ABC Movie of the Week

Does anyone remember the Made for TV movies from the 70s like Crowhaven Farm, Duel, The Stranger Within, and the Trilogy of Terror (remember the native doll that comes to life)? Most of these movies were broadcast on ABC during the ABC Movie of the Week. For those who don’t remember, the ABC Movie of the Week was a weekly series that played a new Made for TV movie each Wednesday night from 1969 – 1975. Some the movies turned out to be the pilot episode for some of the TV series from the 70s, like Marcus Welby M.D., The Rookies, and one of my favorite, The Six Million Dollar Man. Others were either directed by new unknown directors, like Steven Spielberg who directed Duel and a couple others, or had old movies stars from the past as well as people who became famous later on, kind of like the guest stars on the Love Boat and Fantasy Island. The films were on various genres of films, but it seems like a lot of them were either high drama with suspense or supernatural themes. Sometimes they were based on current movies in the theater like The Devil’s Daughter staring Shelly Winters, which tried to grab the “Rosemary’s Baby” audience, or The Spell, which was about a ostracized teen who gets back at her tormentors by using her physic powers (gee that sounds like Carrie). Famed TV Producer Aaron Spelling also produced many of these films like Crowhaven Farm and Five Desperate Women. A lot of these movies seemed very scary at the time, but when I watch them again, they seem kind of funny. It’s like the TV show Dragnet, which I always thought was a very serious show, even the names had been changed to protect the Innocent, but when I have watched a couple of them, they seem very funny, almost as if they are a comedy. I guess we are now jaded, with all of the special effects, computer generated images and less dramatic acting, but they are still fun to watch. The movie “Don’t be afraid of the dark”, about a woman who is remolding her new house, and finds a sealed up fireplace, which contains little gremlin creatures who escape, is actually being remade as a new release coming in August 2011.

I have purchased some of these movies off the Internet, via Ebay, The Warner Archive collection, and a couple other sites. Some of them are obviously pirated copies, as you can see the cable channel logo appear, while some like the ones from Warner Brothers are legitimate copies. I have actually replaced some of the pirated copied with true copies, which are better quality. I always thought it would be fun to host a TV show that only shows Made for TV movies of the 70s, not quite like Elvira, but you get the idea. One weekend a few weeks ago, I had a Made for TV marathon, where I watched these old movies all weekend long. I watched, Crowhaven Farm, The Devil’s Daughter, Five Desperate Women, Bad Ronald, The Stranger within, Race with the Devil, Genesis II, Planet Earth, Strange New World, Don’t be afraid of the dark, and The Two worlds of Jennie Logan. It was a long but fun weekend, but since they were made to fit in a 90 minutes time space, they are all less than 90 minutes each without the commercials. Looking at this list, it seems that a lot of these movies were scary movies, I guess the 70s was a scary time. As a kid, we would come home from church, and watch the Outer Limits and then Creature Feature, which seems like a strange thing to do after Church, but that was the 70s. I think ABC should come out with a DVD set of all these movies, since I think it would sell, as there are various websites talking about this series and most of the movies are hard to find. I did find a website that sells copies of a lot of these movies, but they are asking 15.00 each, and it looks like someone recorded it off TV, and I’m not willing to pay 15.00 for a pirated copy. Here is a brief synopsis of the movies I watched on my Made for TV movie marathon, maybe you will remember them:

Crowhaven Farm – An aura of mystery and tales of supernatural activity surrounds Crowhaven Farm,when it comes into the possession of Ben and Maggie Porter,a couple moving to the farm to try for a chance to save their troubled marriage. Maggie,immediately senses that all is not right,and that perhaps the farm’s reputation for being haunted by restless spirits and being the home of an ancient coven of witches is true.

The Devil’s Daughter – The Devil s Daughter delivers a young woman into a nightmare world when she learns her mother had promised to her to Satan when she was in infancy. Now of legal age, Lucifer has sent his earthly minions to claim his property and to make sure she is betrothed to the demon of his choice. Starring Shelley Winters. Remember the guy with the glowing eyes?

Five Desperate Women – Also produced by Aaron Spelling, tells the story of five young women vacation together at a resort on an isolated island. They are the resorts only customers and, aside from the boat captain who brought them here and the resorts handyman, Wylie, the island’s only inhabitants. When one of the women is found dead, the others begin to fear the captain, who’s been acting strangely. Wylie and the captain argue over the identity of the murderer, each accusing the other, and a fight erupts. Alarmed, the women attempt to leave the island, but the boat — their only means of escape — explodes and sinks before they can board it. Then Wylie comes to their aid, claiming to have killed the boat captain in self-defense and telling the women they’re safe. But are they?

