Does anyone remember back in the days before VCRs became ubiquitous when it was a big deal to see a movie on network TV? When I was a kid “The Wizard of Oz” was a major television viewing event, because if you missed it you basically blew your chance to see it for an entire year.
Also whenever they’d show one of the Star Wars films, it was a real treat, because, again, you couldn’t see them anywhere else (unless you were willing to shell out $500 to $1000 for an early VCR). And I can actually remember crying when I couldn’t watch “Superman II” because a lightning storm blew out the TV station’s transmitter.
I think “Jurassic Park” which aired IIRC in 1995, was the last movie to be considered a big deal when it aired on broadcast TV. But by that point nearly everyone had a VCR and the movie had been on tape for some time. “Schindler’s List” the next year got a lot of attention, but I think that was mainly because they were showing it uncut and without commercial interuption, which was almost unheard of then.
What are some of your memories of watching movies on broadcast TV?
Also do they even show movies on the big 4 networks anymore? I remember Sunday night used to be reserved almost exclusively for movies, both theatrically released and Made-for-TV. But now Sunday night seems to be the domain of reality shows (Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, The Amazing Race, Celebrity Apprentice). I can’t remember the last time I saw a movie, or even saw a promo for one, on the major networks.
I had the biggest fight with my sister the night *Bonnie & Clyde *debuted on TV because it was on against the Bobby Riggs vs. Billie Jean King tennis match. She wanted to watch the tennis. We sort of compromised and switched back and forth, with the result that I never saw all of *Bonnie & Clyde *till much later. Who today cares about Bobby Riggs?
I remember one of the networks, pretty sure it was ABC, used to make a bit of a splash every time they’d show one of the James Bond movies. And Diamonds Are Forever was considered one of the better ones.
The Godfather’s first broadcast on TV was big, big, big. I remember that it ran up against a pretty clunky Monday Night Football game and it was one time when MNF got clobbered in the ratings.
The networks will occasionally show one on occasion but they’re often just filler programming thrown up against a more popular show in the time slot. They’re certainly not big events like they were in the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s.
Actually, the way movies are shown on TV are much better now. Before VCRs/DVDs, premium channels like HBO, and the multitude of cable networks, if you wanted to see a particular movie you could either catch it in the theater when it was first released or wait for it to pop up on TV. If you chose the latter, it could take anytime between 18 months to six years for the film to be first aired by one of the networks. When that happened, the film would be riddled with commercial interruptions, cut for time to squeeze into a 90 minute or 2 hour time slot, and usually censored into near-incoherence of any material deemed “objectionable” for broadcast. And the it only got worse once the film was old enough to be shown by your local TV stations. Not only would you get more cuts for commercials and time, the quality of the station’s film print would sometimes be so poor, it would be like watching a multi-duped copy of The Great Train Robbery.
Star Wars was shown on TV for the first time in what, '84? '85?
I do remember it being a bit of a big deal (relatively speaking,) but by then the market was pretty saturated with affordable VHS decks, and although we was po’ folk, most kids I knew had watched Star Wars and Empire to death on VHS by then. 
I’m too young to remember that, but once, when Alice in Wonderland came on during the day, my older sister’s friend was allowed to stay home from school to watch it.
Personally, I think all of our instant access to entertainment has made entertainment much less interesting. I couldn’t go back to the way it was, but I sometimes wish I’d never been introduced to the instant gratification of VCRs/DVDs/the Internet. It’s spoiled me, and made me and everything I watch a little duller.
Heck, I’m old enough to remember NBC’s “Saturday Night at the Movies.”
I believe that was the first venue for TV to show recent releases. As a kid I was put off by heavy drama, but learned that if I gave each movie a chance it would usually be pretty good.
Just for fun, I dug up some of the intros. Friendly warning - they all have sound.
NBC Saturday Night At The Movies
CBS’s generic “Special” This always seemed longer to me as a kid.
An ABC Movie Special - amusingly, it’s a James Bond flick.
Not to be left out, here’s the long version of HBO’s opener.
Memories… 
HBO April Fools opener.
The annual broadcast of “The Ten Commandments” (which continues to this day) was an event at our house. One year we watched “The Wizard of Oz” at my aunt’s house because she had a color TV, and we still only had black & white.
I remember the first broadcast of “Gone with the Wind” being a big deal.
“Hard Day’s Night” and “Help!” were big for me, too.
I fondly remember getting to stay up late and watch movies on TV. One of my favorites was John Wayne’s “The Green Berets”.
Well, my parents didn’t shell out for a VCR until 1988. My aunt and uncle, I believe, had the Star Wars tapes, but whenever we’d go over there, they’d insist on watching something else.
King Kong, Might Joe Young, and March of the Wooden Soldiers were only to be watched after the Thanksgiving Day Parade. I used to look forward to The Wizard of Oz, but now it is on ALL THE TIME! And not just Friday night, but Saturday and Sunday also.
Yep, catching one of the Connery Bonds on ABC on a [Saturday?] night was the ultimate movie treat.
I remember my great anxiety when we were having dinner at a restaurant on broadcast-network movie nights, because we didn’t always return home in time to catch it from the beginning… an especially great loss WRT the Bond films.
I can remember when The Million Dollar Movie ran the same film all day long. Heck, I’m old enough to remember the neighbors all getting together to watch Bonanza. IN COLOR. The biggest night in TV that I can remember was the last episode of The Fugitive. The streets were empty.
The earliest movie i can remember watching as a kid was Psycho. As a 7 or 8 yr old boy it was tough enough for Mom to make me a take a bath. Mom said it was next to impossible to make me clean up after that movie.
It’s actually still strange to me to turn on the TV on a weekend afternoon and see a fairly recent box-office hit playing. “Man, I just paid to see that two years ago in the theater!”
Remember the 1970s and before, when if you didn’t catch it in the theater you were out of luck until it aired (cut up into commercials and censored) on TV? I still remember the dubbing of Smokey and the Bandit for instance, Gleason’s cursing as flawlessly altered as Slughorn’s memory in Half Blood Prince:
“I’M GONNA BAH-BEE-CUE YO’R HEAD-IN-MOL- ASS -ES!”
And I also remember plenty of cursing in my house because that would be the night a cousin called or the lights went off for 10 minutes or the dog had to be taken to the vet or whatever.
Also, during the 70s (from what I remember and from what I still have in possession) the TV Guide Fall Preview editions would show what movies were coming on that year for each network. So, you could tell which movies were finally coming to tv.
Then you might like this promo from 1967 featuring the “NBC Penguin” that begins at the 3:13 mark.