The CBS Friday Night Late Movie
By Greg Stevens
The Channel 2 Friday night Late Movie on WCBS in New York was different from the other horror movie showcases that monster fans so fondly remember. It wasn’t a Shock Theater-type program; there was no host. It wasn’t even Chiller Theater or Creature Features, programs clearly created to broadcasting horror movies.
No, the eye network’s Friday Late Movie was simply one of many of their late night movie slots. Having no late night talk show like NBC’s Tonight Show or regular late night programming like ABC’s Wide World of Entertainment, CBS relied instead on simply showing movies – a wide range of movies: crime dramas, comedies, musicals, etc.
However, around 1973, horror movie aficionados couldn’t help but notice that many of the CBS Friday night Late Movie selections turned out to be horror movies. What’s more, they weren’t the familiar selections that made the rounds between the independent stations (WNEW, WPIX or WWOR). Instead, CBS got many “fresh pickings,” notably some Hammer, Amicus and AIP titles that made their tristate area debut right here on Channel 2 (among them, “Count Yorga, Vampire”).
Speaking for myself, I can remember eagerly flipping through each week’s new TV Guide to see if next Friday night’s movie would be a horror or science fiction title. At first, it would be frustratingly hit or miss. One week would be “The Valley of Gwangi,” but the next week would be “The Mini-Skirt Mob.” There was no guarantee of monster movie thrills. Soon, however, each Friday night turned out to be a horror movie – and usually a good one that I had never seen. For instance, although I had watched “Revenge of Frankenstein” many times, Hammer’s original take on the Mary Shelley tale just never seemed to turn up on TV. But eventually “Curse of Frankenstein” did surface, airing on CBS’s Late Movie on Friday, June 28, 1974. And, wouldn’t you know it, my family picked then to take us all on vacation! (Sigh…)
But for those who stuck around, there were plenty of great late night thrills to be had on CBS back then. Here’s a list of the titles of particular interest to monster fans; unless noted, all aired on CBS on Friday nights:
March 2, 1973 – 11:50 p.m. – “House of Usher”
June 22, 1973 – 11:30 p.m. – “The Seven Faces of Dr. Lao”
August 10, 1973 – 11:30 p.m. – “Cry of the Banshee”
August 17, 1973 – 11:30 p.m. – “Something Evil”
September 14, 1973 – 11:30 p.m. – “Trog”
October 12, 1973 – 11:30 p.m. – “Valley of Gwangi”
October 26, 1973 – 11:30 p.m. – “Frogs”
Around this time, horror movies really started to predominate on Friday nights. In fact, it became unusual when that week’s selection wasn’t a title from that genre.
November 16, 1973 – 11:30 p.m. – “The Creeping Flesh”
November 23, 1973 – 11:30 p.m. – “Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed”
November 30, 1973 – 12:10 a.m. – “Around the World Under the Sea”
December 14, 1973 – 11:30 p.m. – “Seven Faces of Dr. Lao”
December 21, 1973 – 11:30 p.m. – “Battle Beneath the Earth”
January 4, 1974 – 11:30 p.m. – “Murders in the Rue Morgue” (1971)
January 11, 1974 – 11:30 p.m. – “Village of the Damned”
January 18, 1974 – 11:30 p.m. – “Genesis II”
January 25, 1974 – 11:30 p.m. – “The Green Slime”
February 8, 1974 – 11:30 p.m. – “Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde”
February 22, 1974 – 11:30 p.m. – “The Abominable Dr. Phibes”
March 8, 1974 – 11:30 p.m. – “The Blood Beast Terror”
March 22, 1974 – 11:30 p.m. – “Scream and Scream Again”
Tuesday, March 26, 1974 – 11:30 p.m. – “The Devil’s Own”
April 5, 1974 – 11:30 p.m. – “THX 1138”
May 3, 1974 – 11:30 p.m. – “The House That Dripped Blood”
May 10, 1974 – 11:30 p.m. – “The Brotherhood of Satan”
May 24, 1974 – 1:30 a.m. – “The Brides of Fu Manchu”
May 31, 1974 – 11:30 p.m. – “The Fearless Vampire Killers”
June 7, 1974 – 11:30 p.m. – “Moon Zero Two”
June 14, 1974 – 11:30 p.m. – “The House That Screamed”
June 21, 1974 – 12 midnight – “The Haunted Palace”
June 28, 1974 – 11:30 p.m. – “The Curse of Frankenstein”
July 12, 1974 – 11:30 p.m. – “Dracula, Prince of Darkness”
July 26, 1974 – 11:30 p.m. – “House of Usher”
August 2, 1974 – 11:30 p.m. – “The Premature Burial”
Tuesday, August 6, 1974 – 11:30 p.m. – “The Face of Fu Manchu”
August 9, 1974 – 11:30 p.m. – “Dracula Has Risen from the Grave”
August 16, 1974 – 11:30 p.m. – “Count Yorga, Vampire”
August 23, 1974 – 11:30 p.m. – “Scream and Scream Again”
August 30, 1974 – 12:10 a.m. – “The Thing with Two Heads”
September 6, 1974 – 11:30 p.m. – “Genesis II”
September 13, 1974 –11:40 p.m. – “Night of the Lepus”
September 20, 1974 – 11:30 p.m. – “Frogs”
You would think that October would be an unusual month not to show horror movies, but that’s exactly what the CBS Late Night movie did. The only genre title that popped up here was a late, late showing on a Sunday:
Sunday, October 13, 1974 – 1:20 a.m. – “Brides of Fu Manchu”
Hereafter, the Friday night’s Late Night movie selection became a bit more on-again, off-again in regards to horror and science fiction titles.
