Buzz
While NBC introduced the concept of made-for-TV movies with 1964’s See How They Run, it was ABC that truly embraced and expanded the idea. The network’s “Tuesday Movie of the Week” soon grew to include a “Wednesday Movie of the Week,” and eventually, these films became so prolific that they filled any available time slot.
Made-for-TV movies were akin to summer stock in the film world, offering TV actors on break and lesser-known movie stars a chance to stay in the public eye. These productions also allowed actors to explore roles that defied their usual personas, such as Elizabeth Montgomery’s chilling portrayal of Lizzie Borden. How many of these films, ranging from uplifting to delightfully campy, can you recall?
1. Born Innocent
Linda Blair initially rose to fame as Regan, the pea soup-spewing girl in The Exorcist, but for avid TV viewers, she remains iconic for her heartfelt roles in made-for-TV movies. Her standout performance was in the 1974 film Born Innocent, where she played a troubled runaway thrust into the juvenile justice system. Though the punishment seemed extreme for a non-violent offense, the film aimed to deliver a “scared straight” message to young girls at risk of delinquency. A controversial shower scene, linked to inspiring a real-life crime, led to the movie being pulled from TV broadcasts.
2. Trapped
James Brolin first captured audiences’ hearts as the rebellious doctor on Marcus Welby, MD, but he later became a staple in made-for-TV films. In 1972’s A Short Walk to Daylight, he portrayed a New York cop guiding a group of strangers to safety after an earthquake traps them in a subway tunnel. The following year, he starred in Trapped, a survival thriller where his character, a mugging victim, wakes up in a department store restroom to find himself locked in with a pack of aggressive guard dogs.
3. Duel
Before “road rage” became a term, Dennis Weaver faced it on TV when his character unknowingly provoked a tanker truck driver by passing him on a deserted road. The trucker, seemingly insulted, engages Weaver’s Plymouth Valiant in a terrifying game of cat-and-mouse. Directed by a young Steven Spielberg, Duel was his first full-length film. The TV version’s success led to additional scenes being shot for its theatrical release in Europe and Australia.
4. Bad Ronald
A socially awkward high schooler is bullied by a young girl in his neighborhood. In a fit of rage, he pushes her, causing her to hit her head on a cinder block and die. Panicked, he rushes home to his mother, who, instead of calling the police, instructs him to use his carpentry skills to hide in a secret bathroom under the stairs. This is the unsettling premise of Bad Ronald, featuring Scott Jacoby, later known to Golden Girls fans as Dorothy’s son Michael. The story takes a darker turn when the mother dies during surgery, and the house—with Ronald still hidden inside—is sold to an unsuspecting family.
5. Go Ask Alice
The 1971 book Go Ask Alice was marketed as the real diary of a shy teenage girl who, after moving to a new town, finds that LSD is the key to high school popularity. Banned in many school libraries, the book’s notoriety boosted sales and attracted Hollywood’s attention. The 1973 TV adaptation starred Jamie Smith-Jackson as Alice and William Shatner as her oblivious father. While both the book and film claimed to be based on a true story, it was later revealed that Mormon youth counselor Beatrice Sparks authored the book, and the tale was entirely fictional.
6. A Cry in the Wilderness
George Kennedy, an Academy Award winner, stepped away from his roles in the Airport series to play a man disillusioned with his comfortable life in Chicago, yearning to return to his rugged childhood roots. He relocates his wife and son to a dilapidated house in the isolated Oregon wilderness, where they have no phone and the nearest neighbor is two days away. While clearing tree stumps, George is bitten by a skunk. Initially dismissing the injury, he later discovers the skunk dead and fears it had rabies. Believing he might suffer the same fate, he chains himself to a barn pole to protect his family and sends his wife in their nearly empty truck to find help.
7. Brian’s Song
This 1971 Emmy-winning film chronicles the inspiring friendship between Chicago Bears running back Brian Piccolo and his reserved teammate Gale Sayers. Brian supported Gale through a grueling recovery from a knee injury that nearly ended his career. Just as Gale returned to the field, Brian was diagnosed with embryonal cell carcinoma, a form of testicular cancer that spread to his lung. Brian passed away at 26, but his legacy lives on through the Piccolo Foundation, which has significantly contributed to Sloan-Kettering Research Center, raising the five-year survival rate for this cancer to 95 percent.
