pirated stuff.

That...and most movies on broadcast television are edited. A Scorsese film is heavily edited for its strong language.

That...and most movies on broadcast television are edited. A Scorsese film is heavily edited for its strong language.

I'll agree with this. Why, if at all possible to avoid, would someone want to watch an edited movie chock full of commercials?

I'll agree with this. Why, if at all possible to avoid, would someone want to watch an edited movie chock full of commercials?

Yep, why watch a movie chopped up on a broadcast network when you can watch it uncut on a premium channel where they won't edit for time or content.

Yep, why watch a movie chopped up on a broadcast network when you can watch it uncut on a premium channel where they won't edit for time or content.

Or watch it at any time you want to on home video (That's Blu-Ray, DVD & Old-Fashoned VHS for those of you in Rio Linda!). :lol:


Just for the heck of it, does anyone out there son still watch something on Betamax? :wave:

For that manner., does any of my sitcoms onliners live in Rio Linda? :rofl:

I rather watch it the way it was meant to be. Uncut and unedited on cable.

I know it's a bit off topic but I miss "The Wizard of Oz" airing around Thanksgiving on a major network. It's lost its specialness now that it airs all the time on cable channels.

Way too many options.

I know it's a bit off topic but I miss "The Wizard of Oz" airing around Thanksgiving on a major network. It's lost its specialness now that it airs all the time on cable channels.
I know, same with GONE WITH THE WIND.

Yep, why watch a movie chopped up on a broadcast network when you can watch it uncut on a premium channel where they won't edit for time or content.
and if it's post early 50s, in "non wide-screen" (whatever you call that-I think the term is "cropped")

Does anybody remember when ABC aired the James Bond movies? They had to keep cutting and editing. The other 2 big networks stopped airing theatrical blockbusters in the mid 90s.

I do man was I glad when we got cable.

I know, same with GONE WITH THE WIND.

TCM didn't air GWTW for Thanksgiving this year. I was disappointed, but I can always watch it on DVD. I remember TCM airing it at least once earlier in the year, but I wonder if they skipped it because of the Confederate Flag controversy earlier this year.

You know like when a popular film would first broadcast on NBC about three years later. These days, most end up on basic cable much like any other movie.


For a few reasons, mostly because TV broadcast networks don't really air movies anymore. Plus, people aren't going to wait three months for a movie to be on broadcast TV with numerous edits for language and time when they can just stream it online unedited much sooner than a network could air it.

Economically broadcast networks stopped airing theatrical films because people were no longer watching them this way. The availability of films through the internet changed things.

By the late 1980s, HBO/Cinemax/Showtime (back when they were pretty much the only cable movie channels) + video stores and pay-per-view through the cable box killed 99.9% of big network movie premieres, which I recall were last a big thing in the early 1980s. Then more cable channels (some commercial-free, some not) proliferated and started running bigger/newer movies, the premium movie channels expanded into "plex" blocks of multiple HBOs, Cinemaxes, Showtimes, Encore/Starz, etc, then sell-thru priced VHS, DVD and Blu-ray, Netflix rent-by-mail, Redbox kiosks, streaming, downloads and torrent sites.

One big turning point was when Ted Turner got temporary TV rights to most of the James Bond films in the late-1980s, and started running marathons of them on TBS. Also around that time, ABC bought Disney, and ran several classics in local TV syndication markets, rather than saving them all for special network evening airings, as had been done in the past.

I would guess one of the last big premieres on regular network TV was probably either TITANIC or SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, and by then, most people would've already caught them on HBO or via VHS rental, just as the DVD format was about to arrive.