SFM Holiday Network
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The SFM Holiday Network was a syndicated movie broadcast package which aired on holiday weekends (such as the 4th of July, Christmas, etc.) from 1978 until 1991.
The Holiday Network is considered by some to be the predecessor to today's classic movie channels (such as Turner Classic Movies, Fox Movie Channel, and American Movie Classics), with its interstitials on how the movie was made and its stars.
The Network actually had its roots in a 1971 syndicated package prepared by MGM, called the MGM Family Network, which offered to television stations a monthly program of family features from the studio library. When it was cancelled after only one year, SFM Entertainment decided to acquire a similar package from MGM, as well as other major studios, to prepare a monthly package of films built around holiday themes (hence the package title), though sometimes unrelated to the holidays themselves.
Unlike 16MM film chain prints of movies stations used at the time, the films were prepared on 2-inch broadcast Beta tape and transferred directly from 35mm prints for maximum broadcast network quality. In the network's later years, the monthly selections had to be approved and recommended by the National Education Association before their telecast.
Some of SFM Holiday Network's most popular features were the 1942 version of Jungle Book, the animated Journey Back to Oz (the extended TV version with Bill Cosby's live-action segments), and How Green Was My Valley.
In its final years, popcorn magnate Orville Redenbacher hosted the show (his company was a main sponsor of the Holiday Network), in special segments that predated Robert Osborne's introductions for Turner Classic Movies. With the rise of pay-cable, fewer and fewer stations were airing the Holiday Network, and by 1991 the syndicated package disappeared from the air.
The theme song used for many of the SFM Holiday Network broadcasts, including the commercial "bumpers", was "Heavy Action", which was also used as the instrumental theme for Monday Night Football.
