Quote:
Originally Posted by crt89
And I don't recall the last time I saw an evening movie being aired. Remember when networks used to show those?
|
Yes, I sure do. In the '60s through about the '80s, IIRC, all three major network stations in Cleveland (and, I'm sure, most other cities) had afternoon movies, and of course the TV networks themselves aired movies several nights a week, such as NBC's weeknight films which aired at least five nights a week in color, and ABC and CBS weeknight movie presentations as well. My favorites were, and still are, McCloud, Columbo, Banacek and McMillan and Wife. These were presented each week in a rotating format NBC termed the "Mystery Wheel", with the network showing a different episode every week. I have many of these mystery movies on DVD and enjoy them, as much now as when they were new. These were truly excellent television productions; unfortunately, however, times have changed, and we will never again see such quality programming on the major TV networks. It has as much to do with generational differences as anything else. These movies and other shows, like all TV programming 50+ years ago, reflected the tastes of that generation, and the networks had to keep up with the times, then as now.
The reason TV programming is such trash these days, IMO, is, as I said, because that is what today's generation of TV viewers want to see on their giant flat screens, and the networks are trying their best to accomodate them. I am 61 years old and remember many of the shows I grew up watching, which is why I have so many of them on DVD today and watch them on retro DTV channels like MeTV, Antenna TV and COZI TV. (As I said in my last post, I do not, as a rule, watch the major networks for anything much other than the evening news.) I can't help wondering how many of today's Generation X (or whatever today's generation is called) TV viewers even watch the retro DTV channels, all of which carry shows that were made long before those people were born.
VHS video cassette (and later DVD) rentals, not to mention outright sales of cassettes and DVDs, which began, IIRC, in the 1980s and continue to this day, were very instrumental in killing the TV networks' weeknight movie presentations for all time. By the time DVDs came along, the networks probably, almost certainly, realized that their nightly movie presentations wouldn't be nearly as popular anymore as they once were, say in the 1970s, so they were discontinued on the networks, to be replaced by syndicated talk shows, infomercials, or local programming tailored to the area being served by the TV stations.
Will the nightly TV movie ever make a comeback on American television? I don't think so. As I said, VHS video tape and, nowadays, DVDs killed this once-popular form of television programming, and it isn't going to return any time soon, if ever. Some local stations may run an occasional (I emphasize the word occasional) movie during the networks' inactive periods (if the local station cannot find an infomercial, talk show, etc. to fill the time slot[s]), but I'm sure they will be few and far between. Most TV stations are programmed, by and large, by the networks with which they are affiliated, so the stations have precious little time to air local shows, much less full-length feature films.
It's too bad TV programming has gone downhill as much as it has, but that's the way it is, as the late Walter Cronkite used to say at the end of the CBS Evening News. Like it or not, the times are changing, and the only way older viewers can get their favorite 1950s-'70s shows anymore is on the retro DTV channels or on DVD. We will never again see these older shows on broadcast TV (except, of course, on DTV retro channels, where such channels are available), but again, that's the way it is in the 21st century.