Looking Back at "The 4:30 Movie"

If you grew up in the 1970s, well before the days of DVD, VHS, cable, and internet streaming, and long before almost every movie or TV show was a click away, you had to watch your favorite genre movies when they were shown on regular TV. For science-fiction and horror fans in the New York area, this meant viewing programs like Chiller Theater on WPIX and Creature Features on WNEW, but there was another place to catch films like the Planet of the Apes saga, The Omega Man, Godzilla vs. the Thing, and The Blob. It was a show where you could see one of these films each weekday after you got home from school! Of course, I’m talking about WABC’s The 4:30 Movie. This much beloved weekday afternoon movie showcase ran from 1968 until 1981. The 4:30 Movie began as a two-hour program, but about a year into its run, settled into its more famous 90 minute format.

The 4:30 Movie would often broadcast theme weeks dedicated to a particular actor, genre, or film series, so there would be a Jerry Lewis Week, Elvis Presley Week, John Wayne Week, Beach Party Week, or Secret Agent Week. But what really made The 4:30 Movie beloved by genre fans of a certain age were things like Planet of the Apes Week, Vincent Price Week, or the ever popular Monster Week. After doing your homework, you could plunk down in front of your TV, and see Charlton Heston in Soylent Green, Ray Harryhausen’s incredible stop-motion creations in Mysterious Island, or giant monsters terrorizing Japan while battling it out in Frankenstein Conquers The World. The local editions of TV Guide used to run a lot of clever and often humorous ads for the movies running during those theme weeks.

 

The 4:30 Movie was an essential component in my development as a film fan, and it helped shape and inform my love of movies. As a devotee of fantastic films, The 4:30 Movie was the place where I first got to see movies like the Roger Corman helmed Poe adaptations, such as The Pit and the Pendulum, the original The Fly, the Hammer thriller The Gorgon with Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, and Journey To The Center of the Earth with James Mason, which like many films with longer running times, was split into two parts. Because of the 90 minute format of the program, most movies were edited to fit into that time frame. But if a film had an even longer running time, it would be split into two parts. The second part would begin the next day with an off screen narrator recapping the events of part one over the film's credits, and the movie would then start about fifteen minutes to half an hour from the close of the previous day’s installment.

The 4:30 Movie wasn’t just about sci-fi, fantasy and horror films. You could check out classics like The Great Escape, Ben-Hur, and indulge in other theme weeks, including Caper Week, Romance Week, Suspense Week and Western Week. The program also screened the TV movies compiled from the short-lived Planet of the Apes TV series, featuring new introductions filmed by Roddy McDowall, who had played Galen in the show, and had portrayed Cornelius and Caesar in the Apes films. That was worth planning your afternoon around! For a burgeoning film buff like myself, The 4:30 Movie was a go-to destination to see movies back in the day. It was a little sad to see the show end its run in 1981, when the expansion of local TV newscasts and the expanding cable and home video market took its toll on the broadcast of movies by local stations. You can watch the program’s memorable and iconic opening of The 4:30 Movie following this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2es-lfRSDOI.