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The 4:30 Movie

post #1 of 20
5/7/09 at 5:02pm
Thread Starter 

(Click me for a blast of nostalgia)

If you're over 25 and grew up around the New York metro area, you'll probably remember this cultural institution. Until they axed it in 1981, every afternoon New York's ABC station, Channel 7 would offer up all kinds of great flicks. Though, if you're like me, you'll recall most fondly the generous servings of genre films.



I chalk my formal introductions to the PLANET OF THE APES films(With APE WEEK!), OMEGA MAN, Harryhausen spectaculars, countless Vincent Price films, barrels of monster movies and disaster films that still hide in obscurity all to the program. Some films had to be engineered to fit the 90 minutes frame thus turning FANTASTIC VOYAGE and JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH into cliffhangers.

Like a reliable tutor, it was there every afternoon to expose me to all sorts of cinematic treasures, some I might not even fully grasp for years. Beyond the fantastical, I got to see weeks full of Burt Lancaster, Martin & Lewis, Bing & Elvis...and even contract a lifelong crush on Natalie Wood.

Between this and WPIX 11's Chiller Theatre, it was almost impossible to get past the age of 10 without a healthily developing appreciation for sci-fi and horror film history.

You could say it made me the man I am today.


Some choice memories include Vincent Price stuffs revenge down Robert Morley's throat, the little priestesses worshipping Mothra Superior, Raquel Welch's hottybody under attack by antibodies, "Somedays, you just can't get rid of a bomb!", always bet on Schnicklefritz, fear of commies in shiny jumpsuits gets the better of Aunt Bee and Jimmy Stewart getting that plane started, dammit!
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post #2 of 20
5/7/09 at 5:16pm
We had a similar institution up my way, thanks to WKBD-TV 50 out of Detroit. Every Saturday they would show great horror and or sci-fi flicks (the intro to the show, featuring clips from The Howling and Logan's Run used to creep me out when I was a wee one), and on Sundays we got awesome chop-socky flicks. I really lament the loss of programming like this, and am eternally grateful for those who at least make an attempt to replicate it (like Wisconsin's very own Ned the Dead and Chiller Theater).
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post #3 of 20
5/7/09 at 5:16pm
soylentgreen, My fave film in this series is not...sci-fi, it is still...My fave WWII action film...The Guns Of Naverone. Anthony Quinn, Gregory Peck, David Niven, James Darren (long before he would be on...T.J. Hooker, which is...Still my all time fave series about cops and robbers), and Irene Papas. Anthony Quinn was terrific, as was the rest of the cast as a team of specialists trying to take out...Huuuuuuuuuuuge Nazi Guns, stopping the allied fleet from rescuing their men, after their ships were sunk. I think...The Guns Of Naverone and not...The Dirty Dozen is the creme of the crop for WWII action.
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post #4 of 20
5/7/09 at 5:28pm
Damn, that brings back memories - all those ads were from TV Guide, if I'm not mistaken, back in the day.

Thanks to the 4:30 Movie, I was able to catch all sorts of "edited for television" goodness - every POTA film, every Harryhausen stop-motion extravaganza, damn near everything Godzilla, etc.

Good times!
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post #5 of 20
5/7/09 at 6:51pm
Reminds me of USA Network's Saturday Nightmares.
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post #6 of 20
5/7/09 at 7:09pm
We used to have this in the Cleveland, Ohio area in the early to mid 80s.
They used to play a bunch of old sci-fi flicks, usually concentrating on derivatives of Them! (giant rabbits, grasshoppers, iguanas.)
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post #7 of 20
5/7/09 at 7:26pm
In Phoenix we only received that kind of goodness once a week. 10:30 every Saturday morning, right as cartoons were wrapping up we'd get THE WORLD BEYOND. Godzilla movies, giant insect movies, anything sci fi. After that we'd get either an ADVENTURE THEATER or KUNG FU THEATER movie. There didn't seem to be a pattern on which one of the two we got each week.
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post #8 of 20
5/7/09 at 8:51pm
I'm pretty sure we've had this thread in the past. I remember the 4:30 movie, and I'm sure plenty of New Yorkers also recall Chiller.

