Tales of Yesteryear: MotW and Miniseries of Yore - General Discussion

[Ouisch]

Do you remember watching the ABC or CBS or NBC Movie of the Week back before Lifetime filled our need for schmaltz and cheesiness? Let's discuss our favorites - the good and the deliciously bad! (There are several goodies detailed in the linked article to get you started.  :)  )

[Rick Kitchen]

The first full length film Steven Spielberg directed was Duel, with Dennis Weaver as a driver being stalked by a truck driver whose face we never see.

It was nominated for a Golden Globe for best movie made for TV, but didn't win.

[AimingforYoko]

The networks have basically abdicated the MFTVM arena. You have the occasional Hallmark presentation on ABC and CBS does the Jesse Stone series with Tom Selleck, but otherwise it's Lifetime for the cheese and HBO for the prestige.

[Snowprince]

A few I remember that stick out (besides Duel):

 

Daughter of the Mind (Ray Miland, Pamelyn Ferdyn) - Pretty good supernatural/psychological thriller about a man who sees and communicates with his recently deceased daughter ("Oh daddy, I hate being dead!")

Seven into Darkness (Milton Berle, Dina Merrill) - Seven blind passengers are the only survivors of a wilderness plane crash and their struggle to make it out. Not bad.

Crowhaven Farm (Hope Lange, Paul Burke) - Couple buys and moves to the farm and find it not only haunted, but home base of a witch coven.

When Michael Calls (Elizabeth Ashley, Michael Douglas) - Woman receives several phone calls from her dead nephew that threateningly forecast the mysterious deaths of several of her friends. Pretty creepy.

Tribes (Darren McGavin, Jan Michael-Vincent) - Tough Marine Drill Instructor vs Hippie recruit. Pretty good movie for it's time.

 

Many of the exteriors of Tribes were filmed at MCRD San Diego while I was there in boot camp (1970).

Edited September 30, 2014 by Snowprince

[Snow Apple]

Although I watched many movies of the week, what pops up in my head first is:

 

Dark Night of the Scarecrow: A lynch mob goes after a mentally challenged man accused of something in which he is really innocent. His mother hide him by dressing him up as a scarecrow but he is found and killed. But he gets his revenge.........

 

Don't Go To Sleep: A family recently lost their oldest daughter in a car accident, but is she really gone? And what's the secret behind her death?

[callmebetty]

Although I watched many movies of the week, what pops up in my head first is:

Dark Night of the Scarecrow: A lynch mob goes after a mentally challenged man accused of something in which he is really innocent. His mother hide him by dressing him up as a scarecrow but he is found and killed. But he gets his revenge.........

OMG I remember that movie too. I was young and it scared and scarred me for a long time.

Another one is can't remember the name but a young Tom Hanks is chased by imaginary monsters. Almost reminded me of Fisher King. Now I have to go waste time by looking it up.

[spaceytraci1208]

The last network movie I can remember is No One Would Tell which aired on ABC. It starred Candice Cameron as an abused high school student, Fred Savage as her abusive boyfriend, and Sally Jesse Raphael as the judge.

[Rick Kitchen]

OMG I remember that movie too. I was young and it scared and scarred me for a long time.

Another one is can't remember the name but a young Tom Hanks is chased by imaginary monsters. Almost reminded me of Fisher King. Now I have to go waste time by looking it up.

 

callmebetty, are you thinking of Mazes and Monsters?  About college students (and one young kid who's a savant and in college at an early age) who became involved in a live action role playing game?  Tom Hanks's character was a young man with emotional problems who got too caught up in the game and thought it was real.  He was really, really, good in that.

[callmebetty]

callmebetty, are you thinking of Mazes and Monsters?  About college students (and one young kid who's a savant and in college at an early age) who became involved in a live action role playing game?  Tom Hanks's character was a young man with emotional problems who got too caught up in the game and thought it was real.  He was really, really, good in that.

Yes! That was it. Thanks. What a strange movie.

[JAYJAY1979]

The last network movie I can remember is No One Would Tell which aired on ABC. It starred Candice Cameron as an abused high school student, Fred Savage as her abusive boyfriend, and Sally Jesse Raphael as the judge.

