While there were a few Made-For-TV Movies in the 1960s such as Attack of the Eye Creatures and The Year of the Sex Olympics, the 1970s were the decade that the Made-For-TV movie became a mainstream TV format. This format still survives today on cable, especially Lifetime/Syfy for the lower budget movies and HBO/Showtime for somewhat better quality, but the 1970s and 1980s was the heyday. Many have never been released onto video, though some have surfaced on video-sharing sites such as Youtube. Post some MFTV movies, written and visual along with your opinions.

This article from 1979 has some interesting information regarding Made-For-TV movies:
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1346&dat=19790819&id=xbMwAAAAIBAJ&sjid=-PoDAAAAIBAJ&pg=4583,1446537

Duel starring Dennis Weaver.  It was the directorial debut of Steven Spielberg and was made for TV in 1971.

It is the story of a terrified motorist who is stalked down the highway and desolate roads by an unknown and unseen truck driver.  This movie is so good, it still remains a mystery to me why it was not a theatrical release.

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Duel starring Dennis Weaver.  It was the directorial debut of Steven Spielberg and was made for TV in 1971.

It is the story of a terrified motorist who is stalked down the highway and desolate roads by an unknown and unseen truck driver.  This movie is so good, it still remains a mystery to me why it was not a theatrical release.

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.... and one of my favourite suspense movies.

Duel starring Dennis Weaver.  It was the directorial debut of Steven Spielberg and was made for TV in 1971.

It is the story of a terrified motorist who is stalked down the highway and desolate roads by an unknown and unseen truck driver.  This movie is so good, it still remains a mystery to me why it was not a theatrical release.


I attended a special screening of Duel in the late 1970s, and it on a large cinema screen. I cannot remember if I saw the 74 or 90 minute version. I do remember seeing the mistake (as quoted from IMDB) "When Mann's car starts acting up you can see someone (Spielberg himself per various sources) in the backseat of his car in the rear-view mirror."

I have a long list of favourites. The late 70s were great for this genre!

Getting Married (1978) - Mark Harmon, Bess Armstrong, Richard Thomas

Fun film about having second thoughts before the big day.

http://img706.imageshack.us/img706/8862/gw350h275.jpg


Kid From Left Field (1979) - Gary Coleman, Robert Guillaume

Nice to see Gary Coleman outside of Diff'rent Strokes - movie centres around baseball but still fun to watch for non-sports fans.

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One more...

Flying High (1978) - Connie Selleca, Marcia Wallace.

Looooove this one! Romantic comedy about 3 budding stewardesses. It was a pilot for a short-lived tv series.

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this is on the cusp of 1980s, please transfer to 1978s Made-For-TV Movies if need be.

Scum

The 1979 British crime drama film directed by Alan Clarke, portraying the brutality of life inside a British borstal. The script was originally made for the BBC's Play for Today strand in 1977, however due to the violence depicted, it was withdrawn from broadcast. Two years later, director Alan Clarke and scriptwriter Roy Minton remade it as a film, first shown on Channel 4 in 1983. By this time the borstal system had been reformed and eventually allowed the original TV version to be aired.

In a High Court case against Channel 4 for showing the film, British morality campaigner Mary Whitheouse initially won her private prosecution, but the decision was later reversed on appeal. The Independent Broadcasting Authority had approved the film's transmission.

I considered this TVM as too graphic to even think about, I am not planning to find and place any YouTube links.

One TV-Movie I wish to see.

Something Evil

The 1972 horror television movie starring Sandy Dennis, Darren McGavin, and Ralph Bellamy. Directed by Steven Spielberg, the screenplay was written by Robert Clouse.

The synopsis. A married couple with two young children move into a Pennsylvania farmhouse that turns out to be inhabited by demons.

Something Evil has never been released on video, and remains one of the few Spielberg films still unreleased.

Scum

The 1979 British crime drama film directed by Alan Clarke, portraying the brutality of life inside a British borstal.


I remember watching this in the mid-90s in the UK - late night, perhaps on Ch4.

I LOVE MOW's!!!!!

Seven In Darkness (1969)
A plane crash plunges its blind passengers into a living nightmare.

The first "ABC Movie Of The Week," to be broadcast. Based on the Novel Against Heaven's Hand written by Leonard Bishop.


