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Favorite Made-For-TV-Movie (That You Haven't Seen in Years)

D

dmargalotti

The thread about the tv movie "Third Girl from the Left" got me thinking of others from years ago...

Anyone else remember "The Lonliest Runner" with Michael Landon, Lance Kerwin, and Melissa Sue Anderson?

Landon played a gold medal winning Olympic runner who was reflecting on how he came to be such a good distance runner. Turns out that as a teenager (Kerwin played the younger version of the character), he had a bed wetting problem. His parents would hang the bed sheet out the window to dry ever day and he would have to run home as fast as good after school in order to pull the sheet in before the adorable girl next door (Anderson) saw it.

Classic!
 
There was a movie about Karen Carpenter that aired on CBS in 1988 called The Karen Carpenter Story which focused on the Carpenters and in particular Karen herself dealing with her eating disorder. It starred Cynthia Gibb as Karen. It was a very good movie and it also featured a lot of The Carpenters songs. I have seen it one time since then and that was in 1997 or so when it aired on Lifetime. As far as I know,it has never been out on VHS or DVD. Does Richard Carpenter have something to do with the movie not being aired anymore on TV or the movie being seen on DVD?
 
2 TV Movies I can watch over and over again, but haven't seen in a long time

1. Doin' Time On Maple Drive
2. Crash Course
 
THE NIGHT THAT PANICKED AMERICA

SPECIAL BULLETIN

THREADS

TESTAMENT (made for PBS but released theatrically first)

FIREBALL FORWARD!
 
I would like to see Bad Ronald and Pray For The Wildcats since it seems I have heard how bad they were.

wouldn't mind seeing...

*Smash Up on Interstate 5
*Maybe I'll Come Home in the Spring with Sally Field
*Sarah T

there was one TV-Movie about some huge traffic jam in New York City that I remember seeing. This would have been around 1974-1975, maybe 1976 but I dont recall ever seeing it since.

Then there was the "spider" Movies..

*Curse of The Back Widow", about a woman who turns into a spider. Think Patty Duke was in this. The ad for this in TV Guide actually scared many kids back then.

There was also some spider movie I remember seeing back in the late 70s, no it wasn't that William Shatner spider flick "Kingdom Of The Spiders", but this one had a scene where some little boy climbs up on a truck and grabs a spiders only to die.
Fogot the title of this one.

I also remember another spider movie where Alan Hale Jr. from Gilligans Island played some sheriff of a town that was under attack by this HUGE spider. I still remember the scene where he said about how this spider made Jaws look like a goldfish.

I do have The Death Of Ocean View Park on tape. Really not bad for a TV movie.
 
I should have also mentioned "Right To Kill", with [I think] Christopher Collet and Frederic Forrest, about a son who kills his abusive father.
 
The Karen Carpenter movie gets played frequently on Cable, can't remember which station, but its one of the commercial free ones.

Well done film.
 
Vanishing Point from the early 70's. The lone driver (Barry Newman) and the muscle car (Dodge Challenger)I believe they remade it recently in the late 90's.

Also, Vanishing Act is another one which starred Mike Ferrell and Eliott Gould. Kept you on your toes as to who killed his wife and why there was a strange woman acting as the wife.
 
Vanishing Point was a theatrical release -- the plot and star are correct -- http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067927/ -- but another "desert duel" movie that was definitely made for TV was "Duel", starring Dennis Weaver, who pisses off a truck driver, but wins in the end. It was Spielberg's first flick. It came out in '71 or '72.

As for:
THE NIGHT THAT PANICKED AMERICA

SPECIAL BULLETIN

Yes! definitely! "The night that panicked America" -- I saw it *once* -- the night it ran -- a Friday night, on ABC -- 1975, I want to say -- in October -- cool movie! All about behind the scenes of the Mercury Theatre's "Invasion of Mars" broadcast. Remember, casey casem was in it? EXCELLENT flick!

