I don’t remember it being on two nights in a row. What I remember was that it was always shown on either Easter Sunday or Thanksgiving day. I remember specifically that our extended family would gather at somebody’s house for a party, and all us kids would be rounded up and “allowed” to watch Wizard of Oz on the TV in a back bedroom.
And I didn’t realize until years later that this was just an excuse to get us kids occupied for several hours while the adults kicked back and got good & drunk!
I used to watch The Wizard of Oz on TV in the early 1960s (Not only was it the only time you could see it – it was one of the movies they showed in color. We had to go over my aun’t house to see it in color). I don’t recall it EVER being shown spread out over two nights. It ain’t long enough, not even when you have host segments at the commercials (with Dick van Dyke or Danny Kaye).
Movies I do remember being split in two were:
**The Guns of Navarone
The Great Escape
Spartacus**
I don’t remember West Side Story being in two parts – I’m pretty sure that ran in one night.
and I don’t recall The Ten Commamdnents ever being shown over two nights, despite its length. In fact, when I first saw Ten Commandments circa 1970 I had to go see it in a movie theater – it hadn’t been released to TV yet. That didn’t happen until the late 1970s.
I get the feeling you’re about my age, and if you grew up in WI then that about settles it. Wonder how my wife’s and my memories got scrambled. Maybe in the Berenstein Universe, it was split (and longer).
My family didn’t have COLOR TV until after I moved out, but contrary to most, I thought the entire movie was in color. Why wouldn’t I? Everything else that was in color was all color. The opening credits said “Color by TECHNICOLOR”. I was more surprised that the Kansas scenes weren’t.
I do. To the list, I’d also add Cleopatra and Ben-Hur.
We watched it every year. It was a big event. I don’t recall what time of year it was. I remember it being hosted by an announcer. I don’t recall it ever being split over two nights.
Imagine what if the movie were accompanied by Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon?
Also shown over 2 nights:
Gone with the Wind
The Godfather
Superman
Huh, from Wikipedia it looks like The Ten Commandments usually aired on a single evening.
Also note that ABC started airing it in 1973.
Never on 2 nights, and always around Easter.
Had to be TG, because the only thing I liked about The Wiz was that the Rankin Bass specials were not far behind.
From the earliest airings through the 1960s, “Oz” played on CBS, originally sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and later around Easter. CBS often tried these lame wrap-arounds featuring some of their CBS stars. For a while there it was Dick Van Dyke and some kids, and then later Danny Kaye, who had a variety show on CBS at the time. NBC aquired the rights in the 1970s for a few years, and committed pure heresy by cutting the movie here and there, as someone mentioned. The cuts I remember were the prologue in the beginning (after the credits and before we see Dorothy and Toto running home), the Professor Marvel segment, at which a commercial always was aired after Marvel says “Poor little kid I hope she gets home all right.” They cut it before that, when Dorothy shouts “Goodbye Professor Marvel, and thanks.” What did they save there, about 15 seconds? Then right when she arrives in Munchkinland, and there’s a long pan shot, they cut about half of that and picked up when she says the line about not being in Kansas anymore. To make these cuts was stupid, as anyone who’d seen the film year after year saw them immediately and was pissed off, but I did think that they were made by someone who was probably ordered to do so, and who made them carefully. When CBS reaquired the rights, they put it back together just as it had been, and thankfully, dispensed with the lame wrap-arounds and just showed the movie.
I never saw “Oz” in color until me and my girlfriend (also an Oz fan) went to see it at a local movie theatre, in what was called an “MGM Kids Matinee.” The funny thing is, the adults in the audience far outnumbered the kids!
I think it must have been between 1970 and 1973. I know in 1969 the whole extended family went to my great aunt’s house for the moon landing because she was the one with a color TV. And in 1973 I graduated from high school, and I know we had one before then.
Your answer was always with you even though in all the adventure you didn’t remember it: TV guide.
I have been looking on ebay for old tv guides for my region for awhile, and having some success.
I, unlike Homer Simpson, did not save all my old TV Guides. I wish I had. I’ve collected some over the years, but no where near enough.
Because I have a second question about run time (UFO) that is probably equally hard to answer. But without a WI edition TV guide(s) from fall 1970, I don’t think I can answer.
I didn’t save any either. You had only one wisconsin edition til 1973. I found a 1967 F troop cover for $23 just now. Wisc. is going to be harder, but you just have to watch.
You can learn a lot from them including run times some times.
A few others I remember being divided up (at least in their initial broadcast network airing):
Lawrence of Arabia
Dr. Zhivago
The Greatest Story Ever Told
Giant
Bridge on the River Kwai
A Bridge Too Far
Add Ben Hur, Spartacus and Cleopatra to the list.
I would sometimes skip the first night of Bridge on the River Kwai, but never the second night since that’s where all the action occurred.