Every holiday season, millions of people look forward to revisiting some of their favorite Christmas-related movies, whether it’s a comedy like A Christmas Story or Christmas Vacation, something wholesome and uplifting like Miracle on 34th Street or The Bishop’s Wife, or something less conventional, like the noir classics Lady in the Lake or Blast of Silence. But for many people, no holiday season is complete without at least one viewing of It’s a Wonderful Life.
Many people who love It’s a Wonderful Life were likely introduced to it during a time in the 1980s or early 1990s when the movie was getting seemingly endless airtime on television during the month of December. But now, those broadcasts are much more limited than they once were, not even appearing on Turner Classic Movies, where people generally expect to find movies from the 1940s. Every year, social media posts from Turner Classic Movies that involve holiday movies get comments from people asking why It’s a Wonderful Life isn’t on their schedule.
So, why isn’t It’s a Wonderful Life on TV as much as it once was? Why wouldn’t channels want to play this beloved holiday classic? The reason behind that involves a series of business acquisitions and copyright issues, which isn’t exactly an exciting answer, but is a good example of some of the legal complexities that can impact films.
A Brief History of It’s a Wonderful Life
It’s a Wonderful Life is based on the short story “The Greatest Gift” by Philip Van Doren Stern, published in 1943. Van Doren Stern initially had the idea for a story about a man who contemplates suicide on Christmas Eve in 1938, but he continued working on it for a few years with the hope of eventually having it published. However, publishers weren’t interested and he eventually decided to self-publish by having 200 copies printed to give to friends instead of traditional Christmas cards.
Over the next few years, Van Doren Stern did have some success in getting his story published in a few magazines and as a book, but the biggest change in the story’s lore came in 1944 when one of the original self-published copies reached David Hempstead, a producer at RKO Studios. Hempstead saw potential in the story, bought the rights to adapt it into a film, and RKO had various screenwriters get to work on adapting the story into a screenplay. By 1945, RKO had lost interest in turning it into a film, but director Frank Capra was very fond of the story and purchased the film rights from RKO to produce it himself through Liberty Films, the independent production company he co-founded after World War II with George Stevens and William Wyler.
When It’s a Wonderful Life was released in December 1946, it was met with mixed reviews and didn’t earn enough at the box office to cover the costs of production. Despite that, It’s a Wonderful Life was nominated for five Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Film Editing, and Best Sound Recording. Unfortunately for It’s a Wonderful Life, it was eligible for the Academy Awards the same year The Best Years of Our Lives was, and Best Years won in nearly all of the categories It’s a Wonderful Life was nominated for, aside for Best Sound Recording, which went to The Jolson Story. However, the special effects team for It’s a Wonderful Life did receive a Technical Achievement Academy Award for developing a new process for simulating snowfall.
Ownership Changes After Release
Since It’s a Wonderful Life wasn’t a profitable movie, Liberty Films was left in a bad position financially after its release and the studio was purchased by Paramount in 1947. (Aside from It’s a Wonderful Life, the only other movie Liberty Films actually completed is 1948’s State of the Union, starring Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy.)
Liberty Films officially dissolved in 1951 and the company’s acquisition by Paramount was only the beginning of a series of changes in ownership rights for It’s a Wonderful Life. When Paramount acquired Liberty Films, It’s a Wonderful Life became part of Paramount’s library. In 1955, Paramount then sold the rights to some of their pre-1950s library to U.M. & M. TV Corporation. This transaction primarily involved short films and animation, but It’s a Wonderful Life was among the titles included in the deal. Ownership of It’s a Wonderful Life transferred again in 1956 when National Telefilm Associates (NTA) acquired the U.M. & M. TV Corporation. NTA later changed their name to Republic Pictures Corporation in 1984 and continued to hold the rights to It’s a Wonderful Life until April 1994. (Ownership of It’s a Wonderful Life moved around a few more times in subsequent years, but for the purposes of this article, these are most relevant transactions to be aware of.)
