TV movies

"quarter back princess" sounds brilliant

And "no way out" when the kids take acid and take over the school - that rocks i love that film

Ann-Margret stars as a poor, minimally educated rural Iowa mother, Lucile, who learns on the occasion of the birth of her tenth child that she is dying of cancer. Reasoning that her husband is not responsible enough to take care of her children on his own, Lucile takes upon herself the task of finding suitable foster parents for her soon-to-be motherless brood.

Surely the monarch of these kinds of things would be Rona Jaffe's Mazes and Monsters, with Tom Hanks as the geek who takes his Dungeons and Dragons-style adventuring A LITTLE TOO FAR. The early eighties like you never wanted to encounter again; guest cameo appearance by the World Trade Center as 'the Two Towers,' Hanks' useless friends at first having thought it referred to Tolkien. Of course.

But I also liked both versions of the Joey Buttafuoco/Amy Fisher story. The Stand was entertaining - but that was more of a miniseries, does that count? I think I remember liking Last Flight Out too, about the last flight out of Saigon, er Ho Chi Minh City, before the viet cong took over.

But that was a theatrical movie! It was certainly a TV movie writ large, though.

Especially the scene where she is stripping in time for an orchestra conductor who is playing Moonlight Sonata. Da-da-da-da-da-da Ha!

Mask was a Peter Bogdonavich movie. (And number 66 in John Waters' "Hatchet Piece"!)

Norman Mailer's Gary Gilmore story with Tommy Lee Jones, Rosanna Arquette, Christine Lahti, Eli Wallach and the cinematography of Freddie Francis

This was Off the Minnesota Strip, if I remember correctly, and was pretty good. I also like Go Ask Alice, and [girls name]: Diary of a Teenage Runaway with Eve Plumb. (Do you detect a theme?) ABC's Movie of the Week from the early 70s owns this thread.

Brian Dennehy deserves an honourable mention.

anyone else seen 'the wave,' from 1981, with bruce davison as the history teacher who decides to try to turn his students into nazis as an in-class experiment?

just found it on youtube and was amazed how much of it i remembered, considering i'd barely thought about it since seeing it in eighth grade. some bad acting, but i still found it surprisingly powerful and not-dated.

Oh yeah, very dim memories of this thing. Don't know if I actually saw it or just heard about it.

Overview of the actual event, at least what's known about it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Third_Wave

And getting back to Davison:

In 1978 he appeared opposite actor Richard Hatch in the made-for-tv biopic of 1960s pop duo Jan & Dean Deadman's Curve, playing the role of Dean Torrence.

What the hell was that like!

Whoa, the ending of the movie -- with Bruce Johnston!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8nao_z9NSs

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/8b/Brians_Song.jpg

I mean c'mon!

anybody remember After the Promise w/ Mark Harmon, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092519/? about a father who gets all his kids taken away by the state during the depression and tries to find/rescue them all from their situations. horrifically sad, haven't seen it since back then but it stayed with me

It came from 1983:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/8f/Malibutitlescreen.jpg

The TV movie that time forgot, I think; don't seem to be any clips anywhere. Get a load of that cast!

Malibu is a 1983 television film, based on a novel by William Murray. Featuring Kim Novak and James Coburn, the all star miniseries involves a young couple from Milwaukee, who move into the fabled, high-society Malibu beach community, and become involved with the lives of the various people living in the community.

Cast

William Atherton - Stan Harvey
James Coburn - Tom Wharton
Susan Dey - Linda Harvey
Chad Everett - Art Bonnell
Steve Forrest - Rich Bradley
George Hamilton - Jay Pomerantz
Jenilee Harrison - Cindy
Ann Jillian - Gail Hessian
Richard Mulligan - Charlie Wigham
Anthony Newley - Wilson Mahoney
Kim Novak - Billie Farnsworth
Valerie Perrine - Dee Staufer
Eva Marie Saint - Mary Wharton
Bridget Hanley - Laura Bonnell
Troy Donahue - Clint Redman
Brad Maule - Lane Ponda
Richard McKenzie - Hunnicutt Powell
Rod McCary - Alex West
Selma Archerd - Amanda Settles
Floyd Levine - Mr. X
Hansford Rowe - Dr. Ferraro
Reid Smith - Tad
Douglas Dirkson - Bascomb
Diane Sommerfield - Leoni
Steve Levitt - Goopy
Peter Van Norden - Bumbo
Carol Hamner - Mrs. Benedict
Monique St. Pierre - Jane Dennison
Tawny Kitaen - Mahoney's Girlfriend

The one thing I vaguely remember about it was an ad on TV when it hit syndication involving some woman (presumably Eva Marie Saint's character) walking up to some other woman and Coburn at a party and saying something like "Hello...and please give me back my husband!" in a very sweet voice.

