We all have stress in our lives. The news of the world can come crashing in on us and weigh our brains down with anxiety and woe. Sometimes people feel the need to get away and escape into another world. TV is all fun and good but sometimes you just want to leave the house and sit in a darkened room with complete strangers and watch a big screen spectacle while eating popcorn, Reeces Pieces and drinking a Coke. Movies have been always been exciting. They were exiting in the first decades of the 20th century when movies first began. They are still somewhat exciting today but not as much as they were growing up the late 70’s and 80’s.

Back when I was a kid movies were a grand experience. The Strand theater in Ipswich MA where I saw many of my earliest movies cost $1.75 per ticket. There were no commercials playing before the film. Previews were a splender to behold because you couldn’t just look them up online and watch them beforehand. You could only see them at the movies. Many of the first instalments of franchises that are still impacting films today were released in this time period. They are films of the highest quality and those films are still quoted and talked about today.

If you wanted to know about a film you consulted Leonard Malton or watched Siskel and Ebert. They would tell you the good, the bad and ugly of what was just released. If you were Catholic you might consult the USCCB film reviews which had their own rating system.

A-I: General Patronage
A-II: Adults & Adolescents
A-III: Adults
L: Limited adult audience
O: Morally Offensive

Looking back 50 years and the decade that followed it, many of the films of that era have become standards of the blockbusters we have coming out today. Looking at the list I have prepared, a Gen Xer might look at a film and think, ‘Is it really that old? Am I really that old? A Generation Alpha kid might look at some of these films and think, wow some of these old movies are pretty good and are as old as my grandparents. 

So here is a reminder of your youthful viewing and your parents times past of cinema experiences.

You will also find some significant historical events, music, tv shows and books released alongside films released in theaters.

If you love movies, are a nerd, are a Catholic nerd, a non-catholic Christian nerd, love sci-fi, a gen-xer you might find this list interesting.

Please Note: Some descriptions are taken from the Creative Commons source Wikipedia.

The first decade of the Summer Blockbuster movie season starts in

1975

50 Years Ago

I was 4 years old and Kristin was approaching her 1st full year of living on planet earth.

Gerald Ford was president and St. Paul VI was pope.

Natalie Babbitt – Tuck Everlasting
is published

Pre- Summer Season

  Larry Fine of The Three Stooges
(October 4, 1902 – January 24, 1975),

February 27, 1975

20th Century Fox granted the Star Wars a budget of $5 million (equivalent to $29 million in 2024), which was later increased to $8.25 million (equivalent to $48 million).

March 15, 1975 – Terror of Mechagodzilla -It is the 15th film in the Godzilla franchise, serving as a direct sequel to the 1974 film Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla and the final entry of the franchise’s Shōwa era and the last to be directed by series co-creator Ishirō Honda before his death in 1993.

Godzilla x Kong: Supernova – March 26, 2027 –  It is a sequel to Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024) and the sixth film in the Monsterverse franchise, also serving as the 39th film of the Godzilla franchise and 14th in the King Kong franchise.

March 25, 1975 – Escape to Witch Mountain– A live action Disney Sci-Fi movie.

April 2, 1975

Pedro Pascal is born.

Pedro stars as Mr. Fantastic in The Fantastic Four: First Steps (July 25, 2025)

April 3, 1975 U.K./April 28 U.S. – Monty Python and the Holy Grail   (A-III) (PG) Comic violence and sexual references

It would be unjust to not mention one of the most beloved and quoted movies on it’s 50th anniversary. It is a cult classic film based on the Arthurian legend, written and performed by the Monty Python comedy group (Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin) and directed by Gilliam and Jones in their feature directorial debuts. It was conceived during the hiatus between the third and fourth series of their BBC Television series Monty Python’s Flying Circus.

The film was adapted as the 2005 Tony Award-winning Broadway musical Spamalot. Written primarily by Idle, the stage show offers a revised plot, while retaining many jokes from the film.^[

Peasant Woman: Well, how’d you become king, then?

[An angelic choir begins…]

King Arthur: The Lady of the Lake, her arm clad in the purest shimmering samite, held aloft Excalibur from the bosom of the water, signifying by divine providence that I, Arthur, was to carry Excalibur. [singing stops] That is why I am your king.

Dennis: Listen. Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.

On the film’s 50th anniversary, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment will release Monty Python and the Holy Grail on Ultra HD Blu-ray on  August 26, 2025.

 April 19, to   May 10, 1975 – Revenge of the Cybermen – This is the fifth and final serial of the 12th season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was the first to feature the Cybermen since The Invasion (1968) and the last until Earthshock (1982). It was the end of the first season of the fourth doctor Tom Baker.

The serial is set on Space Station Nerva, now called Nerva Beacon, and the “planet of gold” Voga, thousands of years before The Ark in Space. In the serial, the Cybermen plot to destroy Voga, as the gold there is lethal to them.

– “The Reality War  – May 31, 2025  is the eighth and final episode of the fifteenth series of the British science-fiction television series Doctor Who.

Summer Movie Season

 Moe Howard of the The Three Stooges
(June 19, 1897 – May 4, 1975)

May 21, 1975 – The Return of the Pink Panther (A-II) (G) Some slapstick violence. This is the fourth film in The Pink Panther series that started with The Pink Panther (1963). The film stars Peter Sellers returning to the role of Inspector Clouseau for the first time since A Shot in the Dark (1964), after having declined to reprise the role in Inspector Clouseau (1968).

The Pink Panther, the sacred jewel of the Middle East kingdom of Lugash, has been stolen again and only Inspector Clouseau (Peter Sellers) can get retrieve it. Directed by Blake Edwards, the comedy is relatively innocent and, thanks to Sellers, has more then a few funny moments.  USCCB Reviews  

May 30, 1975 – The Hiding Place   (A-III) (PG) Harsh violence. It is  a film based on the autobiographical book of the same name (1971) by Corrie ten Boom.  

Interesting story of two Dutch Christians, Corrie and Betsie ten Boom, who gave shelter to Jews during the Nazi occupation but, when discovered, one of them (Julie Harris) was sent to her death in Ravensbruck, while her sister (Jeannette Clift) was released by mistake. Produced by Billy Graham’s World Wide Pictures and directed by James F. Collier, the movie is quite well done, though the script belabors the theological questions raised by the evil of fascism to the point of becoming preachy.  USCCB Reviews  

June 20, 1975

Jaws A-III (PG)

This is day cinema changed forever.

This monumental film was released and it becomes the highest-grossing movie of the year and the first movie to earn $100 million in US and Canadian theatrical rentals setting the standard for future blockbusters.

The Summer Blockbuster
Movie Season
Has Begun

I never saw Jaws in the theater. I was too young and my parents wouldn’t take me to see a movie about a killer shark who eats a little boy swimming at the beach. Wise parents they were. I saw it years later after I went to Universal Studio in California and saw the mechanical shark used in the movie. It took some of the magic out of the film for me. I really need to rewatch it.