 

Yes, I remember that one!  I thought it was aired on NBC, not ABC.. but I could be wrong. 

 

I also remember Death of a Cheerleader where Kellie Martin as a shy student who snaps and kills popular mean girl Tori Spelling.

[Snow Apple]

I love Death of a Cheerleader. I thought it would be your typical cheesy movie (it's got "cheerleader" in the title, for goodness sake) but it was really good. I like to watch repeats, not only because it's good, but to catch Katheryn Morris (of TV show Cold Case) as the high school outcast. It also had Marley Sheldon who played Kellie's friend which leads me to........

 

A Secret Between Friends, a movie about two teenage girls with eating disorders. It stars Lynda Carter as one of the girl's mom. This movie reminds me of The Best Little Girl in the World which shows my age as I saw it when it aired for the first time.

[Cobb Salad]

One that sticks out in my mind is "Moment of Truth: Cradle of Conspiracy". (Had to check IMDB for the whole title) It stars Danica McKellar as a high school teen under pressure from her parents to be a high achieving student. She gets involved with a young man who gets her pregnant ... It turns out he's part of an agency that performs illegal adoptions and he wants to take the baby to be adopted. It was supposedly based on a true story.

Edited October 7, 2014 by Cobb Salad

[Mckinnonsgirl]

It was a tradition to watch the movies of the week, I really miss those movies as they were pretty darn good and it also gave some of our favorite tv stars other roles to play.

 

I recall two movies that Robert Urich did, both based on true stories and he's playing a bad guy in both.

 

Blind Faith (1990)he played Rob Marshall, where he plays a man accused of murdering his wife (played by Joanna Kerns, Growing Pains) for the insurance money, his three boys all believe in his innocence until evidence starts mounting against him.  Other tv & soap stars: Johnny Galecki, Robin Strasser, Doris Roberts, Dennis Farina.  One of the better made for tv movies out there.

 

Then in 1993 he did Deadly Relations , playing a dedicated soldier and father of 4 daughters, he controls his home and expects his daughters to follow his rules, when they begin to meet men he doesn't approve of, he finds away to get rid of them and make a profit at the same time.

 

Same plot point in the sense that its all about Insurance money...  Shelly Fabres plays his wife, Gwyneth Paltrow plays his pride and joy, Matthew Perry has a small part too.

 

So many more to discuss, but these stand out.

[Snow Apple]

Blind Faith (1990)he played Rob Marshall, where he plays a man accused of murdering his wife (played by Joanna Kerns, Growing Pains) for the insurance money, his three boys all believe in his innocence until evidence starts mounting against him.  Other tv & soap stars: Johnny Galecki, Robin Strasser, Doris Roberts, Dennis Farina.  One of the better made for tv movies out there.

 

I remember reading that Joanna Kern's tv daughter, Tracey Gold, married one of the real life sons which made me aware of the case and movie.

[GHScorpiosRule]

I remember reading that Joanna Kern's tv daughter, Tracey Gold, married one of the real life sons which made me aware of the case and movie.

 

Yes, Tracy Gold married the oldest son.  And when the movie aired, there was an...epilogue, if you will, that stated that the youngest son, played by Galecki, still believed in his father's innocence. 

[Amtosbm]

I remember these so well, I used to love them back when I watched more tv.  I think the first one I remember was Johnny Belinda with Roseanna Arquette and Dennis Quaid. I think I was 8 or 9 and it left an impression with me for some reason. I used to go looking on youtube for them and was lucky enough to download a couple before they got taken down. It feels so long ago - I was basically a broke university student who would decompress with these on a weekday night. Here are some links some just to synopsis from youtube.

 

The Surrogate Alyssa Milano Connie Sellecca (what happened to her?) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8Z5Z5eACec movie got taken down;[

 

Johnny Belinda the whole movie is still up - I think its great

 

Family Rescue with Ally Sheedy Rachel Leigh Cook George C

Scott and the guy who used to play Brad on Y and R:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXwKVsDX6ZQ

 

Escape from Sobibor with Rutger Hauer and Alan Arkin - just a fantastic movie everyone should watch:

 

Intensity which was no where as good as the book but still watchable with Molly Parker. Not on youtube any more.

