What was the first continuing weekly prime time television series to show recent feature movies from major U.S. studios in color?

NBC Saturday Night at the Movies was the first continuing weekly prime time U.S. network television series to show relatively recent movies from major studios in color. The series premiered on September 23, 1961. Previously, movies on television were usually low-cost B films or older films that the major studios or producers no longer found suitable for theatrical presentation.

In the earliest years of television, major studios did not release films to television. But, by the late 1950s some major studios began making a few types of family, suspense, and dramatic movies available. Nonetheless, it took until the early 1970s, before the time span between a film's theatrical release and its appearance on commercial network television became a smaller period of time. Before the 1970s, there was a substantial number of years (at least ten or more) before a theatrical film was used on network TV.

Now in 2016, the period of time can be as brief as three years before a theatrical film shows up on commercial television. During the years of 1954 to 1972, a theatrical motion picture (even a relatively recent one) usually had to wait as many as twelve years (as in the case of the 1959 Ben-Hur) before it turned up on a home prime time television network.