Solid thriller about a killer shark first establishes the monster’s reality by the effect of its attacks on the tourist trade of a seaside community and then becomes the all-out battle of three men (Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw and Richard Dreyfuss) against a malignant force of nature. Aided by good acting and superior special effects, Steven Spielberg directs the hunt and killing of the monster with sustained and riveting dramatic intensity. Graphic scenes of the shark attacks may be far too strong for younger viewers. – USCCB Reviews 

JAWS to resurface in theaters for 50th anniversary — The Daily Jaws

June 20, 1975

Former California Governor and former Hollywood Actor  Ronald Reagan filed papers with the Federal Election Commission, declaring his intention to run for President of the United States in a challenge against incumbent Gerald Ford for the Republican Party nomination. Reagan would lose to Ford at the 1976 convention, but would win the party’s nomination, and the presidency, in 1980.

July 1, 1975- The Apple Dumpling Gang (A-I) (G) –  A Disney Live Action Film

The Apple Dumpling Gang’ is one step above luke warm. The picture is sort of fun, very friendly and somewhat charming and rather bland old west comedy.  It stars the comedic duo of TIm Conway and Don Knotts with Bill Bixby (My Favorite Martian/ The Incredible Hulk and some orphaned kids. Despite the bland kids, lackluster, romance, and not-so special effects this film is a somewhat enjoyable helping of Apple Dumplings. It’s overall wholesome and clean. It’s not as good as some other family films, but a heck of a lot better then most of the bad apples coming out of hollywood today.

July 9, 1975 – One of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing  (A-I) (G)  – A Disney Live Action Film

Take some British Style Comedy, Mix in Silly Disney Slapstick, and add some feisty old ladies and some kung fu and you have ‘One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing.’

Post Blockbuster Season

August 15, 1975 – Sholay -It broke records for continuous showings in many theatres across India. It was the highest-grossing Indian film ever at the time, and was the highest-grossing film in India up until Hum Aapke Hain Koun..! (1994). By numerous accounts, Sholay remains one of the highest-grossing Indian films of all time, adjusted for inflation. Sholay is often regarded as one of the greatest and most influential Indian films of all time.

September 6 –November 29, 1975 – Return to the Planet of the Apes  Because Planet of the Apes is such an important blockbuster franchise, I thought it deserved a mention. The last of the 5 original theatrical films was released in 1973 and the next big screen adaptation wouldn’t be released till 2001. This entry in the Apes franchise was an American Saturday morning animated television series. The original film , Planet of the Apes came out in 1968 and was based on the 1963 novel of the same name by Pierre Boulle. Unlike the film, its sequels, and the 1974 live-action television series, which involved a primitive ape civilization, Return to the Planet of the Apes depicted a technologically advanced society, complete with automobiles, film, and television; as such it more closely resembled both Boulle’s original novel and early concepts for the first Apes film which were changed due to budgetary limitations in the late 1960s

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes   May 24, 2024

In June 2022, it was reported that Disney and 20th Century planned for Kingdom to be the first of a new trilogy of Planet of the Apes films.  Wes Ball confirmed this in December 2023, explaining that the film had been conceived as the beginning of a trilogy that “fit into the legacy of” the previous three films. Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver also expressed interest in making a third trilogy of films, thus bringing the total of the Planet of the Apes reboot series to nine films.  In October 2024, 20th Century president Steve Asbell revealed that a new Apes film is in development for an expected 2027 release

September 4, 1975 – November 12,  1977 –  Space: 1999  –  In the premiere episode, set in the year 1999, nuclear waste stored on the Moon’s far side explodes, knocking the Moon out of orbit and sending it, and the 311 inhabitants of Moonbase Alpha, hurtling uncontrollably into space. Space: 1999 was the final production by the partnership of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and was, at the time, the most expensive series produced for British television, with a combined £6.8 million budget.

In July 2024, Modiphius Entertainment announced a tabletop role-playing game adaptation set to release in time for the 50th anniversary of the show in 2025.

September 26, 1975 – The Rocky Horror Picture Show – The story centres on a young engaged couple whose car breaks down in the rain near a castle, where they search for help. The castle is occupied by strangers in elaborate costumes holding a party. They then meet the head of the house, Dr. Frank-N-Furter, an apparently mad scientist and alien transvestite from the planet Transsexual in the galaxy of Transylvania, who creates a living muscle man named Rocky.

Still in limited release in 2025, some 49 years after its premiere, it is the longest-running theatrical release in film history. In many cities, live amateur shadow-casts act out the film as it is being shown and heavily draw upon a tradition of audience participation

October 18, 1975

Simon & Garfunkel reunite on the second-ever episode of Saturday Night Live on NBC, performing “The Boxer“, “Scarborough Fair“, and new collaboration “My Little Town“.

November 7, 1975  –Wonder Woman – This was a  American superhero television series based on the DC Comics comic book superhero of the same name. It stars Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman / Diana Prince and Lyle Waggoner as Steve Trevor Sr. and Jr., and aired for three seasons, from 1975 to 1979. The show’s first season aired on ABC and is set in the 1940s, during World War II. The second and third seasons aired on CBS and are set in the then-current day late 1970s, with the title changed to The New Adventures of Wonder Woman.

October 27 , 1975

Bruce Springsteen appears on the covers of both Time and Newsweek magazines on the same week. His 3rd album Born to Run was released on September 1, 1975

November 21 , 1975

Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” goes to number one in the U.K., where it remains for five weeks of 1975 and four weeks of 1976.

November 23, 1975- Sneak Previews, the first American film review show, premieres and launches the careers of critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert. They remained as a team, and a staple among film critics, through various programs for the next twenty-four years.

December 19, 1975 – Bugs Bunny: Superstar – This is a  Looney Tunes documentary film narrated by Orson Welles and produced and directed by Larry Jackson. It was the first documentary to examine the history of Looney Tunes with its animated cartoon characters, as well as the first Looney Tunes film to not be distributed by Warner Bros.

The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie, March 14, 2025

On March 20, 2025, a week after The Day the Earth Blew Up expanded to a wide release, Warner Bros. removed the classic Looney Tunes shorts again from its Max streaming service. The following day, it was reported that Warner Bros. was in talks with Ketchup, who had distributed The Day the Earth Blew Up in the United States, to sell the distribution rights to the shelved movie Coyote vs. Acme. On March 31, negotiations proved successful, and the film would be scheduled for a theatrical release in 2026.

At CinemaCon 2025, Warner Bros. Pictures Animation confirmed development on a new Looney Tunes animated film.

