ABC Movie Of The Week debuted September 23, 1969

Here are some of them

Maybe I'll Come Home in the Spring is a favorite. Sally Field, Eleanor Parker, Jackie Cooper and Miss Lane Bradbury.

I loved that one.

They sure did!

Trilogy of Terror with Karen Black

And if you were around then, you know what I'm talking about.

R2 Theme song sung by Linda Ronstadt.

Crowhaven Farm—-the cheesy Salem witch version of Rosemary’s Baby, except that Hope Lange wins out over evil.

Good remastered version of Do Not Fold, Spindle or Mutilate starring Helen Hayes, Myrna Loy, Mildred Natwick and Sylvia Sidney. (Need to rewind to the beginning because of time stamp). Good mystery.

That non-CGI effect was borrowed from the final sequence of 2001. We used the same stylized effect for our H.S. yearbook cover a few years down the road.

Season 3

Op—you put up a great list of some of the best movies of the week. Don’t for get this one!

Never mind, bad link

R11 Thanks. I don’t think I ever saw that one!

All My Darling Daughters(1972) with Robert Young as a harried father of 4 daughters, who all get married on the same day, was one of the highest rated ever. Eve Arden, Raymond Massey and future super star Sharon Gless were in the cast, along with she's in everything early 70's Darleen Carr and Judy Strangis.

Crowhaven Farm, with Paul Burke playing the role of John Cassavetes.

Featuring the same Eilbacher sister who was in Bad Ronald.

I remember it, and the sequel - whatever it was. Very popular.

Leters To Three Lovers was another one. Goodbye, Maggie Cole (I think it was the last appearance of Susan Hayward)....

Elders tell me about these films. Which ones were really good? Which would have won Oscars if theatrically released?

^ I meant I remembered the darling Daughters movie.

Also, Divorce His and Divorce Hers, with Taylor and Burton. I don’t remember these two movies as being any good. Probably got huge ratings, though.

R17 Why not just focus on which won Emmys? I think this info can be found if you look up ABC Movie Of The Week on Wikipedia.

These are campy fun

I also failed to mention Go Ask Alice.

Cheesy as it sounds, when I remember this series - which wasn’t necessarily my favorite, but it was ubiquitous at the time - it makes me nostalgic as hell, for some reason. It was on when I was 11 to 17. I remember watching Duel in 1971 and meeting my best friend who I walked to school with every day, the next morning. He watched it too, and we talked about it on the way to school. I’m sure we had no idea who directed it (Spielberg). At the time I loved the neighborhood where we lived, my parents were alive, even both my grandfathers...just brings it back.

Home for the Holidays with Sally Field, Julie Harris, Eleanor Parker, Jessica Walter and Walter Brennan

...And I never thought I’d be nostalgic for the ‘70s.

Bad Ronald was so bad it was good.

Same kid who was in That Certain Summer when he was younger, Scott Jacoby.

I’ve seen That Certain Summer recently, it’s on an obscure website, but I don’t want to link to it because it will probably get taken down, like it is everywhere else. It holds up well, though.

Home For The Holidays

Bad Ronald was fuckin' awesome

Duel was superb and no one yet knew who Spielberg was.

Amazing how many of these, like Bad Ronald, Maybe I'll Come Home in the Spring, The Night Stalker, Brian's Song... were commercially released on DVD. Most appeared on VHS in their day, too. A couple of my favorites were Seven In Darkness and Daughter of the Mind.

M. I. C. H. I. T. S.

If you're looking for one of these and can't find it on Youtube, modcinema.com is the place to look. They've got just about every 60s and 70s TV movie for sale.

[quote] Crowhaven Farm—-the cheesy Salem witch version of Rosemary’s Baby, except that Hope Lange wins out over evil.

Ummm, no she doesn't.

I stand corrected—just saw the creepy final scene. Got it.

[quote] If you're looking for one of these and can't find it on Youtube, modcinema.com is the place to look. They've got just about every 60s and 70s TV movie for sale.

Yeah, if you want to pay $20-$25 for a bootleg copy burned onto a DVD.

The final scene of Crowhaven farm is seared into my memory all these decades later.

"The House That Would Not Die" with Barbara Stanwyck and Richard Egan from 1970.

Good ghost story.

Available on Blu-Ray.

You can find a good majority of the 70s to mid-80s tv movies on youtube these days. Certainly all the classics. There was a great book series that was published a while back. It was first put out in one gigantic hardback volume, and then later re-published in a series of 5 volumes. It's every tv movie ever aired on every network from 1964-1984 (and the later, 5 volume series went up to 2004). I bought the old hardback volume used on Amazon about 20+ years ago and loved reading it. I used to use it, pre-youtube, as research and would buy early bootlegs online. Many were on VHS until DVD burning became easier and more widespread.

The book finally fell apart (it was old and in fair shape when I bought it) and I stumbled across the 5-volume set on Amazon about 8 yrs ago for $35 like new. It was OOP and usually goes for upwards of $400. I just checked and its listed on Amazon for $238 softcover, $517 hardcover.

Several boutique DVD labels have been releasing blu rays of classic tv movies from the 70s. Many titles that have been mentioned here are available in pristine copies, looking better than one would ever expect. Duel is actually coming out in 4K soon.

Unfortunately, Crowhaven Farm has yet to have a commercial dvd/blu-ray release.

Dr. Cook's Garden was good

Eleanor Parker was so scary in Home for the Holidays.

Home For the Holidays expected us to believe that Eleanor and Sally Fields were sisters....

There was one with a woman who was a black widow (literally), and it was double billed with a story with kids who had a turtle that they let out in the ocean and all I remember that it became a behemoth with their initials carved into its shell. I remember these two because we had just moved into a new townhouse, and I watched them in my parent's small walk in closet. I was maybe 11? 12?

It seems like these MOTW were staples through the 1980s. Yes?

The early-mid 70s were the golden age for MOTW…. Before miniseries and more special event movies took over.

Women in Chains starring DL faves Jessica Walter and Lois Nettleton.

I found it! It's "Curse of the Black Widow" and I was 12:

I liked My Sweet Charlie.

Cloris was in at least three of them…one about hitchhiking, one about late life pregnancy and the one where she’s a juror and realizes the actual murderer is her own husband back at home.