 

Both Hunchbacks of Notre Dame one with Lesley Anne Down and Anthony Hopkins as well as the one with Salma Hayek and Mandy Patinkin. Salma was just stunning in that movie I still remember thinking how beautiful she was when I saw it.

 

Finally who could forget the Burning Bed with Farrah Fawcett, I remember the uproar it caused:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSCeL-QRcd0

 

I am so glad so many people have shared these vids on youtube. You can't find them on dvd anymore so they really would be lost forever. I think links to youtube are ok?

Edited August 1, 2015 by Amtosbm

[methodwriter85]

The networks have basically abdicated the MFTVM arena. You have the occasional Hallmark presentation on ABC and CBS does the Jesse Stone series with Tom Selleck, but otherwise it's Lifetime for the cheese and HBO for the prestige.

 

Networks used to fund them with soap operas. As soap operas go, so do the movies of the week.

[Luckylyn]

I vividly remember Sin of Innocence starring Dermot Mulroney and Megan Follows as step siblings who fall in love. 

 

I loved The Last Prostitute staring Sonia Braga and Wil Wheaton and wish I could find it on dvd about two friends who seek out a prostitute with a big reputation only to find she's retired.  They end up working for her on her horse ranch secretly hoping to convince her to sleep with one of them.  One friend only sees her as a sex object and gets bitter as the summer progresses while Wil Wheaton starts to see her as a person and befriends her.   That friendship was really nice to watch develop.

 

There were a bunch of Danielle Steel tv movies and miniseries on NBC.  My favorite tv movie was Heartbeat staring Polly Draper and John Ritter about a pregnant woman who falls in love with a neighbor after her husband abandons her.

 

Can we include miniseries in this thread or should there be a separate thread for that?

 

edited to add:  There's a great tv movie that is full of tons of teen tv starts of the time called Dance Til Dawn centered around various characters on prom night.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqMyS65_l-A

Edited August 7, 2015 by Luckylyn

[Laurie4H]

I remember Dance 'Til Dawn. I was in 8th grade when it aired. I recorded it and probably still have the VHS tape somewhere.

One movie I've always liked was Twisted Desire with Melissa Joan Hart from 1996 I think. Based on a true story where she cons a guy to murder her parents.

[methodwriter85]

I vividly remember Sin of Innocence starring Dermot Mulroney and Megan Follows as step siblings who fall in love.

 

It really bothered me that the family just expected them to act as siblings and treated it as a huge incest taboo. They were like 16 and 17 or something before they met.

[WendyCR72]

I vividly remember Sin of Innocence starring Dermot Mulroney and Megan Follows as step siblings who fall in love.

 

And here it is on YT in all of its melodramatic cheesy glory!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rry8awpK0vA

[Luckylyn]

It really bothered me that the family just expected them to act as siblings and treated it as a huge incest taboo. They were like 16 and 17 or something before they met.

I thought the father threatening to sue for custody of his daughter and young son over it was overreacting.   Having two teens date while living under the same roof is problematic, but it really sucked that Dermot felt pressured to leave.  The teens were more mature about the situation than the adults.

 

Does anyone remember For The Very First Time a movie about a Jewish boy and Catholic girl in the 1950s who fall in love but have to keep it a secret from their disapproving families?  I loved it but was frustrated by the ending.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gx0ARPA2lgg

Edited August 10, 2015 by Luckylyn

[JAYJAY1979]

I miss the days where your tv show performers would star in the network made for tv movies on sunday.

Cable booming in the 90s started to chip away at the network tv movies as well as tv stars opting to do feature films instead of tv movies.

One fav tv movie from the 80s was between 2 women stfawcett Farrah Fawcett and Colleen Dewhurst

[BatmanBeatles]

Another one with Farrah Fawcett is Small Sacrifices. Based on the true crime of the woman who shot her kids to keep her man.

[Amtosbm]

Apparently NBC is going to turn two of Dolly Parton's songs into tv movies:

http://deadline.com/2015/08/dolly-parton-jolene-movie-nbc-1201498546/

 

I wonder if this will turn into a new trend.

