One of the last made-for-television Shakespeare adaptations (to date) to have its American premiere on commercial network television. Franco Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet (1968), made for movie theaters, was telecast by ABC in 1980, but the only other made-for-television Shakespeare adaptation to have its American premiere on commercial television since 1975 has been the syndicated telecast of Sir Laurence Olivier's King Lear (1983), which was shown on American television in 1984, after premiering in England in 1983.