Bad Ronald is an awesome movie.

And the giant turtle movie: The Bermuda Depths

Death Cruise!!!

R42 Really? they played mother and daughter in Maybe I’ll Come Home In he Spring.

*The - my keyboard sticks.

One aspect of these movies of the week is I (and probably many other teens) was introduced to old movie stars like Jackie Cooper, Eleanor Parker, Dan Dailey, June Allyson, Ida Lupino and people like that.

“Love Hate Love” with Ryan O’Neal, Lesley Ann Warren and Peter Haskell is a guilty pleasure.

This one scared the crap out of me years ago.

R56. Lesley dropped the Ann for a bit in the 70s. Wonder why.

The Victim, with Elizabeth Montgomery and George Maharis

[quote]Eleanor Parker was so scary in Home for the Holidays.

She was scary in "The Sound of Music," too.

R57 I never thought I’d see any of these restored to that kind of quality!

r44 and r45 have succumbed to referring to every made-for-TV movie as a "movie of the week," (or MOW or MOTW.) It sort of became a generic term (like Band-Aid and Kleenex) even though there was only one actual "Movie of the Week" regular series on ABC.

Olivia was starting to have a weight problem even then.

Was Haunts of the Very Rich an ABC film?

When everyone was pondering what Lost was about I was like...this is just a ripoff of Haunts of the Very Rich.

R62 you've done me wrong…I know very well the difference, which is why I made a particular point of when the ABC MOTW hit its prime vs. later tv movies and miniseries.

R63, Thank you.

The House That Would Not Die is one of the great ones. For fans, read the original novel, "Ammie, Come Home" by Barbara Michaels.

Night of Terror scared the shit out of me. I had nightmares about the scene in the dark house.

We must have tuned in most weeks as I've seen almost all of these. We thought they were serious film works even the cheesy horror themed ones.

ABC must have used them as non-primetime filler later or syndicated them as I can recall watching some of these in the late afternoon?

After their initial airings and summer repeats they were aired as "the weekend movie" or whenever a filler was needed. They definitely got their money's worth.

There was a Shirley Jones MOTW about unwed mothers. I think Pamela Sue Martin was in it.

James Brolin did a couple of them.

One was A Short Walk to Daylight, about an earthquake that hits NYC one evening while a motley group of subway passengers try to get aboveground.

The other was Trapped!, in which Brolin is locked in a department store that has vicious security dobermans trying to kill him.

I'm not really into horror (and was ever less so then) so I don't think I saw many scary ones.

I recently watched Mr. and Mrs. Bo Jo Jones, since I remembered it was a big topic at school after it aired. It was set in the '50s, and I was really surprised at how they didn't capture the look too well at all. The hairstyles, for ex.

[quote]Brolin is locked in a department store that has vicious security dobermans trying to kill him.

Good experience for his current living situation.

Wasn't DL fave Girl Most Likely To with Stockard Channing one of them there ABC Movie of the Week thingies?

R75, Yes, written by Joan Rivers.

R73, With 18 year old Desi Arnaz, Jr. displaying his furry chest in the beach scene.

If you want to see prime furry Desi Jr, check out 1976's Black Market Babies.

Weren’t many of the Rosemary Baby sequels one of these movies?

Wasn't there a Patty Duke MOTW where she weds an Asian and they both die ala Romeo/Juliet? Patty seemed too old to play the girl.

“Run, Simon, Run”,

Inger Stevens and Burt Reynolds.

Inger’s last movie. She and Burt were fucking off screen.

This Youtuber collected a bunch of them.

Smashup on Interstate 5.

𝐘𝐨𝐮'𝐥𝐥 𝐍𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐒𝐞𝐞 𝐌𝐞 𝐀𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧 (1973):

David Hartman stars as an architect who had a spat with his wife and struck her. She left, supposedly to go home to her parents, but never gets there. Hartman's search for her is complicated by the fact that he's the most likely suspect in her disappearance.

A scene which has stuck with me all these years is when he's making inquiries at the home of someone who may have seen her, and notices a quirk of design in the living room. The room has been foreshortened, with a false wall put up. Hartman attacks the drywall and discovers a body wrapped in plastic entombed in the hidden space; Grandma had died, and the homeowners are continuing to collect her social security checks. It's not his wife. But the scene scared the hell out of me as a kid.

R17: None were Oscar worthy, even as crowd pleasers or showcases for forgotten or otherwise overlooked actors. The best of them were head and shoulders above Hallmark-Lifetime fare, but at best they were on par with hour long drama series that revolved around guest stars.

They did establish a kind of stratum for "tv movie kings and queens" who were mostly tv veterans some of whom had had second string movie careers (think Suzanne Pleshette). Liz Montgomery started doing these very early-on and was a definite queen for a long time. Some of her movies like Lizzie Borden and a Case of rape were quite good but not theatrical level movies..

The same hidden room trick was used in Bad Ronald!

[quote]I recently watched Mr. and Mrs. Bo Jo Jones, since I remembered it was a big topic at school after it aired. It was set in the '50s, and I was really surprised at how they didn't capture the look too well at all. The hairstyles, for ex.

The producers wanted to spend the money to recreate the period of the 1950s...

but Gary Morton advised against it.

R85 Thanks for responding and the in depth insight.

The 70s TV movies seemed preoccupied with fun topics like the supernatural, occult, kidnapping, UFOs, stalking... I guess it fostered in me the tendency to look beyond the obvious.

Let's not forget that the time slot for these movies may have been 90 minutes, but the movies themselves were not even and hour and a quarter (usually around 74 minutes) because they had to leave room for commercials.

"Gidget Grows Up" with Karen Valentine in the title role.

Janet Leigh and Rossano Brazzi in "Honeymoon With a Stranger."

For R80

𝐃𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐁𝐞 𝐀𝐟𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐃𝐚𝐫𝐤 (1973) constitutes infamous kindertrauma for the generation that saw it as kids. Kim Darby opens the ashdoor to a bricked-up fireplace in her grandparents' old house, and inadvertently picks up a curse: the horrid little raisin-headed homunculi who live in the fireplace pit come after her, to make her into one of them.

𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐇𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐀𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐆𝐨𝐧𝐞? (1974) is the tale of a solar flare whose radiation kills almost everyone; they sicken and die, reduced to little piles of salt spilling out of their clothes. An apocalyptic collapse-of-society scenario, one of its scarier aspects is what becomes of peoples' pet dogs.

Several of these were pilots for future shows: Marcus Welby, Longstreet, Owen Marshall, etc.

The one I remember best is "The Old Man Who Cried Wolf" with Edward G. Robinson.

Joanna Pettet in "The Ree Drummond Story"

𝐊𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐝𝐨𝐳𝐞𝐫 (1974) anticipates Stephen King's 'Maximum Overdrive'; an alien intelligence inhabits a bulldozer at a remote construction site, hunting and killing the construction crew one by one.

Margo Channing meets Donald Hollinger.

Sorry ... wrong link.

[Quote] Home For the Holidays expected us to believe that Eleanor and Sally Fields were sisters....

R42 Eleanor played Sally's mom in Maybe I'll Come Home in the Spring.

Before anyone had ever heard of Tom Hanks.

Loved Don't Be Afraid of the Dark

Sorry ... wrong link again!

[quote]Trilogy of Terror with Karen Black. And if you were around then, you know what I'm talking about.

I remember "with special guest star Helen Lawson as 'The Doll.'"

More pilots:

6 Million Dollar Man

Get Christie Love!

Nakia

Starsky & Hutch

The Rookies

Kolchak

Toma

Alias Smith & Jones

... and that's not even counting many that were created as pilots but never went to series.

I know this one's been discussed here before.

Phyllis gets sy-phyllis!

I religiously watched the ABC Movie of the Week, having a particular fondness for thrillers and horror movies.

Several not yet mentioned:

"How Awful About Allan" - Tony Perkins, suffering from psychosomatic blindness, returns from a stay in a mental hospital to live with his sister, Julie Harris. Weird shit ensues. Also starring Joan Hackett. Directed by Curtis Harrington ("What's the Matter with Helen?")

"Night Slaves" - A married couple (James Franciscus & Lee Grant) come upon a small town whose residents become sleepwalking zombies every night.

"Five Desperate Women" - Five women, having a college reunion on a remote island, are menaced by an escaped mental patient. Starring Joan Hackett (again), Anjanette Comer, Stephanie Powers, Bradford Dillman and DL fave Robert Conrad

"A Taste of Evil" - Barbara Parkins returns from a stay in a mental hospital to live with her mother and stepfather, Barbara Stanwyck and William Windom. Weird shit ensues. With Roddy McDowall as a doctor.

"Revenge!" - Shelley Winters believes Bradford Dillman to be responsible for her daughter's suicide and imprisons him in a cage in her basement.

"Madame Sin" stars Bette Davis as a Fu Manchu-style villainess! In Scotland?! Also starring Robert Wagner.

"The Eyes of Charles Sand" - After the death of his uncle, a young man (Peter Haskell) inherits the ability to see visions from beyond the grave. With Barbara Rush, Adam West and Joan Bennett.

"The Devil's Daughter" - Shelley Winters heads a Satanic cult; Belinda Montgomery is a young woman whose mother sold her soul to Satan. Also starring Robert Foxworth, Joseph Cotten and Jonathan Frid.

"A Cold Night's Death" - Two scientists (Robert Culp and Eli Wallach) encounter a strange presence at an Arctic research station.

"Dying Room Only" - Cloris Leachman's husband mysteriously disappears while at a desert roadside diner. With Dabney Coleman, Ross Martin and Ned Beatty

Miss Pleshette in ALONG CAME A SPIDER

R95 you are mistaken…that’s not the case. Or, list the ABC MOTW that preceded the shows you listed….

Over 100 replies and no one has mentioned Sarah T: Portrait of a Teenage Alcoholic.

A 1975 made for TV movie starring a post Exorcist Linda Blair as teen with a drinking problem. Larry Hagman stars as her dad while a pre-Star Wars Mark Hamill stars as her boyfriend. Directed by a pre-Superman Richard Donner.

This was considered something of a prestige movie because of the subject matter.Lots of articles came out before the movie aired. It got a big push in the schools to because of the subject matter. Articles appeared in some of those magazines aimed at schools. Teachers encouraged us to watch. We talked about it as a class the day after it aired.

I remember both of those, R94! The Peter Graves one I must have seen on the original broadcast, but one of the local stations showed Don't Be Afraid of the Dark on their weekday matinee a few years later. It scared the shit out of me and I couldn't believe it was being shown in the middle of the day for "little" kids to see (I was 10 or 11 at the time).

There's a few other made for TV movies from the 70s that are burned into my memory, but I'm almost positive they were on other networks so I won't drag the ABC thread off topic.

The movies were mostly lurid trash, but there were some gems. The last segment of trilogy of terror is epic, as is Duel.

Nikki is such a bittersweet tune, and hearing it today it’s all the more so, knowing that all the wealth and comfort of Bacharach and Dickenson couldn’t save her from perpetual depression and misery due to her Asperger’s. She just couldn’t form human relationships and was so sad and lonely. She killed herself in 2007.

Bacharach is a terrible person but he’s a genius. The tune tells you all your need to know about his poor daughter.

R111 you’ve got the wrong network numnut. That as NBC, it wasn’t an ABC MotW.

What was the one where Linda Blair was assaulted with a broomstick in prison?

[quote]What was the one where Linda Blair was assaulted with a broomstick in prison?

O-Cedar Makes Your Life Sleazier

A Cold Night's Death is usually lauded as one of the greats. I've seen it twice and I don't understand what all the fuss was. Even looking at it through the lens of when it premiered, it still seems average.

Clint Walker didn't even take his shirt off in "Killdozer". He could at least have worn some tight jeans.

R115 Born Innocent…not an ABC MotW

Peter Graves (again) and Clint Walker (again) in 𝐒𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐖𝐨𝐥𝐟 (1974).

Both 𝐘𝐨𝐮'𝐥𝐥 𝐍𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐒𝐞𝐞 𝐌𝐞 𝐀𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧 and 𝐒𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐖𝐨𝐥𝐟 were re-aired as an ABC double feature in the mid-70s, which was how I saw them both.

