Do you miss movies of the week?

Warning this is an eldergray thread. What were some of your faves? Can any of you hum the ABC Movie of the week intro theme?

I vaguely remember an ABC Movie of the Week with Kate Jackson & Robert Wagner playing a married couple staying in a house that was haunted by the previous occupant, a long dead movie starlet they were writing a book about. Robert Wagner became obsessed with the dead woman. I remember Sylvia Sidney and John Carradine had small roles. So I looked the movie up on IMDB, and turns out it's posted in its entirety on YouTube! Gotta love the internet. It's called "Death at Love House."
http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DlKPdGrW0wms
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Yes, I miss the movies of the week as well as "The Early Show," "The Late Show," and "Saturday Night at the Movies."
Patty Duke's most famous and the one that really started the whole TV movie thing, MY Sweet Charlie.
Anything with Patty Duke or Liz Montgomery was sure to be a very good TV movie.
I miss TV movies and miniseries, and I wish the big three networks would make them again. Some of them were real quality stuff, and some were total (unintentional) camp that really made you laugh.
Yes, the movie of the week, or made-for-tv movies would be enjoyable masterpieces compared to the unwatchable crap that is on now.
The ABC Movie Of The Week theme was composed by Burt Bacharach, and before its use by ABC, it was a track on one of his early solo albums. The two I remember best are "Seven In Darkness", about blind people left stranded after a plane crash, and a terrific but disturbing Edward G. Robinson movie called "The Old Man Who Cried Wolf", co-starring Ed Asner. The ending of that one still creeps me out.
Yes and Roots and North and South and the Wonderful World of Disney.
Elkanah Bent
I'm thinking they disappeared around 2005? Once Hallmark stopped airing Sunday night movies on CBS? I remember some during the first part of the 2000s that gave inside looks at shows like Charlie's Angels and Three's Company. Also, I remember one on Billie Jean King.
Susan Blakely was another great tv movie queen r4, and Stockard Channing also made some good ones. I'd love to see Blakely's Frances Farmer tv movie again, it aired a year after the theatrical movie
I remember Seven in Darkness!
Enjoy . . .
http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DlKPdGrW0wms
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The Edward G. Robinson movie had costars such as Martin Balsam, Diane Baker, Ruth Roman and Sam Jaffe. TV movies were where the former greats went to die. The money must have been pretty good in those days.
The Gold Standard
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/45/Trilogy_of_Terror_Poster.jpg
Centennial, Winds of War, War and Remembrance -- all were great mini-series.
MAYBE I'LL COME HOME IN THE SPRING with Sally Field. I wept when she cut her hair off.
Steven Spielberg's directorial debut
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d4/Duel_poster.jpg
1971
Anything with Anjanette Comer, Lois Nettleton and Carl Betz! Or Daughter of the Mind with Julie Harris.
Milton Berle was in SEVEN IN DARKNESS??!!!
True, R13. Back in the 70s and 80s many of the old-time stars did TV movies. I remember Bette Davis doing a ton of them at that time. She was on TV a lot back then.
Nothing can compare to the brilliant and chilling Elizabeth Montgomery in THE LEGEND OF LIZZIE BORDEN. It was actually released overseas as a feature film it was that good.
Bad Ronald
Another tv movie queen, Susan Clark. Remember Babe especially? She must've won the Emmy for that. She also did a good Amelia Earhart movie. I was surprised she ended up in dreck like Porky's and Webster, but everybody's got to pay the bills.
Lizzie Borden was one of the best, but it wasn't any better than Sybil, and a few other cream-of-the-crop 70s tv movies.
The first movie of the week series on at prime time was Saturday Night at the Movies and they were all 1950s feature films from the 20th Century Fox vault. I believe the series began around 1963 and it was where I, as a young gay became acquainted with the allure of Marilyn Monroe, Susan Hayward, Clifton Webb, Robert Mitchum and Robert Wagner. Favorites were Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Niagra, How to Marry a Millionaire, With a Song in My Heart, White Witch Doctor, Heaven Knows Mr. Allison, Beneath the 12 Mile Reef and Stars and Stripes Forever.
I miss the Late Show and the Late Late show which I used to watch in Baltimore, back in the day. Loved "Night of the Hunter" and "Bad Seed".
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North and South had Miss Elizabeth Taylor, Jimmy Stewart,Hal Holbrook, Robert Mitchum, Gene Kelly, and Johnny Cash. Then, there was a whole passel of TV stars joined by the cream of the soap set, and a bunch of stars to be. Very fun, except for the very bad script/novels.
NBC Saturday Night At The Movies also showed all the Hitchcock films from the 50's and early 60's. It's where I first saw "The Birds" and "Rear Window".
I loved Crowhaven Farm with Hope Lange and The Christmas without any Snow with Michael Learned.
Sybil was a TV Movie of the week that was made for DL viewing. Waaay ahead of it's time. They should have waited until the internets was invented so we could all gather here to watch together.
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The House on Greenapple Road
Elizabeth Montgomery owns this category. My favorite is "The Victim," where she plays a wealthy woman decides to drive down during a torrential downpour from San Francisco to meet her sister in Los Angeles. When she gets there, her sister has disappeared. What always sticks out for me is that she is able to outwit the killer because he tries to knock her out with a powerful cocktail ... but she drinks all day long, so it had no effect on her! Oh, the 70s! Other great Elizabeth TV movies: "A Case of Rape," the legendary TV nudie "The Legend of Lizzie Borden" and "When the Circus Came to Town," where she plays a woman who fulfills every harried mother's dream and actually runs off with the circus!
I didn't need DL at the time, r30. I was in the 6th grade, and it's all me and my friends and all the other kids are talking about in school when it was airing.
The greatest of all the Made-for-TV movies? Trilogy of Terror starring Karen Black. The Younglings have no idea what they missed, but it's fair to say that every single kid who ever saw it remembers it vividly. Second greatest? The Night Stalker: intrepid reporter Karl Kolchak chases a vampire in Las Vegas. I'm sure both were written by Twilight Zone vet Tichard Matheson, who also wrote 'I Am Legend.' Was Stockard Channing's The Girl Most Likely To (written by Joan Rivers) a TV movie? You know, most of it was dreck, but it's Shakespeare compared to the reality-show sludge they show now. I genuinely feel sorry for kids today. Mindless as most of it was, it wasn't toxic like the shit that's being served up these days (wow, I really do sound old).
Does anyone remember "Short Walk to Daylight"? It was about subway passengers who survived an earthquake in NYC, and their attempts to escape.
I liked Elizabeth in The Awakening Land with Hal Holbrook and Jane Seymour.
Sayward
I was born in 1980, so I'm no twink. But I don't remember ANY of these. I must have just been doing other things...
R34 is probably right about "Trilogy of Terror." That's probably the most enjoyable (if not the best, but how can you judge the "best" of these wonderfully low-budget TV movies?) of them all. But "Dying Room Only," which inspired at least a few later theatrical films, is almost as good. Then there is, of course, "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark," with Kim Darby, which led to the Katie Holmes motion picture from a few year ago. The TV version was much better (IMHO). And let's forget "Bad Ronald," "Scream Pretty Peggy" with Ted Bessell (That Girl's Donald Hollanger), "Isn't it Shocking?" with Alan Alda, "Born Innocent" and "Sarah T: Portait of a Teenage Alcoholic" with Linda Blair, and, course the "Dawn" and "Alexander" teen prostitute movies. But there are so many. There should be "70s TV movie appreciation course" somewhere. But there probably already is at UCLA.