[Chaos Theory]

Apparently NBC is going to turn two of Dolly Parton's songs into tv movies:

http://deadline.com/2015/08/dolly-parton-jolene-movie-nbc-1201498546/

I wonder if this will turn into a new trend.

Oh hell I like Dolly Parton and I like the song. I might have to go against my threat and watch a NBC show this fall.

[reggiejax]

Apparently NBC is going to turn two of Dolly Parton's songs into tv movies:

http://deadline.com/2015/08/dolly-parton-jolene-movie-nbc-1201498546/

 

I wonder if this will turn into a new trend.

I would love for this to be a trend, but it wouldn't exactly be new. Certainly not for NBC, which managed to make both a TV movie and a series based on Harper Valley PTA. I am pretty certain there have been other shows and/or TV movies based on songs. I can't think of them right now, but Harper Valley PTA immediately sprung to mind when I read this.

[Mckinnonsgirl]

I'm all for them to bring back the tv movies, I miss them, the sad part is Lifetime has pretty much forgotten the old classics and keeps playing the tripe they've produced themselves, more than likely because it's cheaper to run... but certainly not as entertaining.

 

I'm remembring the first time I saw  "in a Childs Name"  where Valerie Bertenelli plays Angela Cimarelli whose sister is murdered by the narcissist husband Michael Ontkean,   Christopher Meloni plays Valeries' husband (and he's hot).   The scene I'm talking about is where Michael Ontkean who plays the husband of the "missing" woman  is in jail and his parents are staying in the home, the police have searched the home and when they retire for the night, they turn off all the lights and the entire room lights up because of the Luminol used to find blood splatter... while now that I'm older it was probably over the top, I watched it on youtube recently and it still gives me chills.

[Mckinnonsgirl]

I want to add that I agree with the last few posts, the movies you've added I not only remember I probably watched them multiple times...

 

Lori Laughlin - Doing time on Maple Drive  1992- a dysfunctional family in total denial that the youngest Son is gay he comes home with the "perfect" fiance who is clueless to the fact her man isn't into her as anything more than a friend, an alcoholic son (early Jim Carrey,stretching his legs as the brillaint but tormented older son) and then a daughter who is so afraid she's going to upset her parents by becoming pregnant, I think she either schedules an abortion or has already had one, without speaking with her husband.

 

Empty Cradle 1993 - Lori plays a woman who gives birth to her baby only to wake up the next morning in the hospital and be told the baby died.   Kate Jackson plays the physco that steals the baby and tries to pass it off as her own.

 

Judith Light - Wife, Mother, Murderer 1991

about Marie Hiley who murders her first husband with arsenic, and then tries to murder her daughter as well, then fakes her own death and comes back as her supposed twin... someone watched soaps to much.

 

So many goodies!

 

I read the comment about the tv version of JOhnny Belinda, a bit off topic but have you seen the original staring Jane Wyman?  It was excellent.

Edited August 31, 2015 by Mckinnonsgirl

[JAYJAY1979]

I used to love the tv movies where teen actors from all sitcoms starred together..

Like dance til dawn, crash course, camp cucurumba (sp?)..and I think there wad a class cruise tv movie too lol. Late 80s tv movies at its best :)

[Spartan Girl]

Does anyone remember a movie of the week about an abused wife that escapes to a shelter with the kids, but the husband tracks them down and shoots her in front of the children while they are having dinner with a friend? I can't remember the title...

[jazzygem]

 

Does anyone remember For The Very First Time a movie about a Jewish boy and Catholic girl in the 1950s who fall in love but have to keep it a secret from their disapproving families?

 

I LOVED this movie. I just finished re-watching it on YT. I wish the ending had been different, too.

 

I also liked In the Name of Love: A Texas Tragedy that starred Laura Leighton as a girl from the wrong side of the tracks who marries a slightly physically disabled guy that comes from money. His family hates her. They get divorced and she gets a big settlement. They continue to see each other secretly and live off of the settlement until it runs out. He gets depressed because he can't get work. She gets fed up with his self-pity. One night after she comes home he threatens to shoot her and does, killing her. He then sets her body on fire and tries to shoot himself but can't do it. He then just waits for the cops to come for him.