[quote]R112: There's a few other made for TV movies from the 70s that are burned into my memory, but I'm almost positive they were on other networks so I won't drag the ABC thread off topic.

For years I thought 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐇𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐎𝐧 𝐆𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐀𝐩𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐑𝐨𝐚𝐝 (1970) was a MOTW, but it aired on ABC Sunday Night at the Movies.

Savages (1974)

[quote] From IMDb: Ben Campbell, a twenty-two-year-old gas station attendant in a small desert town, is looking to make some extra money. He is surprised when Madec, a wealthy lawyer, asks him to be his guide in a hunting trip in the desert. When Madec accidentally shoots a prospector, he is fearful of what it will do his reputation, and decides to eliminate the only witness, Ben, who is forced to go on the run. In addition to being hunted by Madec, Ben must also contend with the harsh desert elements. But if he does make it back to town alive, will anyone believe his story?

Stars Andy Griffith, playing against type as the sadistic hunter, " Madec," and Sam Bottoms, as twink "Ben."

btw - In order to hunt his prey, Madec forces twink Ben to strip down to only his cutoffs, so that he's running around the hot desert half-naked for much of the movie.

Don't Be Afraid of the Dark and The Victim were two that my grandmother described to me for years - she was terrified! I saw them later in the '70s when they were rerun. :)

One of the scarier entries was Doug McClure in 𝐒𝐚𝐭𝐚𝐧'𝐬 𝐓𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐥𝐞 (1975):

A very young (and then unknown) Gregory Harrison makes a brief appearance as a cute student in the aforementioned Trilogy of Terror.

By the way, producer-director Dan Curtis and horror writer Richard Matheson, who teamed up on Trilogy of Terror, did a follow up Trilogy called Dead of Night.

The first two stories were a little better than the first two from Trilogy, and the 3rd story (like on Trilogy) was the crazy one, with Joan Hackett being chased around her home by something malevolent.

Not sure if this was a movie of the week, but it was a groundbreaking ABC TV movie with a lesbian storyline. I'm sure it gave Anita Bryant the vapors!

IIRC that was a movie special as opposed to MOTW

Don't Go To Sleep, Rhoda & McCloud

R22 I love your post

MARY!

R121, As a gayling, I was totally smitten with Burr DeBenning, who was fucking Janet Leigh in the movie.

You’ll Never Eat My Ass Again!

How Awful About Your Pussy

Night Clits

Don’t Be Afraid of My Asshole

Someone I Shit On

Maybe I’ll Take A Shit In The Spring

Someone I Touched

The Screaming Woman, starring Dear Livvie, Joseph Cotten, and Walter Pidgeon.

Based on a Ray Bradbury story!

The Screaming Fag

lol

R135, Please give a hearty hello to R57.

R80 Yes, If Tomorrow Comes

TRIBES starred a very hot Jan Michael Vincent.

If Tomorrow Comes on My Tits

Another ABC movie (not sure if it was a MOTW) was "The Day After" from 1983.

I can still remember the rural family actually seeing the missiles launch. Followed by others seeing what was happening and realizing what it means.

Still terrifying.

Here's the long scene leading to the launch, with the launch starting at about the 3:50 minute mark.

Surely there was a movie about the Bermuda Triangle? It was all the rage in the 70's.

[quote]What was the one where Linda Blair was assaulted with a broomstick in prison?

Disney's Pollyanna.

R142, yes, there was one with DL fave George Maharis

R141 a great film—not part of MOTW.

R135 Livvie looks so....fucking FAT!

"The Day After" was tripe. The melodrama was more laughable than chilling.

Aren’t you the stoic.

R146, That was a very physical role for her, lots of running and digging.

"Tribes" was controversial for its time, seen as anti-war (even though that sentiment was already going mainstream). I believe it was postponed from its initial date because of the "controversy". In fairness, it was more memorable and better acted than most of the other tripe people have unearthed.

r138, see r93, and try to keep up

"The Day After" was crap compared to the stunning 1983 film "Testament" with Jane Alexander and William Devane.

r110: You may be correct about Welby and Marshall; the pilots were two-hour episodes aired on ABC but apparently not as part of the MOTW franchise. However "Longstreet" apparently was.

[quote] "The Day After" was crap compared to the stunning 1983 film "Testament" with Jane Alexander and William Devane.

They were very different movies, told from different outlooks, both very powerful in their own way.

That Maybe I'll Be Home in Spring movie is one of the saddest fucking movies ever made. It's Auschwitz level. Not Family Affair level but close.

[quote] It's Auschwitz level. Not Family Affair level but close.

I dunno, I'd rather be gassed than have to sit through anything with Johnnie Whittaker.

R154 gets it right! I agree.

Kate Jackson became famous doing those early made for tv movies . She was on Dark Shadows & the rookies but proved she could be a lead in the films - many produced by Aaron Spelling. It lead to Charlies Angels. The films are goofy horror - most on youtube - things like Death at Love House, Death Cruise & the unforgettable Satan School For Girls

They don’t make “teens in trouble” movies like they used to…

Lloyd Bochner! God the Father. ;)

One of my favorite things, as someone who grew up in the LA area: Satan’s School, Crowhaven Farm, or whatever it was, always looked just like someplace in the Malibu Hills, the Santa Monica Mountains or Big Bear. It was like watching a movie made in your own back yard.

R78 . . .

They also set several movies in San Francisco. I remember that because I went there on vacation with my parents and afterwards I kept noticing the ABC movies shot on location there. One of them was That Certain Summer, also Revenge with Shelley Winters, and The Feminist and The Fuzz with Barbara Eden.

[quote]Surely there was a movie about the Bermuda Triangle?

[bold]Satan's Triangle[/bold] (1975), starring Kim Novak, Doug McClure, Kim Novak, Alejandro Rey and Ed Lauter.

Do Not Fold, Spindle Or Mutilate played the week before hat Certain Summer, and Mr. And Mrs. Bo Jo Jones played the week after. I remember seeing all three of these when I was in seventh grade.

The first one later sort of evolved into the series, The Snoop Sisters, with Helen Hayes and Mildred Natwick. (In the movie. Which was similar but unrelated - Hayes and Myrna Loy played sisters, Natwick was a friend.) I remember kids really liked this movie. It was about four women who use a computer dating service to trap a killer.