1976

In My Father’s House : The Years Before the Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom is released

Mystery Writer Dame Agatha Christie
September 15,  1890 –  January 12, 1976)

February 10, 1976 – The controversial “Episode 847” of Sesame Street featuring Margaret Hamilton reprising her role as The Wicked Witch of the West from the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz is broadcast. The episode was subsequently pulled from broadcast due to a barrage of complaints leveled at the Children’s Television Workshop from parents who felt that Hamilton’s performance was too traumatizing for their children.

February 29, 1976 – The movie The Sound of Music is televised for the first time, on ABC.

Pre-Blockbuster Season

April 9 , 1976 –   Alfred Hitchcock‘s last film, Family Plot, is released.

April 24, 1976

Saturday Night Live producer Lorne Michaels makes a semi-serious on-air offer to pay the Beatles $3000 to reunite live on the show. In a 1980 interview, John Lennon stated that he and Paul McCartney happened to be watching the show together at Lennon’s apartment in New York and considered walking down to the SNL studio “for a gag” but were “too tired”.^[5] On May 22, Michaels raises his offer from $3,000 to $3,200.

April 29, 1976

When his tour stops in Memphis, Tennessee, Bruce Springsteen jumps the wall at Elvis Presley‘s mansion, “Graceland“, in an attempt to see his idol. Security guards stop Springsteen and escort him off the grounds.

Blockbuster Season

May 13, 1976

 The Atari video arcade game Breakout is released.

May 16, 1976 – That’s Entertainment, Part II – This is a sequel to That’s Entertainment! (1974). Like the previous film, That’s Entertainment, Part II was a retrospective of famous films released by MGM from the 1930s to the 1950s.

For this second documentary, archivists featured more obscure musical numbers from MGM’s vaults, and also featured tributes to some of the studio’s best known comedy teams such as the Marx Brothers and Laurel and Hardy, romantic teams such as Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn, and a montage of iconic stars such as Greta Garbo, Clark Gable, Mickey Rooney, John Barrymore, Wallace Beery, Joan Crawford, Jean Harlow, James Stewart and Lana Turner.

Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire hosted the film and Kelly directed the introductory segments featuring him and Astaire, which included location footage of Kelly returning to Paris, the city featured in two of MGM’s most famous productions, An American in Paris and Gigi. This was the last film Kelly directed.

May 21, 1976 – Hawmps! – It’s an American Western slapstick comedy film about a United States Cavalry experiment to introduce camels into the service in the western United States, specifically Texas. It was directed by Joe Camp of the Benji movies.

June 11, 1976 – The blockbuster film Gone with the Wind was shown on U.S. television for the first time at 2:30 in the afternoon Eastern time, after the Home Box Office pay television network purchased the rights to telecast it on non-broadcast television for 14 commercial-free and unedited showings on seven separate days (June 11, 13, 15, 18, 24, 26 and 28).

June 17, 1976 – Silent Movie (A-III) (PG) Adult humor. The film was produced in the manner of an early-20th-century silent film, with intertitles instead of spoken dialogue; the soundtrack consists almost entirely of orchestral accompaniment and sound effects. It is an affectionate parody of slapstick comedies, including those of Charlie Chaplin, Mack Sennett, and Buster Keaton. 

Writer-director Mel Brooks stars as a washed-up director who gets the head of his studio (Sid Caesar) to let him make a silent comedy provided he can get Hollywood’s biggest stars to participate. The result is sometimes funny, sometimes not, but it is harmless fun and less vulgar than other Brooks’ comedies.  -USCCB Film Reviews

June 25, 1976 – The Omen (O) (R) Some intense violence.  The film earned two Oscar nominations, including a win for Jerry Goldsmith‘s musical score. 

Tom Shales of The Washington Post declared, “It’s probably the classiest Exorcist copy yet, but as a summer thriller, it can hardly challenge the human appeal and exhilarating impact of last year’s Jaws …

The American ambassador to Great Britain (Gregory Peck) finds himself the foster father of the anti-Christ in director Richard Donner’s slick, expensively mounted but essentially trashy horror show. Though it refers to scripture and religious beliefs, its only interest in religion is in terms of its exploitation potential. 

June 25, 1976

Don’t Go Breaking My Heart”
by  Elton John and Kiki Dee
is released

July 1, 1976 – Treasure of Matecumbe  (A-I) (G) –  A Disney Live Action Film

TOM is a ‘Tom and Huck’ style adventure set in post-civil war America. It was based on the novel A Journey to Matecumbe by Robert Lewis Taylor who was the winner of the 1959 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Two boys, one white, Davey Burnie (Johnny Doran) and the other black, Thad (Billy Attmore), sail down the river trying to get to a treasure hidden in the alligator-infested Florida everglades before the evil Spangler (Vic Morrow) (who has his own sinister villain theme music every time he enterers the scene), and his gang of no good henchmen get to it first.  And this film is made for Kids. It’s not a masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination but is imaginative enough to watch on a Saturday afternoon, providing you can’t find another decent kids adventure movie to watch.

July 7, 1976 –Gus – (A-I) (G) A Disney Live Action Film

Gus is more then a sports movie. The most memorable scenes in the film have nothing to do on the football field. Mr. Cunnigham and Tim Conway kidnap the Football Kicking donkey but because this is a Disney film, the kidnappers are  incompetent and clumsy and Gus the Mule kicks his way out of the Hotel where he has been brought to and escapes to a supermarket. There the chase is on. The supermarket chase scene provides one of the most memorable and funniest slapstick series of gags ever captured in a Disney film.

This as a Don Knotts film. He is in the film, but does nothing really Don Knottingly. He is just there as a bystander. The real stars of the film are some of the other actors. Gus is a gas of a film and made me laugh even when I thought it shouldn’t. A worthy way to entertain the kiddies. Oyage!”

July 6, 1976 – Cannonball – It is one of two released in 1976 that were based on a real illegal cross-continent road race that took place for a number of years in the United States (the other being The Gumball Rally). The same topic later became the basis for the films The Cannonball Run, Cannonball Run II and Speed Zone. The film was written and directed by Paul Bartel, who also directed Death Race 2000.

The name of the film and the plot were inspired by Erwin G. “Cannon Ball” Baker (1882–1960), who traveled across the United States several times, and by the Cannonball Baker Sea-to-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash, an illegal cross-continent road race introduced by Brock Yates to protest against the 55 MPH speed limit. -Wikipedia

F1  – June 27, 2025 another car themed movie starring Brad Pitt.

July 19, 1976

Benedict Cumberbatch
 Star Trek /The Hobbit /Sherlock /Doctor Strange
is born

July 20, 1976

Viking program: The Viking 1 lander successfully lands on Mars.

Post Summer Season

August 11, 1976 – John Wayne appears in his final film, The Shootist.

August 20, 1976 – The Gumball Rally – This film was directed and co-written by Charles Bail, a former stunt coordinator also known as Chuck Bail, about an illicit coast-to-coast road race. It was inspired by the Cannonball Baker Sea-to-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash run by Brock Yates, which inspired several other films, including Cannonball (1976), Cannonball Run (1981), and Speed Zone (1989), as well as an actual event, the American Gumball Rally and Gumball 3000 international race.

