Who remembers the classic made-for-TV movie era? (series, happened, parents)
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Yeah, I meant to say film career. He had astonishing acting skills. He should be a movie legend but he decided to stay in tv and imo is the best tv actor in history.
“Pray For the Wildcats” was really over-the-top. Andy Griffith seemed to be releasing all the pent-up frustrations of playing a good guy.
Speaking of Andy Griffith and made for TV movies, I recommend "Murder in Coweta County." Broadcast in 1983 and an excellent movie based on a true story, Griffith stars as a rich land baron who nobody in town even thought about messing with, including the town police. He ordered a share cropper tenant dead, and IIRC he killed the guy himself. Johnny Cash stars as Lamar Potts, sheriff of Coweta County. An excellent movie, I bought a copy from Amazon years ago and was able to see it all the way through for the first time. Over the years the Lifetime Channel would show the movie but I could never catch it on the tube.
Great movie, great acting by both Griffith and Cash! I recommend it!
I remember the made for TV movies well. The Tuesday Night Mystery Movie and the ABC Movie of the Week.
One made for TV movie that stands out for me is 'The Cowboy and the Movie Star' (1998) with Sean Young and Perry King. It's also known as 'Love on the Edge.'
I particularly liked "The Night Stalker". The assumption all along was that the killer was a normal wackjob killer who THINKS he's a vampire, but little by little you come to believe that he really IS a vampire. REALLY well done.
Also, an absolutely BRILLIANT TV movie was "Duel" starring Dennis Weaver as a motorist who ticks off the wrong truck driver. The way the movie was shot almost gave the impression that the truck was a living breathing smoke-belching beast. Was critically acclaimed (for good reason) and won a Golden Globe for "Best Made for Television Movie" along with several lesser known awards - and was the film that REALLY launched Steven Spielberg's career as it's success was pretty much what got him the job of directing "Jaws" - and we all know how THAT turned out. He ran with that and NEVER looked back.
Also really liked "Sandcastles" with Bonnie Bedilia and Jan Michael-Vincent.
I particularly liked "The Night Stalker". The assumption all along was that the killer was a normal wackjob killer who THINKS he's a vampire, but little by little you come to believe that he really IS a vampire. REALLY well done.
Also, an absolutely BRILLIANT TV movie was "Duel" starring Dennis Weaver as a motorist who ticks off the wrong truck driver. The way the movie was shot almost gave the impression that the truck was a living breathing smoke-belching beast. Was critically acclaimed (for good reason) and won a Golden Globe for "Best Made for Television Movie" along with several lesser known awards - and was the film that REALLY launched Steven Spielberg's career as it's success was pretty much what got him the job of directing "Jaws" - and we all know how THAT turned out. He ran with that and NEVER looked back.
Also really liked "Sandcastles" with Bonnie Bedilia and Jan Michael-Vincent.
Ken
Duel launched Spielberg's career in the same way that The Jerico Mile launched Michael Mann's career, both brilliant tv movies by brilliant directors.
And yeah, The Night Stalker was awesome, as was the short lived series that it spawned - McGavin was so great as Kolchak.
I never seem to encounter anyone who has seen it, but I think the best made for TV movie ever was 1974's "The Law" starring Judd Hirsh and featuring a pre-Buddy Holly Gary Busey in a terrific perfoemance. It is clever and witty from start to finish, written by Joel Oliansky, who also did the teleplay for the best written mini-series, "Masada."
Am I the only person on the planet who saw this movie?
In the 1970s, there were actors and actresses from Hollywood’s Golden Age who were still alive and willing to do occasional work. So you would see people like Walter Brennan, Ray Milland, Myrna Loy, Eve Arden, Joan Blondell, and Walter Pidgeon in some movies. They may not have had much to do, but their presence was welcome.
some that i remember; sybil, dawn portrait of a teenage runaway, born innocent, sarah portrait of a teenage alcoholic, maybe i'll come home in the spring, sunshine was my favorite and i still have the book too, go ask alice, (have that book too), and of course the boy in the plastic bubble!
all i can think of right now. but oh boy, the memories of watching these movies of the week...!!! our whole family would sit together to watch a lot of these.
Funny... right before I got to your post I was thinking of Maybe I'll Come Home In The Spring... and I thought, ah.. nobody will probably remember that one.
I specifically recall my mom making me watch that and Go Ask Alice thinking they would scare me out of what was my rebellious lifestyle at the time.. lol. Had the opposite effect!
Two more good and memorable ones. Wasn't there a William Shatner one about the ghosts of a military airplane crash, trapped with the wreck until someone (the noble Shat) found their bodies?
Sole Survivor
A Richard Basehart flick. The way they did that "discovery" was rather "heart touching", brings me close to tears just to think about it.
Spoiler
The bomber is like the "Lady be Good" B-24 story. The crew is "trapped" in the wreckage as ghosts until their bodies are discovered and each are cosmically pulled back. What is tear producing for me is the forensics team carrying each body, after decades in the desert, respectfully and under American flags.
One other thing. We might think of Shatner now as being the hero in everything he is in, but one has to remember that back then, he was just a struggling actor. Vince Edwards is more the hero in this flick.
Of the flicks in general, a lot of them were pilot films for TV series, like "The Immortal".
This is the one I remember most - probably because I loved the theme music. I only recently found out it's by Burt Bacharach and is called Nikki's Theme.
I liked that tune better when I didn't know it was a theme about his daughter.......because that is a rather tragic story.
Last edited by TamaraSavannah; 05-21-2019 at 10:38 AM..
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our whole family would sit together to watch a lot of these.