R142 Satan’s Triangle

Sorry, I meant Duel was in between those two other films, not That Certain Summer.

Another furry Desi Jr classic, The Voyage of the Yes. (It's actually a pretty decent film, too.) You know you're in good hands when you see the credit: And Scoey Mitchilll as "Pretty."

Like Normal People

[quote] Surely there was a movie about the Bermuda Triangle?

You fags are slipping. First you give Donna Pescow more attention in the Hotel thread than me, and now you forget one of my classics. Fuck you!

[quote]—Connie Sellecca Tesh

More like Connie Sellecca Tush

^ You're the one who's slipping, Connie. "The Bermuda Depths" was not an ABC MOTW. Please try to keep up. ^

How DARE you, R172. That was NOT the question posed. Don't make me call my friend Faye Dunaway over here to set your asses straight!

More like Connie Sellecca Trash

r173 This thread has a hall monitor insisting that only ABC movies of the week be discussed, even though many of us don't recall which of the three networks in the 70s that the movies of the week actually aired on.

My Tits

Yeah, chill, hall monitor. Let the conversation evolve.

[quote] [R173] This thread has a hall monitor insisting that only ABC movies of the week be discussed, even though many of us don't recall which of the three networks in the 70s that the movies of the week actually aired on.

I think he's being even more specific than that- he wants the ones that went by that particular moniker! Ehhh, who cares? I love talking TV movies of the classic age no matter where they aired. They were a special breed and you really can pinpoint when that era ended, some time in 1985.

It's funny, I tend to remember the ABC tv-movies more than the others. CBS runs a somewhat distant second, but I barely remember ANY NBC tv movies. I know they had 'em, and I recall a handful, but I feel like ABC was known more for its TV movies than any other network, at least where nostalgia counts.

"Broken Vows," with Tommy Lee Jones and Annette O'Toole as forbidden lovers.

[quote]It's funny, I tend to remember the ABC tv-movies more than the others. CBS runs a somewhat distant second, but I barely remember ANY NBC tv movies. I know they had 'em, and I recall a handful, but I feel like ABC was known more for its TV movies than any other network, at least where nostalgia counts.

What's usually acknowledged as one of the very FIRST made-for-TV movies was made for NBC .... and starred RONALD REAGAN. Because of its content, it ended up being released theatrically instead.

Well , I’ll disagree slightly. Up until 1976 or so, the ABC MOTW had a unique place in the old 3 network prime time system. The early ABC films really stood out against the other two, especially CBS. But they all got in on the game. And mini-series took over starting with Rich Man, Poor Man and Roots…more or less.

Some started a thread to discuss Sarah T: Portrait of a Teenage Alcoholic.

The hall monitor shut down any discussion of that 1975 MOTW because it aired on NBC rather than ABC.

r181 You've got a good point, by the second half of the 70s, the bigger, more important movies of the week evolved into mini series.

Broken Hyman

[quote] Some started a thread to discuss Sarah T: Portrait of a Teenage Alcoholic.

That's gonna be a short thread. That movie was a straight up snore. If you want excitement, go find Moco and her broom handle.

[Quote] [R138], see [R93], and try to keep up

sorry R151 I apparently have that person blocked 🤣😂😅😆😁

How Awful About Allan was just that: AWFUL!

This is a TERRIFIC Tv Movie, from ABC, called Isn't It Shocking, starring Alan Alda, Louise Lasser and Ruth Gordon. It's horror comedy. Alda and Lasser have off the charts chemistry with each other, something that I don't think has ever been said about either of them with anyone. The mystery itself is nothing because we see who the murderer is in the first scene. It's more of a "whydunnit" than a whodunnit.

Yes, R188!!! I remember that one.!

I think I taped it years ago and still have the copy. You are right about Alda and Lasser. Who would ever have thought they would be a cute pair!

^ Directed by John Badham! Mary’s older brother—

I've just been reminded of an ABC movie from 1973 called "Shirts/Skins" about 6 guys who have a weekly basketball game where they rotate around who belongs to which team.

They make a bet between the 2 current teams where each team hides a basketball in a completely visible location somewhere in their city. To win, not only must a team find the basketball, they must also retrieve it from where it was placed.

The six were Rene Auberjonois, Bill Bixby, Doug McClure, MacLean Stevenson, Leonard Frey and Robert Walden.

Goofy and fun as the competition to win becomes more and more extreme.

Was LIKE NORMAL PEOPLE a MOTW?

I think ABC released these overseas as films. They set-up a movie subsidiary that also was involved in traditional theatrical releases. If NBC didn't have movies of the week, they had "wheel shows" like "The Name of the Game", glossy 90 minute drek from Universal with rotating stars. They used this to showcase piliots. I think they had a "mystery movie" series later on.

"Black Market Baby" seemed like the nadir of the genre. The title alone made it seem like it wouldn't have been worth the effort unless it was pure camp.

So I watched "Isn't It Shocking?" at R188's suggestion. Not bad, not very memorable. What was funny was that the old people getting killed off were all supposed to be 63, but they looked 83! Lloyd Nolan was actually 72 when the movie was made and Ruth Gordon was 77.

"See How They Run," broadcast on NBC in 1964, is often regarded as the first made-for-TV movie. John Forsythe, Jane Wyatt, the former Mr. Joan Crawford, Senta Berger, George Kennedy, Leslie Nielsen, and Pamela Franklin.

[quote]^ Directed by John Badham!

Badham would later go on to direct Saturday Night Fever.

Hw also made that Diabolique remake for ABC, Reflections of Murder, starring Tuesday Weld, Joan Hackett and Sam Waterston

Satan obviously knew somebody at ABC because the bitch got a LOT of work on the MOTW.

Has anyone mentioned “Sandcastles”? It was about a young woman who falls in love with a mysterious young man she meets on the beach—-a ghost, played by hot young Jan Michael Vincent.

One of the more memorable NBC made for tv moviies was The Neon Ceiling with Lee Grant, Gig Young and child actress Denise Nickerson(Dark Shadows/Willie Wonka). I always remember the creepy ending with 12 or 13 year old 4'9" Denise driving a large sedan down a coastal highway.