August 25, 1976

Alexander Skarsgård
Godzilla vs. Kong/The Stand /Murderbot
is born.

September 2,  1976 –The Father Christmas Letters by J. R. R. Tolkien is released.  The Father Christmas Letters, are a collection of letters written and illustrated by J. R. R. Tolkien between 1920 and 1943 for his children, from Father Christmas. They were released posthumously by the Tolkien estate on , the 3rd anniversary of Tolkien’s death. They were edited by Baillie Tolkien, second wife of his youngest son, Christopher. The book was warmly received by critics, and it has been suggested that elements of the stories inspired parts of Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings.

September 15, 1976 – Bugsy Malone – This is a gangster musical comedy film written and directed by Alan Parker (in his feature film directorial debut). A co-production of United States and United Kingdom, it features an ensemble cast, comprising only child actors playing adult roles, with Jodie Foster, Scott Baio, and John Cassisi in major roles. The film tells the story of the rise of “Bugsy Malone” and the battle for power between “Fat Sam” and “Dandy Dan”.

Set in New York City, it is a gangster movie spoof, with machine guns that fire gobs of whipped cream instead of bullets. The film is based loosely on events in New York and Chicago during Prohibition era, specifically the exploits of real-life gangsters such as Al Capone and Bugs Moran.

October 7, 1976 – The Smurfs and the Magic Flute –The film is based on the 1958 comic book of the same name, originally a part of the Johan and Peewit series (created by Peyo in 1952), and notable as the first appearance of the Smurfs in media. Accordingly, although the Smurfs play a major part, they do not appear until 35 minutes into the film.

Smurfs –July 18, 2025 

November 12, 1976 – Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker by Alan Dean Foster is released.

November 23, 1976

Jerry Lee Lewis is arrested after showing up drunk outside Graceland at 3 a.m., waving a pistol and loudly demanding to see Elvis Presley. Presley has declined his request.

December 3, 1976 – Rocky  (A-III) (PG) – This is the one of the most significant movies released in the blockbuster movie era so it deserves a mention. It is the most important movie released in 76 between Spielberg and Lucas. Rocky was  directed by John G. Avildsen (The Karate Kid) and written by and starring Sylvester Stallone. It is the first installment in the Rocky franchise and also stars Talia Shire, Burt Young, Carl Weathers, and Burgess Meredith. In the film, Rocky Balboa (Stallone), a poor small-time club fighter and loanshark debt collector from Philadelphia, gets an unlikely shot at the world heavyweight championship held by Apollo Creed (Weathers).

This intendent film received ten Academy Award nominations and won three, including Best Picture. It has been ranked by numerous publications as one of the greatest films of all time, as well as one of the most iconic sports films ever.  In 2006, the Library of Congress selected Rocky for preservation in the United States National Film Registry as being “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant”.

January 16, 2025

It was announced by Trump that Sylvester Stallone  (Rocky/Rambo) would serve in a new role as a Special Ambassador to Hollywood, sharing the role with fellow actors Jon Voight and Mel Gibson. Trump stated that he wants these actors to make Hollywood “stronger than ever before” by bringing back business lost to “foreign countries”.

December 8, 1976

The Eagles release Hotel California. Globally, it will become the third best-selling album of all time, behind the same band’s February-released Greatest Hits compilation.

December 15, 1976 – The Pink Panther Strikes Again – This  is the fifth crime comedy film in The Pink Panther series, released in December, 1976. Set three years after the conclusion of The Return of the Pink Panther (1975), unused footage from the film was later included in Trail of the Pink Panther (1982), released over two years following the death of Peter Sellers.

December 17, 1979 – King Kong  It is a modernized remake of the 1933 film about a giant ape that is captured and taken to New York City for exhibition. It stars Jeff Bridges, Charles Grodin, and Jessica Lange in her first film role, and features mechanical effects by Carlo Rambaldi and makeup effects by Rick Baker who also played the title character. It is the fifth entry in the King Kong franchise.

December 17, 1976 –The Shaggy D.A./Freaky Friday Walt Disney Live Action Fantasy Comedies 

1977

Diana Wynne Jones – Charmed Life is released. It was the first Chrestomanci book and it remains a recommended introduction to the series. The Chrestomanci books are collectively named after a powerful enchanter and British government official in a world parallel to ours, where magic is accepted as commonplace. The Chrestomanci is a government office whose duties include the supervision and enforcement of magical law, and only the most powerful enchanter is up to the task. Charmed Life is set during the tenure of Christopher Chant, who serves as Chrestomanci in five of the seven books and is often referred to by his title.

20 years later another book about a magical world would be released.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone 

The Dark Tower (1977) is an incomplete manuscript written by C. S. Lewis that appears to be an unfinished sequel to the science fiction novel Out of the Silent Planet, though doubts have been raised about its authenticity. Perelandra instead became the second book of Lewis’ Space Trilogy, concluded by That Hideous Strength. Walter Hooper, Lewis’ literary executor, titled the fragment and published it in the 1977 collection The Dark Tower and Other Stories. The Lewis scholar Kathryn Lindskoog challenged the authenticity of the work.

Pre-Blockbuster Season

January 28, 1977 – The Shining by Stephen King is released.

March 11, 1977 –The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh A Disney Animated Film

March 28, 1977

At the 49th Academy Awards, Rocky picks up the Academy Award for Best Picture. Peter Finch, Faye Dunaway, and Beatrice Straight all win Oscars for their performances in Network for Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Supporting Actress, while Jason Robards wins for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in All the President’s Men. He will win again the following year, becoming the only person to win two consecutive Best Supporting Actor awards.

Gummo Marx (October 23, 1892 – April 21, 1977)

March 27, –April 24,  1977 – Jesus of Nazareth – On Palm Sunday,  April 3, 1977 – the date of the airing of the second episode – the Pope endorsed the programme in his public address for the holiday and recommended the faithful to view it.

The Blockbuster Summer Movie Season kicks it up a notch with a film that not only develops a franchise but a brand that creates a whole subculture of fandom and nerdrum.

June 15, 2025  -June 29, 2025 – The Chosen Season 5  –

Tom Welling  -April 26

Future Superman Actor is born

May 29, 1977

 Elvis Presley walks offstage in the middle of a concert in Baltimore, Maryland, the first time in his twenty-three year career he has done so; after receiving treatment from a physician, he reappears onstage thirty minutes later

May 31, 1977

The musical Beatlemania is premièred at the Winter Garden Theatre on Manhattan

May 25,  1977

 Star Wars (A-II) (PG) 

Much stylized violence.

The force arrives in theatres and becomes the highest-grossing film of the year. The film revolutionizes the use of special effects in film and television production. It also embraces the notion of omitting any sort of opening credits sequence. Lucas, told by the Directors Guild of America that he must have an opening credits sequence, instead distributes the film independently, sans the opening credits. The film’s release is often considered one of the most important events in film history.