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[quote]Does anyone remember "Short Walk to Daylight"? One of my faves starring of course Mr. Barbra Streisand as the hunky tough cop. My favorite line was from Brook Bundy worried whether her nose job had been ruined by the train crash.
Meant to say "let's NOT forget "Bad Ronald", etc.
R38
LOL @ R39. But it was a surprisingly well made disaster movie, for TV.
I remember also "A Case of Rape" with Miss Montgomery. Very groundbreaking TV film. She was magnificent in it. She also made one where she played a police detective having an affair with a very married OJ Simpson called, "A Killing Affair" IIRC.
"Dying Room Only" I think gets by on a great title and no one having seen it in many years, and not really remembering it. I'm a big movie downloader and I've seen a lot of these old tv movies again in the last few years. I didn't think Dying Room was all that. "Scream Peggy Scream" was also meh, and "Isn't That Shocking" was worse. I will agree "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark" is fantastic and better than the lame remake. It's also one of the few 70s tv movies that has never stopped airing on tv.
NetFlix actually streams some of these. The other night, I watched one called "Strange Voices." Nancy McKeon played a schizophrenic, and Valerie Harper played her worried mother.
Almost anything by Peter Strauss or Richard Chamberlain or Brian Dennehy. "Masada," "The Count of Monte Cristo," as well as Hallmark Hall of Fame movies. What happened to all of them?
There was one MOW with a killer lamp and a garbage disposal that worked w/o electricity. I love DL because of threads like this.
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I forget the title, but Patty Duke and Donna Mills played sisters (!) and there was a giant black widow spider involved. I shit you not.
I think Mr. Barbra Streisand also starred in one where he somehow gor trapped in a department store after it closed, and the store was protected by a bunch of killer Dobermans. And wasn't the DL fave "The Summer of My German Soldier" with Kristy McNichol a made for TV flick?
"Dying Room Only" I think gets by on a great title and no one having seen it in many years, and not really remembering it. I'm a big movie downloader and I've seen a lot of these old tv movies again in the last few years. I didn't think Dying Room was all that. "Scream Peggy Scream" was also meh, and "Isn't That Shocking" was worse." Our opinions differ, as they should. "Dying Room Only" frightened me the very first time I saw it. The idea that someone could be kidnapped for their car freaked the shit out of me as a kid. It still does. That whole idea is so fucked-up, and probably true-to-life in some US states is horrifying. And for that reason, it resonates with me to this day. I rarely got to the movies, so "Scream Pretty Peggy" and "Isn't It Shocking," which were just fun thrillers, struck a chord as well.
They used to play these a lot (maybe still do, I moved) on British TV. I liked "Haunts of the Very Rich" with Cloris Leachman and Lloyd Bridges....which was ripped off and turned into "Lost." and "Death Cruise" with Kate Jackson, Celeste Holm, and Polly Bergen in halter tops
R49, I think all us eldergays enjoyed those movies at the time, but that doesn't necessarily mean they hold up well today. I've seen them all recently and that was my reaction. R50, "Haunts" is another I downloaded recently and I like that. It's very Twilight Zone and has good 70s atmosphere and music. "Death Cruise" I didn't like that much, no better than a "Murder She Wrote" episode.
Does anyone remember a MotW about killer ants? I swear I saw it when I was a kid, but can't remember the name and no one else remembers watching it.
Here's the original ABC movie of the week theme and the intro to "When Michael Calls" with Ben Gazarra and Elizabeth Ashley, 1972. The music puts me in a trance and I am a child again, sitting on the floor in my pajamas excited to see what the movie would be like. They were usually really good.
http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DRASpgYjVYjU
With Lynda Day George and Robert Foxworth, R52?
http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DpTVvOxvP9No
[quote]The music puts me in a trance and I am a child again, sitting on the floor in my pajamas excited to see what the movie would be like. They were usually really good. This is the common unbreakable bond amongst us eldergays.
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David Letterman, in his early days, used to do a skit involving "The Elizabeth Montgomery Made For TV Movie Hall of Fame." I have fond memories--probably misplaced--of Sally Field's "Maybe I'll Come Home in the Spring."
Made for TV movies were the equivalent of the programmers churned out at Monogram and Republic studios.
Duel and the Duel rip off with Valerie Harper!
Susan Dey in Mary Jane Harper Cried Last Night!!
"I think all us eldergays enjoyed those movies at the time, but that doesn't necessarily mean they hold up well today. I've seen them all recently and that was my reaction." I don't agree. Movies, especially low-budget TV movies, hold up as well as you want them to. You don't like them anymore. That's fine. But they will always strike a chord with me, and the ones that I enjoyed then, I'll continue to enjoy. And I hate this "eldergay" thing. I'm not even 50. If you want to be an "eldergay," have at it. But I think that's a very unflattering, even creepy, way to describe yourself.
The one with Victoria Principal as a beauty contestant/CIA agent being held hostage! The Night They Took Miss Beautiful!!
Holocaust!!!! My first award! An Emmy!!!
M
[quote]The Night They Took Miss Beautiful!! I thought someone was kidding, but Googled it and it's real. 1977 - featuring Gary Collins, Chuck Connors, Henry Gibson, Peter Haskell.
With all these tv movies mentioned so far, not a word about two films considered groundbreaking in their day?- THAT CERTAIN SUMMER(with Hal Holbrook) AN EARLY FROST (with Aidan Quinn, Ben Gazzara, Gena Rowlands,John Glover AND Sylvia Sidney) There were gays riveted to their television screens over these two. (not to mention a MARCUS WELBY, MD episode that dealt with teen homosexuality)
The Burt Bacharach instrumental which was the theme for the ABC Movie Of The Week is from the album, "Burt Bacharach" and is entitled "Nikki(2)". In case anyone really cares. Back then, I discovered it by accident when the album was playing at a party.
I always thought it was "The Night they STOLE Miss Beautiful," not TOOK. Google gives conflicting results. In any event, it was primo movie of the week ultra-crap, but more entertaining than "Iron Lady" or "Albert Noyes."
Thanks R65.
[quote] not to mention a MARCUS WELBY, MD episode that dealt with teen homosexuality It didn't deal with it well though, did it? I don't remember the episode but I remember reading about it, that it was treated as an affliction, and probably something curable. So no need to fondly remember homophobic episodes of ancient tv series. At the same time Norman Lear was tackling the subject from a decidedly pro-gay perspective on his sitcoms. That Certain Summer was groundbreaking, but kinda depressing to watch. It accurately captured what it was like to be gay at the time, but so many years later I'm just glad things have improved.
[quote]I always thought it was "The Night they STOLE Miss Beautiful," not TOOK. IMDB says took....so I guess that is right. "Criminals hijack an airplane that not only carries a dangerous organism that is to be used in bacterial warfare, but also five beauty contest finalists." !!!!!!
