It's hard to believe NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD hasn't been released on blu-ray in the USA. It's been released in hi-def mis-framed, correctly framed, edited and unedited in the U.K., Germany and France, but not in its native country where it changed movies forever. Perhaps the distributors think all the DVD editions are enough?
By the time I caught up with NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD at the Centereach Theater in Suffolk County, Long Island in the fall of 1970 it was already a word-of-mouth legend, breaking box-office records everywhere it played for a week or two before abruptly moving to another theater. The film stayed in first run for years.
Anyone else remember seeing NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD when it was new, unprecendented and different?
For the life of me, I can't recall when and where I first saw the film. I believe I've only seen it in its entirety twice. Once was on an PD videocassette (on the Goodtimes label) in the early 1980s. But I had seen it previously on television.
I've been trying to track down when the film was first on television. On one chat board, someone states that "there was an ad for an airing of Night of the Living Dead in February 1972 on WABC's then-sister station WXYZ-TV in Detroit." and someone else says "I recall CBS running the film on a Friday Night, I think it was 1972 IN PRIME TIME. Not many people remember the airing, but I'm pretty sure I saw a TV Guide listing for it."
Bob, I would not be surprised if NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD aired in prime time in 1972. But that did nothing to slow down its business at the box-office. It was still playing in the New York area as late as 1975, both as a feature and as a co-feature. It was a part of many Halloween festivals at drive-ins and indoor theaters, not to mention one of the first midnight movies. I seem to recall seeing it on television in the mid-to-late 1970s. You might ask the fellow who runs this website:
