Remember the 1980s, when you could tune in Frank Capra’s “It’s a Wonderful Life” a couple of times a night on different cable channels?

The film had been sort of forgotten, and had slipped into public domain as far as television stations were concerned. That meant TV executives could show the film and not pay anyone or any company any royalties.

Now the film is a true holiday classic. It is no longer out on the streets every night, like a cinematic lady of the evening, but tucked away for special events only. This year, NBC showed the saga of George Bailey on Dec. 12, and will play the movie once again Christmas Eve.

I’ve stumbled across other holiday-themed movies from the 1940s, cousins to the Capra film. And I’m thinking as more people catch these films, the films will become more popular around the holidays. I’ll bet the guys at Turner Classic Films are always looking at inventory and archives, hoping to find that one film that just catches on.

I’ve become a big fan of “The Bishop’s Wife” from 1947, Cary Grant’s turn as a good guy angel sent to Earth to assist David Niven’s troubled church minister. The film is loaded with rich holiday imagery, like Grant’s character — “Dudley” — decorating a Christmas tree with magic, taking friends on an acrobatic ice skate and conducting a boy’s choir.

Last year, I saw Robert Mitchum’s 1949 “Holiday Affair,” and it’s a love story. Old Bob meets Janet Leigh, a comparative shopper, during the Christmas season. A comparative shopper! I’d never heard the term, but it was a way for stores to spy on their rivals — employing people to see how items were priced. Scenes inside bustling department stores are part of the fun, although the kid playing Janet’s 10-year-old son — Gordon Gebert — is kind of annoying.

This year, I caught a few minutes of “It Happened on Fifth Avenue,” in which a bunch of down-and-out people move into a vacationing millionaire’s mansion — unaware the money man is among the group! Christmas and New Year’s scenes are part of the story, and there are the usual heart-warming characters with wisdom in their words.

Funny story on “Fifth Avenue.” The story says that after 1990, this film essentially disappeared from broadcast and retail availability. Despite an Academy Award nomination, a cult film following and requests to Turner and the American Movie Classics to show the film, it was not shown on American television for almost 20 years. TCM decided to give the film a break just this year, airing it Dec. 10.

I’ll bet it’s back next year, if not this holiday season.

This Saturday, TCM rolls “The Man Who Came to Dinner.” This one, from 1942, stars Saratoga’s Monty Woolley, Bette Davis and even Jimmy Durante. This was first a pretty famous 1930s play, but the story has Monty’s radio star Sheridan Whiteside slipping on a patch of ice outside the front door of a home he’s about to visit during the Christmas season. His injuries spell a long recuperation inside the home, and Sheridan drives everyone nuts.

In all four of these movies, old-fashioned Christmas trees are seen — covered in large, electric lights and seemingly thousands of icicle strands. So I think people tune in for just the nostalgia factors.

And that starts me thinking about the future. Twenty years from now, are people going to be nostalgic for the 1970s, and maybe start watching Marlo Thomas and her terrifically unforgettable re-make of “It’s a Wonderful Life” from 1977? It was called “It Happened One Christmas,” and the sexes swapped roles. Marlo’s Mary Bailey Hatch is the hard worker who can’t get ahead, her husband George Hatch — Wayne Rogers — is the nice guy back home, Cloris Leachman is the guardian angel, Clara.

Hmmmm ... for a terrifically unforgettable movie, I seem to remember quite a bit about it!

There have been bunches of others. How about “The Homecoming: A Christmas Story” from 1971? This is about a rural family’s adventures on Christmas Eve 1933, and kind of kick-started “The Waltons” television series.

Will we see be seeing more of George C. Scott’s impressive turn as Scrooge in the 1984 version of “A Christmas Carol?” Or will the passage of time tempt more of us to give Angela Lansbury’s 1996 musical “Mrs. Santa Claus” another shot?

Here’s my point: I think “Holiday Affair” and “Fifth Avenue” are picking up more fans because people want to see how the holidays were celebrated 60 years ago. That was the big selling point of 1983’s “A Christmas Story.” The whole gag was Christmas seen through the eyes of a dopey kid during the 1940s. Going even farther back, when TCM plays the old “Christmas Past,” I always try to be in the audience. This collection of short silent films gives folks history lessons about holiday life during the early 1900s.

Hopefully, people will not get so nostalgic they’ll make the 1964 “Santa Claus Conquers the Martians” required December viewing. This was just a crummy, cheaply-made film with lousy everything, mixing science fiction, comedy and holiday cheer — kind of like the horror and western mix of “Jesse James meets Frankenstein’s Daughter” from 1966. The former story, if you care, is this: Santa is kidnapped by Martians who want their idiot kids to be just as happy as the goofball children on Earth. Gad, there’s even a song.

One ominous fact about the flick: Santa and the Martians recently passed into the public domain, making the film a candidate for online posting ... or unlimited viewing ... without those pesky licensing charges.

I can see the marathon coming any day now!