''The New CBS Tuesday Night Movies'' (known as ''The New CBS Friday Night Movies'' in its first season) was a weekly 90-minute motion picture made expressly for

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

. The series aired on

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

from 1971 to 1974. During its first two seasons, the program was similar to ABC's ''

Movie of the Week A television film, alternatively known as a television movie, made-for-TV film/movie or TV film/movie, is a feature-length film that is produced and originally distributed by or to a television network, in contrast to theatrical films made for ...

'', which presented a brand-new full-length feature film in a regular weekly time slot with no connecting theme or arc among the films. In the fall of 1972, the series moved from Friday nights to Tuesdays, with its Friday night slot given back to traditional previously released theatrical films under ''The CBS Friday Night Movies'' banner (''The New CBS Friday Night Movies'' replaced ''The CBS Friday Night Movies'' during its first season). During the 1973-1974 television season, CBS revised the series into ''The New CBS Tuesday Night Movies''. In the revision CBS adopted both the ABC and NBC approaches. They developed two rotating series, similar to ''

The NBC Mystery Movie ''The NBC Mystery Movie'' is an American television anthology series produced by Universal Pictures, that NBC broadcast from 1971 to 1977. Devoted to a rotating series of mystery episodes, it was sometimes split into two subsets broadcast on diff ...

'' (both produced by

MGM Television MGM Television Worldwide Group and Digital (alternatively Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Television Group and Digital, commonly known as MGM Television and then-known as MGM/UA Television; common metonym: Lion) is an American television production/dis ...

), and continued to premiere brand new feature-length films as television movies seen on alternating weeks. The two series-like projects were: * '' Shaft'', a series television version of the 1970s blaxploitation film franchise (itself based on

Ernest Tidyman Ernest Ralph Tidyman (January 1, 1928 – July 14, 1984) was an American author and screenwriter, best known for his novels featuring the African-American detective John Shaft. He also co-wrote the screenplay for the film version of '' Shaft'' w ...

's 1970 novel of the same name), starring

Richard Roundtree Richard Roundtree (born July 9, 1942) is an American actor. Roundtree is noted as being "the first black action hero" for his portrayal of private detective John Shaft in the 1971 film ''Shaft'', and its four sequels, released between 1972 and 2 ...

reprising the role of

John Shaft John Shaft is a fictional character created by author/screenwriter Ernest Tidyman for the 1970 novel of the same name. He was portrayed by Richard Roundtree in the original 1971 film and in its four sequels, '' Shaft's Big Score!'' (1972), '' Sh ...

. * '' Hawkins'', starred James Stewart as Billy Jim Hawkins, a rural lawyer who investigated the cases he was involved in, not unlike Stewart's role in the 1959 film ''

Anatomy of a Murder ''Anatomy of a Murder'' is a 1959 American courtroom drama and crime film produced and directed by Otto Preminger. The screenplay by Wendell Mayes was based on the 1958 novel of the same name written by Michigan Supreme Court Justice John D. Vo ...

''. * Every third week was a television movie.Examples, per emmys.com, include
Cry Rape!
',
A War of Children
', and
Gargoyles
'. ''The New CBS Tuesday Night Movies'' was cancelled after the 1973-1974 television season. Television films seen on CBS would be incorporated into its Thursday and Friday night movie programs, beginning with the 1974-1975 season.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:New CBS Tuesday Night Movies Tuesday Night Movies 1971 American television series debuts 1974 American television series endings 1970s American crime television series 1970s American mystery television series American motion picture television series English-language television shows