The CBS Late Movie is a CBS television series (later known as CBS Late Night) that aired during the 1970s and 1980s. The program ran in most American television markets from 11:30 p.m. (ET/PT) until 2:30 a.m. or later, on weeknights. A single announcer (in the early years, CBS staff announcer Norm Stevens) voiced the introduction and commercial bumpers for each program, but there was no host per se, or closing credits besides those of the night's presentation. (The bumpers announcing the stars of the movie rotated names, two or three at a time, so more of the players would be mentioned.)
The program was launched following the cancellation of The Merv Griffin Show, which aired as part of the network's late night lineup from 1969 to 1972, and went on to have a long run in first-run syndication after Griffin decided to end his contract with CBS before it could cancel the talk show.
From 1972 to 1984, "So Old, So Young", composed by CBS West Coast musical director Morton Stevens and which also served as the theme for CBS' prime time movies until 1978, served as the program's theme music.
Background
Until 1969, CBS programming had never ventured into the late hours. However, three years earlier, scheduling coordinators at many of the network's affiliates, who were programming old movies after nightly local newscasts, took notice of the dwindling stock of new films available for acquisition. In fact, a 1966 poll of CBS affiliates revealed that approximately 80% of local outlets were demanding the network "supply a late evening entertainment show Mondays through Fridays" to fill the growing void in newer films.Adams, Val. "CBS Considers Late Night Show: Shortage of Films May Spur Competition for 'Tonight'." New York Times. (July 18, 1966): p. 55. Thus, CBS tentatively targeted the spring of 1968 as the premiere date for a new network late night series. But CBS spokespersons admitted they "did not know whether its show would be similar to others, but it [was] hopeful of devising something different" from the usual talk format exemplified by Johnny Carson's Tonight Show on NBC or Joey Bishop, who was about to bring his own brand of chat to ABC audiences.Adams, Val. "CBS to Develop 11:30 P.M. Entertainment Series." New York Times. (January 12, 1967): p. 79.
In 1967, at its annual convention, CBS met with 750 affiliate executives and told them the network could provide a Carson-style late night program by the following spring—but only if 85% of station-owners would commit to airing it. Otherwise, the financing required for such a production would prove cost-prohibitive. No official poll was taken among the executives, however, and this may have been due to the fact that in 1966 when a similar offer was dangled before affiliates, only 70% of CBS stations desired a late-evening talk show.Gent, George. "Channel 5 to Televise a Heart Operation June 25." New York Times. (June 8, 1967): p. 95. Yet in 1969, this is just what was offered to them in the person of Merv Griffin. But despite his success as a daytime television phenomenon, Griffin's CBS ratings could never compete with Johnny Carson's consistently high audience numbers. Thus, in pulling the plug on Griffin in early 1972, CBS committed its late night programming to classic feature films as well as the debut of more recent theatrical fare.
This move proved an effective ploy because two months after The CBS Late Movie premiered, the Nielsen ratings recorded that it had drawn a larger audience than The Tonight Show.Gent, George. "CBS doubles late-night audience." Corpus Christi Caller-Times. (April 23, 1972): Section H, p. 5. One CBS executive had a simple explanation for this sudden (though short-lived) good fortune: "People just like to watch movies."
The CBS Late Movie/Late Night block, however, was not always cleared by every affiliate of the network; in several markets, the block was either delayed by one hour from its regularly scheduled time (most notably in the Central and Mountain time zones), picked up by a local independent station (including those that later affiliated with the Fox network), or not seen at all in certain cities. Those stations that did not carry CBS Late Night instead broadcast movies from their own libraries and/or their own lineup of off-network syndicated sitcoms, drama reruns, and first-run syndication products.
A large factor in the programming decisions of many CBS affiliates electing not to clear CBS Late Night (or delaying it) was due to head-to-head competition with NBC's The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, and starting in 1980, ABC News' Nightline. ABC themselves went with a similar format to CBS Late Night, with Wide World of Entertainment, which later gave way to ABC Late Night, which consisted of reruns of that network's prime time series, original movies, and some first-run programming. Preemptions and delays of the block by CBS affiliates increased during the 1980s, and into the early 1990s, as the syndication market began to grow more, and several stations deciding it would be more financially beneficial to air syndicated programming, thus keeping all advertising revenue for themselves. The debut of The Pat Sajak Show in January 1989 gained some affiliates back to the CBS Late Night lineup; however, some CBS affiliates elected to air The Arsenio Hall Show in syndication instead; in the case of CBS' Chicago station, WBBM-TV, both shows aired back-to-back after the late newscasts.
It was not until 1999, when the final stations agreed to carry The Late Late Show in its default time slot, that CBS' late night programming (excluding Nightwatch/Up to the Minute) was cleared across the entire network. Even before that, full clearance of the Late Show with David Letterman across the network (which premiered in August 1993) wouldn't happen until the end of 1994.