 

Also, The Perfect Mother withe Tyne Daly and Ione Skye. Daly is a controlling mother of 3 grown sons. Skye is the wife of one of them and she resists being controlled by her mother-in law. She leaves her husband, taking their young son with her. The MIL cannot have her taking away the grandson so she plots to have Skye killed. It's based on a true story. 

[Spartan Girl]

Is it this? When No One Woul Listen 1992?http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105806/

Yes that's it! Thank you! I saw it on LMN a long time ago and the ending to that movie has always stayed with me. Right after the shooting, you see the wife telling the audience what happened and for a second I thought "Oh she survived." Then the camera pulled back to show her sitting next to her own drawer in the city morgue. *shudder*

[Snowprince]

Forgot one. That Certain Summer (Hal Holbrook, Martin Sheen. ABC MOTW, 1972). The first (to my knowledge) TV movie to deal with  homosexuality without being campy or condescending. Pretty ground breaking in it's day. 

Edited September 9, 2015 by Snowprince

[bluwater]

You have mentioned some terrific ones, like In a Child's Name, Small Sacrifices and The Burning Bed!

I loved Escape from Terror: The Teresa Stamper Story, based on a true story on Unsolved Mysteries. Adam Storke was a super psychopath!

Edited September 21, 2015 by bluwater

[JAYJAY1979]

Who can forget the mini series craze..especially in the 80s!

Lace is a fav as well as hollywood wives and I'll take Manhatten

[Snowprince]

"Which one of you bitches is my mother?!"

[dalek]

Happily enjoying and wasting entirely too much time on the vast number of TV movies that show up on youtube.  I just watched Judge Dee and the Haunted Monastery, and it holds up as an adaptation of the book.

[Bastet]

Netflix has The Ryan White Story (the TV movie from 1989 with Judith Light as Jeanne White, Lukas Haas as Ryan, and a cameo by Ryan himself), and when I saw it on the list my mind immediately called up several clear memories of scenes, despite it being 25+ years since it aired. 

It was an interesting experience watching it again now, reflecting on how much has changed - and what hasn't. 

One of the many things that impressed me about Ryan and Jeanne White - and this is only briefly touched on in the TV movie, when Jeanne scolds her mother for blaming "the homosexuals" for the disease - is how they rejected the popular narrative that Ryan and others like him were the "innocent victims" of AIDS, insisting it didn't matter how anyone contracted it, everyone was an innocent victim of the disease and they were all in the fight together.  I read some old articles after watching the movie to refresh my memory, and found this from a New York Times interview with Jeanne in 1992:

Quote

"You never want to condemn another person with AIDS," Mrs. White-Ginder says [about Kimberly Bergalis, the young woman who had died the previous year after contracting AIDS from her dentist and who, unlike Ryan, had put a lot of emphasis on the fact she "hadn't done anything wrong" to get the disease]. "People forget the family suffers as much as the patient. So I say this softly. There was so much bitterness about her being an innocent victim. But Ryan always said, 'I'm just like everyone else with AIDS, no matter how I got it.' And he would never have lived as long as he did without the gay community. The people we knew in New York made sure we knew about the latest treatments way before we would have known in Indiana. I hear mothers today say they're not gonna work with no gay community on anything. Well, if it comes to your son's life, you better start changing your heart and your attitude around."

[Dr.OO7]

On 8/28/2015 at 3:48 PM, Mckinnonsgirl said:

I'm remembring the first time I saw  "in a Childs Name"  where Valerie Bertenelli plays Angela Cimarelli whose sister is murdered by the narcissist husband Michael Ontkean,   Christopher Meloni plays Valeries' husband (and he's hot).   The scene I'm talking about is where Michael Ontkean who plays the husband of the "missing" woman  is in jail and his parents are staying in the home, the police have searched the home and when they retire for the night, they turn off all the lights and the entire room lights up because of the Luminol used to find blood splatter... while now that I'm older it was probably over the top, I watched it on youtube recently and it still gives me chills.