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076458/
M, shouldn't you be preparing for your New Year's Eve party? And just before the guests show up, you visit us, your Datalounge lemmings?
The MARCUS WELBY episode aired in 1974, was called "The Outrage", and massively pissed off gay activists EVERYWHERE. A teen was assaulted by a man, and homosexuality was classified by the Welby writers as "an illness".
Don't forget, it was Asshole/ A- gay, Barry Diller who , while at ABC , came up with the concept of the 'TV' Movie of The Week. Trivia yes, but more 'creativeness' to add to the list.
"The Dollmaker" - probably Jane Fonda's best performance, along with "Klute", "Julia", and "They Shoot Horses". Really well done, moving film.
Thank you r73. I agree. I was very good in Julia. It was my first film you know. So wonderful to start out in a featured role and avoid all that extra and soap opera work.
M
[quote]I was born in 1980, so I'm no twink. But I don't remember ANY of these. I must have just been doing other things... Mostly swimming around in dad's balls! Sorry 1980, but you hadn't been conceived when most of these gems debuted; they are quite literally before your time... [quote]thought someone was kidding, but Googled it and it's real Ah, the innocence of youth! Bit of advice here... When it comes to anything about the seventies, no matter how absurd, assume it true until proven otherwise. [quote] I think all us eldergays enjoyed those movies at the time, but that doesn't necessarily mean they hold up well today.... I'll admit I haven't seen any in at least twenty years, but I think The Night Stalker holds up very well, and so does that legendary third segment of Trilogy of Terror AND Girl Most Likely To,taking into account their budgets and that they're rather dated. I hope some younger folks look them up and report back with fresh eyes. I fondly remember a gem called Gargoyles, about man-sized lizards from under the Earth. I'm that one wasnt nominated for any emmys. There was one called The Questor Tapes about an android looking for his maker. Can anyone name this one? A dead sculptor is brought back to life and goes about killing people. Turns out he's using their blood to mix the clay for a life-sized sculpture of a demon. I vividly remember the last scene as he attempts to undo his work before it comes to life, but I can't remember the title. I think it wAs something with 'tapes' in the title too. Jog any memories?
Never mind. Just checked imdb. It's The Norliss Tapes (why the hell didn't I do that in the first place?). Now I must track it down
r75: is this it?
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070458/
Yes, thanks. As I said, it was only after I posted that I realized I had enough info to search imdb for myself. Now I MUST track it down, watch it, and return to razz our fellow poster, insisting: "it's just as good as I remember!!" In addition to Richard Matheson, another common element for the horror stuff was Dan Curtis. A mark of quality (or at least good intentions) [quote]Does anyone remember a MotW about killer ants? I swear I saw it when I was a kid, but can't remember the name and no one else remembers watching it Sorry, but I remember several killer ants movies, one set in a desert with a very weird title. If anything gets jogged loose ill report back
There were probably a few killer ant movies, but the sci-fi one set in the desert is Phase IV. I remembered it fondly from childhood, downloaded it, doesn't hold up. The reason I say when these old movies don't hold up is so people won't feel so deprived if they can't find a way to see them again. Some of them are worth going to great lengths to see again, but many will just disappoint, especially if it's not just something you downloaded for free. I downloaded Norliss Tapes too, it didn't survive the delete button.
[quote]Does anyone remember a MotW about killer ants? I swear I saw it when I was a kid, but can't remember the name and no one else remembers watching it I vaguely recall one titled ANTS! or something similar. Took place at a resort and featured Suzanne Somers.
Did anyone say "Satan's School for Girls?" or "The Spell"
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[quote]And wasn't the DL fave "The Summer of My German Soldier" with Kristy McNichol a made for TV flick? Except we called it "Summer of my German Leg Warmers" and I've forgotten why. "Mr. and Mrs. Bo Jo Jones" starring Desi Arnaz, Jr. and Miss Christopher Norris
http://www.tvparty.com/bgifs/moviebojo1.jpg
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Due to this thread I just watched TRILOGY OF TERROR on YouTube. The last segment was laugh out loud hi-larious! It is truly a scream!
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The Norliss tapes scared me but it probably doesn't hold up
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070458/
I just found the name of my favorite MOW "This House Possessed". Joan Bennett visits and Parker Stevenson sings. SPOILER: the house kills both and we all cheer. As a gayling with filthy older brothers, I loved that the house cleaned itself and killed people who made a mess.
http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DQkT0S4Zp5Zc
For the record "Roots", "North & South" and "Holocaust" were mini-series. The ABC Movie of the week ran for years. Twice a week, two ninety minute movies in prime time. Not only did they have good thrillers, "The Night Stalker" because a series, they had teriffic comedies and dramas too. Joan Rivers wrote "The Girl Most Likely to...: introducing Stockard Channing. Larry Hagman and Barbara Eden reunited for "The Toy Game". Alan Alda paid the rent with some before MASH. It's sad there are a few hundred of these films sitting in a vault somewhere. It would be cool if ABC Family would do the two a week again and they could use the original opening.
Um...made for tv movies are still made all the time. Everything is segregated now by genre thanks to cable, but you can pretty much see as many low-budget, poorly acted, poorly written made for tv films as your heart desires on Lifetime, Hallmark, Sci-Fi (or however you spell it) etc.
some favorites: (not mentioned) Women in Chains (w/ Ida Lupino) 83 Hours til Dawn Five Desperate Women The Snoop Sisters Do Not Fold Spindle or Mutilate The Failing of Raymond Home for the Holidays Go Ask Alice The Girls of Huntington House Killer Bees Someone I Touched
bumping for my bf!
I found it! It was called 'Ants" aka 'It Happened at Lakewood Manor'. It was on CBS. Listen to this cast. Robert Foxworth, Lynda Day George, Brian Dennehy, Suzanne Somers, Anita Gillette, and Myrna Loy
http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DwMosqx9Sr9k
"Vacation in Hell" with Pricilla Barnes, Maureen McCormac, nad Barabra Feldon? 5 woman on vacation wander off and get threatened by "the natives" because one of them took a necklace. Crazy stuff! "The Last Best Year" Bernedette Peters and Mary Tyler Moore: BP has an illness and is a loner and MTM is her doctor. BP finds out she's dying and just wants to meet her son and live until Christmas. Her "friends" celebrate Christmas early, and after she dies, MTM meets BP's son and tells him how wonderful his mother was. God, it gets me every time! Then there's one with Heather Locklear with Multiple personality disorder, and one based on "all about eve" with Barbra Feldon. One with Corteny Thorn Smith as The Milk Princess who murders her rival's?? One with Kristen Davis as a college student who moonlights as a hooker and who's sent on an out call to her FATHER!!! All Tori Spelling movies: especially the one where Kelly Martin kills her because she's such a bitch. "Punch and Jodie", "The Day After" , remakes of "Whatever happened to Baby Jane' and "The Bad Seed".... Most of the TV show's in the 70's started as "Movies of the week": Charlie's Angel's, The Love Boat, Fantasy Island....