Bad Ronald – A nerdy high school youth, accidentally kills a neighbor’s young daughter. Panicking, his mother, Kim Hunter (Zera from Planet of the Apes), fears the police will not believe that it was an accident. She moves her son into a bathroom that she turned into a secret hiding place. After her death, a new family moves in. In the meantime, Ronald has gotten lost in a fantasy world created in his own head from being hidden away for so long.

The Stranger within – Staring Barbara Eden – Who is the father of Ann Collins Baby? Her husband had a vasectomy years ago, and Ann has not been with another man. Even more mysterious as the baby grows inside her, Ann begins to change. Gradually she starts to realize that her bizarre behavior is being controlled by her unborn baby.

Race with the Devil – Staring Peter Fonda and Loretta Swit, Frank and Roger and their wives take off for Colorado in a recreational vehicle, looking forward to some skiing and dirt biking. While camping en route, they witness a Satanic ritual sacrifice, but the local sheriff finds no evidence to support their claims and urges them to continue on their vacation. On the way, however, they find themselves repeatedly attacked by cult members, and they take measures to defend themselves.

Don’t be afraid of the dark – A neurotic housewife named Sally and her business exec husband move into Sally’s family house, a spooky two story Victorian mansion. When Sally starts the redecorating along with her pompous decorator she comes across a locked room in the house. After arguing with the handyman who insists she should leave the room locked, she finally gets the key. But once she opens her father’s old study and has the bricks from the fireplace removed, strange things begin to happen. Sally begins to see small creatures everywhere, but no one will believe her. Her husband dismisses her as neurotic and her friend thinks Sally may be loosing her mind. But things take a deadly serious turn when the decorator trips at the top of the stairs and falls to his death. Sally sees a rope lying across the place where he tripped, but when she picks it up to take it, a horrifying little creature pulls it from her grasp. Is she crazy? Or has Sally released demons in the house.

Genesis II – Created by Gene Roddenberry, the story is about Dylan Hunt, a scientist, puts himself into suspended animation in a NASA cavern in 1979 to establish if he could be brought back to life in a couple of days to research into extending the process to astronauts. However the cavern collapses during an earthquake and Dylan doesn’t recover until the year 2133. During the 154 years he had slept, war has broken out and the world’s scientists rebelled against the war-loving military and developed a society known as the Pax, whose goal is to keep the spirit of mankind alive. However there are also the mutant Tyranians who plan to be Nazi-like rulers of the slowly recovering world. Dylan is tricked by the Tyranians who plan to use his knowledge of the past to rebuild their nuclear generator and therefore make their plans complete. Can the Pax and Dylan stop them or will the man from the past destroy the future?

Planet Earth – A sequel to Gene Roddenberry’s Genesis II,in which Dylan is now a sworn member of PAX, the colony of people who revived him. Dylan and his PAX team find another colony which is ruled by women and where all men are slaves. He is captured and sold as a slave, but escapes and organizes a rebellion. Dylan once again has a profound influence in the new world that he finds himself in, in the year 2233.

Strange new World – Staring John Saxon, this was the third attempt to get a series from Gene Roddenberry’s Genesis II concept, this time without any involvement from Roddenberry. The basic plot is similar to many SF series with returning astronauts traveling across a new Earth after some sort of cataclysm, searching for remnants of their civilization. As an example of what the regular series might look like, the pilot is broken into two separate stories. The first involving a culture who may have discovered the secret of immortality. But, at what cost? The second, more elaborate episode follows the astronauts into a battle for survival against a tribe of primitive forest dwellers.

The Two worlds of Jenny Logan – This movie staring Lindsay Wagner and Marc Singer is about a woman who is trying to rebuild her shattered marriage. She and her husband move to an old Victorian style home, where she finds a beautiful dress in the attic, which has a tear in the shoulder. She has the dress repaired. When she tries it on in the restored attic, she suddenly finds herself in another era. This time travel seems to happen whenever she wears the dress. She learns the house was once owned by an artist who died under mysterious circumstances. She meets the artist and eventually falls in love with him. Knowing what she does about his fate, can her love save him and change history?

Checkout Netfix and Hulu for some of these and other Made for TV movies of the 70s.