If you are even remotely familiar with Ridley Scott’s “Alien,” then you know that ABC’s marketing staff was not.

John Hurt is looking pretty spry.  (At least they had the good sense to leave Ian Holm and Veronica Cartwright out of this mess.)

Anyway … did it really take “Alien” five years to reach network television?  I seem to remember (falsely, I suppose) that it hit TV when I was still a very young child.  Yes, HBO carried it only a year after its theatrical release — maybe that’s what I’m remembering.  (People just called it “Home Box” back in the day.  Being a little kid, I thought they meant the physical “box” –the converter — that sat atop the television.)

Yet I also seem to recall my family having Showtime, but not HBO … and people on my street still just called any premium channel “Home Box?”  Whatever … it was a verrrry long time ago, and I wasn’t the brightest kid out there, anyway.

Source: Screen Gems on Facebook