I already found "Ants" back in post R54, sillies! I actually watched part of The Norliss Tapes a couple of years ago. I think it was on Encore Mysteries, which is why I love the Encore movie package. They carry a lot of those old obscure movies. "They Eyes of Charles Sand" is another one I remember. Joan Bennett was in it too. She certainly made the MoTW rounds back in the 70s.
http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DJVbrUqC3ZJY
And "The Initiation of Sarah" with Morgan Fairchild and Brittney and Shelly Winters. It was a "Carrie" ripoff. THAT stuff rules. There was a remake, but it couldn't hold a candle to to the original.
Along Came a Spider with Suzanne Pleshette
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065387/
Honeymoon with a Stranger
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064438/
I loved the prison ones!
[quote]Um...made for tv movies are still made all the time. Yeah but "The ABC Movie Of The Week" was different. They weren't event films ripped from the headlines or based on famous court cases. They were all original stories, horror, comedy, drama. They got big stars, Liz and Dick did one about divorce called "Divorce His" one night from the guy's point of view and "Divorce Hers" the next night. And they won Emmy's, when was the last time a Lifetime movie did that?
[quote]I forget the title, but Patty Duke and Donna Mills played sisters (!) and there was a giant black widow spider involved. I shit you not. [italic]Curse of the Black Widow.[/italic] Loved Patty's thick Eastern European accent when she would turn into the spider lady.
http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3Du3YSu6PE2W4
[italic]"The Dollmaker" - probably Jane Fonda's best performance, along with "Klute", "Julia", and "They Shoot Horses". Really well done, moving film. This was also released in France with the mawkish, inimitably French title [italic]Les poupées de l'espoir[/italic] ("The Dolls of Hope").
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There have been some good movies mentioned on here that weren't ABC Movie of the Week like The Spell (Lee Grant "Where did you think you got it from?") and The Initiation of Sarah (that was a Sunday night movie). But ABC Movie of the Week had the best: DAUGHTER OF THE MIND with Ray Milland and Pamelyn Ferdin who was in everything that needed a 12-year old girl at the time. TRIBES with Jan-Michael Vincent at his hottest as a hippied drafted in Vietnam. CROWHAVEN FARM!!!! DR. COOK'S GARDEN with Bing Crosby as a serial killer. THE FEMINIST AND THE FUZZ with Barbara Eden and James Hartman FIVE DESPERATE WOMEN (as someone said before, anything with Anjanette Comer was a must-see) MAYBE I'LL COME HOME IN THE SPRING (the first inkling before SYBIL that Sally Field could act). MR. AND MRS. BO JO JONES-Desi Arnaz and Trapper John's Christopher Norris as high-school kids with a baby on the way. BRIAN'S SONG!!!! Even the theme music made you cry. WHEN MICHAEL CALLS-Auntie My Helen HAUNTS OF THE VERY RICH SHORT WALK TO DAYLIGHT-my favorite disaster film THAT CERTAIN SUMMER-I watched this movie last year on DVD and it still holds up HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS-Sally Field, Julie Harris, Jessica Walter, and Eleanor Parker are sisters home for Christmas and a killer in a yellow rain slicker, red gloves, and a pitchfork is out to kill them all. GO ASK ALICE!!!! ISN'T IT SHOCKING?-someone is killing off the senior citizens in the town where Alan Alda is sheriff. Louise Lasser is his secretary and she is hysterically funny in this film. DON'T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK-Sally, sally, sally THE GIRL MOST LIKELY TO-it was Movie of the Week TRAPPED is the movie with James Brolin trapped in the department store with six dobermans trying to eat him. A SUMMER WITHOUT BOYS-Kay Lenz and Debralee Scott as best friends during WWII. This movie is actually really good. THE CAT CREATURE with Meredith Baxter Birney in the title role MRS. SUNDANCE-Liz Montgomery in the sequel to Butch Cassidy KILLDOZER-a bulldozer taken over by an alien mind. KILLER BEES-with Gloria Swanson as the queen of the hive and Kate Jackson as the girl who marries in to the family THE SEX SYMBOL-Connie Stevens as Marilyn Monroe THE STRANGER WITHIN-Barbara Eden pregnant with an alien baby and she has cravings for salt and coffee BAD RONALD-Scott Jacobi at his creepiest (and kind of sexy too) SATAN'S TRIANGLE with Kim Novak as the Devil!!! SOMEONE I TOUCHED-Cloris Leachman gets VD! TRILOGY OF TERROR-the best of all of them HUCKLEBERRY FINN-Ron Howard in the title role, Donny Most as Tom Sawyer, Huggy Bear Antonio Fargas as Jim.
[quote]Due to this thread I just watched TRILOGY OF TERROR on YouTube. The last segment was laugh out loud hi-larious! It is truly a scream! by: Yi yi yi yi ya! Ya ya ya! And 37 years later you can buy the Doll. That says something.
http://www.entertainmentearth.com/item_archive/items/Trilogy_of_Terror_Zuni_Fetish_Warrior_Figure.asp
Trilogy of Terror scared the crap out of me as a kid. Maybe I'll Come In the Spring was a good one. I marveled at how Sally Field could chop off all her hair in the sink and walk out with that cool shag haircut (or so I thought at the time). I thought she was a runaway that returned home but all the stuff I googled just says "she went to live with the hippies". Same difference? Another favorite: The Stranger Within" starring Barbara Eden as a pregnant housewife who finds out her unborn child is a space alien. Really.
http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DCkx9viIKhf8
Now I'm going to have to fine The Stranger Within on DVD r102. That looks like excellent cheese.
Oh it was R103. Especially when the baby alien fetus started talking through her. I remember it saying "release me from my torment". I still use that line...
http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3D-dYZTYJ_phI
The Love War
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066012/
Silent Night Lonely Night
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064983/
Kim Novak hadn't been in anything in ages when she starred in a story about an aging showgirl. "Last Girl On The Left," I think. I LIVED for The Movie of the Week. Also loved "The Immortal," which became a weekly series.
DR. COOK's GARDEN was based on a failed Ira Levin Broadway play that had been directed by George C. Scott, and until his removal, starred Burl Ives. Bing Crosby was an inspired choice for Dr. Cook, and he was backed by a cast of Broadway stalwarts. And Cook wasn't exactly a serial killer, he was a country doctor who would euthanize his patients who had no chance of surviving their ailments. And the doctor's last line is chilling.
Tuesday Movie of the Week. Presenting an original motion picture produced especially for ABC. Tonight on Tuesday Movie of the Week. Ben Gazzara, Elizabeth Ashley - Michael's been dead for fifteen years. Now he's back to avenge his mother's death. Auntie My Helen? I'M DEAD!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RASpgYjVYjU
Cloris Leachman already won an Oscar three years earlier when she made this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7cDUlr7kp8
More fabulous promos! Women's Prison! Ida Lipino, Lois Nettleton & Jessica Walter... "Women In Chains" Gorgeous Lee Remick.. "No One Could Save Her". David Janssen, James Farantino "The Longest Night" Spielberg's first movie, Dennis Weaver in "Duel" Howard Duff, Leslie Neilsen, John Saxon, Robert Reed, Babbara Parkins, Sheree North, Tisha Sterling in "Snatched"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSxvgbkkJ0g
Wasn't there one with Barbara Eden when she was dancing all sexy at some resort or club? I remember seeing the clip on YouTube.
