Global InformationCBS Thursday Night Movie information
| CBS Thursday Night Movie | |
|---|---|
 Still frame from the animated CBS "color" logo, used by the network at the start of each broadcast of the Thursday Night Movie that featured a color film. | |
| Genre | Film Anthology |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| Production | |
| Running time | 2 hours or more (depending on feature's length) |
| Original release | |
| Network | CBS |
| Release | September 16, 1965 – November 20, 1975 |
| Infobox instructions (only shown in preview) | |
CBS Thursday Night Movie was the network's first venture into the weekly televising of then-recent theatrical films, debuting at the start of the 1965–1966 season, from 9:00 to 11 p.m. (Eastern Time). CBS was the last of the three U.S. major television networks to schedule a regular prime-time array of movies. Unlike its two competitors (NBC and ABC), CBS had delayed running feature films at the behest of the network's hierarchy.[1] Indeed, as far back as 1960, when Paramount Pictures offered a huge backlog of pre-1948 titles for sale to television for $50 million,[2] James T. Aubrey, program director at CBS, negotiated with the studio to buy the package for the network. Aubrey summed up his thinking this way: "I decided that the feature film was the thing for TV. A $250,000 specially-tailored television show just could not compete with a film that cost three or four million dollars."[3] However, the network's chairman, William Paley, who considered the scheduling of old movies "uncreative", vetoed the Paramount transaction.
It was not until after Aubrey's departure from CBS in early 1965 that Paley finally conceded on the issue and cleared the way for the network to embark on its own prime-time weekly movie broadcast.[4] After completing negotiations with various studios that year, the network acquired exclusive rights to televise a total of 90 titles from Columbia Pictures, United Artists, Paramount, and Warner Brothers—news of which resulted in rumors that the network would actually slate films for two prime-time nights rather than just one.[5] This scheduling addition, however, would not be made until a season later; but reports of further meetings between CBS and Columbia over the acquisition of 20 more titles signaled that the network was now a serious movie-night contender.[6] The Thursday Night Movie thus began on September 16, 1965, with the TV debut of the original The Manchurian Candidate (1962), starring Frank Sinatra and Laurence Harvey.
- ^ Edgerton, Gary T. The Columbia History of American Television. New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 2007. p. 250.
- ^ Segrave, Kerry. Movies at Home: How Hollywood Came to Television. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 1999. p. 75.
- ^ Cited in Oulihan, Richard and William Lambert. "The Tyrant's Fall That Rocked the TV World". Life (magazine). Vol. 59, No. 11. (Sept. 10, 1965): p. 94.
- ^ Cited in Oulihan, Richard and William Lambert. "The Tyrant's Fall That Rocked the TV World," etc.
- ^ Adams, Val. "CBS May Offer 2 'Movie Nights': $8 Million Deal Suggests Plan for 2d Series in '66." New York Times. (August 27, 1965): p. 59.
- ^ "A.B.C. and M-G-M Close 21-Film Deal." The New York Times. (August 23, 1965): p. 51.