How about "Someone I Touched"?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073729/

A woman learns that her husband has been unfaithful and that he has acquired a venereal disease. Then she learns that, after years of trying, she is finally pregnant.

Cloris Leachman AND Kenneth Mars, and it's not a comedy?

It's serious.

The song she sings over the opening credits is incredible.

Available on Netflix WI fwiw

I think the best one I ever saw was the Kojack pilot, The Marcus-Nelson Murders, which was first aired as a regular movie of the week in 1973. I just discovered that it's included in the season one box, so I'll keep an eye out for that. Go Ask Alice, mentioned upthread, is good too.

Hooray:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AETc_JJsSg

Wow the first minute and a half alone looks to be deep, deep seventies.

I could've given birth to a baby with no ARRRRRRRRRRMS

I will watch any biopic made for TV.

I miss the mini-series like Lace, The Thornbirds and Centennial. Wish I had seen Malibu. That sounds awesome!

Aw yeah.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=402HMRAs9nA

Just let the 'starring in alphabetical order' credits take you away...

I just discovered (and might piss my Sunday afternoon away watching) 1974's Pray for the Wildcats, starring William Shatner, Robert Reed, and Marjoe Gortner being led on a hazardous desert motorcycle trek by a crazed Andy Griffith. I have it on good authority that hippies and LSD are involved somehow.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5D_CnSLk7U

The whole thing is up on YT.

I've been getting into these lately with the helpful guidance of the podcast "Sam Pancake Presents the Monday Afternoon Movie," which so far has focused on the horror/occult/supernatural end of the genre.

A few of the better ones I've enjoyed:

Scream, Pretty Peggy (1973)
The Initiation of Sarah (1978) like Carrie goes to college
Summer of Fear (1978) w/ Linda Blair, this is good enough to be a regular movie
The Legend of Lizzie Borden (1975) w/ Elizabeth Montgomery
Gargoyles (1972) again, enough production value to be a regular movie
The Stranger Within (1974) w/ Barbara Eden

Some of them probably were released in theatres outside of the US.

I'll take any opportunity to promote 1974's Pray for the Wildcats, starring Shatner and Robert Reed and Marjoe Gortner as desk jockeys taken on a desert motorcycle bro-down by their sinister boss, Andy Griffith.

loooool, totally missed that I already touted that one immediately before the revive. Whoops!

Summer of Fear was, in Europe. And I think Duel (1971), Spielberg's debut, was as well.

Don't get me wrong, many of these are terrible and don't deserve a cinematic release, but once in a while you get a surprisingly high quality one. These are basically genre films that tweak the formula to some degree or other, often featuring good actors (seems like you couldn't get one made without at least one name actor).

that was xpost to C. Grisso/McCain

found this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skgZgdgFKeo

That is a good one, I've seen it.

Another great one, non-horror, is The Girl Most Likely To (1973), starring Stockard Channing in her first credited role as a chubby unattractive girl who suddenly becomes hot after being in a car accident and getting good plastic surgery. Scripted by Joan Rivers.

^ actually it is kind of horror, but mostly comic

I have copies of a lot of these (including Girl Most Likely To) sitting around unwatched. Perhaps the time has come to tackle some tv trash.

I liked The House That Would Not Die with Barbara Stanwyck. Kind of my platonic ideal Halloween (mildly creepy, mildly goofy, something you can put on in the background to just enjoy the vibes without needing to be too invested).

Lots of good horror ‘uns when I was a kid:

Trilogy of Terror (Karen Black in 3 roles)

Frankenstein: The True Story (“funny Polly Dolly!”)

Sybil (not really a horror movie but it played like one)

I've still never seen Duel, but Spielberg's Something Evil, done a year later and with the kid from Family Affair, is scary.

And yeah, Sybil's great (and very much a horror movie whenever the mom is on screen).

The third segment of Trilogy of Terror, the Zuni doll segment, is like the mic drop of all TV movies

[Born Innocent (1974) starring Linda Blair is incredible (mentioned 20 years ago itt). Nightmare in Badham County (1976) also astonishing - look for the uncensored theatrical cut of that.

Dying Room Only (1973) starring Cloris Leachman is very strong. Written by Richard Matheson who wrote Duel and many Twilight Zone episodes.