I do remember seeing this in theaters. I was 6. I was too young for Jaws and I think I may have been disappointed I couldn’t go. But my sisters went to see it. My parents took me. I remember that it was up for best picture at the Academy awards and how upset I was when it lost to Annie Hall.

Star Wars: Andor (TV series) Season 2 Finale (May 13, 2025)

May 27, 1977 –Smokey and the Bandit  (A-III) (PG) Some rough language, many vulgarities and suggestion of premarital sex. –

Burt Reynolds, Sally Fields and Jackie Gleason star in this very elaborate film of car chases and crashes.

Alfred Hitchcock claimed that the film was one of his favorites.

Vincent van Gogh‘s painting Poppy Flowers (Stilleven met viscaria), worth an estimated U.S.$55,000,000, was stolen from Cairo‘s Khalil Museum in Egypt. Recovered 10 years later, the painting would be stolen again in 2010 and has not been seen since then.

Besides Smokey and the Jedi,
Summer 77 had this to offer moviegoers.

June 10, 1977  – For the Love of Benji (A-I) (G)- It is the sequel to the original film (1974) featuring Benji the dog, and the second film in the Benji series if fun little dog films.

Rollercoaster –   (A-III) (PG) –  It was one of the few films to be shown in Sensurround, which used extended-range bass frequencies to give a sense of vibration to the viewers during the coaster rides.

Slack thriller about an extortionist (Timothy Bottoms) who plants bombs on rollercoasters and the safety inspector (George Segal) who chases him across the country. Directed by James Goldstone, the movie’s sole aim is visceral excitement unhindered by any larger concerns, including the risk entailed by putting such an idea into the public consciousness. Graphically depicted rollercoaster crash.- USSCB Review

June 17, 1977 – Exorcist II: The Heretic –  (O) (R) Some violence and profanity.

Here is the first big sequel to be released in the blockbuster era. And the first real blunder and bomb of a growing franchise.

When a list was compiled for The 50 Worst Movies Ever Made, Exorcist II: The Heretic came in at number two. It was beaten only by Ed Wood‘s Plan 9 from Outer Space, a film that generally receives a warmer response from its audience than this terribly misjudged sequel. The film received generally negative reviews from critics and is often considered to be one of the worst films ever made.

Vincent Canby, writing in The New York Times said…

Given the huge box-office success of the William Peter Blatty⁠ ⁠–⁠ ⁠William Friedkin production of The Exorcist )1974) there had to be a sequel, but did it have to be this desperate concoction, the main thrust of which is that [the] original exorcism wasn’t all it was cracked up to be? It’s one thing to carry a story further along, but it’s another to deny the original, no matter what you thought of it. I thought it was something even less than good, but this new film, which opened yesterday at the Criterion and other theaters, is of such spectacular fatuousness that it makes the first seem virtually an axiom of screen art.

 – The Ritual – June 6, 2025– Based on a true story, it follows priests Theophilus Riesinger (Al Pacino) and Joseph Steiger (Dan Stevens) as they attempt to put aside their differences to save an allegedly possessed young woman Emma Schmidt (Abigail Cowen) through a series of dangerous exorcisms.

June 19, 1977  –Grand Theft Auto– There was not enough car chase movies in the summer of 77 so Ron Howard, in his feature film directorial debut gives us this film.

As of 2025, this is the only film that Howard has both directed and starred in. The film takes its title from the crime grand theft auto, which is committed a number of times by several different characters. It is another fun film with lots of car chases and crashes. Here is the basic plot.

In the film, a wealthy political candidate pressures his daughter to marry a similarly wealthy suitor instead of her current love interest. The daughter steals her parents’ car and flees towards Las Vegas with her love interest. Her unwanted suitor steals another car and chases her. He also offers a reward to whoever can catch the woman for him. The suitor is himself chased by his worried mother. There could have been a crossover between this and Smokey.

Eden   August 22, 2025 – Ron Howard’s Latest Film

June 22, 1977 – The Rescuers (A-I) (G) – One of my greatest childhood memories is seeing a re-release of this movie along with Mickey’s Christmas Carol and a theater in Salem Mass with my parents. I remember going to MacDonald’s and seeing a man ride his bicycle down the middle of the street. It was such a fun time. I had The Rescuers story record which I listened to oodles of time and had a lunch box and I had the board game. It may have been the first big Disney animated film that I remember seeing, although I’m not sure.

The film is based on a series of books by Margery Sharp, including The Rescuers (1959) and Miss Bianca (1962). An early version of The Rescuers entered development in 1962, but was shelved due to Walt Disney‘s dislike of its political overtones. Due to the film’s success, a sequel titled The Rescuers Down Under was released in 1990, which made this film the first Disney animated film to have a sequel.

It’s about  two tiny members of the International Rescue Aid Society of mice are dispatched to save an orphan girl from the clutches of wicked Madame Medusa ensconced in her lair on a Mississippi sternwheeler beached in the dark Louisiana swamps. – USCCB Review

Elio  June 20, 2025- The latest Pixar/Disney animated film.

June 24, 1977 – Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo (A-I) (G) A Disney Live Action Film-  The film is the third installment in the Herbie film series and the sequel to Herbie Rides Again (1974). In the film, Dean Jones returns as champion race car driver Jim Douglas (reprising his role from The Love Bug, the first film in the series), joined this time by his somewhat cynical and eccentric riding mechanic Wheely Applegate (Don Knotts). It wouldn’t be the summer movie season of the late 70’s without Don Knotts appearing in a Disney film. The story follows Douglas, Herbie and Applegate as they participate in the fictional Trans-France Race, a road race from Paris, France, to Monte Carlo, Monaco.

July 7, 1977 – James Bond # 10 – The Spy Who Loved Me (A-III) (PG) Styled sex and violence.  It is the third James Bond film to star Roger Moore

March 2025

Amazon closed deals with Amy Pascal and David Heyman to take charge of the James Bond franchise and replace Broccoli and Wilson as producers on its next instalment.

The film takes its title from Ian Fleming‘s 1962 novel The Spy Who Loved Me, the tenth book in the James Bond series, though it does not contain any elements of the novel’s plot. The storyline involves a reclusive megalomaniac named Karl Stromberg who plans to destroy the world and create a new civilisation under the sea. Bond teams up with Soviet agent Anya Amasova to stop Stromberg all while being hunted by Stromberg’s powerful henchman Jaws.

July 16, 1977 – (Japan) August 24, 1977 – U.S. Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown – (A-I) (G)

It was the third in a series of films based on the Peanuts comic strip. Unlike the previous two Peanuts theatrical films, Charles M. Schulz wrote an original plot without relying on any specific storyline from the strip. The idea for the film came to him during a family trip, during which he tried rafting with his wife on Rouge River.^[4] However, some gags were taken from the strip, such as the one where Snoopy and Peppermint Patty jump on the waterbed. It  came 5 years after Snoopy Come Home (1972).

