Here in the hometown, we were blessed with cable television in the 70's. (W)WOR, WPIX, & WNEW (now WNYW) in New York, & WSBK in Boston gave viewers extra programming options, so it wasn't uncommon to find the parents watching movies either before dinner or in the early evening, if there wasn't sports or any network programming that caught their fancy (i.e. Little House on The Prairie, All in The Family, etc.).
In the 80's, WSBK, at the time the broadcast home to the Boston Red Sox & Bruins, came up with a novel idea for their evening movie.
The Movie Loft aired as much as 6 nights a week, sometimes 7. Long time station announcer Dana Hersey served as host, and during commercial breaks would offer some factoids about the film and/or its stars and creative personnel, as well as some interviews, which would stretch the film's broadcast time to up to three hours if needed. Movie Loft was cancelled after Hersey left WSBK to work for, if memory serves, American Movie Classics (now simply AMC). The only pre-emptions that I can recall were for Bruins or Red Sox games during the seasons.
Thus, the Loft was a regional forerunner to the current Turner Classic Movies, whose hosts introduce each film, but unlike Hersey do not turn up mid-film, as TCM runs their films commercial free.
From December 1983, right before Christmas, here's an opening prefacing the screening of "The Greatest Story Ever Told":
Rating for The Movie Loft: A.
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