They have a lot of these on Tubi free.

Cunt Without A Face

It was fabulous. New movies every week, a comedy one day, a horror the next with known actors, not Canadian nobodies.

Just watched "Bad Ronald" again on Tubi and it held up. I had such a crush on Scott Jacoby as a kid. He won an Emmy as Hal Hobrook's son in "That Certain Summer"

If I recall, they all premiered on Tuesday nights.

R204 . . .

“A Tuesday night ABC Movie of the Week featuring only made-for-TV movies was added in 1969. The series was renamed Tuesday Movie of the Week and a Wednesday night Wednesday Movie of the Week, also presenting only made-for-TV films, was added in 1972. Both series continued until 1975.“

The teenage alcoholic one with Linda Blair was NBC.

And yeah, chill. We can all discuss any network’s TV movies or anything else related.

Tuesdays With My Pussy

But I Don't Want to Get Fisted

Just watched Maybe I’ll Come Home in the Spring, not having seen it for a lot of years. The print on YT is terrible, so it was hard to enjoy it. I was a little surprised at how many quick-cut flashbacks and other unusual effects there were.

I think it showed the quickie quality of this genre, with the parents sometimes not at their best (both good actors). Sometimes it was like they were yelling just because it was in the script. Other times they did seem more into it. Eleanor Parker was either brave, or needed the work, to want to play the basically moody, somewhat bitchy or unsympathetic mom who has no backstory explaining her mood swings.

Lane Bradbury (playing Sally Field’s little sister, convincingly, despite being in her 30’s and almost a decade older than Sally) was kind of grating. David Carradine was fairly hot but a rather ill-defined character as Sally’s old boyfriend from the streets.

For a movie running only about 74 minutes there seemed to be a lot of filler. there really was no story, per se. Still it was sort of haunting and Sally was excellent.

In some ways, this was just a reboot of the anthology format that was popular in the 50s. Some shows were better than others, including the prestigious Playhouse 90, but many were pretty forgettable. The MOW genre just seemed to become synonymous with the kind of sensational nonsense like "Black Market Baby".

R209

Maybe I’ll Take A Shit Next Spring

Wasn't there an earlier version of Maybe I'll Come Home In The Spring on some anthology series with someone other than Sally Field? I seem to remember Lloyd Bridges in it, but it doesn't show up on him IMDB page.

Jeff Bridges did In Search of America, from ‘71

I've always liked the ABC Friday Night Movie opening.

Shout Factory just released a blu-ray set with Irwin Allen TV movies, including "Flood" and "Fire"

R209 I remember Sally vaccuming at the end, she'd fallen totally back into the suburban nightmare, while her sister took off.

"Get Christie Love!" was also another ABC television series that first aired as a Movie of the Week.

You're under arrest, sugah!

I met Teresa Graves—she was the upstairs neighbor of the grandparents of close family friends. IIRC: a very nice high-rise that was Pico-Cheviot Hills adjacent. She was LOVEly.

^ Cool story

R218 Thank you for sharing. I'm in L.A. so know that area. At some point, she eventually moved to a home in the Hyde Park area to take care of her mother, which is where she died - much too young - in one of those "faulty space heater" type fires. While I wasn't too keen on her being a Jehovah's Witness, I absolutely loved her in "Get Christie Love!"

R220 It was sad. My cousins lived nearby in Hillcrest-Inglewood…St. John’s Place.

R210 I don’t think it was all that similar. Playhouse 90 was a live show that was produced in the same TV studio every episode. Some anthologies were on film, but didn’t have much visual flair. The difference with ABC MOTW is that they strove for a filmic look. Something like Duel would never have been done on a TV anthology of the ‘50s. A lot of the movies were shot on location, usually in LA or San Francisco, but sometimes in New York. The idea was to bring you a “movie” and they tried to use that technique.

R210 By the way, didn’t mean you were wrong. It was an anthology and was the last big hit anthology series to date, I’m pretty sure.

Just noticed that towards the end of the run, they did a remake of The Best Years Of Our Lives, called Returning Home. It wasn’t updated, still set after WWII and starred Dabney Coleman (in the Fredric March role), Tom Selleck (in the Dana Andrews role), and Whitney Blake (!) in the Myrna Loy role.

Someone at Aston Spelling Prod, liked Dabney Coleman. I bet if you ranked actors by number of ABC MotW appearances, he’d be near the top. Cloris and Sally, too. Scott Jacoby and the Eilbachers…Darleen Carr…

*Aaron

The theme song is fabulous - I want that for my background music as I walk into a room.

The 10 year old me thrilled to that intro every Tuesday night. My parents let me stay up late to watch…it helped me develop a discerning eye for hot guys beyond the regular weekly series…

Aaron Spelling only produced some of the movies. He wasn't the producer of the whole shebang.

I know that. Which is why I did not say that did.

Sorry, I didn’t know you were that familiar with the ones Spelling produced vs. the rest. I’m impressed with your knowledge of the show. I never even knew Spelling did any of the movies until I looked at the Wikipedia entry.

[quote] Someone at Aston Spelling Prod, liked Dabney Coleman. I bet if you ranked actors by number of ABC MotW appearances, he’d be near the top. Cloris and Sally, too. Scott Jacoby and the Eilbachers…Darleen Carr…

It's also possible they had deals with the networks or producers. Not the old studio system deals, but networks were still signing development deals or hold deals with actors, even ones who were lower caliber.

I remember I used to like Skye Aubrey in TV movies and later found out her father was CBS chairman or president (or something), James Aubrey. Aka, "The Smiling Cobra". (Her mother was Phyllis Thaxter, who I also liked).

Whitney Blake was no Myrna Loy.

R222: Playhouse 90 was anthology at its best. Shows like "GE Theater" or "The Loretta Young Show" were more typical and pretty much on the same level of the average MOW, although they usually did not fall to the level of casting someone like Desi Arnaz, Jr.

R232, James Aubrey was Jacqueline Susann’s inspiration for the Robin Stone character in “The Love Machine”.

"The Twilight Zone" was also an anthology.