 “Snoopy Presents: A Summer Musical –July 18, 2025 : In the first Peanuts musical in over three decades, Charlie Brown, Snoopy and the rest of the gang break out in original songs by Emmy Award nominees Jeff Morrow and Ben Folds in the latest franchise special that invites kids and families to discover the magic of summer camp. Peanuts turns 75  on October 2, 2025.

August 1977 –

Ender’s Game (short story)
by Orson Scott Card

Post Blockbuster Season

Elvis Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977)

Groucho Marx (October 2, 1890 – August 19, 1977)

September 1977

The Atari 2600 home video game console is released.

September 14, 1977- Spider-Man  -In the days before the big superhero boom, D.C. owned the cinema with Superman and Batman. On the small screen Marvel had more live action fare and one that made a small theatrical appearance. This version of Spidey was an  American television movie that aired on CBS and had a theatrical release outside the US, which serves as the pilot to the 1977 television series titled The Amazing Spider-Man.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day – July 31, 2026

September 15, 1977 – Christopher Tolkien, with Guy Gavriel Kay, completes and publishes his late father’s work, The Silmarillion.

September 29, 1977

The Stranger
by Billy Joel
is released

Bing Crosby (May 3, 1903 – October 14, 1977)

October 20 , 1977

 A plane carrying Lynyrd Skynyrd crashes in a forest in Mississippi, killing songwriter & vocalist Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist Steve Gaines, background vocalist Cassie Gaines and assistant road manager Dean Kilpatrick and seriously injuring many of the remaining band members

November 4, 1977 – May 12, 1982 – The Incredible Hulk – Based on the Marvel Comics character the Hulk. The series aired on the CBS television network and starred Bill Bixby as Dr. David Banner, Lou Ferrigno as the Hulk, and Jack Colvin as Jack McGee.

Captain America: Brave New World  – February 14, 12025 – This Captain America movie has Red Hulk in it.

November 16, 1977 – Close Encounters of the Third Kind -Written and directed by Steven Spielberg. The film depicts the story of Roy Neary, an everydayblue-collar worker in Indiana, whose life changes after an encounter with an unidentified flying object (UFO), and Jillian, a single mother whose three-year-old son was abducted by a UFO. Observers credited the Close Encounters for launching the reemergence of a large market for science fiction films in the 1980s alongside Star Wars (1977) and Superman (1978).

Steven Spielberg is directing an upcoming American science fiction film from a screenplay by David Koepp based on a story by Spielberg. The film stars Emily Blunt, Josh O’Connor, Colin Firth, Eve Hewson, Colman Domingo and Wyatt Russell.  The film is scheduled to be released in the United States by Universal Pictures on June 12, 2026.

November 27, 1977 – The Hobbit  The film is an adaptation of the 1937 book of the same name by J. R. R. Tolkien; it was first broadcast on NBC in the United States on Sunday, November 27, 1977. The teleplay won a Peabody Award; the film received a Christopher Award.

November 3, 1977 – Pete’s Dragon A Disney Live Action/animated fantasy film.

December 15, 1977

“Stayin’ Alive”
by the  Bee Gees
is released

Charlie Chaplin (April 16, 1889 – December 25, 1977)

1978

Pre-Blockbuster Season

January 27, 1978 (LA)  – The Circus (1928) 50th Anniversary of the release of this Charlie Chaplin Comedy.
January 27, 1978 – The Circus (1928) 50th Anniversary of the release of this Charlie Chaplin Comedy.

March 1978

Splinter of the Mind’s Eye – Originally published in 1978 by Del Rey, a division of Ballantine Books, the book was written with the intention of being adapted as a low-budget sequel to Star Wars in case the original film was not successful enough to finance a high-budget sequel.

Splinter of the Mind’s Eye was the first Star Wars novel with an original storyline published after the release of the original film, and is thus considered, alongside the Star Wars newspaper comic strip and Marvel’s 1977 comic series, to mark the beginning of the Star Wars Expanded Universe.

The story focuses on Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia, who are marooned together on the world of Mimban, where they encounter the locals and struggle against the forces of the evil Galactic Empire, including Darth Vader.

March 1, 1978

Charlie Chaplin‘s coffin is stolen from a Swiss cemetery three months after burial. After recovery a few weeks later, the casket is sealed in a concrete vault prior to reburial.

March 10, 1978 – Return from Witch Mountain

April, 1978 – James Blaylock‘s first published story, ” The Ape-Box Affair, appears in Unearth magazine, pioneering steampunk fiction.

April 19, 1978

James Franco
Spider-Man /Rise of the Planet of the Apes /Oz the Great and Powerful
is born

Blockbuster Season

May 18, 1978   The Buddy Holly Story – The Biopic starred Gary Busey. It would win the Academy Award for Best Music, Original Song Score and Its Adaptation or Best Adaptation Score, and earn a nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Busey) and Best Sound.

June 2, 1978 – Jaws 2 A-III (PG)–  While the performances of Scheider, Gary and Hamilton, the special effects, and John Williams’ musical score were praised, it received criticism for essentially duplicating the formula of the first film. However, it is regarded in retrospect as the best of the three Jaws sequels. It was briefly the highest-grossing sequel in history until Rocky II was released in 1979. The film’s tagline, “Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water…” has become one of the most famous in film history and has been parodied and homaged several times.

June 2, 1978 –Good Guys Wear Black A-III (PG)- This was the second film to feature Norris as the star, following Breaker! Breaker! (1977). However, this is the one that Norris considers his “breakthrough”.  When the movie is adjusted for inflation it is the highest grossing film of all time as no other movie dares outgross a Chuck Norris movie.

June 4, 1978 – Grease,  (O) (PG) John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John  star in one of the highest-grossing musical ever and Paramount Pictures‘ highest-grossing film at the time.

July 1, 1978 – A Swiftly Tilting Planet  by Madeleine L’Engle, the third book in the Time Quintet is published.

July 5, 1978 – Hot Lead and Cold Feet – A Disney Live Action Film – This is Disney Comedy at it’s very best, thanks to the funny gags executed by clever actors who know how to deliver the goods. This includes once again Don Knotts. Show this to your kids and prove that to get laughs you need not resort to poop jokes or to someone getting kicked in the nuts. A comedy with clear class and not nasty crass.

