This is a surprisingly smart take I’ve never heard before! It’s true, the movies that become most central to cultural lexicon are mostly through small screen viewingshttps://twitter.com/DiscussingFilm/status/1424480855729352705 …
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yes, I’d forgotten about that but it absolutely bolsters the case
And Wizard of Oz. That was annual viewing. Not having that, I think, has made ET a movie few have seen, relatively.
How many people have ever seen The Godfather on a big screen?
IAWL’s classic status was entirely created by TV - it was a bit of a dud when first released. A lesser “classic” is “You’ve Got Mail” which made lots of money in 1998 but didn’t become part of the collective unconscious until it aired 14 times a week for 20 years.
The Wizard of Oz is another good example of this. It wasn’t a huge hit when it came out in 1939, but became a much bigger deal after CBS started showing it annually in 1956
We can even bring up, My Fair Lady, Sunset Blvd, Ace in the Hole, Singing in the Rain, Vertigo, Sabrina into the fold on this. VHS, Laser Disc, DVDs, streaming, brought these all-time greats to the masses who have an appreciation towards film art. Most of these were not hits!
My WW2 widow grandmother would loudly complain every year when we watched it, and the crux of her argument was "It was a flop when it came out, you know!"
We still just watch on TV even though we could stream easily. That and Christmas Story marathon are traditions!
For whatever reason—and this might be less true today than previously—the crucial point is that “made for TV” and silver screen reruns were qualitatively different.
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