April 25, 2026

GUILTY AS CHARGED:

Prior to the rise of 24/7 cable news channels, and late night infomercials, local television in the 1970s and ‘80s was awash with old programming. In the 1970s, “the late show” didn’t mean David Letterman or Stephen Colbert, it meant old movies from the 1940s and ‘50s. The James Bond movies of the ‘60s, much of Alfred Hitchcock’s oeuvre from the ‘40s through the ‘60s, Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove and (less frequently) 2001: A Space Odyssey were regularly shown on local TV. Casablanca frequently aired. Christmas meant 1947’s Miracle on 34th Street. New Year’s Eve meant 1946’s It’s a Wonderful Life. Easter meant The Wizard of Oz and Ben-Hur. And then came VCR rentals in the early 1980s, which meant many of these titles were being rented as well.

Posted at 1:45 pm by Ed Driscoll