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

[Smittian]

How about the greatest TV movie of all.........
"Brian's Song" (the original) with James Caan & Billy Dee Williams. It does appear from time to time, but not nearly enough.

There was another TV movie of which I can't recall the name as I was only a kid when I saw it. It came about around 1972-73 and involved a teenaged girl who had been kidnapped, placed in a box and buried alive. I'm wanting to say it was an ABC movie. Perhaps someone could help me here.

 

[mmb5]

I think you mean The Longest Night (http://www.allmovie.com/cg/avg.dll?p=avg&sql=1:127112), which was based on the story of Barbara Jane Mackle. The Wiki article on the true-life story states the movie has never repeated, but I'm pretty sure I saw it on Showtime in the 80s.

 

[LKellerIII]

I don't know about "favorite," but one that deserves an honorable mention is "Prescription: Murder" (1968). Though it's considered the pilot for Columbo, I'm quite sure it was orginally intended as a one-shot TV movie. It was originally written as a stage play in 1962, by William Link and Richard Levinson (later the producers of Columbo). I saw this movie at least a few years into Columbo's first run as a series on NBC, and it's very striking how differently Peter Falk played Columbo. He's got the cigar and sloppy raincoat, and he's relentless, but not in that befuddled, friendly way - rather mean and nasty, if anything. Obviously, by the time they decided to make Columbo into a series, they decided he should be a more lovable guy.

Another in the same genre is "The Marcus-Nelson Murders" - a gritty and well written TV movie that begat Kojak.

 

[Ultimajock]

How about the greatest TV movie of all.........
"Brian's Song" (the original) with James Caan & Billy Dee Williams. It does appear from time to time, but not nearly enough.

...I'm a Bears fan, so I have a stronger fondness for BRIAN'S SONG than, say, a Packers fan might. But it is *not* "the greatest TV movie of all." DUEL is clearly the finest of the ABC "Movie of the Week" productions, and TESTAMENT and THREADS are both superior to that...

...I just thought of another picture that might qualify, although at the time it wasn't considered a "TV movie" per se. It's THE ST. LOUIS BANK ROBBERY, the 1959 true crime yarn that gave Steve McQueen one of his first starring roles. It was produced independently for CBS, who held the copyright, but instead of first appearing on the network, CBS thought it was good enough (and it indeed is) to lease it to United Artists for a theatrical release before its first TV run...

 

[anoldguy]

How about "Killdozer" starring Clint Walker about a killer bulldozer wiping out a construction crew on an island? Later another similar movie was made about a car. I think it was a Lincoln. I can't remember the title.