The next movie James Earl Jones made after his Oscar nominated "The Great White Hope", was an ABC Movie Of The Week written by Rod Serling called "The Man" called "The Man". About the first black President of The United States, it was so good, Paramount bought it and released it theatrically.
Vaguely recall Saturday Night at the Movies--wasn't there a spinning globe or something as their "logo"? Anyway, my mother never missed it hence we all had to watch it. It seems to me there was a Monday Night at the Movies as well??? Anyway, R52, are you sure you are not recalling an "Outer Limits" episode of killer ants? I seem to recall large ants with human faces emerging from a space ship that attacked humans/earthlings. The Outer Limits was a trip in itself--"we control the vertical, we control the horizontal....." I have a real memory challenge for anyone who watched westerns, and this would have been in the early 60s at the height of westerns and I was about 5 or 6. I vaguely recall seeing a show where they tied a man to a tree and his nicely cowboy jeaned ass was facing the camera and before I knew it someone was whipping his ass with the end of a rope. I have no idea what tv series it could have been, some eldergay somewhat older than I am (58) by some miracle could recall it but I doubt it as it would seem like a needle in a haystack. It's like the book simply called "Spanking" that came out in the mid 60s which cannot be found today. My parents would take us kids to the department store and while that book was out I ran to read more of it but of course couldn't buy it without it creating a sensation with my parents. One chapter dealt with a divorced man who had 2 sons he got on weekends. The boys would make a game of spanking their father "right where his buttocks protruded the most" and the father would tolerate it.
oo ee oo a'a ting tang walla walla bing bang
CITY IN FEAR with David Janssen, Robert Vaughn, Susan Sullivan, William Daniels AND a very hot, very young Mickey Rourke, who stole the movie out from everyone. Played a psycho being hunted by everyone. It was on CBS the same year BODY HEAT came out, another film he practically stole, with just 2 scenes.
The Love War with Angie Dickenson and Lloyd Bridges. "Aliens from two planets at war come to Earth, assume human form and continue their battle." Full film at link, including ABC Movie of the Week opening.
http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3D3WcmJceWA-M%26feature%3Drelated
Wow. This thread has taken off. Rare response these days. Noot sure if this resource is refernced upthread .... have some catching up to do. Loved these old movies, Great book. Gay author (SURPRISE !!!)
http://www.amazon.com/ABC-Movie-Week-Companion-Tribute/dp/1605280232/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1345946473&sr=1-1&keywords=abc movie of the week
Two great mini-series that won Patty duke Emmys George Washington and Captains and Kings Wasn't a box set released of the ABC Movies of the Week?
Night Slaves The Neon Ceiling Harpy
R114- I believe the western that began with a man tied to a tree being whipped was a 60's series I loved. BRANDED starred Chuck Connors as a soldier accused of being a coward and stripped of his rank. Connors seemed to always have a hard time keeping his shirt on in that series, and the one that preceded it, THE RIFLEMAN. Connors was really something back then and was probably my first older- man-crush. Sadly, I don't recall his buttocks.
Great thread. I may have missed it being mentioned, but Midnight Offerings w/ Melissa Sue Anderson & Elizabeth from The Walton's. While it's great having so many channels, and video on demand these days, I loved growing up in the 70s and 80s when network TV could still have an EVENT. I remember walking to school the day after watching the miniseries "V" was on, and it was all we talked about. Or how special it was when ABC aired a James Bond movie on Sunday nights, and I used to get to stay up late to watch it. I'm only 44, but it suddenly makes sense to me why my grandparents or parents would get nostalgic about things that seemed so outdated and old fashioned. For instance, gathering around as a family at night to listen to the radio. I'd hear them go on about that and wonder why they thought it was so great, but that's basically what we're doing in this thread. Looking back, it was enough to just have ABC, CBS, and NBC (and maybe a couple of local independent channels). Don't even get me going on Battle of the Network Stars... I know there's a thread here someplace...
The%20Nostalgia%20Troll%20%28one%20of%20them%2C%20anyway%29
"Midnight Offerings" is surprisingly good, it actually has decent special effects. It's much better than "The Initiation of Sarah", "The Spell" and "Satan's School For Girls" in my opinion.
[quote]For instance, gathering around as a family at night to listen to the radio. I'd hear them go on about that and wonder why they thought it was so great Our local NPR station has old-time radio on Sunday night. It has one-hour radio versions of movies like "Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House" with Cary Grant and Myrna Loy and "The African Queen" with Humphrey Bogart and Greer Garson. A lot of my friends listen to these radio versions of films we've never seen and we enjoy discussing them. We had no idea that "The African Queen" involved blowing up a Nazi boat.
[quote]Connors was really something back then and was probably my first older- man-crush. Probably because of comic books like this-
http://www.pulpinternational.com/images/postimg/got_wood.jpg
Who remembers STRANGER IN OUR HOUSE with Linda Blair? Her cousin moves in to the house and her mother gets sick and the cousin tries to seduce the father and kill Linda Blair. Turns out she's a witch who worked for the cousin's family and killed the cousin and took her place. Cheesy but in a good way.
No, r120, I don't think it was Branded as that came on the air a number of years later; this scene I recall was very early 60s or possibly even late 50s but I do agree 100% with you about Chuck Connors. The opening scene for The Rifleman always had him shooting his rifle about crotch position--talk about some kind of subliminal suggestion or whatever. They knew what they were doing when they put Connors in those tight jeans each week as he did have a great ass, very pinchable, squeezable and spankable (I think he was a basketball player from New York City before he got into acting). Johnny Crawford was one lucky boy as I wanted to be in his place. I think in real life those two were encouraged to spend time together and become friends, as a result Johnny Crawford became friends with Chuck Connors' kids. Connors is reputed to have been bi-sexual also but have not heard much more about that at all. He died in the early 90s (?) from cancer as I believe he was a heavy smoker.
r114
[quote][/italic]Connors is reputed to have been bi-sexual also but have not heard much more about that at all. [/italic]He was in a gay porn film and seemed to be having a good time with another guy, so we can probably assume that he was bi. [/italic]
Anyone remember a movie where a teen boy was having an affair with an older sugar daddy? He would tell his friends about it and even showed them a leather jacket that was given to him as a gift. It ended badly when he arrived at Sugar Daddy's loft to find another twink in bed with him. The twink was teasing and laughing at the boy.
House on Greenapple Road was pretty graphic for TV in its time, opening with little Eve Plumb walking in a blood spattered kitchen. And a seriously sexy scene with Janet Leigh and Burr de Benning(WHET?)which gave my childish body unusual tingles and stirrings. Five Desperate Women had DL fave Robert Conrad wearing tight pants as he always did and playing a somewhat unusual role for him. There were also quality things like That Certain Summer, Tribes (Jan Michael Vincent!) and Brian's Song.
Sorry if they've already been mentioned here but Crowhaven Farm and Five Desperate Women still creep me out after all these years.
http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DwDtUtMUpolg
I can't remember if this was on ABC, I think it was, "Sweet Hostage" with Linda Blair and Martin Sheen, they were great in it and it was a really well done, sensitive and suspensful movie.
http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3D2_7WpAwda9U
"V" was fantastic. The original miniseries, not the horrible weekly series that followed. I was a kid back then, and the lizard aliens freaked the shit out of me. NBC really dropped the ball greenlighting that series, if they had stuck with a TV movie format "V" would've gone on for years.
