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I think that the best Tv movie ever made was 1974's "The Law" with Judd Hirsh and Gary Busey. This was four years before "Taxi" made a star of Hirsh and "The Buddy Holly Story" made a star of Busey. Hirsh plays a cynical public defender, Busey a spacecase of a client who witlessly gets charged with a murder that has political ramifications.
It was written by Joel Oliansky who also wrote the "Masada" mini series which I regard as the best one ever made. The script is very witty, it does not rely on action or false suspense to keep you interested, and it was far out in front of 1974 tv standards in terms of grittiness and realism.
I found the first ten minutes on YouTube, it will give you a good idea of how different this was from the usual tv flick offering of the time.
You'd probably have to be around my age (50) to recall, but the 1970's through (roughly) the early 1980's were what I'd call the heyday of the made-for-TV movie. The major networks used to have a "movie of the week" or something like that. Sometimes they were OK and sometimes not.
I can remember watching titles such as "Gargoyles", "Birds Of Prey" (with David Janssen as an ex-World War II pilot flying a helicopter in pursuit of the bad guys), "The Disappearance Of Flight 412" (with a young David Soul), and a myriad of others. Often times they'd feature young actors who would later become well-known Hollywood names.
If shown nowadays I'm sure they would be somewhat corny and dated, but they were enjoyable "back in the day". Anyone have any positive/negative memories of these?
I can't remember the name of this movie, but one of my favorites from the 70's starred James Brolin. In it, he was mugged and knocked unconscious in a department store bathroom. He was unnoticed (in a stall), and when he came to, the store was closed and he was locked in. For some silly reason, the store's night time security system consisted of several Doberman Pincers that were given the run of the store at night (wouldn't they have gone to the bathroom all over the floors?). The entire last half of the movie consisted of James Brolin trying to get away from the Doberman's without being ripped to shreds until the store re-opened in the morning. I think I would have just hidden myself in an oven or something, but of course James made it much more exciting, lol.
The Stranger Within (1974) - Barbara Eden plays a woman who begins
to act very strange when she finds out she is pregnant. Her husband
(George Grizzard) begins to suspect that the baby is not his and not
of this earth.
Maybe I'll Come Home in the Spring (1971) - Sally Field plays a disaffected
young woman who is searching for her own role in life but is hampered by
possessive parents. This kind of movie was common place in the late 60's
and 70's.
The quality of movies for TV produced by the ABC network during the 1970's
has not been equaled. HBO has come close but ABC had a higher output.
I can't remember the name of this movie, but one of my favorites from the 70's starred James Brolin. In it, he was mugged and knocked unconscious in a department store bathroom. He was unnoticed (in a stall), and when he came to, the store was closed and he was locked in. For some silly reason, the store's night time security system consisted of several Doberman Pincers that were given the run of the store at night (wouldn't they have gone to the bathroom all over the floors?). The entire last half of the movie consisted of James Brolin trying to get away from the Doberman's without being ripped to shreds until the store re-opened in the morning. I think I would have just hidden myself in an oven or something, but of course James made it much more exciting, lol.
The Stranger Within (1974) - Barbara Eden plays a woman who begins
to act very strange when she finds out she is pregnant. Her husband
(George Grizzard) begins to suspect that the baby is not his and not
of this earth.
I watched that on YouTube about a month ago because I remembered seeing it as child. All that salt!
That and many others, including "The Legend of Lizzie Borden" on prime-time TV in the '70s, would never make it past the censors these days. Yet we managed to live through it.
Maybe I'll Come Home in the Spring (1971) - Sally Field plays a disaffected
young woman who is searching for her own role in life but is hampered by
possessive parents. This kind of movie was common place in the late 60's
and 70's.
That reminds me of Sybil (1976) with Sally Field. btw - it turned out that the book
and the character were a lie.
They're still around, just not as frequent. Tom Selleck does the Jesse Stone movies every year or two. Stephen King books used to come out as made for TV movies every few years (Salem's Lot, The Shining, IT, and the excellent Storm of the Century). Broken Trail from a few years back was quite good.
TV is changing. Cable is putting the networks to shame. I think cable series have largely taken the place of the made for TV movie. Rather than a movie that runs for a night or a mini-series that runs for a few nights, cable is putting out series of 14 or 15 episodes that run for 3 months.
Don't forget The Stand, my fave SK story made to movie.
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