Classic Movie Review: 'The Charge of the Light Brigade'
For the first three decades of broadcast television in the United States, most movie buffs could only see movies from Hollywood’s Golden Age when they were shown on local independent stations. Cable TV and videotape devices existed as far back as the late 1940s and early ‘50s, but neither of these delivery systems were as available to the average consumer as they would be from the late 1970s to the present day. Most of America’s TV markets have one or more “indies,” and the Miami/Ft. Lauderdale area of my childhood was no exception. Most of the local stations could be found on the UHF channels, but WCIX-TV (Channel Six) was on the “regular” VHF dial right next to the affiliates of the Big Three networks (ABC, CBS and NBC). Along with the indies’ standard fare of children’s programming, reruns of syndicated dramas and sitcoms, and local newscasts, WCIX aired a plethora of older Hollywood films. With rare exceptions, in the early to mid-1970s these flicks were mostly f...