I do, R125! My sister made me watch that in the early 80s one Saturday afternoon on TBS. Scared the fuck out of me. I can still hear that bitch saying, "I'm Sarah. You're aunt and uncle's cleanin' gal." Creepy bitch.
Great thread ... so many memories. Gave me nightmares: Trilogy of Terror (very scary for kids who played with dolls) Bad Ronald (I started wondering if my house had a secret room with some strange guy living in it) Memorable horror/suspense: The Legend of Lizzie Borden (Liz was awesome) Haunts of the Very Rich (very Aaron Spelling) The Initiation of Sarah ("Pigs, elephants, and dogs!") The Screaming Woman (Olivia D.H. digs up a murder victim) Odd movies that would never be made today: The Girl Most Likely To (sick Joan Rivers humor) It Couldn't Happen to a Nicer Guy (Paul Sorvino gets "raped" in this offensive "comedy") What has been the best television horror/suspense in the past 20 years? The X Files? American Horror Story? These shows can't hold a candle to the original Twilight Zone episodes, or the made-for-TV movies of the 1970s.
Anonymous
Oh, I forgot one: Ode to Billy Joe Robbie Benson and Glynnis O'Connor fall in love, but then Robbie has sex with Sheriff Roscoe P. Coltrane ("a sin against nature!"), and decides to jump off the Tallahatchie Bridge, leaving a rag doll behind.
Anonymous
Didn't Elizabeth Montgomery do one "event" TV movie each year?
R135, Ode to Billy Joe was a movie, I saw it in the theater in 1976.
Great memories coming up in this thread. I found so many network 'movie of the week' themes on You Tube that took me down memory lane. As a kid, I always loved the lead-in announcement after commercials, i.e., "We now return to (movie) starring (lead actor/actress)."
http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DdygUGMInQEs
I had such a crush on Scott Jacoby. WEHT him?
[quote] Vaguely recall Saturday Night at the Movies--wasn't there a spinning globe or something as their "logo"? Anyway, my mother never missed it hence we all had to watch it. It seems to me there was a Monday Night at the Movies as well??? As I remember, it was a spinning globe that had pasted on film strips... and yes, there was a Monday night at the Movies but I believe that came on the next season. Several people have mentioned HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS which was on ABC. A dear friend Jill Haworth played one of the sisters. She died last year and I miss her so much. She was Sally Bowles in the original Broadway production of CABARET. I wish there was a cable channel that would only show the movies of the week, the NBC Novels for television, ABC Premiere events.. I imagine getting the rights is the hold up but there are some I would love to see again such as THE LAST CONVERTIBLE, HAYWIRE, BLOOD MONEY. One of the best, in my opinion was CELEBRITY a thriller based on the best seller by Thomas Thompson. This was released on VHS. It starred Ben Masters,Michael Beck and Joseph Bottoms as three high schoolers who covered up a crime and how that event followed them as they frew older and had successful careers. Another good one -- THE MURDER OF MARY PHAGEN with Jack Lemmon and Peter Gallagher.
THE MURDER OF MARY PHAGEN told the same story as the Jason Robert Brown musical, PARADE. Only better.
Watched these with my mom during the 70s & 80s these stand out to me: Murder in Texas - Katherine Ross & Sam Elliot - he was a handsome doctor & was killing her with eclairs infected with diseases! Deadly Intentions: 1986 Madolyn Smith Osborne - He was a psychopath DR and he liked to scare her and photograph her scared Tori Spelling's Mother May I sleep with Danger & A friend to Die for w/Corky's sister (Kelli coming after Tori with a knife was a hoot) and the best.one.ever. Murder of Innocence: Val Bertinelli plays Laurie Dan, killer - what she does with meat will haunt you forever! Her hubby in the movie was a dish Such good stuff miss these but I guess they were replaced with reality tv...
[quote]Anyone remember a movie where a teen boy was having an affair with an older sugar daddy? He would tell his friends about it and even showed them a leather jacket that was given to him as a gift. It ended badly when he arrived at Sugar Daddy's loft to find another twink in bed with him. The twink was teasing and laughing at the boy. Welcome Home, Bobby!
Wasn't there one about a guy living in a crawl space in the basement of an upscale suburban house? I loved the Movie of the Week. Loving this thread.
Anyone catch Spielberg's "Duel" when it was first broadcast back in 1971? Quite possibly the best MOW ever..
I saw it last week on cable R145, it's still great.
I remember "Midnight Offerings" in 1981 with Melissa Sue Anderson and Mary Beth McDonough. Melissa played an evil teenage witch who tried to kill the new girl in school Mary Beth who was a good witch. Patrick Cassidy and Marion Ross were also in it. I also remember Linda Blair playing a witch who terrorizes a family in "Stranger in Our House".
R3, Patty Duke's infamous Emmy acceptance was for My Sweet Charlie. I doubt that movie would hold up 40 years hence. Patty's co-star, Al Freeman, Jr., just died this month.
Yup, saw Duel when it was first broadcast in '71. I was 10 or 11. It scared the hell out of me but, even at that tender age, I knew I was watching something extraordinary. Was also attracted to Dennis Weaver though not entirely conscious of that.
[quote]Murder in Texas - Katherine Ross & Sam Elliot - he was a handsome doctor & was killing her with eclairs infected with diseases! Farrah F-M was the doctor's victim/wife, wasn't she? I thought Sam Elliot was just great in this--he looked like big movie star material to me.
I remember "She Lives" with Desi,Jr and Season Hubley. They were a young couple and she had cancer. I think "Time in a Bottle" was the theme song. What about "Hustling" with Lee Remick and Jill Clayburgh? That was actually very good and was the first time I saw Jill C.
Which was the one with the teen girl who gets kidnapped and buried alive? It might have been called Buried Alive? Most frightening movie i've ever seen.
R140 here. R141, I knew that. I agree that the TV movie did a good job of telling the whole story. I did see PARADE at Lincoln Center. Thought it was interesting but I also had a lot of questions after.
SUNSHINE with Cristina Rains who later went on to do NASHVILLE and THE SENTINEL on the big screen.
I never saw the whole thing but I remember one with Desi Jr and a black guy who take a boat trip together. I think I stopped watching because everything started to go wrong. Desi gets bitten by a shark maybe?
R152, I think that was based on a true story. I remember reading the story in the Reader's Digest. I can still remember the painting that went with it. Was Bang the Drum Slowly a MOW?
The Hallmark Channel still makes movies of the week. They crank out a new one almost every week from Thanksgiving to Christmas. Most of them are really bad, however. The best one was "The Christmas Pageant" starring Melissa Gilbert, who plays a Broadway director hired by a small town to direct their Xmas play. Hunky David James Elliot plays the love interest.
Florida heiress Barbara Mackle was kidnapped and buried alive. The story of her rescue was in the R-Digest.
[quote]Was Bang the Drum Slowly a MOW? No, Paramount theatrical.