Copyright Confusion Creates a Holiday Classic
Since It’s a Wonderful Life was released in 1946, it was covered by the Copyright Act of 1909, which applied to copyrightable works created before 1964. Under the Copyright Act of 1909, work was covered for an initial term of 28 years and copyright holders had the option to extend protection for an additional 28 years. If the copyright holder wanted to extend coverage for another 28 years, they needed to reapply in the year prior to the initial term ending, or their work would become public domain. This means the initial copyright coverage term for It’s a Wonderful Life was set to expire in 1974, but NTA did not file for the 28-year extension in time, which would have covered the movie through 2002.
NTA’s failure to file for that copyright extension is what led to It’s a Wonderful Life, unintentionally, having a renaissance with the public. Since TV stations don’t need to pay royalties for public domain movies, this famously led to It’s a Wonderful Life becoming a ubiquitous presence on television in the 1980s and early 1990s. Even if you don’t personally remember the days of It’s a Wonderful Life getting near-constant airtime, you can still catch references to it always being on TV in reruns of shows from that era, such as Married…With Children and Roseanne.
While It’s a Wonderful Life remains one of the handful of pre-1970s movies you can consistently expect to see on television outside of Turner Classic Movies, it’s no longer the inescapable presence it once was. So, what, exactly changed?
Regaining Control of It’s a Wonderful Life
It’s a Wonderful Life is a prime example of the fact that films can run into a lot of complex situations when it comes to intellectual property law. For instance, there have been cases of movies being released on home video or broadcast on television with some of the music replaced because of licensing issues with the original music. Or, sometimes, movies can become very difficult to see at all (at least through legal means) because of licensing issues that impact availability on home video and streaming services, as was recently the case with Kevin Smith’s 1999 movie Dogma.
While the film It’s a Wonderful Life did become public domain in 1974, that didn’t necessarily mean that all aspects of the film lacked copyright protection. While NTA did not renew the copyright for the film, Philip Van Doren Stern had separately filed for copyright protection of his original story “The Greatest Gift” and he did file to extend his copyright protection on time. Additionally, the original score for It’s a Wonderful Life had been copyrighted separately by its composer, Dimitri Tiomkin. Also, Republic Pictures had the exclusive film and radio rights to Van Doren Stern’s story, which had originally been with RKO, but came to Republic through the series of moves It’s a Wonderful Life went through over the years.
The varyious copyrights involved with It’s a Wonderful Life ended up helping Republic Pictures put a stop to the days of endless, royalty-free broadcasts of the movie during the holidays. In 1993, Republic Pictures purchased the rights to its score from Dimitri Tiomkin’s family. That same year, Republic Pictures successfully argued that since they had the exclusive film rights to “The Greatest Gift” and the original score, it could no longer be aired on TV without paying royalties. Also, since the film was based on Phillip Van Doren Stern’s original story, his estate would be owed royalties for television broadcasts of the movie.
Having regained control of It’s a Wonderful Life, Republic Pictures entered into an exclusive agreement with NBC in 1994 for television broadcasts of the movie. NBC typically airs the movie every Christmas Eve and it airs on other NBC-owned channels, such as E! and the USA Network throughout the holiday season. Since Turner Classic Movies is not owned by NBC, this agreement explains why It’s a Wonderful Life is consistently absent from their schedule every December.
While It’s a Wonderful Life isn’t being broadcast as constantly as it once was, it is still easily available digitally and on a variety of physical media formats. However, its complicated copyright history lives on some ways. If you are planning to watch It’s a Wonderful Life on a streaming service this holiday season, watch out for versions called the “Abridged” or “Legend” version. These versions omit the entire sequence where George Bailey is shown what his life would be like if he had never been born, seemingly in an attempt to sidestep the part of the movie that was directly based on “The Greatest Gift.” If you think that sounds completely ridiculous, you are absolutely correct, as this clip proves.