History
1972–1976 First airing on February 14, 1972, The CBS Late Movie initially ran titles from a new package of MGM films that had not been previously televised. These included the Richard Chamberlain courtroom drama Twilight of Honor (1963), the original version of the sci-fi classic Village of the Damned (1960), Sidney Lumet's military prison film entry The Hill (1965), as well as two installments from the Margaret Rutherford-Miss Marple series Murder Most Foul (1964) and Murder at the Gallop (1963). CBS' new anthology also offered packages of 1950s Warner Bros. and MGM films that, up until then, had been run only on local and independent stations but never on a network. These included the Burt Lancaster medieval action-picture The Flame and the Arrow (1950), the Randolph Scott western Fort Worth (1951), and the Richard Widmark military drama Take the High Ground! (1953). But Warners also made available a new package to viewers that showcased the TV premieres of Visconti's controversial anti-Fascist work The Damned (1969), the Beau Bridges outback adventure Adam's Woman (1969) and the Hammer-horror Christopher Lee entry, Dracula Has Risen from the Grave (1969).
As mentioned above, the first few weeks of The CBS Late Movie proved a winner with late night television audiences. Here is the lineup of feature films that initially drew viewers away from Johnny Carson and the rest of CBS' late night competition:
Aqua indicates the world television premiere of the title. Yellow indicates the network premiere of a film that was previously shown for years on local and independent stations. White indicates titles that had already been run on a network but had not yet been syndicated to local outlets.
1972 Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday 02/14 - 02/18: A Patch of Blue (1965) The Anniversary (1968) Twilight of Honor (1963) The Glass Bottom Boat (1965) The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967) 02/21 - 02/25: The Priest's Wife (1969) Boys' Night Out (1962) Signpost to Murder (1964) Trog (1970) Village of the Damned (1960) 02/28 - 03/03: The Damned (1969) Please Don't Eat the Daisies (1960) Torpedo Run (1958) The Law and Jake Wade (1958) Girl Happy (1965) 03/06 - 03/10: Children of the Damned (1964) The Last Challenge (1967) Sol Madrid (1968) The Sandpiper (1965) Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1969) 03/13 - 03/17: Penelope (1966) The Venetian Affair (1967) Come Fly with Me (1963) Terror on a Train (1953) Around the World Under the Sea (1966) 03/20 - 03/24: Doctor, You've Got to Be Kidding! (1967) Kenner (1969) Take the High Ground! (1953) The Green Slime (1968) The Biggest Bundle of Them All (1968) 03/27 - 03/31: Harum Scarum (1965) Side Street (1950) The World, the Flesh and the Devil (1959) A Global Affair (1964) Where the Boys Are (1960) 04/03 - 04/07: Made in Paris (1966) Crooks and Coronets (1969) The Alphabet Murders (1965) In the Cool of the Day (1963) The Power (1968) 04/10 - 04/14: The Flame and the Arrow (1950) An American in Paris (1951) Cry of the Hunted (1953) Three Bites of the Apple (1967) Tribute to a Bad Man (1956) 04/17 - 04/21: Paris Does Strange Things (1956) Love Is Better Than Ever (1952) Grounds for Marriage (1951) Watch the Birdie (1950) Code Two (1953) 04/24 - 04/28: Night Into Morning (1951) Murder Most Foul (1964) Bedevilled (1955) Advance to the Rear (1964) The Lost Continent (1968) 05/01 - 05/05: Battle Beneath the Earth (1967) The Subterraneans (1960) Jack of Diamonds (1967) Mail Order Bride (1964) Westward the Women (1951)
As the graph above indicates, films that had never before been shown on television proliferated during The CBS Late Movies first couple of weeks. But later on in this period, older films that had been run previously on local stations began to increase in number. This may help explain the decline in audience that occurred a few months after the program's initial telecasts.
Also televised during The CBS Late Movies first five years were repeats of made-for-TV movies previously seen on CBS and other networks (including some that first appeared as an ABC Movie of the Week), and movies not well-suited for prime time due to content. (Violence was often the main factor, with true crime stories and police drama, and occasionally controversial subject matter, or strong suspense, horror, or sci-fi themes.) Among these were The Abominable Dr. Phibes, its sequel Dr. Phibes Rises Again, and Theatre of Blood (all three of which starred Vincent Price), Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde, The Valley of Gwangi, 7 Faces of Dr. Lao, The Creeping Flesh (with the horror team of Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee), Asylum, Baron Blood, Frogs, the killer-rats-on-the-loose film Willard and its sequel Ben.
Richard Burton's Doctor Faustus, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and The Monkees' Head made their network television debut on this series, as did such lower-budget schlock horror films as The Giant Spider Invasion and Night of the Lepus, the latter of which featured giant rabbits on the loose, becoming a source of embarrassment for one of its stars, Star Trek actor DeForest Kelley, who refused to discuss the film later in interviews.
Well-known theatrical movies were also occasionally featured, such as the 1951 Show Boat (which had made its network TV debut on NBC in 1972, and was shown on CBS as both a Thanksgiving and Fourth of July special), the David Lean Great Expectations (1946), and a severely edited 75-minute version of the David Lean Oliver Twist (1948). Some films were seen in two parts over two nights, such as The Dirty Dozen and Grand Prix. Another older film that was featured was the 1939 version of the Sherlock Holmes story The Hound of the Baskervilles, starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce.
In 1975, repeats of episodes from the NBC Mystery Movie were added to the mix; the first of these was Banacek, which made its CBS Late Movie debut on January 7, 1975. However, these episodes were sometimes cut to fit into the 60-minute program frame (excluding time for commercials and public service announcements), especially on nights that they were paired up with another 60-minute drama.