And wasn't it called "special report"? -- the 1983 one (which predated "the Day After" by 8 months) which is all about TV coverage of a nuclear blast by terrorists on Charleston, SC?

****And how about those ABC Movie of the Weeks? Any particular fav's from those? Remember "The Flim-Flam man"?
 
Like previously mention by someone, "THREADS" - BBC, "TESTAMENT" - PBS (but I thought NBC made this movie, but oh well...) but also "The Day After" - ABC, "Where Have All The People Gone?" - NBC.
 
And wasn't it called "special report"? -- the 1983 one (which predated "the Day After" by 8 months) which is all about TV coverage of a nuclear blast by terrorists on Charleston, SC?

No, the movie was called "SPECIAL BULLETIN." I have it somewhere on video. It aired on NBC in 1983, and I remember NBC's Edwin Newman did the NBC NEWS DIGEST just before the movie aired and read a disclaimer saying the movie was purely fictional and was not a real newscast. Seemed pretty real to me. Scary stuff. Think Ill see if I can find my video of it. ;D
 
donnyg said:
And wasn't it called "special report"? -- the 1983 one (which predated "the Day After" by 8 months) which is all about TV coverage of a nuclear blast by terrorists on Charleston, SC?

No, the movie was called "SPECIAL BULLETIN." I have it somewhere on video. It aired on NBC in 1983, and I remember NBC's Edwin Newman did the NBC NEWS DIGEST just before the movie aired and read a disclaimer saying the movie was purely fictional and was not a real newscast. Seemed pretty real to me. Scary stuff. Think Ill see if I can find my video of it. ;D
Click to expand...

I saw that once on Lifetime about 12, 13 years ago. Was pretty good, though there some things I thought was a bit far-fetched. The first time I saw "The Day After" (when it replayed on ABC around 1987 or 1988), I had nightmares. To do this day I avoid the movie when it periodically replays on cable.

One I would like to see again, was an "Alien Invasion" movie (ala "War Of The Worlds") that CBS did in the mid-90s starring former ABC and CBS anchor Sander Vanocher (sp?) as the network news anchor covering an alien invasion. Also starred Bree Walker (the former KCBS anchor with the deformed lobster-claw hands). I think it aired on Halloween night, but can't remember the name of it.
 
By far, "The Day After" and "Special Bulletin". More moving than most theatrical movies.

Also "Threads", if British flicks count.

Can you tell I liked the TV nuke flicks from the early 80s?
 
FightingIrish said:
By far, "The Day After" and "Special Bulletin". More moving than most theatrical movies.

Also "Threads", if British flicks count.

Can you tell I liked the TV nuke flicks from the early 80s?
Click to expand...

Same here...in my opinion, of the two (Threads or The Day After) I would have to say "Threads" were the better of the two. Unfortuantely, you can't get "Threads" over here in America yet, but if you live over in Region 2, you can get it.

I believe that "Threads" was more realistic.

I've never seen "Special Bulletin"...how is it?
 
There is one that has always intrigued me...

Special Report: Journey to Mars aired on NBC in 1996. It was about a CNN-like organization that was reporting the final hours of a spaceship about to land on Mars. The movie ended on a cliffhanger; when the craft landed on Mars, and the astronauts went out on the surface and...all contact was lost with the astronauts. While one would think aliens, presumably it was a terriost bomb on board the craft(through out the movie it became clear something sinister was going on, most notably attempted sabotage of the mission).

Another favorite of mine I haven't seen for the longest time is The 2nd Civil War that aired on HBO in the mid-90s starring Phil Hartman and James Earl Jones.
 
I've never seen "Special Bulletin"...how is it?
[/quote] It's pretty good considering the time it was done and everything. It starts out as a "news" bulletin about economic terrorists and ends with the total nuclear destruction of Charleston S.C.
mmmmm nuclear as homer simpson would say. :D
 
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