Award Theatre (1970)

Country

United States

How it feels

This is a TV series that showed first-run movies on American television between 1959 and 1968 with a brief revival in 1970. It was sponsored by a beer company and aired around major holidays with limited commercial breaks.

retroepisodicnostalgicunderstatedleisurelydomesticrelaxed

What happens

Award Theatre (also known by its full title, Schaefer Award Theatre) was a recurring television showcase of major first-run motion pictures aired between 1959 and 1968, and revived briefly in 1970. In New York City, the program ran primarily on WCBS-TV (Channel 2), except for two occasions in 1970 when it was shown on WNBC-TV (Channel 4). This special series was sponsored by Schaefer Beer, and each film run under this banner was shown with only four commercial interruptions. On WCBS-TV, this show was aired in place of their usual late-night umbrella, The Late Show, while the two WNBC-TV airings in 1970 were shown in place of that station's late-night weekend movie show, Sunday Film Festival. On its original 1959–68 run, the program was scheduled at or before major holidays such as Easter, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas. For all but its first two years, Award Theatre was shown nine times a year. On the short-lived 1970 revival, it was aired once a month. For much of Award Theatre's run, its on-air host was CBS staff announcer Bill Gilliand. Award Theatre was also shown in some other major cities in the United States, such as on WCAU-TV (Channel 10) in Philadelphia, WBZ-TV (Channel 4) in Boston, KYW-TV (Channel 3, now WKYC) in Cleveland, and, in later years, WJRT-TV (Channel 12) in Flint, Michigan (where it aired Sunday mornings), during this same period. The films aired under this umbrella in those cities may or may not have been the same as in New York. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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