The database has this at 73 min. I'm 100% certain this was an ABC Movie of the Week. Most of those ran in a 90 min slot (incl. ads)I've recently done a dub of this movie onto DVD from VHS, where I taped it from TV in 1989. Without ads, it comes in at 92 min. I going to assume that this is close to what the network runtime originally was... had it been shown in a 2 hr block.
shareYou're right about the ABC Movie of the Week; that did have a 90 minute slot (most of the time on the East Coast this was from 9:30 to 11:00 PM. The original run time of this movie was 90 minutes (including commercials). I saw the film on its first airing, and, being a kid in New York City, it scared the hell out of me. Several years later it popped up again on late night TV, and when I saw the stuff about the terrorists I wondered where the hell it came from. Whoever put together the new version must have thought no one would buy the idea of an earthquake on the East Coast. As far as I know, ever since the late 70s the only version that has been circulated on syndication is the one with the extra terrorist footage, so if you recorded it in 1989, that would explain the longer running time.
shareThe longer version is the original version. Both versions were aired in the early 70's and I saw both back then. I think there was some controversy about wich version to air. Although I remember seeing The earthquake version first and later seeing the one with the Terrorist twist. By the way New york is not immune to earth quakes. There was an earth tremor in the metro area in the 70's and it was eerie. I do have a VHs copy of this excellent flick. I also reccomend Daylight. That was a much maligned movie but I thought it was excellent.
shareMy recollection was that the movie ran 8:30-10 (in NYC at least). "Marcus Welby, MD" followed in the 10-11 slot.
"Well, there it is."
The first time I saw this it was as a network "Movie of the Week" shown in prime time. The cause of the disaster was given as an earthquake in that version and IIRC there was no "above ground" footage shown during the movie. A few years later I saw this title listed on the late, late show, so I stayed up and watched it. At first I charged it off to being sleepy due to the late hour, because this version had an entire sub-plot not mentioned in the original film. This version had young 20-something radicals planting bombs in a nightclub or some such, and one of the bombs rolled out of a girl's purse under a restaurant table. I dunno, it was very convoluted.
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