The scare chords really don't help 

 

On 8/6/2015 at 7:27 PM, Luckylyn said:

There were a bunch of Danielle Steel tv movies and miniseries on NBC.  My favorite tv movie was Heartbeat staring Polly Draper and John Ritter about a pregnant woman who falls in love with a neighbor after her husband abandons her.

I loved "A Perfect Stranger". 

Personal favorites:

"Bitter Blood": A woman divorces her husband and takes up with her COUSIN. When her husband files for custody of their sons, they start killing everyone who can help them, then finally kill themselves and the boys.

"A House Of Secrets And Lies": A woman is married to a sex addict. And like any loved one of an addict, she desperately wants to believe that he'll change, until she catches him AGAIN and finally snaps.

"Without Her Consent": A woman is raped by an acquaintance and learns she's not his only victim.

"And Never Let Her Go": The true story of Thomas Capano, who murdered his lover when she tried to end things. Mark Harmon's scariest performance since "The Deliberate Stranger". (and that's one of my favorites too).

[Spartan Girl]

Anyone remember the 1995 TV movie Tad? It was a biopic aboutTad Lincoln growing up with the White House; starring Kris Kristofferson as Abe, Jane Curtin as Mary Todd, and Bug Hall as Tad. I saw it when I was a kid and even taped it so I could bring to class. Someone posted it on YouTube in case anyone's interested:

 

[Dr.OO7]

Anyone else love that slew of movies that NBC did in the late '80's--early '90's that were a hodgepodge of stars from all of the networks hit shows? 

Class Cruise, Crash Course, Dream Date, etc.

[Luckylyn]

 Dance Til Dawn was an awesome time capsule cause it included all these teen stars from various shows. I have a soft spot for that movie.

[movingtargetgal]

On 8/11/2015 at 5:01 PM, BatmanBeatles said:

Another one with Farrah Fawcett is Small Sacrifices. Based on the true crime of the woman who shot her kids to keep her man.

After seeing this movie I found the book at a yard sale and I read it in one night.  Farrah did a great job portraying that crazy sociopathic woman.  The movie did a great job in telling the story but the book was able to go into so much more detail.  She is one crazy bitch.

On 8/28/2015 at 3:48 PM, Mckinnonsgirl said:

I'm remembring the first time I saw  "in a Childs Name"  where Valerie Bertenelli plays Angela Cimarelli whose sister is murdered by the narcissist husband Michael Ontkean,   Christopher Meloni plays Valeries' husband (and he's hot).   The scene I'm talking about is where Michael Ontkean who plays the husband of the "missing" woman  is in jail and his parents are staying in the home, the police have searched the home and when they retire for the night, they turn off all the lights and the entire room lights up because of the Luminol used to find blood splatter... while now that I'm older it was probably over the top, I watched it on youtube recently and it still gives me chills.

That scene is bone chilling.  I don't think that there was a surface in that room that was not bloodstained. 

[Dr.OO7]

On 9/25/2018 at 6:42 PM, movingtargetgal said:

That scene is bone chilling.  I don't think that there was a surface in that room that was not bloodstained. 

And what kind of a psycho could not only brutalize his wife like that, but clean up so well that the room appeared pristine to the naked eye?

[TVFan17]

Oh wow.  I think this is the first time I've seen this thread (that I can remember), and it couldn't have popped up at a better time.  As I have been watching a lot of Lifetime stalker/killer/kidnapper movies this year (interspersed with many happy Hallmark movies as well). I have been feeling nostalgic about all of the great made-for-TV movies I watched on other major networks when I was growing up in the '70s and '80s, before Lifetime really became a big thing.     There were so many (and some of them may have eventually moved to Lifetime, but I am not including Lifetime movies in this list, as there is a separate thread for those movies).   Let me see if I can remember some of the titles and actors from my favorite major networks' made-for-TV gems ('70s - '90s) off the top of my head, without doing too much Googling:

Helter Skelter (with Steve Railsback as a very believable Charles Manson) -- I saw this when I was very young, and it left me terrified

Duel (with Dennis Weaver)

Sarah T. - Portrait of a Teenage Alcoholic (this one was with Linda Blair, but, truth be told, I loved all of those "Portrait of..." movies, and there were several of them!!)

