Movies on the Networks on Friday Night in the Seventies

On September 23 1961 NBC Saturday Night at the Movies debuted. This event is significant in American television history as it was the first network movie anthology series to feature relatively recent movies made by the major studios. NBC Saturday Night at the Movies proved very successful. It was likely because of competition from NBC Saturday Night at the Movies that Gunsmoke, which had been the no. 1 show on television and was ranked at no. 3 when NBC Saturday Night at the Movies, dropped to the point that it did not even rank in the top 30 during the 1966-1967 (ultimately CBS moved the venerable old Western). It also spurred NBC to add more movie anthology shows and for ABC and CBS to add their own. By the end of the Sixties, six nights of the week featured movie anthology shows on at least one of the networks.

Of course, Friday was among the nights on which a movie anthology series aired. In fact, the decade would begin with a movie anthology series having been on Friday night for some time. The CBS Friday Night Movie had been on the air since the start of the 1966-1967 season. It would continue until the start of the 1975-1976 season, when it was replaced by Hawaii Five-O and Barnaby Jones. The CBS Friday Night Movie returned at mid-season and remained on Friday night until the middle of the 1977-1978 season, when it was replaced by The Incredible Hulk and Husbands, Wives & Lovers.

With the start of the 1971-1972 season, The CBS Friday Night Movie would no longer be the only movie anthology on Friday night. NBC launched its own Friday night movie anthology, using a title that they often used for movie anthologies, World Premiere Movie. World Premiere Movie did not last long. It was replaced at the start of the 1972-1973 season by The Little People, Ghost Story, and Banyon.

It would be with the 1975-1976 season that ABC added its own Friday night movie anthology series, The ABC Friday Night Movie. It would last for the remainder of the decade. In fact, The ABC Friday Night Movie would not go off the air until the first full season of the next decade, the 1981-1982 season.

Of the three movie anthology series that aired on Friday night in the Seventies, I remember NBC's World Premiere Movie the least. I have no doubt that was due to my age (I was only 8 years old when it debuted) and the fact that it only lasted a single season. The only movie I can remember watching  on it was 7 Faces of Dr. Lao.

That having been said, I have much better memories of both The CBS Friday Night Movie and The ABC Friday Night Movie. In fact, among my best memories of watching movies on television is when Planet of the Apes (1968) had its television premiere on The CBS Friday Night Movie in the 1973-1974 season. It would be followed later that season by Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970) and Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971). Over the years I would see several other movies for the first time ever on The CBS Friday Night Movie. These included To Sir with Love (1967), Captain Nemo and the Underwater City (1969), Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968), Dillinger (1973), and Yellow Submarine (1968).

While The CBS Friday Night Movie showed major movies, The ABC Friday Night Movie tended to show more off-the-wall fare. It was on The ABC Friday Night Movie that I first saw the Matt Helm movies. It was also where I saw such films as The Brain (1969) starring David Niven, the Hammer film Hands of the Ripper (1971), Gordon's War (1973), The Legend of Hell House (1973), and Future World (1976). Although I had seen them before, ABC also showed several of the James Bond movies on The ABC Friday Night Movie. One thing that separated The ABC Friday Night Movie from The CBS Friday Night Movie is that ABC would sometimes show made-for-TV movies (which were often failed pilots for TV series). The Night Stalker (1972), Murder on Flight 502 (1975), and Curse of the Black Widow (1977), among others, aired on The ABC Friday Night Movie.

The movie anthology shows on the networks would begin a slow decline in the Eighties. The advent of the VCR and video rental shows would be the first nail in their coffins. The advent of DVDs would only accelerate their decline. Today there are no movie anthology shows on the networks. In fact, the networks only show feature films on rare occasions. That having been said, I have no doubt that many Baby Boomers and Gen Xers have fond memories of watching movies on network television, often on Friday night.