Hey, Mark. Just when I regretted signing in at all today your post showed up – Glad to have you back!
Sadly never saw Brian’s Song, have to check this out!
There have been so many great TV films and Minni-series but I’m drawing a blank.
Fassbinder did some amazing work for Television like the brilliant World On Wires, Berlin Alexanderplatz and his BRD Trilogy (my fav of the three being Lola)
Requiem for a Heavyweight – with the always amazing Anthony Quinn, one of my fav sporting movies.
Padre padrone was made for TV and ended up winning Palme d’Or. Some silly festival award aside it’s also one of their finest (that I have seen at least)
Daughter of Darkness – a solid Vampire flick with Anthony Perkins and Mia Sara.
Escape from Sobibor – great film with Alan Arkin and Rutger Hauer.
See No Evil: The Moors Murders – Well made British film about Ian Brady and Mira Hindley.
All I can think of – It’s early.
I KNOW MY FIRST NAME IS STEVEN!
To Catch A Killer, with Brian Dennehy excellent as John Gacy, was great. But that film highlights the advantage of television: length doesn’t really come into the marketing as much as it does for theatrical releases.
Wanna throw Lonesome Dove in there? It’s a long day at the theatre, but it’s a well done film.
Barbarians at the Gate was a wonderful film
I remember as a youngster, I’d watch Midday Movie Matinee on Channel Seven here in Australia, often presented by the late, great Ivan Hutchinson (who had the GENTLEST and most effective and ENGAGING manner of any Australian television personality I’ve seen—morning news television readers especially, and others on the tube, take note). Ivan, also known as Mr. Movies, would often present American films at 12PM, and years later I discovered a fair few of these were made particularly for the small screen.
Maybe some of you have seen these titles: I’m going way back to the made-for-TV “The Amazing Spider-Man” and “Shirts/Skins” (the one with the “hide-the-basketball” game). However, one obscurity that is extremely fresh in my mind (and remember, I haven’t seen this film in more than 20 years) is “Pigs vs Freaks” (1984), an American football film where the police (“pigs”) take on the hippies (“freaks”) in a game of gridiron. In fact, I think I’ve only seen the film once (probably around 1987 or 1988), so the fact I remember it so clearly speaks volumes about its entertainment value. It’s not a high work of dramatic brilliance like “Brian’s Song”, but it’s a goofy comedy that I feel wouldn’t be out of place at the cinema. It didn’t have that “cheap look” a lot of made-for-TV movies in the 1980s had and it was around the time when gridiron flicks would do quite well with audiences.
If anyone knows how I can acquire a copy of “Pigs vs Freaks”, that’d be groovy…I might have to ask my local supplier about it!
Prime Suspect 1. Easily one of my favorite acting performances of the last two decades: Helen Mirren as inspector DCI Jane Tennison. This Brit TV upstart puts to shame many, many cop procedural films. If you have not seen it, and like the genre of cop/thriller, or want to see top notch acting, check it out.
When I was a kid I always thought the original “V” would have been a cool film…
But I have to admit that I haven’t watched a made-for-TV film in a long time.
The Executioner’s Song. Sybil. Wallander. Prime Suspect (for sure).
German made-for-TV films are big at the local (Melbourne) Festival of German Film. This is primarily because Germany has a reputation for making made-for-TV films almost, if not as every bit excellent, as their theatrically-released flicks. I saw “Das Inferno” (a mini-serial about the firebombing of Dresden in 1945) at the cinema as one epic film. It was very good, too.
OT —
Mark — A dozen years ago, I caught a screening of David Parker’s “Hercules Returns” at Seattle’s film festival. My friend and I laughed throughout the movie. I’ve never again been able to see it. It’s completely unavailable to us in the USA. I’d love to see it again to learn whether it’s really as hilarious as I remember it being.
Is it extant in Australia? Have you seen it? Isn’t it a romp? Has David Parker done anything else, similarly satiric?
Roots
Masada
The Singing Detective
Angels in America
When the Levees Broke
Cineaste…
Funny you should mention David Parker, as I encountered Mr. Parker just a few weeks ago as part of a Q & A forum about journalists as they are portrayed in film, prior to a screening of the classic “Sweet Smell of Success”.
David Parker has done many Australian films, often in conjunction with his partner Nadia Tass. He’s normally a cinemaphotographer and writer. “Matching Jack” is his most recent project to gain release at cinemas. “Malcom”, directed by Nadia Tass and written by David Parker, is way up there as one of my favourite Australian films.
I’ve never seen “Hercules Returns” but it is fairly well-known and I do believe it’s been released on VHS (not certain about DVD).
I hope to meet Nadia Tass this month at a Q & A, so I should ask if she knows anything about “Hercules Returns” on DVD. It’s worth noting Nadia is Greek and Melbourne is one of the world’s largest Greek cities, so this sort of “ethnic specific comedy” has traditionally enjoyed a long shelf life in Melbourne.
Family life ken loach
Both Lynn Littman’s Testament and Norman Rene’s Longtime Companion actually were filmed for PBS, and when those-in-the-know realized what quality they had on their hands, the released them both into theaters. This resulted in a few oscar nom.s for both, and lots of ‘Best’ lists. I recommend them both.
Are Made-for-Commercial TV and Made-for-Cable considered the same? HBO and Showtime have long produced some solid films (a few mentioned above) and a free from some of the restrictions set on Network and basic cable stations.
Allow me to mention Lone Gone, a great baseball movie from HBO with William Peterson, and Weeds with Nick Nolte.
