Bullitt

The post about the Grand Prix movie reminded me...When I was growing up in the 70's there was no such thing as DVD's or even VCR's (well maybe there was but we certainly didn't have one!) Heck, I don't even think there was "cable" tv.

All I remember was scanning the newspaper once a week to see the TV listings and for some reason my favorite movie Bullitt was only occassionally played in the middle of the night, 1 am or 2 am or some crazy time like that... It was always a treat to see the listing and staying up to watch it.

Do you remember those days?

Yep. I grew up in New York, so in the pre-cable days we got more than just ABC, NBC and CBS. If you were lucky, you'd catch Bullitt or the Blues Brothers on channel 5, 9 or 11.

Omce a year I'd stay up to watch Convoy

There would be a bunch of Crazy Eddie commercials: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivhRPiQueaE&feature=related

TV Movie intros: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWxylm5RyVc&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSE2DOeJ27E&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnX00UuHJFA&feature=related

Then the station would sign off http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0l8wYx27tYk&feature=related

Yep, found the same with American Graffiti. It started at something like 11pm and I wanted it on tape and edited to leave out the commercials. Starting and stopping the tape for the next three hours or so produced a pretty good version. Still have the tape.

I remember my twin sisters and I would grab the Sunday paper and scan the TV Guide to see what movies were going to be on that week. I would stay up late to watch an old Dean Martin/Jerry Lewis movie only to fall asleep and miss the end.

My parents were strict and did not allow a TV on with dinner. I remember once we were allowed to push our 19" TV (with wimpy brass plated bar TV stand) into the kitchen to watch "The Wizard of Oz" during dinner since that movie only played once a year and we didn't want to miss it.

My parents would let me stay up and watch Kelly's Heroes when it would come on, usually late at night and seemingly right after school started back up.

jhaas wrote:

That is some tasty bourbon.

Don't forget the old B movies, that was late nite TV back then. Tons of old cowboy flicks. Only a few old car guy movies. Anybody remember Corky Curtis? Only saw it a cpl times back then... and never to be seen again.

I'm almost 50, and I don't remember a time when there wasn't cable. We had it early up here.

Soft core, uncut R rated movies, and just about anything was on the networks. Now that's only on specialty channels.

Zomby woof wrote: I'm almost 50, and I don't remember a time when there wasn't cable. We had it early up here. Soft core, uncut R rated movies, and just about anything was on the networks. Now that's only on specialty channels.

Cable TV started its availability in the 40's!! The first time we had cable TV, it had this control for the channel changer:

that was the 80's though.

I scored a couple copies of McQueen's Bullitt on DVD in the $5 movie bin at Wallyworld a couple weeks ago.

I picked up Bullit on blue ray a few months ago for about $10. I love it. Being that I live in San Francisco I like to try to find the car chase route. BTW that route is completely impossible from a continuity standpoint. There are a few intersections that I cannot drive through without hearing the Mustang's V8 burble. I am pretty sure I can guess where the Charger blew up in the gas tank, it is office buildings now. What I really want is the original soundtrack from that movie. Someone remade it, but I heard it is weak.

I think there's a video on YouTube that shows "Then and Now" shots of the Bullit filming locations.

I first saw "Duel" on the late night movie. Man, was that an edge of the seat experience sitting in the dark at 1am watching that for the first time. Very cool.

GTwannaB wrote: I picked up...What I really want is the original soundtrack from that movie. Someone remade it, but I heard it is weak.

I bought the original soundtrack awhile back on CD at a CD store, not sure where it is now, Lalo Schifrin composed the music, he also did most if not all of the Dirty Harry movies and many other assorted other movies and shows from the 70's, apparently he is still with us,

http://www.schifrin.com/main.htm

It was pretty good, not sure if its still available.

What I meant in my original post was that we had the basic local cable stations but that was about it.

http://www.schifrin.com/products.htm

Click on the link to hear the theme song!

my little one (maybe even a half a) horse town had cable as early as the early '60's... we had it 'cause Dad wanted {PBS) and we lived on the "back" side of a mountain and couldn't get it on the little circle UHF antenna

In reply to David S. Wallens:

Channel 11 was WPIX in PHL and it was non-stop re-runs of the Munsters, Gilligan, Flipper, Gunsmoke and The Beverly Hillbillies.

plance1 wrote: The post about the Grand Prix movie reminded me...When I was growing up in the 70's there was no such thing as DVD's or even VCR's (well maybe there was but we certainly didn't have one!) Heck, I don't even think there was "cable" tv. All I remember was scanning the newspaper once a week to see the TV listings and for some reason my favorite movie Bullitt was only occassionally played in the middle of the night, 1 am or 2 am or some crazy time like that... It was always a treat to see the listing and staying up to watch it. Do you remember those days?

Yup, and miss em. Before the big companies got into big bidding wars for the rights to broadcast movies, they were cheap enough that a lot of stations could air movies in late night. It's probably how I fell in love with movies in the first place. At my first TV job, they were still doing that when they hired me (1982). A couple of years later, the infomercial was commonplace. The way those things work is usually that they don't pay for the air time straight out-but your station gets a cut of the profits from their sales. Notice that the same infomercial has a different phone no. for every channel it's on..that's how they can tell which station tempted the sucker (Oops! I meant "customer") to call. Didn't take the station management long to figure out that even a few pennies coming in was better than money going out. Good bye, "Will C's Red-Eye Cinema"..

EDIT: "commonplace" for "invented". I don't know when they were actually invented, and I'm not looking it up because I hate the damned things.

July 4 1984...I was 14 and I watched "The Lively Set" on WTBS. Loved it. I didn't even know what a T-bucket was until that movie. Mickey Thompson provided all the prop cars. Lots of hot rods. Like the OP said, no VCR back then so I couldn't watch it again. I managed to find it last fall on Youtube on a channel that has since been yanked due to copyright violations...needless to say I was a bit dissapointed the second time around. Good times.