June 6, 1978 –Damien – Omen II – (O) (R)

June 9, 1978 –  The Jungle Book  (1966) (re-issue)  The Jungle Book is the last animated film to have Disney’s personal touches, before his death on December 15, 1966

June 9, 1978 – The Cat from Outer Space – (A-I) (G) A Disney Live Action Film – I remember loving this movie when I was a young lad. I mean it had a ‘Cat from Outer Space’. A guy got beer spit into his face. The main character, what’s his name (Ken Berry), was your typical Disney Nerd who did all types of wacky things that a kid of around 7 would find funny. He didn’t even need to get hit in the nuts to make kids laugh. If it was remade today that would happen I’m sure. Looking at this movie decades later, it is still an amusing and entertaining Disney comedy, although perhaps not as fun as when as when I was young, as I have matured as a film viewer. But still there is some magic in this film.

Lilo & Stitch  -May 23, 2025 -Disney’s latest movie about an alien. The film is a live-action/animated remake of Disney’s 2002 traditionally animated film Lilo & Stitch, with some elements also based on that film’s animated sequel films and TV shows.

July 20, 1978 –Revenge of the Pink Panther – (A-III) (PG)  It is the sixth film in The Pink Panther comedy film series.

By April 2023, it was announced that after acquiring MGM, Amazon is developing new additions to the franchise in the form of a movie and television series through their subsidiary Amazon Studios (now called Amazon MGM Studios). It was later reported that Eddie Murphy was in talks to star in the film as Clouseau.  As of 2025 the film is still in development and no news has been heard on it since then.

July  26, 1978 – Make Mine Music (1946) (re-issue) A Disney animated film.

Post Blockbuster Movie Season

August 6, 1978

– Pope Paul VI dies at Castel Gandolfo.

August 26, 1978

Pope John Paul I succeeds Pope Paul VI as the 263rd Pope.

September 28, 1978

 Pope John Paul I dies after only 33 days as the Roman Catholic Pontiff.

Edgar Bergen  (February 16, 1903 – September 30, 1978) dies. He was an American ventriloquist, comedian, actor, vaudevillian and radio performer. He was best known for his characters Charlie McCarthy and Mortimer Snerd. Bergen pioneered modern-day ventriloquism and has been described by puppetry organization UNIMA as the “quintessential ventriloquist of the 20th century”.^[1] He was the father of actress Candice Bergen.

October 1978

Y.M.C.A.
by the Village People
is released

October 14, 1978

U.S. President Jimmy Carter signs a bill into law which allows homebrewing of beer in the United States.

October 16, 1978

 Pope John Paul II succeeds Pope John Paul I as the 264th pope, resulting in the first Year of Three Popes since 1605. He is the first Polish pope in history, and the first non-Italian pope since Pope Adrian VI (1522–1523).

October 20, 1978 – Attack of the Killer Tomatoes  – The title says it all.

October 24, 1978 – The Wiz  –Adapted from the 1974 Broadway musical, the film reimagines the classic children’s novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum with an African American cast. Dorothy Gale, a 24-year-old teacher from Harlem, is magically transported to the urban-fantasy Land of Oz. On her travels seeking help from the mysterious Wiz, Dorothy befriends a Scarecrow, a robot called Tin Man, and a Cowardly Lion.

Wicked: For Good  –  November 21, 2025–The sequel to Wicked (2024), it adapts the second act of the 2003 stage musical by Stephen Schwartz and Holzman, which was loosely based on Gregory Maguire‘s 1995 novel, itself a reimagining of L. Frank Baum‘s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and its 1939 film adaptation. 

October 25, 1978 – Halloween Primarily praised for John Carpenter’s direction and score, many critics credit the film as the first in a long line of slasher films inspired by Psycho (1960), The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Black Christmas (both 1974). It is considered one of the greatest and most influential horror films ever made. In 2006, it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.

Halloween spawned a film franchise comprising 13 films which helped construct an extensive backstory for Michael Myers, sometimes narratively diverging entirely from previous installments; a novelization, video game, and comic book series have also been based on the film.

November 15, 1978 – The Lord of the Rings  – It is based on the novel of the same name by J. R. R. Tolkien, adapting from the volumes The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers. It was was a major inspiration for New Zealand filmmaker Peter Jackson.

.The Rings of Power season 3 –  February 2025 -Amazon officially confirmed a third season.  It begins several years after the second season at the height of the “War of the Elves and Sauron”, and depicts Sauron’s efforts to create the One Ring which he believes will give him the power to win the war and conquer all of Middle-earth.

November 17, 1978 – Star Wars Holiday Special airs on CBS. The special gives fans their first glimpse of Boba Fett, a character from the upcoming sequel.  It has never been rebroadcast nor officially released on home video in any format in its entirety (save for its more favorably-received cartoon segment). It has become something of a cultural legend due to the underground quality of its existence. It has been viewed and distributed in off-air recordings of the original 1978 CBS television broadcast by fans as bootleg copies, and it has also been uploaded to content-sharing websites.

December 10, 1978 – Superman premieres at the Kennedy Centre in Washington, D.C., and has a European Royal Charity Premiere at the Empire, Leicester Square in London three days later in the presence of HM Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Andrew, Duke of York.

It received praise for Christopher Reeve’s performance and John Williams‘s musical score, and was nominated for Best Film Editing, Best Music (Original Score), and Best Sound at the 51st Academy Awards, and received a Special Achievement Academy Award for Visual Effects. Groundbreaking in its use of special effects and science fiction/fantasy storytelling, the film’s legacy presaged the mainstream popularity of Hollywood’s superhero film franchises. In 2017, Superman was selected for preservation by the Library of Congress‘s National Film Registry.

July 11, 2025 –Superman  

Superman is still flying in cinemas.

1979

The Han Solo Adventures  –Han Solo at Stars’ End/Han Solo’s Revenge are published.

Pre-Blockbuster Season

January 6, 1979

 ABC’s American Bandstand featured the debut of the “Y.M.C.A. dance” using the hand gestures forming the letters YMCA during a broadcast with the Village People.

February 11, 1979 – “Elvis!“– 43 million viewers watch this made-for-TV movie biopic on ABC,  starring Kurt Russell as Elvis.

February 15, 1979

The 21st Annual Grammy Awards are presented in Los Angeles, hosted by John Denver. The Bee Gees collect 4 Grammys for the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, including Album of the Year, while Billy Joel‘s “Just the Way You Are” wins both Record of the Year and Song of the Year. A Taste of Honey win Best New Artist.

March 30, 1979 – Buck Rogers in the 25th Century – Starring Gil Gerard in the title role and Erin Gray as Colonel Wilma Deering, it was produced by Glen A. Larson who co-wrote the screenplay with Leslie Stevens, based on the character Buck Rogers which was created by Philip Francis Nowlan in 1928. It was originally made as a television pilot, but Universal Pictures opted to release the movie theatrically several months before the subsequent television series aired.

In 2025, the comic book series Buck Rogers 2425, reimagining Buck’s adventures in the 25th century, was published by Array Comics.

April 1, 1979

Nickelodeon launches from QUBE‘s Pinwheel experiment and begins airing on various Warner Cable systems beginning in Buffalo, New York, expanding its audience reach.