Most Made-for-TV movies I watch are actually OAV’s, and I think many could actually have been given theatrical release. The only problem is made-for-tv stuff is generally targeting a really specific and minoritary audience like, for example, dorky anime watchers like myself.
An Early Frost was an early look at HIV and AIDS that was quite good. Gena Rowlands, Ben Gazzara and Aidan Quinn.
The Deadly Tower (1975) with Kurt Russell (just post-Disney) as Charles Whitman.
nothing terribly spectacular, but a fun little oddity.
Here’s a taste:
Katherine w/Sissy Spacek. Excellent…and unsettling.
also, I don’t think this thread could survive without a nod to the after-school special.
Here’s a choice title:
Don Siegel’s The Killers was the first made-for-tv film as far as I understand and still one of the greatest. Of course, it was too good for TV at the time (or at least too violent) so I think it was actually given a theatrical release.
“Don Siegel’s The Killers was the first made-for-tv film as far as I understand”
The teleplays of the 1950’s probably deserve the credit as the first made-for-tv movies. Criterion’s Golden Age of Television Boxset is an excellent collection of a few of the best.
Yeah, I guess you’re right, RUS. I didn’t even know Marty started as a teleplay. Further scraping at wikipedia digs up the following:
“Origins and history
Though not exactly labelled as such, there were early precedents for “Television movies”, such as the 1957 version of The Pied Piper of Hamelin, starring Van Johnson, one of the first filmed “family musicals” made directly for television. (Most “family musicals” of the time, such as Peter Pan, were broadcast live and preserved on kinescope, which is not precisely the same as film or even videotape.)
The term “made-for-TV movie” was coined in the United States in the early 1960s as an incentive for movie audiences to stay home and watch what was promoted as the equivalent of a first-run theatrical motion picture. Beginning in 1961 with NBC Saturday Night at the Movies, a prime time network showing of a television premiere of major studio film, the other networks soon copied the format with each of the networks having several [Day of the Week] Night At The Movies that led to a shortage of film studio product. The first of these made-for-TV movies is generally acknowledged to be See How They Run, which debuted on NBC on 7 October 1964. A previous film, The Killers, starring Lee Marvin and Ronald Reagan, was filmed as a TV-movie, although NBC decided it was too violent for television and it was released theatrically instead."
The Killers, however, may still be the best made-for-tv movie. ever.
Battlestar Galactica was kind of gloried pilot: “Initially, Glen A. Larson envisioned Battlestar Galactica as a series of made-for-TV movies (a three-hour pilot program plus two two-hour episodes) for the American Broadcasting Company (ABC). A shortened version of the three-hour pilot, Saga of a Star World, was screened in Canadian theaters (before the TV series was telecast) and in American theaters (later on). Instead of two additional TV movies, ABC decided to commission a weekly TV series of one-hour episodes.”
Mark – Welcome back!
Two made-for-TV movies that were released in theatres, albeit shortened considerably, were Ingmar Bergman’s ‘Fanny & Alexander’ and ‘Scenes from a Marriage’. I believe the film version of the former was released prior to the airing of the TV show. ‘Scenes from a Marriage’ was shown on Swedish TV prior to the condensed version being released in theatres. Hope I got that right.
Don’t know if these qualify for your survey. I own them both and they are two of the finest films ever produced IMO. Mind you, I think all of Bergman’s films should be at the top of any ‘Best Of …’ list. Then a few of Woody Allen’s gems. After that, somebody else could add their picks.
John Dahl’s Red Rock West is a great neo-noir that was dumped on cable before getting a brief theatrical rerelease.
I have fond memories of HBO films from the 1980s like The Park is Mine (featuring Tommy Lee Jones as a troubled vietnam war vet which I remember as being like First Blood but better) and Fortress (Rachel Ward and students get kidnapped -although looking it up now it seems like it went into theatres in Australia but was dumped on cable elsewhere so I guess it wasn’t made for television). Have no idea if I’d like them now though.
@Maverick
I totally forgot about Bergman’s work, can’t believe I did that. I guess that places The Killers in a distant third. Fanny and Scenes are in the stratosphere compared to other tv movies. Saraband is good too, but compared to The Killers, I prefer The Killers.
MARK IS SUSPENDED IN GAFFA
Every so often, there comes a made-for-television movie that is of exceptional quality, so great it could easily be given a theatrical release. The real trick is to find these films on video or DVD, so you can enjoy the movie minus commercials (although it’s possible the makers of the film have paced it so ad breaks slot in neatly between scenes/edits, but I’d still rather enjoy a film without commercial stoppages). Made-for-cable films are bereft of ads (or should be).
The best made-for-television film I have experienced is the original version of “Brian’s Song” starring Billy Dee Williams as Chicago Bears running back Gale Sayers and James Caan as teammate Brian Piccolo. I also enjoyed the remake, and the fact a television movie from the early ‘70s was remade some thirty years later shows you its impact and reputation. Also, the remake wasn’t redundant and had a slick modern feel without sacrificing the old school nostalgia of the original (the footage in the remake was excellent, whereas the original relied heavily on stock footage). I’d love to revisit the original, which is becoming increasingly difficult to find on VHS and DVD. Interestingly enough, neither version appears in Leonard Maltin’s 2010 Film Guide.
(While searching for an image for this post, I came across the above film poster; a little extra digging at IMDB revealed “Brian’s Song” was indeed released theatrically after its popular TV screenings).
And yes, I am a Chicago Bears fanatic. Still, regardless of your gridiron affiliations or lack thereof, the original “Brian’s Song” remain a classic of motion pictures, even if it was made for the small screen.
Has anyone got any other examples of made-for-TV movies that later wound up at the flicks, or perhaps should have been turned into big screen films?