8. Maybe I’ll Come Home in the Spring
In the early 1970s, Sally Field sought to shed her Gidget and Flying Nun persona by starring as a disillusioned hippie returning home in Maybe I’ll Come Home in the Spring. The film critiques suburban parents’ materialism as a cause of their children’s rebellion. While the parents enjoy lavish meals, Sally’s character and David Carradine scavenge for food, highlighting the stark contrast between their lifestyles.
9. Sweet Hostage
Released in 1975, this romantic drama was adapted from Nathaniel Benchley’s novel Welcome to Xanadu. Martin Sheen stars as Leonard Hatch, an escaped mental patient who kidnaps Linda Blair’s character, a naive teenager, and takes her to a secluded mountain cabin. Expecting the worst, Blair is shocked to discover that her captor’s goal is to educate her and transform her into a sophisticated thinker, much like Pygmalion. Sheen’s rugged charm and poetic recitations quickly won over audiences, who found themselves sympathizing with the kidnapper over the authorities.
10. Someone I Touched
This 1975 film, intended as a public service announcement about syphilis, became unintentionally humorous, starting with Cloris Leachman singing the overly sentimental theme song. At 49, Leachman played a career woman thrilled about her first pregnancy, unaware that her husband had a brief affair with a teenage cashier (Glynnis O’Connor) and contracted syphilis. A determined health worker tracks down O’Connor on a crowded beach, delivering the news. Leachman’s character, devastated by her diagnosis, mistakenly equates syphilis with Thalidomide, fearing she might give birth to a child “with no arrrmmsss!!”
11. The Longest Night
This film terrified me when it premiered in 1972. I was too young to focus on the kidnapper’s motive—targeting the victim for her wealthy parents—and instead fixated on the chilling scene where a young woman is taken from her motel room and buried alive in a custom coffin. For years afterward, I struggled to sleep during family stays at Best Westerns. James Farentino played the calculating kidnapper who holds David Janssen’s daughter underground for 83 hours. In reality, the man Farentino portrayed was sentenced to life but paroled after only 10 years.
12. The Morning After
Dick Van Dyke, upon reading the script for The Morning After, wondered if someone had been observing his private life. Unbeknownst to fans of his role as Rob Petrie, Van Dyke was battling alcoholism. The film, based on Jack B. Weiner’s novel, allowed Van Dyke to bring raw authenticity to his portrayal of Charlie Lester, a PR executive struggling with addiction.
What made this film stand out from other portrayals of white-collar alcoholism was its refusal to offer a tidy resolution. Instead of showing Charlie Lester reformed after a 12-step program, the movie ends with him leaving treatment, heading to a bar, and calling his wife in tears to admit, “It’s no use…I’m no damn good…goodbye, my heart…”
13. Intimate Strangers
In 1977, spousal abuse was a taboo subject, rarely discussed and seldom recognized as a crime. At the time, there were only 30 shelters across the U.S. for women fleeing abusive relationships. Sally Struthers plays the wife of Dennis Weaver, an insurance salesman and her high school sweetheart. Initially, their life seemed perfect, but as Weaver’s career faltered and younger colleagues surpassed him, he began taking out his frustrations on his wife through physical abuse. Despite initial police apathy, Weaver becomes a social pariah after being exposed as a “wife beater.” Even his drinking buddy, played by Larry Hagman (later J.R. Ewing), is horrified to learn that the $315 he paid to bail Weaver out was for domestic battery.
14. Like Normal People
Shaun Cassidy sought to shed his teen idol image by starring in this 1979 film based on Robert Meyers’ book. The story revolves around Meyers’ mentally disabled brother, Roger, and his relationship with Virginia Hensler, whom he met at a facility for disabled adults. While the film aimed to portray their love story, many remember Linda Purl’s exaggerated performance and her repeated line, “Ohh, Rah-jah!” Roger Meyers later criticized the film, saying it made them appear more disabled than they were and didn’t accurately represent their lives.
15. Tribes
Jan-Michael Vincent plays a pacifist hippie drafted into the U.S. Marine Corps in this 1970 precursor to Full Metal Jacket. His character, Private Adrian, baffles his Drill Instructor by excelling at grueling physical tasks through meditation, mentally escaping to a “happy place” accompanied by sitar music. Other recruits soon adopt his techniques, smiling through their training. However, the Drill Instructor, determined to break their serenity, intensifies their misery.