R152 I think it was called The Longest Night. Didn't James Farentino play one of the kidnappers? Another I remember, that might have night in the title was one about people trapped in New York's subway tunnels after an earthquake. I think James Brolin was in that. I seem to remember the druggie character getting fried on the tracks.
I was a small child when I used to see a commercial for a tv movie on ABC that had to do with a schoolbus going off a cliff. I have no clue what it was called, but it was on in the late 70s and just the commercial creeped me out. Does anyone remember this?
[quote]Was Bang the Drum Slowly a MOW? Yes, the original with James Caan and ...was it Billy Dee Williams?? was an ABC Movie of the Week. The remake was a theatrical release.
R147 ....I think Lee Purcell was the evil witch cousin in that one.
I also remember one about an earthquake in Phoenix, AZ. This had to have been in '78 or '79 because I remember my mother was about to take a trip to Phoenix and I was very upset.
[quote]Wasn't there one about a guy living in a crawl space in the basement of an upscale suburban house? That was BAD RONALD, mentioned upthread. At the risk of sounding like a hallway monitor, at this point in the thread, people are posting lots of repeats and getting details incorrect when the movie has already been referenced. Regardless, it's nice that posters have been so enthusiastic about sharing their memories.
Thanks r160, that was it. Promo at link. It looks so cheesy (as they all do now) but it was terrifying when i saw it as a kid.
http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3D7HalzI8VZVg
r152
R162 BRIAN'S SONG had nothing whatsoever to do with BANG THE DRUM SLOWLY, other than a dying athlete and his best bud.
Here's some more nostalgia, someone on eBay is selling TV guide ads. Remember the full page each week for the ABC Movie Of The Week?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Desi-Arnaz-Jr-Christoher-Norris-Mr-and-Mrs-Bo-Jo-Jones-TV-Movie-TV-Guide-Ad-/390447560542%3F_trksid%3Dp2046732.m2060%26_trkparms%3Daid%3D111000%26algo%3DREC.CURRENT%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D27%26meid%3D1609466065839514277%26pid%3D100040%
Yes, we all love the Hallmark made-for-TV movies. Good family entertainment.
[quote]I remember "She Lives" with Desi,Jr and Season Hubley. They were a young couple and she had cancer. I think "Time in a Bottle" was the theme song. Wow I forgot about that one. A real tearjerker.
[quote] "She Lives" All My Life's A Circle.
r160, the movie with James Brolin is called SHORT WALK TO DAYLIGHT. There were a lot of posts about this movie earlier in the thread.
[quote]Anyone remember a movie where a teen boy was having an affair with an older sugar daddy? He would tell his friends about it and even showed them a leather jacket that was given to him as a gift. It ended badly when he arrived at Sugar Daddy's loft to find another twink in bed with him. The twink was teasing and laughing at the boy. And wasn't the sugar daddy a professional football player? [quote]Yes, the original with James Caan and ...was it Billy Dee Williams?? was an ABC Movie of the Week. The remake was a theatrical release. That was "Brain's Song". BTDS starred Robert DeNiro and Michael Moriarty.
OK, I was wrong about the remake being a theatrical release but both versions of Brian's Song were TV movies.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian's_Song#Remake
Wow! I just reread my post. I was totally wrong. Post was about Bang the Drum Slowly not Brian's Song. Very sorry. Just goes to show that I should stop trying to jump to conclusions.
Understandable, both about best friend athletes where one dies and all sports movies look alike.
The person who simply posted a whole list of Movies of the Week that he/she found online isn't adding to the discussion. That's the problem with the Internet. Anyone can go, do a search, and act like he or she is an authority about something they know very little about.
r.177, I'm the person who posted the list which did not come from imdb but came from a book called The ABC Movie of the Week Companion. It's a book I've had for a few years and all the movies that I listed are ones that I watched when I was a kid, first when they originally aired and then in reruns when I was a teenager. So there goes your theory. And what have you contributed so far except for being bitchy!
What about one of the first tv movies, a very provocative (for its time) flick with Hal Holbrook called "A Clear And Present Danger", which was the first of its kind to discuss the effects of pollution on the environment and what it would mean for the future of the world? Scared the hell out of me when I was a teen, and 40-odd years later, IT'S ALL COME TRUE.........
with 70+ TV movies to her name Patty Duke is the Queen of this genre.
Patty Duke starred in a two part tv movie, A MATTER OF JUSTICE, where she played the small town mother of a soldier murdered by his wife. Martin Sheen co-starred as her loving, but passive, husband. Her performance was truly one for the television history books. Fierce, compassionate and riveting. Why oh why is this woman not given any feature film roles these days?!
"See How They Run" is considered the first television film.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/See_How_They_Run_%281964_film%29
Have any of you seen The Borgia Stick? I've heard it was very good.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061419/
Leslie Ann Warren. At one time it seemed like she was the queen of the TV mini series. and she always cried so prettily.
Fairy Godmother
My favorite was the one with Miriam Hopkins.
THE BAIT with shag-coiffed Donna Mills as an undercover hooker. ALEXANDER: THE OTHER SIDE OF DAWN w/Leigh McCloskey and the actor who played Diana Keaton's professor-lover in "Looking for Mr. Goodbar"
SAY GOODBYE MAGGIE COLE with Susan Hayward and theme song by Dusty Springfield
Sarah T: Portrait of a Teenage Alcoholic. Can't believe this hasn't been mentioned yet!! 1975 starring a post-Exorcist Linda Blair in the title role and a pre-Star Wars Mark Hammil as her boyfriend. A post-Jennie, pre-Dallas Larry Hagman played her dad. A pre-Superman Richard Donner directed. A pre-Dynasty Richard and Esther Shapiro wrote the script. Was a major event at the time. Got tons of publicity for the subject matter that had never been broached on TV before. Also get lots of press because Linda Blair stepped aside from her (non-existent) movie career to do this made for TV movie on such an important topic. Entire movie is on YouTube in 10 parts.
http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3Dhfb7mbm3L10
Regan
[quote]Patty Duke starred in a two part tv movie, A MATTER OF JUSTICE, where she played the small town mother of a soldier murdered by his wife. Martin Sheen co-starred as her loving, but passive, husband. Her performance was truly one for the television history books. Fierce, compassionate and riveting. Why oh why is this woman not given any feature film roles these days?! Agreed, saw it a few months ago and there is a scene at the beginning when her son is going off to the military and as he's driving away, her quiet devastation of thinking she'll never see him again was some of the best acting ever on TV.
"The Dollmaker" - probably Jane Fonda's best performance, along with "Klute", "Julia", and "They Shoot Horses". Really well done, moving film." I thought Jane Fonda was horribly miscast in that. I read the book: Gertie Nevels was a large, raw-boned tough woman who lived in the backwoods of Kentucky. She'd borne five children, was accustomed to hard work and looked worn and prematurely aged. And Jane Fonda, with her pretty, delicate features and aura of helplessness, is practically the antithesis of that character. I didn't buy her for a minute as a poor, rural woman.