Brian's Song (1971) James Caan & Billy Dee Williams
Based on the real-life relationship between teammates Brian Piccolo and Gale Sayers and the bond established when Piccolo discovers that he is dying.


The Longest Night (1972) David Janssen
Daughter of a wealthy family is kidnapped and imprisoned underground in a coffin, while her family and the police search for her.


Terror on the Beach (1973) Dennis Weaver
A family's outing turns out badly as they are terrorized by a gang of young thugs.


Trapped (1973) James Brolin
A man is accidently locked in a department store overnight and finds himself held at bay by six vicious Doberman guard dogs.


Go Ask Alice (1973)
Inadvertently, a 14-year-old girl in the late American 1960's is sucked into an odyssey of sex and drugs. She eventually seeks help. (based on the young adult novel)


The Girl Most Likely To (1973) Stockard Channing
An ugly girl undergoes plastic surgery and becomes beautiful. She then takes revenge on all the people who mistreated her when she was ugly.


The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittmann (1974) Cicely Tyson
Story of a black woman in the South who was born into slavery in the 1850s and lives to become a part of the civil rights movement in the 1960s.


Murder on Flight 502 (1975) Farrah Fawcett
Left in the lounge for first-class passengers, a letter warns of murders on Flight 502 -- and the warning is received a day early.


Sweet Hostage (1975)  Linda Blair & Martin Sheen
An escaped mental patient kidnaps an illiterate teenage farm girl and takes her to his mountain hide-away, where they soon become friends and, eventually, lovers.


Sybil (1976) Sally Field
A young woman whose childhood was so harrowing to her that she developed at least 13 different personalities.



The Boy in the Plastic Bubble (1976) John Travolta
Based on a true story, Tod Lubitch is born with a deficient immune system. As such, he must spend the rest of his life in a completely sterile environment. His room is completely hermetically sealed against bacteria and virus, his food is specially prepared, and his only human contact comes in the form of gloved hands. The movie follows his life into a teenager.



Helter Skelter (1976)
The investigation and trial of the horrific Tate-LaBianca mass murders orchestrated by the psychotic pseudo-hippie cult leader, Charles Manson.



Night Terror (1977) Valerie Harper & Richard Romanus
A housewife is stalked by a psycho after she sees him a murder a highway patrol officer.


A Question of Love (1978) Gena Rowlands & Jane Alexander
A man fights his ex-wife for custody of their children when he learns that she and the woman she's living with are more than just roommates.



A Woman Called Moses (1978) Cicely Tyson
A film about the life and career of the African American abolitionist and slave escape leader, Harriet Tubman.



Elvis (1979) Kurt Russell
Biopic


I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1979)
based on Maya Angelou's Best Selling Autobiography


The Miracle Worker (1979) Patty Duke & Melissa Gilbert
a great remake with Patty Duke in the Annie Sullivan role (Patty Duke played Helen Keller in the theatrical version of this film in 1962)




The Triangle Factory Fire Scandal (1979)
The story of a fire in the Triangle Shirt Mfg. Co. building in New York City in 1911 that resulted in the deaths of 146 employees, mostly young women. The ensuing investigation revealed the company's almost total disregard for its workers' safety in pursuit of increased production and profits, and resulted, among other things, in the passage of new worker safety laws and the formation of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union.

^ Helter Skelter (1976) had a cinema release in the UK, I recall seeing it.

^ Helter Skelter (1976) had a cinema release in the UK, I recall seeing it.


That may be the case....but in the US was a TV Movie

I didn't include the mini-series Roots (1977) or Holocaust (1978) just because I think of them as stand out epics that sort of supercede the whole TV movie dynamic.

Quite a list, I have seen most of them. A couple left off though:

Gargoyles....1972

Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark....1973

That may be the case....but in the US was a TV Movie
The same with "Behind The Candelabra" last year.

The same with "Behind The Candelabra" last year.


That was based on Liberace.

The same with "Behind The Candelabra" last year.


I think the same can be said for girl most likely to.... It was a TV movie but I distinctly remember seeing it at a drive in in Las Vegas.

I had no idea Brian's Song was a TV movie.  All these years, I thought it went to theatres

I had no idea Brian's Song was a TV movie.  All these years, I thought it went to theatres


considering it starred James Caan and Billy Dee I can see where you would think that....plus it was pretty well done