The 4:30 Movie

History

The program began on January 8, 1968, in the 4:30 PM time slot under the title The Big Show, which had been used since September 16, 1963, when WABC first aired afternoon movies at 5:00 PM. The time slot shifted to 6:00 PM from January 3, 1966, to January 5, 1968, under the title The 6 O'Clock Movie. For its first twenty months at 4:30, the show ran two hours, but after Eyewitness News expanded to an hour on September 8, 1969, the movie program was reduced to 90 minutes, remaining so for the rest of its run.

Beginning in autumn 1972, the program was preempted once a month on Wednesdays during school months for the ABC Afterschool Special. The off-camera host and announcer was Scott Vincent from January 1968 to December 1978; during his illness in 1979, Gilbert Hodges filled in at Vincent's request. The theme music, "Big Show Theme," was composed by Walter Raim and commissioned by ABC in 1968 for WABC-TV, later used by other ABC-owned stations.

Equivalents in other cities

On WLS-TV in Chicago, the show was called The 3:30 Movie, debuting under that title in September 1968 after earlier airing as The Big Show as early as 1962; from July 21, 1980, until its final airing on July 26, 1984, it aired a half-hour earlier as The 3:00 Movie. KABC-TV in Los Angeles debuted its weekday movie show on August 31, 1964, at 6 PM as The 6 O'Clock Movie, moving to 6:30 PM as The Six-Thirty Movie from September 13, 1971, through March 29, 1974, then becoming The 3:30 Movie on April 1, 1974, until its last airing on September 12, 1980.

WXYZ-TV in Detroit used the title The 4:30 Movie from May 20, 1968, until September 20, 1976, when it moved to 4:00 PM as The 4:00 Movie, lasting until October 22, 1982. KGO-TV in San Francisco had The 6 O'Clock Movie until 1971, then The Six-Thirty Movie through 1974, and later The 3:30 Movie, cancelled in 1986. Most of these stations originally used The Big Show title before adopting the later names. From 1982 to 1983, WOR-TV in New York ran an unrelated program also called The 4:30 Movie.

List of The 4:30 Movies theme weeks

Theme weeks included Vincent Price Week, Elvis Presley Week (sometimes combined with The Beatles and Elvis Presley Week), John Wayne Week, Raquel Welch Week, Ann-Margret Week, Martin & Lewis Week, Dean Martin Week, Jerry Lewis Week, Bob Hope Week, Marilyn Monroe Week, Sidney Poitier Week, Anthony Quinn Week, Susan Hayward Week, Troy Donahue Week, Frank Sinatra Week, Burt Lancaster Week, James Stewart Week, Tony Curtis Week, Steve McQueen Week (with The Great Escape shown over three days), Doris Day Week, Tony Randall Week, Paul Newman Week, Bing Crosby Week, Cary Grant Week, Fonda Week (Henry and Jane), Natalie Wood Week, Charlton Heston Week, Burt Reynolds Week, Jack Lemmon Week, Robert Mitchum Week, Elizabeth Taylor Week, Richard Burton Week, William Holden Week, Gidget Week, Lassie Week, Matt Helm Week, Our Man Flint Week, Planet of the Apes Week (with the first film divided over two days), Monster Week, Beach Party Week, Fantasy Week, Western Week, Epic Week, Adventure Week, Laugh-a-Thon Week, Sci-Fi Week, Skeleton Week, Strange Worlds Week, Secret Agent Week, Swinger Week, Supernatural Week, A Fistful of Heroes Week, International Women's Week, Suspense Week, Bad Girls Week, Presidential Week, Romance Week, Caper Week, War Week, Love and Marriage Week, Edgar Allan Poe Week, Ben-Hur Week, How the West Was Won Week, QB VII Week, and Bridge on the River Kwai Week. The program also devoted two weeks to miniseries such as Roots, Rich Man, Poor Man, and its sequel.