I also remember the weeklong marathons they would have at 11:30 pm on (I think ) channel 11; the Frankenstein films were among my favorites - Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, Son of Frankenstein, Ghost of Frankenstein, and on Friday, Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman.
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post #9 of 20
5/7/09 at 8:53pm
I remember the 4:30 Movie fondly, and being mid-Jersey, got Dr. Schlock's Horror and Terror Theater out of Philly on Saturday mornings as well. Saw lots of good old bad movies from both cities.
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post #10 of 20
5/7/09 at 11:35pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by soylentgreen View Post
I remember being REALLY little and thinking that graphic was some kind of mutant frog.
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post #11 of 20
5/8/09 at 12:01am
Wow,This brings back memories.I also remember every Thanksgiving they would show King Kong movies followed by Godzilla ones on Friday.I think it was channel 9.
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post #12 of 20
5/8/09 at 12:25am
buddhabliss, It was...Channel 9! Also, there would also be a...Hanna Barbara marathon, usually featuring...Biiiiiiiiiiiirrrrrrrrrdman, THe Fantastic Four, The Herculoids, and Johnny Quest, etc.
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post #13 of 20
5/8/09 at 3:16pm
Thanks for sharing this, soylentgreen. I remember this series with much fondness.

Duke_fleed rightly mentions Guns of Navarone (Quinn is such a badass in that flick), but my favorite was another Alistair MacLean WWII adventure, Where Eagles Dare. Watching it split into two 90 min chapters laid the film's structure all the more bare: the first half is espionage/mystery, leading to the confrontation in the castle's massive dinning hall; the second half is basically non-stop action, with Clint in particular piling up the Wehrmacht body count.

Happily, both these films have stood the test of time -- still very enjoyable.
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post #14 of 20
5/8/09 at 3:45pm
For us in L.A., it was The 3:30 Movie, on KABC, channel 7.

I remember seeing all the sci-fi faves, but I don't know why when recalling the 3:30 movie, the first movie that came to mind was Kingdom of the Spiders, starring William "Actor" Shatner. It was shit.
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post #15 of 20
5/8/09 at 11:50pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by nekkerbee View Post
I also remember the weeklong marathons they would have at 11:30 pm on (I think ) channel 11; the Frankenstein films were among my favorites - Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, Son of Frankenstein, Ghost of Frankenstein, and on Friday, Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman.
Both 11 and 5 ran great spooky films out the wazoo! 9's WOR had numerous movie programs, as well. (Christ, even CBS 2 had the Late & Late Late Shows). It was a golden age.

Before Rupert Murdoch anschlussed it, Channel 5 was Metromedia's WNEW-TV. I've been rooting through our tons of stuff in storage to find my Channel 5 Movie Club members id card. After my personal greeting card and shout out from Do-Bee on Romper Room, that membership was my next most prestigious television-related honor.


(NY's own Miss Mary Ann...another early crush.)

Sadly, down the road, my real chance for tv fame and glory via WPIX-11's phonecall video gaming (basically Intellivision's Space Battle) was blown by a decided lag between my commands and the firing of the space ship on the screen. Pix! Pix! Pix! Pix! Pix!
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post #16 of 20
5/9/09 at 12:30am
Never had anything like that growing, or at least don't recall. But there was Monster Vision which was awesome.
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post #17 of 20
5/15/09 at 12:28pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by soylentgreen View Post
Sadly, down the road, my real chance for tv fame and glory via WPIX-11's phonecall video gaming (basically Intellivision's Space Battle) was blown by a decided lag between my commands and the firing of the space ship on the screen. Pix! Pix! Pix! Pix! Pix!
We had the same thing out here in Cali, but you had to yell POW!. It took some time, but instead of timing your shots, kids finally realized all you had to do was yell POWPOWPOWPOW and you would win. Those were the days.
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post #18 of 20
5/15/09 at 12:32pm
soylentgreen, I remember that as well...TvPix, was the name, I believe.
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post #19 of 20
5/15/09 at 12:57pm
I remember this well from my formative years. Always eager to catch The 3:30 Movie on ABC, WLS-TV channel 7 in Chicago. Planet of the Apes week was probably my favorite.
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post #20 of 20
5/15/09 at 1:02pm
I really miss local stations doing things like "Fill in the Blank" Theater. We had an Abbott and Costello Theater that ran Sunday mornings from 10 to noon, and a Tarzan Theater on Saturday afternoons. I must have seen every A&C movie at least twice.
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