November 15, 1974 – 11:30 p.m. – “Beware! The Blob”
December 6, 1974 – 11:30 p.m. – “Trog”
December 13, 1974 – 11:30 p.m. – “The Valley of Gwangi”
January 23, 1975 – 11:50 p.m. – “The Norliss Tapes”
February 7, 1975 – 11:18 p.m. – “The Bat People”
February 21, 1975 – 11:30 p.m. – “Ben”
March 7, 1975 – 11:30 p.m. – “The Black Scorpion”
March 14, 1975 – 11:30 p.m. – “The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll”
April 11, 1975 – 11:30 p.m. – “It” (1967)
April 18, 1975 – 11:30 p.m. – “The Mummy” (1959)
April 25, 1975 – 11:35 p.m. – “Willard”
May 16, 1975 – 11:30 p.m. – “Gargoyles”
Horror movies disappeared from CBS’s late night line-up for a good part of the summer of 1975. The only title of interest to the Monster Kid on late night CBS in June and July was, again, a Christopher Lee Fu Manchu title:
Monday, July 31, 1975 – 11:30 p.m. – “The Face of Fu Manchu”
Horror movies disappeared from CBS’s late night line-up for a good part of the summer of 1975. The only title of interest to the Monster Kid on late night CBS in June and July was, again, a Christopher Lee Fu Manchu title:
Fortunately, August saw a welcome return of monster movies, although airings would still be intermittent (usually only one or two a month).
August 1, 1975 – 11:30 p.m. – “The Black Scorpion”
August 8, 1975 – 11:30 p.m. – “It”
Thursday, August 28, 1975 – 11:30 p.m. – “The Dunwich Horror”
September 19, 1975 – 11:30 p.m. – TV movie: “The Devil’s Daughter”
October 17, 1975 – 11:40 p.m. – “Night of the Lepus”
October 31, 1975 – 11:30 p.m. – “The Horror at 37,000 Feet”
November 7, 1975 – 11:30 p.m. – “The Clones”
January 2, 1976 – 11:30 p.m. – “Dr. Phibes Rises Again”
January 2, 1976 – 11:30 p.m. – “UFO Target Earth”
February 6, 1976 – 12 midnight – TV movie: “Scream of the Wolf”
February 13, 1976 – 11:30 p.m. – “Killer Bees”
Another horror/sci-fi lull, broken again by… what else? Fu Manchu! “The world shall hear from me again…” But even though CBS scheduled at least a few horror and sci-fi selections a month, they were now generally scattered throughout the week.
Friday, April 2, 1976 – 1:30 a.m. – “The Brides of Fu Manchu”
Wednesday, April 21, 1976 – 11:30 p.m. – “Project X”
Friday, April 30, 1976 – 11:45 p.m. – “Earth II”
Tuesday, May 25, 1976 – 12 midnight – “Silent Night, Blood Night”
Thursday, May 27, 1976 – 11:45 p.m. – “The Seven Faces of Dr. Lao”
Thursday, June 3, 1976 – 11:30 p.m. – “The Brotherhood of Satan”
Friday, June 11, 1976 11:30 p.m. – “Frogs”
Tuesday, June 15, 1976 – 11:30 p.m. – “The Fearless Vampire Killers”
Wednesday, June 16, 1976 – 11:30 p.m. – “The Spirit Is Willing”
Wednesday, June 23, 1976 – 11:30 p.m. – “Baron Blood”
Thursday, July 8, 1976 – 11:30 p.m. – “Willard”
Tuesday, July 13, 1976 – 12:30 a.m. – “Night of the Lepus”
Friday, July 16, 1976 – 11:30 p.m. – “House of Dark Shadows”
Wednesday, July 21, 1976 – 11:30 p.m. – “Dracula” (1973)
Friday, August 20, 1976 – 11:30 p.m. – “Asylum”
Thursday, August 24, 1976 – 11:30 p.m. – “Night of the Lepus”
Friday, October 25, 1976 – 11:30 p.m. – “The Horror at 37,000 Feet”
Friday, December 3, 1976 – 11:30 p.m. – “Captain Nemo and the Underwater City”
Tuesday, December 14, 1976 – 12:30 a.m. – “The Hound of the Baskervilles” (1939)
By this time, CBS was scheduling repeats of Kojak a couple of times a week in the 11:30 p.m. timeslot. They also started to add reruns from NBC old “mystery movie wheel” – TV movie length episodes of Columbo, McMillan and Wife, McCloud and Banacek.
A couple of notable airings in the coming months were:
Sunday, May 13, 1977 – 1:30 a.m. – “Five Million Years to Earth”
Monday, June 13, 1977 – 12:30 a.m. – “Night of Dark Shadows”
Unfortunately, horror movies were no longer a regular feature of the Channel 2’s after hours lineup. For a while, however, the CBS Late Night Movie, especially its Friday edition, was a great source of monster movie thrills, giving fans a chance to see many important genre titles for the very first time. For that, fans will always be appreciative.
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Info on the CBS Late Movie – its start, general format, etc. – can be found online at HERE.
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