Where did you learn that?^

Yur real smarty

Playhouse 90 (usually a live broadcast) was a more serious show, with things like Judgment At Nuremburg, Requiem for a Heavyweight, Days Of Wine And Roses, For Whom The Bell Tolls. ABC Movie Of The Week was usually not that artistic or serious, it was more pulp fiction-ish, except for some exceptions.

[quote]R178: I barely remember ANY NBC tv movies.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐔𝐅𝐎 𝐈𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭 (1975) with Estelle Parsons and James Earl Jones was pretty memorable.

(There used to be dozens of online video links to it, but these have vanished since its official release to home video last year.)

R239 That was pretty good. The book (The Interrupted Journey) was excellent. Back in the days when there weren't a lot of UFO books and this was famous as the first well known UFO close encounter. Being from the area, I used to see Betty Hill (from Portsmouth, NH) on local news magazine shows sometimes.

Wasn’t there a MOTW called “The Tenth Month” with Cloris Leachman? I think she played a fortyish pregnant woman.

Cloris got around in those days

𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐌𝐢𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐞𝐥 𝐂𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐬 (1972):

Wikipedia's list of all the ABC Movies Of The Week:

R239 It's still on youtube (as well as vk.com).

𝐊𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐫 𝐁𝐞𝐞𝐬 (1974) starring Gloria Swanson:

82 3.32 Getting Away from It All Comedy January 18, 1972 Tuesday Two New York City couples pursue imagined bliss by buying and moving to a small, rustic island near Maine. Starring: Larry Hagman, Barbara Feldon, Gary Collins, E. J. Peaker, Vivian Vance*, Jim Backus*, Burgess Meredith*

Vivian Vance!

I recall “The Feminist and the Fuzz”, with Barbara Eden and David Hartman, earning a huge rating.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐂𝐚𝐭 𝐂𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 (1973):

Yeah, see, they were not doing stuff like The Cat Creature on Playhouse 90.

OP Did the movie put a bag over its head and asphyxiate itself too, like the real Nikki?

[quote]Two New York City couples pursue imagined bliss by buying and moving to a small, rustic island near Maine.

An island "near Maine"...does that mean off the coast of Maine? or in another state besides Maine?

Call Her Mom

Comedy

February 15, 1972 Tuesday

Facing expulsion for lacking a house mother, the rowdy APE fraternity hires a feisty young waitress for the job. Starring: Connie Stevens, Charles Nelson Reilly*, Jim Hutton*, Van Johnson*

I don't think a lot of the MOTW 'comedies' went over too well.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞 (1972), starring Kim Darby and William Shatner:

Please tell me Charles Nelson Reilly and Van Johnson weren't playing the fraternity boys

I just watched You'll Never See Me Again on YouTube. It was decent

[quote]Please tell me Charles Nelson Reilly and Van Johnson weren't playing the fraternity boys

Of course not. Charles was playing the feisty young waitress.

Lamont Johnson

[quote]R197/Bootsy-Gumdrop: By the way, let me point out: wolves don’t “scream”

Well, the 𝐒𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐖𝐨𝐥𝐟 plot (film at R120) is complicated by the fact that the killer isn't really a wolf. But at the end, he actually 𝑑𝑜𝑒𝑠 scream, and Peter Graves shoots him.

Hence the title.

[quote] Wasn’t there a MOTW called “The Tenth Month” with Cloris Leachman? I think she played a fortyish pregnant woman.

There was, but it was Carol Burnett.

R249 - Judith Crist on THE CAT CREATURE:

David Heddison, Meredith Baxter, and Stuart Whitman are the leads - but it's the presence of such old-pro horror-veterans as Gale Sondergaard, John Carradine, and Keye Luke who make THE CAT CREATURE middling-good fun. Concocted by writer Robert Bloch and director Curtis Harrington as a sort of campy hommage to the Grade-B horror flicks of the '40s, this 1973 tailored-for-TV chiller is replete with such succulent goodies as an elusive mummy, a malevolent feline, a deadly tarot card, and a series of mysterious murders, with the evil emanating from an ancient, cat-shaped Egyptian amulet. Fans of the genre will spot the answer early on, but that's no detriment to savoring the shivers and shudders and nice creepy atmosphere that ensue.

Another great TV movie (that happened to be on NBC) was A Howling in the Woods, with Barbara Eden and Larry Hagman. They make you think it's a werewolf movie, but it's not. It's very chilling and intriguing.

Not MOTW but Dawn: Portrait Of a Teenage Runaway and the sequel, Alexander, seemed pretty good at the time. Except watching it now, the Alexander one where he leaves the farm to go to the big city (LA) seems so weird. Like the farm parents are out of The Grapes of Wrath. I suppose maybe before society became so homogenized it was still that old-fashioned on a little farm in the heartland, I don't know. Seen today it's laughable.

Re Scream of the Wolf, some have argued that the film has a gay subtext.

This article is one example:

If you cruised SM Blvd. and Selma Ave. in the 70s you’d know that it wasn’t far off base.

“The Letters”(1973)

LOL The Letters, Barbara Stanwyck and Dina Merrill play sisters, fighting over Leslie Nielsen. Stanwyck was old enough to be Dina's mother.

R268, If Missy had Dina at 16.

Kim Darby in "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark" scared the shit out of everyone in those days. They did a big screen remake in 2010 with Katie Holmes.

R268. Not to mention being old enough to be Nielsen’s grandmother

R70 as umpteen posters pointed out ^^^

But thanks for your..enthusiasm.

Roger that R271^^^

R272 was for R270

Just watched "Dr. Cook's Garden", which was pretty good. Frank Converse was a total babe, at least at that time.

Does anyone remember the TV movie where the kids destroy a neighborhood under construction and the high school out in California. Probably 1978-1980.

Are you thinking of Over The Edge, R276? That was a theatrical film.

I don’t think all of them were listed on wiki. I remember seeing The House On Greenapple Road which I thought was one. Also Teenage Father.

Or it was Unwed Father^^

I had searched and found the original moive not too long ago. The series grew out of this.

Kolchak was great.

R280 - between the movie and the series was a sequel.

It was called The Night Strangler, and I thought it was even better than the first movie.

[quote]—Nikki by Bacharach is theme song. YouTube it

This info is in the thread intro.

R282, Nikki Bacharach came to a bad end, suicide at 40.

