The Ten Commandments - ABC - Saturday 3/30.

[A.H.Black]

The (almost) annual presentation of the Ten Commandments starts in about 15 minutes here. If you are too young to remember Charlton Heston when he was young - or Cecil B. Demille when he was the blockbuster king - you owe yourself a 4 hour marathon.

[my little pony]

LOL, i'm watching

my parents thought tv made a great babysitter and i mark holidays by movies. ramses never gets less hot, i dont care if he was a tool.

[A.H.Black]

LOL, i'm watching

my parents thought tv made a great babysitter and i mark holidays by movies. ramses never gets less hot, i dont care if he was a tool.

Do you mean old Ramses? Yul Brynner? Yul Brynner I grant you every time.

I was wrong. Not 4 hours - nearly 5 with commercials. Ah the days when there used to be intermissions in movies. There was even special music for the break.

[Rex]

I know most of it is cow patties from a factual standpoint and it's campier than a Liberace scrapbook, but it's so compellingly entertaining.

[my little pony]

i really hate it when moses gets the longer beard and super thick michael landon hair. john derek's beard is so long now too. that's why i'm team ramses. he never aged or grew questionable facial hair.

[shan]

I love the random American sounding accent in Ramses' advisors.

[quartz]

This has been on a Easter since I was a kid, 40 years ago, and I still don't get why they show this instead of Ben Hur, which at least has Jesus/crucifiction scenes in it.
Still love it though!

[my little pony]

once when i was a student teacher, i had to spend a week showing it to each class in increments and nothing else all day long. the teacher of the class let me have all the other lessons all semester long, but ten commandments wk was his and he wasnt giving it up.

[shan]

Ten Commandments week??

[A.H.Black]

I'm trying to think of the "money" shots.

First is the parade of Ethiopia for Pharoah

Then there is the Pharoah's city when Moses pulls back the curtain to show the whole thing.

Finally, of course, is the parting of the Red Sea.

All of them are much better on the big screen. Did I miss any?

[A.H.Black]

This has been on a Easter since I was a kid, 40 years ago, and I still don't get why they show this instead of Ben Hur, which at least has Jesus/crucifiction scenes in it.
Still love it though!

I think Ben Hur used to be on at Easter too. Then it got so it was on all year long. Wasn't "Wizard of Oz" an Easter standard as well?

[Spareoom]

This has been on a Easter since I was a kid, 40 years ago, and I still don't get why they show this instead of Ben Hur, which at least has Jesus/crucifiction scenes in it.
Still love it though!

Because the story of Moses leading the Israelite out of Egypt is the origin of the Passover observance? Which happens to fall right before Easter in the Jewish calender. Makes perfect sense to me.

[quartz]

^ well, I was raised in a Calvinistic environment and any Jewish reference was pretty much shoved under the rug!

[reckless]

I think Ben Hur used to be on at Easter too. Then it got so it was on all year long. Wasn't "Wizard of Oz" an Easter standard as well?

Wizard of Oz has a rather convoluted history. There were stretches when it was an Easter/spring staple -- CBS' answer to ABC's Ten Commandments -- but it originally was a winter broadcast. This wikipedia entry lists the airdates for Wizard of Oz over the years. It is my understanding that Ben Hur only aired a couple of times as a national broadcast before it was sold to local broadcasters who could air it when they chose. Later, it was acquired by Turner (like Wizard of Oz) and became a cable staple.

Ten Commandments always aired over Easter weekend, because Passover generally occurred around the same time. (We always thought that was funny when the Jewish calendar had them weeks apart.) And Passover does have some direct relevance to Jesus; the Last Supper was a Passover Seder.

What I want to know is how Life of Brian never became an Easter television tradition.

[paskatefan]

There were a number of years when The Ten Commandments aired on the first two nights of Passover (the seder nights) - very annoying since many Jewish families have seders those nights, so I'm glad that the movie is still usually shown during Passover, but not on seder nights!

[my little pony]

ben hur is on tcm now, easter parade is at 6

[Spareoom]

^ well, I was raised in a Calvinistic environment and any Jewish reference was pretty much shoved under the rug!

Understood. :p The term "Passover" comes from the 10th plague, when God instructed every family to sacrifice a lamb and paint the blood over the door in their house, so that when the angel of death came that night for the firstborns, the angel would "pass over" the house and the firstborn would be spared.

[Rex]

I love the random American sounding accent in Ramses' advisors.

My mom called me while it was on, complaining about Edward G. Robinson's miscasting as Dathan. "I'm da governor, seeeeeeeeeeee?".

[my little pony]

there's like 10 hrs worth of good skating music in ben hur, has anyone ever used it?

[A.H.Black]

there's like 10 hrs worth of good skating music in ben hur, has anyone ever used it?

I'm guessing it was probably used in the 60's. However, in those days program music was so chopped up I'm not sure if anyone would recognize it.