Sweet Hostage (with Linda Blair and Martin Sheen)

Trilogy of Terror (with Karen Black and the infamous Zuni Warrior doll) -- that doll scared the hell out of me

Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (with Kim Darby)

The Initiation of Sarah (with Kay Lenz)

Satan's School for Girls (with Kate Jackson)

Night Gallery (the original pilot movie that launched the TV series -- with Joan Crawford)

The Spell (with Lee Grant, and I think that Helen Hunt was a supporting character)

Born Innocent (with Linda Blair)

Sooner or Later (with Denise Miller and then-teen idol Rex Smith -- LOVED this one)

Forever (based on the Judy Blume book - with Stephanie Zimbalist and Dean Butler)

James at 15 (the original movie that launched the series -- with Lance Kerwin and Melissa Sue Anderson)

The Boy in the Plastic Bubble (with Glynnis O'Connor and John Travolta)

The Deliberate Stranger (with Mark Harmon as a chilling Ted Bundy, and Glynnis O'Connor)

Leave Yesterday Behind (with Carrie Fisher and John Ritter)

Midnight Offerings (with Melissa Sue Anderson and Patrick Cassidy)

Intimate Agony (with Judith Light and Anthony Geary -- a movie about herpes, which is rare!)

The Day After (with JoBeth Williams and Steve Guttenberg)

The Stand (with Rob Lowe, Gary Sinise, Molly Ringwald)

Captive (with Joanna Kerns, Barry Bostwick and John Stamos -- I don't think this was a Lifetime movie?)

Fallen Angel (with Richard Masur as a pedophile)

The Burning Bed (with Farrah Fawcett)

A Death in California (with Cheryl Ladd and a super-sexy Sam Elliott as a kidnapper bad guy)

Elvis & Me (with Dale Midkiff and Susan Walters)

Elvis (with Kurt Russell and Season Hubley)

Maybe I'll Come Home in the Spring (with Sally Field)

Sybil (also with Sally Field)

Victims (with Kate Nelligan)

The 10th Kingdom (with Kimberly Williams-Paisley -- Although I think that some division of Hallmark might have been involved in this one, it premiered on NBC when I saw it)

 

Then there are really old movies that were not made-for-TV, but I only saw them on TV and have forever associated them with TV, such as:

Westworld (the original, with Yul Brynner)

Futureworld (w/ Peter Fonda)

The Devil's Rain (w/ John Travolta)

The Stepford Wives (original, with Katharine Ross)

Our Time (with Parker Stevenson and Pamela Sue Martin)

Burnt Offerings (with Karen Black)

 

I know I am forgetting something that I used to watch.   It will probably come to me later, when I am thinking about or doing something totally unrelated to watching movies!   But this is a decent list to begin with.

Edited September 28, 2018 by TVFan17

[movingtargetgal]

I think this thread is proof that we need a retro network that is dedicated to TV movies of the week and miniseries.  

[Dr.OO7]

3 hours ago, TVFan17 said:

The Deliberate Stranger (with Mark Harmon as a chilling Ted Bundy, and Glynnis O'Connor)

Harmon scared the hell out of HIMSELF with how good a job he did playing Bundy.

 

2 hours ago, movingtargetgal said:

I think this thread is proof that we need a retro network that is dedicated to TV movies of the week and miniseries.  

I agree.

[Snow Apple]

2 hours ago, Camille said:

Harmon scared the hell out of HIMSELF with how good a job he did playing Bundy.

 

It took over twenty years for my sister to look at Mark Harmon without her skin crawling. Good job indeed.

[Sharpie66]

Just saw this thread for the first time—thanks for the memories, everyone!

Born in 1966, I grew up on these shows in the ‘70s and ‘80s. Most of the miniseries were British ones on PBS (I was really young when The Six Wives of Henry VIII was first on—Anne Boleyn’s imagining of the face of one of her accused lovers post-eye-putting-out was seared on my brain). 

The two TV movies I remember most were Something for Joey (had my sister and I in the bathroom after to splash cold water on our tear-stained faces) and the US broadcast of the British film Threads. If you haven’t seen the latter, be prepared—The Day After is a Disney film in comparison. I only saw it once, but so much of it is burned into my head, just terrifying.