I haven't plowed through this whole thread...has anyone mentioned "The Night Stalker? It was the highest rated tv movie ever at the time and was amazing. Written by Richard Matheson, directed by Dan Curtis, starring Darren McGavin as Kolchak. It was like a documentary, it was so real. And scary as hell. Unlike vampires today, the vampire in this story was not a sexy, brooding, relatively normal-looking creature. No, THIS vampire was a corpse-white, red-eyed, blood-sucking fiend, just the way vampires are supposed to be. "The Night Stalker" was one of the tv movies greats. The last lines of the film are haunting: "So think about it, and try to tell youself, whoever you may be, in the quiet of your home, in the safety of your bed, try to tell yourself: it couldn't happen here."
"The Night Strangler the sequel
Three of my favorite mini-series from back in the day are "Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones", "Helter Skelter" and "The Executioner's Song". They were quality TV. I have a soft spot for "Guyana Tragedy"; Powers Boothe did an amazing job as Jones. It also depicted Jones rumored bisexuality; one great scene was Jones helping a male cult member go through drug withdrawal cold turkey, with scenes of the two men in bed writhing around. Another great scene showed Jones visiting this same male cult member, who was now his lover. Jones asks him 'don't you love God? Don't you love me?" before leaning in for a kiss. The camera cut away at the last second before their lips touched. This baby slashers mind was blown.
I also remember being impressed with Powers Booth's performance in "Guyana Tragedy", he was very good and I think he may have won an Emmy for it.
I hate that they will show a real life villain's homo/bisexual leanings, but edit it out of the person portrayed is considered a hero or "good guy."
[quote]I haven't plowed through this whole thread...has anyone mentioned "The Night Stalker? It was the highest rated tv movie ever at the time and was amazing. Yes, it was mentioned, it also went to series and flopped. Go figure.
"Yes, it was mentioned, it also went to series and flopped. Go figure." The tv series flopped because it was silly and unbelieveable. The first movie was gritty and realistic; that accounted for a lot of its appeal and originality. Then there's another movie where Kolchak again uncovers a supernatural creature. It wasn't as good as the original, (Kolchak comes in contact with ANOTHER supernatural being?) but it got good ratings. So a series was made where Kolchak was coming in contact with a new monster every week. Viewers understandably got sick of it and the show failed, although it did get a cult following. The creator of the X-Files was inspired by it.
"Patty Duke starred in a two part tv movie, A MATTER OF JUSTICE, where she played the small town mother of a soldier murdered by his wife. Martin Sheen co-starred as her loving, but passive, husband. Her performance was truly one for the television history books. Fierce, compassionate and riveting. Why oh why is this woman not given any feature film roles these days?!" "One for the television history books?" You've got to be kidding. Wasn't that a Lifetime movie or something? I saw the thing; it was a typical young person gets killed by their spouse/young person's parent goes on a quest to bring spouse to justice tv movie. There have been dozens of them like that. They tend to be dull; they follow a generic formula.
Eve Plumb playing the prostitute. Forgot the name. Was it Dawn:teenage runaway or something?
[quote]Have any of you seen The Borgia Stick? I've heard it was very good. Damn I haven't thought of Inger Stevens in ages! [quote]SAY GOODBYE MAGGIE COLE with Susan Hayward and theme song by Dusty Springfield That was her last acting gig before she suffered from the brain tumors/cancer that eventually killed her.
R198, one would have to be completely ignorant about the craft of acting to not recognize the brilliance, subtlety and power of Ms. Duke's performance in JUSTICE. She continually has done seminal work on the small screen that has elevated that art form. Do us all a favor and rent Captains and the Kings, not only for Perry King's ass, but to appreciate the extraordinary work of this woman as an artist. The confrontation scene with the mistress for which she snagged the coveted Emmy is head and shoulders above anything that an actress like Tori Spelling or Suzanne Somers could offer which seems to be the pathetic level of performance you can understand. Duke works on another plane.
r201 Here here!!!
R202 There there!!!!
r203 where where!!!
Fatal Vision Malibu The Day After Something About Amelia I Posed for Playboy Mazes and Monsters Were the "shocking issues" being addressed in feature films?
bump
Fallen Angel-Richard Masur is a pedo who lures Dana Hill into the world of kiddie porn.
Anybody remember the one with Valerie Harper and Dennis Weaver where their daughter is possessed by her dead sister?
Say Goodbye Maggie Cole it was great to see movie stars from the 40s and 50s in movies on TV (in color!) The roles in them were more challenging than the Love Boat parts were.
WOW r207 Fallen Angel scared me (I was an 8YO girl when that came out) Could never look at the actor who played the pedo w/o thinking of that again. He was Miss Bonnie Franklin's beau on One day at a time too!
Not a movie of the week, but speaking of Patty Duke, does anyone remember Always Remember I Love You with a young Stephen Dorff? It always brings a tear to my eye whenever I see it.
Yeah R210 I think he was the infamous David of "Hold me David,I'm scared".
r211 I love that movie. I wonder why it hasn't become a staple of the holiday season. The cast is amazing and the story is wonderful. I read that Patty and Joan asked the writers to write a new additional scene so that they could have a scene together.
Compilation of some good promos
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSxvgbkkJ0g
So glad to read the encomiums for SEVEN IN DARKNESS (the very first MOW, which you can buy online) and THE HOUSE ON GREENAPPLE ROAD (again, the sex scene was extremely titillating for this prepubescent). BANG THE DRUM SLOWLY was a Playhouse 90 offering with Paul Newman and the actor who played Smerdyakov in the movie of THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV (I'm too lazy to look it up). Neither the tele-movie or the film with De Niro and Michael Moriarty have the emotional punch of the James Caan BRIAN'S SONG, which had my prep school buddies practically weeping when they talked about it in the cafeteria the next day.
Some of these movies, inclding My Swee Charlie and Maybe I'll Come Home in the Spring, are available in their entirety on YouTube.
That should be My Sweet Charlie. I'm oing to watch that, but I cannot imagine it's aged well in the 40+ years.
R216
R201 = Patty Duke's agent
r217 so how was it. I saw it recently too and thought it held up very well.
bump
R220, I agree that, even if a bit treacly, My Sweet Charlie holds up pretty well.
I recall the last of TV movies (other than Hallmark) on ABC around 2002
One of my favorite TV movies was the life of Miss Elizabeth Taylor. It ended with her eating cheeseburgers in the Hard Rock cafe with the construction worker, so I think it was from the early 90s.
I re-watched Always Remember I Love You on YouTube and, while it once again registered with me emotionally, it begs the question of how a heartbroken mother (or father) wouldn't be able to recognize their kidnapped 2-year old in the person of his 16-year old self.
I do
I found this thread and enjoyed reading it. Does anyone remember Doing Time on Maple Drive?
Here's [italic]Born Innocent[/italic] (1974) in its entirety. R147, it was Lee Purcell, not Linda Blair, who starred in [italic]Stranger in Our House[/italic] (a.k.a. [italic]Summer of Fear[/italic]).
http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3D7j1qSvsltwM
The%20Broom%20Handle%20in%20Linda%27s%20Vagine
Did anyone ever notice how often the men in 70s "Movies of the Week" and in episodes of the "The Night Gallery" were "writers" who worked from home. There must have been one hell of a lot of "writers" back then.
^ Correction: Linda Blair co-starred in [italic]Stranger in Our House,[/italic] but as the good daughter who tries to save her family from the evil Lee Purcell.
R227