April 1 –April 2, 1979 – The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe  Based on the 1950 novel The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis. It was adapted by Snoopy and Charlie Brown animator Bill Melendez.

April 12, 1979 – Mad Max  –Mel Gibson stars as “Mad” Max Rockatansky, a police officer turned vigilante in a dystopian near-future Australia in the midst of societal collapse.  Mad Max became the first in the series, giving rise to three sequels: Mad Max 2 (1981), Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985) and Mad Max: Fury Road (2015). A spin-off film titled Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga was released in 2024.

May 18, 1979 U.S. –Saga of a Star World/ Battlestar Galactica – This is the pilot for the American science fiction television series Battlestar Galactica which was produced in 1978 by Glen A. Larson. This film is a re-edit of the pilot episode released theatrically as Battlestar Galactica in Canada before the television series aired in the United States, in order to help recoup its high production costs.

May 25, 1979 – Alien, (A-III) (R) Considerable gore, graphic violence and foul language.

It initially received mixed reviews, but won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, three Saturn Awards (Best Science Fiction Film, Best Direction for Scott, and Best Supporting Actress for Cartwright), and a Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation. In subsequent years, Alien was critically reassessed and is now considered one of the greatest and most influential science fiction and horror films of all time. In 2002, Alien was deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” by the Library of Congress and was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.

May 29, 1979

Mary Pickford  (April 8, 1892 – May 29, 1979) a silent screen legend and Hollywood pioneer who was, at the height of her career, the most famous woman in the world, dies of a stroke.

May 31,  1979 – The Muppet Movie, (A-I) (G) –Jim Henson‘s Muppets‘ first foray into the world of feature-length motion pictures, is released in United Kingdom. I believe it was my sister that took me to see it at the Strand Theater in Ipswich MA.  It is a fun film filled with great gags, one liners and all around great comedy and great sing along songs. I had the soundtrack which I listened to over and over again.

June 9, 1979

 The Bee Gees equal Bing Crosby, Elvis Presley, and The Beatles, with a record six consecutive number-one singles in the U.S. in less than a single calendar year with “Love You Inside Out“.

June 11, 1979
John Wayne, a famous Western movie actor, dies at the age of 72 from stomach cancer.

June 15, 1979

McDonald’s introduces the Happy Meal in the United States in a nationwide advertising campaign after testing the product since February in franchises in the U.S. state of Missouri.

June 15, 1979 – Rocky II -(A-III) (PG) Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times wrote that “Rocky II does not merely exploit the original, it extends it logically and grippingly, preserving all the traits of character (and of movie character) that made Rocky I work so well—those notions that ordinary people are worth knowing about, that love is the surpassing emotion in our lives and that some things are worth struggling hard for, even if there may only be the honor of the struggle to show in the end.”

June 22, 1979 – Escape from Alcatraz -The movie is based on the 1963 non-fiction book of the same name by J. Campbell Bruce, which recounts the 1962 prisoner escape from the maximum security prison on Alcatraz Island and stars Clint Eastwood as escape ringleader.

June 27, 1979 – The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again (A-I) (G) A Disney Live Action Film

The first adventure in ‘The Apple Dumpling Gang’, saga had bumbling convicts Tim Conway and Don Knotts add goofy fun to the romantic family comedy starring Bill Bixby and Susan Clark. Romance was the center stage the first time around and in this second go-around it takes a back seat to the Jerry Lewis style mayhem that this two clowns reek throughout the picture.

June 29, 1979 – Moonraker, the 11th film in the James Bond franchise.

July 26, 1979 – Unidentified Flying Oddball (A-I) (G)-A Disney Live Action Film

The classic Mark Twain tale ‘A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court’ is given the modern updated wacky Disney treatment. UFO marks the end or the beginning of a era of Disney filmmaking.  Seeing it’s feet are in both worlds, it’s somewhat of a crossover film. The purely innocent filmmaking of the Classic Disney era closes its door.

Post Blockbuster Season

August 1, 1979

Jason Momoa
Aquaman/Stargate Atlantis/Dune/Fast X 

September 14, 1979 – The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie   Directed by Chuck Jones this film is a compilation of classic Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies shorts (specifically those that Jones himself had directed) and newly animated bridging sequences hosted by Bugs Bunny.  The bridging sequences, which had been produced in 1978, show Bugs at his home, which is cantilevered over a carrot-juice waterfall (modeled on Frank Lloyd Wright‘s “Fallingwater” house in Bear Run, Pennsylvania). The film was released to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Bugs Bunny.

September 22, 1979 –November 6, 1982 – The New Adventures of Flash Gordon – Filmation produced the series in 1979, partly as a reaction to the mammoth success of Star Wars in 1977. The series was an homage to the original Flash Gordon comic strip (1934) and featured many of the original characters, including Flash’s girlfriend Dale Arden, and the scientist Hans Zarkov. The series is still regarded as one of the most faithful adaptations, and one of Filmation’s finest overall efforts.

In July 2023, Mad Cave Studios announced that it had obtained the license to publish new stories, graphic novels, and reprints. In 2024, Mad Cave Studios published a new Flash Gordon comic book, a trade paperback of Marvel’s Defenders of the Earth series and launched a new series of the team.

October 12, 1979 – Douglas Adams – The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is released 

November 2, 1979 – Jesus – In Jesus, the life of Jesus Christ is depicted, primarily using the Gospel of Luke as the main basis for the story. A voice-over narration is featured sporadically throughout the film, providing background information on characters and events. The film has been used by the Jesus Film Project, an organisation seeking to translate and distribute the film as part of its evangelistic efforts. Because of this, Jesus is often described as the most-watched motion picture of all time, in addition to being the most translated film of all time.

Shot on location in Israel, the film was financed primarily by Campus Crusade for Christ with a budget of $6 million, and was released without production or cast credits, as producer John Heyman declared that the creators of this picture were “simply being translators” of the New Testament’s Gospel of Luke, “so nobody will know who produced or directed the film.

Zeppo Marx (February 25, 1901 – November 30, 1979)

December 7, 1979 -(A-I) (G) Star Trek: The Motion Picture

December 7, 1979

Crazy Little Thing Called Love 
by Queen
is released

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3  Episodes 1& 2 premiere -July 17, 2025

December 21, 1979 – The Black Hole  I had the story record of it and an action figure.

With a production budget of $20 million, plus another $6 million for advertising,  it was at the time the most expensive picture ever produced by Disney.

In the early 1970s, the film was initially conceived as a space-themed disaster film. However, the script went through numerous iterations from various screenwriters. Disney’s effects department used novel computerized camera technology to create the visual effects. The film premiered on December 18, 1979, in London in the United Kingdom and on December 21, 1979, in the United States. It was the first film from Walt Disney Productions to receive a PG rating. The film received mixed reviews from film critics and grossed $35 million at the US box office. The film was nominated for two Academy Awards for Best Cinematography and Best Visual Effects.