HBO: Hey, Beastmaster's On!

When people reminisce about watching HBO in the '80s, one film that always comes up in conversation is The Beastmaster. The joke (usually attributed to Dennis Miller, though I haven't been able to verify it) was that, because of seemingly constant airings, HBO stood for Hey, Beastmaster's On. So was The Beastmaster one of HBO's most aired films in the '80s?

No. And surprisingly, it's not even close.

The Beastmaster aired 23 times in the '80s, along with 44 other films that aired that same amount, but 347 movies aired more than The Beastmaster did, making it and the other 44 pictures tied for the 28th most aired film on HBO in the '80s.

That's not really near the top of the list, so why is that film singled out? Tough to say. I think for many people, the only reason they ever saw the film was because it was on HBO, and then perhaps when it was later aired on other networks like TBS or USA, that HBO connection was already made. We may never know.