Who remembers ABC's 'Movie of the Week'?
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Made-For-TV Films
cbalducc — 12 years ago(October 24, 2013 01:47 PM)
This was a series that lasted from 1969 to 1976. Some of these movies were pilots for series like
The Night Stalker
and
The Rookies
. A couple of the most famous from this series are
Duel
and
Trilogy of Terror
, the last one featuring the late Karen Black pursued by a miniature knife-wielding Zuni doll. God bless. -
tmaj48 — 12 years ago(October 24, 2013 05:35 PM)
The best:
Go Ask Alice
yeah, the story is fiction and not based on a real diary
as claimed. Still a good cautionary tale movie, with William Shatner in an
understated performance in a small role.
Maybe I'll Come Home in the Spring
another teenage druggie movie,
with Sally Field running away from her phony bourgeois parents to be with
hippie David Carradine. One of the best things about this movie was the unromanticized depiction of the scummy hippie.
Brian's Song
a good tearjerker for men.
The Night Stalker
and its sequel,
The Night Strangler.
The
TV series that resulted from these movies was never quite as good.
The Girl Most Likely To
the best thing Joan Rivers ever did,
a black comedy about a homely girl who gets revenge on everyone who ever
treated her badly.
The Longest Night
a thriller about a wealthy man's teenage daughter
who is kidnapped and held for ransom in an underground
coffin.
The
perfect nightmare-inducer.
There were also a bunch of others which don't seem to appear on "ABC Movie
of the Week" listsmaybe they were featured on other nights or other networks?
These included all those other cautionary tales under the "(Name): Portrait of
a Teenage Alcoholic/Hitchhiker/Runaway," etc.,
The Girls of Huntington House
, featuring a very young Sissy Spacek as a pregnant student at a school
for unwed mothers (in an era when pregnant teenage girls were usually expected
to leave regular public schools);and period pieces such as a remake of
A Tree
Grows in Brooklyn
, with Cliff Robertson as Johnny Nolan, and an excellent
re-enactment of Orson Welles' radio broadcast of "War of the Worlds,"
The
Night That Panicked America.
These were great made-for-TV movies; I wish some
cable channel would feature some of these, instead of those cornball Hallmark
movies or the lurid, violent murder films on Lifetime Movie Network.
I'm not crying, you fool, I'm laughing!
Hewwo. -
jgiles-367-954534 — 12 years ago(October 26, 2013 08:15 AM)
I love the ABC Movie of the Week series and I own several of the movies in different formats, including Maybe I'll Come Home In the Spring on VHS.
Everyone is entitled to their opinion, of course, but I actually enjoy the so-called 'cornball' Hallmark movies and the 'lurid, violent murder films' on Lifetime Movie Network almost as much as I love the made for TV movies of yesteryear. -
ghostfan — 12 years ago(October 30, 2013 09:59 PM)
You guys need to go to Youtube there's a whole ABC Movie of the week channel including the very first movie ever broadcasted - Seven In Darkness.. about some blind people going to a convention the plane crashes in the mountains, killing everyone on the plane who can see. The group has to make their way in the wilderness to civilization. Cast includes Dina Merrill, Arthur O'Connell, Leslie Anne Warren, Alehandro (SP!!) Ray, Barry Nelson and a really standout performance by Milton Bearle.
They also have Monte Markham's version of Death Takes a Holiday, several with Andy Griffith and Dennis Weaver TONS of them! I had a ball over my last vacation watching movies I hadn't seen in 30 years. And as another poster mentioned, most of them were a heck of a lot better than what passes for a TV movie now.
How sad, that you were not born in my time, nor I, in yours. -
activista — 12 years ago(February 18, 2014 09:34 PM)
I knowbeen checking out some of these films online and I liked the themeit sounded more like a big grand theme you would use to open a theatrical release up with. I'm just barely old enough to remember when this was actually on the sir, so it's definitely kind of nostalgic for me. And the films are really good, too,
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Sandoz — 11 years ago(June 03, 2014 08:48 AM)
"Who can forget the theme song? The best theme of any movie series on TV, in my opinion."
Not just that, but that trippy visual slitscreen effect they ripped off from the "ultimate trip" sequence in 2001: A Space Odyssey i used to love watching this each week as much as the movies themselves. (Kids, this was in the days when there was no technology available to record and rewind TV and watch things again.)
Don't believe everything you see in the movies. -
mamacassfan — 11 years ago(June 17, 2014 10:01 PM)
I loved the quick 90 minute format of
Movie Of the Week
. What a cool night of television on ABC, Tuesday nights circa 1969-'71:
Mod Squad 7:30-8:30
Movie Of the Week 8:30-10
Marcus Welby, M.D. (#1 show for 1970-71 season) 10-11:00pm
(all times eastern standard)
After the Tuesday series became a hit, ABC added Wednesday Movie of the Week and a Saturday night edition called ABC Suspense Movie, which barely lasted a season. -
cbalducc — 12 years ago(January 02, 2014 09:03 AM)
The "Movie of the Week" was a SERIES that lasted from 1969 to 1975. Of course, ABC showed many made-for-TV movies for years after that. Even more confusing, ABC showed others during 1969 to 1975 that were NOT Movies of the Week!
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moosefeathers — 12 years ago(February 20, 2014 11:18 AM)
wasn't there a Tuesday Movie and Wednesday Movie of the Week and a Sunday Movie of the Week on ABC?
anyhoo, three more:
Trilogy of Terror
Five Desperate Women
When Michael Calls
Swing away, Merrill.Merrill, swing away -
moosefeathers — 12 years ago(February 20, 2014 11:26 AM)
http://www.tvtango.com/series/abc_movie_of_the_week/episodes
Swing away, Merrill.Merrill, swing away -
kiki808 — 11 years ago(July 14, 2014 05:11 PM)
Does any one remember a movie called "The house on green apple road". It starts off with the actress from the Brady Bunch, Eve Plumb coming home from school to find the kitchen full of blood and her mother missing. I think her mother was played by Janet Leigh.
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cbalducc — 11 years ago(July 15, 2014 07:00 AM)
According to this YouTube video, it was an "ABC Sunday Night Movie". It can get confusing as to which made-for-TV movies ABC aired were actually part of the "Movie of the Week" series.
BTW, the title reads "House on
Greenapple
Road"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0zyVKoYYa0 -
MissMargoChanning — 4 years ago(February 09, 2022 02:15 PM)
I do too.
Here are some good ones I still watch on You Tube.
This is the promo for When Micheal Calls, but you can watch the full movie starring Elizabeth Ashly, Ben Gazzara, and Micheal Douglas…
Tribes, starring Jan Micheal Vincent and Darren McGavin.
You asked a pretty question; I've given you the ugly answer.
Fasten Your Seatbelts….
It's Going To Be A Bumpy Night!
