[1] During the mid-1980s the Sunday Night Movie was aired consistently enough to be ranked in the top 30 highest-rated programs for 1985–1988.
[2] On September 20, 1976, NBC re-purposed the Sunday Night Movie as an umbrella program called The Big Event.
The New York Times, however, panned the opening telecast: "Sunday evening's live presentation of “The Big Event,” a new weekly series of what the network hopes will be “superspecial” attractions, was structured around three New York parties, and parts of the festivities were scheduled to be performed outdoors.
The elaborate plans, however, ran into frequent periods of rain, and the generally soggy gloom permeated most of the indoor routines, turning an already awkward format into an excruciatingly embarrassing, almost pathetic occasion.
However, interest waned in subsequent seasons, and the network finally dropped the Big Event branding in 1981.