R283, see R113

R113, Burt had Nikki forcibly institutionalized, for which she never forgave him.

I see Nikki's mom was Angie Dickinson

Not one post about Brian's Song?

It has had its own thread many times…

R288 Can you link to some? I can't find any.

Google: Datalounge Brian’s Song

R290 I did - I see it mentioned in a lot of threads, but I don't see that it has had its own thread many times, or even one time.

See from 1:30...

[quote]I see Nikki's mom was Angie Dickinson

That's MISS Angie Dickinson, if you please!

Especially since it's MISS Angie Dickinson's birthday today!

James Earl Jones played the first black President in "The Man" Originally made for the ABC Movie Of The Week, but deemed so good it was released theatrically.

Didn't they pad out Duel with extra footage to release it theatrically in Europe (as they used to do with TV movies in those days)? Which version is currently available?

‘Mericuns don’t care what shite you got in Europe…we saw the real deal on the VHF channel of ABC.

R296 - when Duel was on TCM several years ago, they showed the longer version.

I used to love books by Irving Wallace!

R296, you can’t really say that it was padded out, though; the expanded version just is better, it doesn’t lose any tension. Duel is a made for TV movie that honestly is great.

I watched the recent TCM showing of Duel. It was unexpected how well amateur Spielberg maintained such a level of tension with just Dennis Weaver and a truck.

R301, He had just recently directed Joan Crawford in a “Night Gallery” episode.

I remember seeing that Night Gallery episode. Though I never really cared for Night Gallery.

[quote] He had just recently directed Joan Crawford in a “Night Gallery” episode.

So he had plenty of experience working with Mack Trucks.

And their drivers.

Bumping my own thread because last night I watched Alexander: The Other Side Of Dawn all the way through (rather than a few scenes here and there) for the first time, last night. I looked for a thread on it and there was one - actually about the 'guest star' - but it was shut down after 20 posts.

Does anyone want to talk about it? I thought it was fascinating, for a TV movie of the time. Despite the fact that the main character was a street kid from Oklahoma with a girlfriend, who was merely supposed to be gay for pay, it seemed to focus a lot on gay life in LA at the time. In fact the movie seemed to have a split personality, in that way. Alex only seemed to 'enjoy' being with his girlfriend (who is in Arizona through most of the film) and an older married chick played by Juliet Mills - oh, and another hot, older chick, earlier...he also seemed to have a boyfriend. The film kept it a little vague about what his "job" was supposed to be, as the "houseboy" of a rich football player...and I guess in those days you could not show guys kissing. But Alex stays (uncomfortably) at a gay halfway house, and has a (later revealed to be) gay mentor/social worker/something (Earl Holliman). I'm confused. Almost as confused as Alex.

There was also Jean Hagen, very close to death. That also made me uncomfortable, though I don't think that was the intention.

R306 Alan Feinstein as the closeted football player was so hot. I'd loved him on The Edge f Night. Leigh J. Mccloskey was always one of those should be a big star, but never was. I thought he was great in this movie. He was first on Executive Suite, an early Lorimar nighttime soap, as the son of the main family who has a black girlfriend - Brenda Sykes, who went the spectrum from Ozzie's Girls to Mandingo! Leigh's big break that actually took was Dallas, where he was so dull as Mitch. They should have let him slut it up as a ranch hand who tried to seduce Bobby or Ray, lol.

Back to Alexander, the scene on the beach where Leigh holds Alan Feinstein's legs while he does sit ups was racy for the time, and the scene where Alan invites Leigh up to his bedroom, after a glass of wine was well done. d

^ A 2022 Leigh J. McCloskey interview.

R307 Thanks for replying! Alan Feinstein was not my type at all, in this, but I thought he gave a good performance. I was definitely attracted to young (22 year old, playing "underage") Leigh McCloskey, even in the lousy print on YouTube. He had such an unusual voice, though. It's almost like it was not the voice of a sexy heart throb and that had something to do with his not really getting bigger. It made him seem very much older and "serious." Still he was excellent and held the whole thing together, with nothing but a quiet sincerity.

I was still kind of surprised that it delved so far into gay stuff for a TV movie. The main character, Alex, had to have been at least bisexual. They even make a point of how he's not interested in football and is artistic and sensitive.

Reading this thread makes me miss my late mom, who would have enjoyed some of these movie recommendations. She probably had seen them the first time around.

For anyone interested, tomorrow on the Movies! Channel starting at around 2:30 p.m. they're showing three Dan Curtis TV movies that were scripted by writer Richard Matheson - Dracula (with Jack Palance), Trilogy of Terror, and Dead of Night.

Alan Feinstein played the married professor Diane Keaton was fucking in “Looking for Mr. Goodbar”.

He dated/lived with Lana Wood for a couple of years.

They were a couple when Natalie drowned in 1981.

R306, How ironic for Earl Holliman to take that role, since he’s been closeted his entire life.

R313 Apparently he wasn't too worried about people associating him with a gay role, though. Maybe ironic but also somewhat bold, in 1977.

I just watched Dawn: Portrait Of A Teenage Runaway. It also had a large part for Leigh McClosky, but I liked Alexander: The Other Side Of Dawn a lot more - maybe because it had less Eve Plumb. I don't get why she was always talking so loudly in that unpleasant tone - was she deaf? McClosky was better in the sequel.

Then Lisa Bright And Dark came on, with Kay Lenz, and Anne Baxter & John Forsythe as her parents. Baxter - who was 5 years younger than Forsythe - looked like his mother.

The sign says “TOP”. Was that on purpose?

LMAO R315. He looks anything but a top. Good eye.

R316 I’ve actually looked at that many times (whenever I have Googled the movie) and never noticed it until today.

R319 not even close…. In those olden days the term of art was active (vs passive). As in Greek active = anal top; Greek passive = bottom. I kid you not.

To R315 not 319

I was probably around then but neither active nor passive. (I was still with girls.) I may have been passive-aggressive, though. Thanks , seriously, for that interesting bit of info. I always wondered why even casually from gay friends I never heard the terms top or bottom back then.

The Night Farter

Baby: The Other Side of Pork

Sybil: The Other Sides of Sally

Clara: The Other Sides of Beef

R130 Thanks!