ABC Movie of the Week
The ABC Movie of the Week was a weekly television anthology series, featuring made-for-TV movies, that aired on the ABC network in various permutations from 1969 to 1976, though ABC continued to premiere new TV films every Sunday prime time night until 2005.
History
From 1961, prime time screenings of films from major motion picture studios had been a ratings success for all three television networks eventually leading to a demand for more films for 90 minute or two hour time slots. The series was the brainchild of young executive Barry Diller, then head of prime time programming at ABC (and later a cofounder of the Fox network). Operating on a small budget ($400,000-$450,000 per film[1]) but featuring the work of talented producers like Aaron Spelling and David Wolper (both of whom later developed hit series of their own), and different production companies such as Bing Crosby Productions and Aaron Spelling and Danny Thomas' production company, the Movie of the Week helped energize the made-for-TV movie format with fresh story concepts, veteran TV actors and potent production values. The attention-grabbing opening titles were designed and animated by Harry Marks[2] using the same groundbreaking slit-scan process, or "stargate effect," that had been pioneered by Douglas Trumbull for 2001: A Space Odyssey.
The Movie of the Week provided ABC (long a distant third in the ratings) with a bona fide hit and, along with Monday Night Football, helped establish the network as a legitimate competitor to rivals CBS and NBC. The films themselves varied in quality and were often escapist or sensationalistic in nature (suspense, horror and melodrama were staples), but some were critically well received. For example, Duel (1971), based on a Richard Matheson short story from Playboy, was director Steven Spielberg's first feature film, catapulting his career and enabling him to move from television to theatrical films.
The "alphabet network" earned five Emmys, a prestigious Peabody Award and citations from the NAACP and American Cancer Society for an airing of Brian's Song in 1972. The 1971-1972 season of the series finished as the fifth highest rated series of the year.
Original airtime
The Movie of the Week originally aired on Tuesday nights at 8:30 pm Eastern/7:30 pm Central. Beginning with the 1971 season, ABC added a second Movie of the Week on Saturday night and adjusted the titles of the shows to the Movie of the Week and Movie of the Weekend. The following season, the Saturday installment was moved to Wednesday night, and the titles were adjusted to Tuesday Movie of the Week and Wednesday Movie of the Week. The opening for the Saturday Movie of the Weekend featured footage of a silhouetted "rotating cameraman" operating a 35 mm movie camera ([1]). This footage would later be incorporated into the opening of ABC's New York City television station WABC-TV's various movie umbrellas beginning around 1972-1973, including and especially their weekday afternoon movie showcase The 4:30 Movie.
During the 1973-74 season, ABC added another movie on Saturday nights to their schedule, this time titled the ABC Suspense Movie, and usually consisting of thriller, mystery and horror type films (some of which were reruns of movies which had originally aired as Movies of the Week).
Theme music
The Movie of the Week theme music was an orchestral version of "Nikki", a song composed by Burt Bacharach and named for his daughter. The theme was arranged and performed by Harry Betts.[2]
TV series pilots
The series was often used as a platform to show pilots for possible series for the network. Shows such as The Six Million Dollar Man, Starsky and Hutch, Longstreet, Alias Smith and Jones and Marcus Welby, M.D. premiered here.
End
The series proper ended in 1976. After that, ABC's made-for-TV movies were either aired as stand-alone specials or shown in series that included both original and theatrical movie presentations. The Tuesday Movie of the Week would later be incorporated as part of ABC Late Night, a replacement of ABC's Wide World of Entertainment that ran from 1976 to 1982; the late-night version would mainly feature repeats of movies, both made for television and traditional theatrical releases, that were previously seen on ABC and other networks. The series was documented by Michael Karol in his 2005 book, The ABC Movie of the Week Companion, which was updated in 2008 (ISBN 1-60528-023-2).
Filmography
- A Matter of Humanities (1969) (Pilot for Marcus Welby, M.D.)
- Arsenic and Old Lace (1969)
- Daughter of the Mind (1969)
- Gidget Grows Up (1969)
- Honeymoon with a Stranger (1969)
- In Name Only (1969)
- Seven in Darkness (1969) (First ABC-TV "Movie of the Week" to be broadcast)
- Spy Killer (1969)
- The Ballad of Andy Crocker (1969)
- The Immortal (1969)
- The Monk (1969)
- The Over-the-Hill Gang (1969)
- The Pigeon (1969)
- The Silent Gun (1969)
- The Young Lawyers (1969)
- Three's a Crowd (1969)
- Wake Me When the War Is Over (1969)
- Sole Survivor (1970)
- Along Came a Spider (1970)
- Black Water Gold (1970)
- But I Don't Want to Get Married! (1970)
- Carter's Army (1970)
- Crowhaven Farm (1970)
- Dial Hot Line (1970)
- Foreign Exchange (1970)
- How Awful About Allan (1970)
- Mister Jerico (1970)
- Night Slaves (1970)
- Quarantined (1970)
- Run, Simon, Run (1970)
- The Challenge (1970)
- The House That Would Not Die (1970)
- The Love War (1970)
- The Man Who Wanted to Live Forever (1970)
- The Old Man Who Cried Wolf (1970)
- The Over-the-Hill Gang Rides Again (1970)
- The Young Country (1970)
- Tribes (1970)
- Weekend of Terror (1970)
- Wild Women (1970)
- A Little Game (1971)
- A Taste of Evil (1971)
- Alias Smith and Jones (1971)
- Assault on the Wayne (1971)
- Brian's Song (1971)
- Congratulations, It's a Boy! (1971)
- Deadly Dream (1971)
- Death Takes a Holiday (1971)
- Do Not Fold, Spindle, or Mutilate (1971)
- Dr. Cook's Garden (1971)
- Duel (1971)
- Earth II (1971)
- Escape (1971)
- Five Desperate Women (1971)
- The Glass Hammer (1971)
- Hitched (1971)
- In Broad Daylight (1971)
- In Search of America (1971)
- Longstreet (1971)
- Love Hate Love (1971)
- Mr. and Mrs. Bo Jo Jones (1971)
- Owen Marshall: Counselor at Law (1971)
- Revenge (1971)
- River of Gold (1971)
- See the Man Run (1971)
- Suddenly Single (1971)
- Sweet, Sweet Rachel (1971) (pilot for The Sixth Sense)
- The Birdmen (1971)
- The Devil and Miss Sarah (1971)
- The Failing of Raymond (1971)
- The Feminist and the Fuzz (1971)
- The Forgotten Man (1971)
- The Last Child (1971)
- The Point! (1971)
- The Reluctant Heroes (1971)
- The Trackers (1971)
- Thief (1971)
- Two on a Bench (1971)
- What's a Nice Girl Like You...? (1971)
- A Great American Tragedy (1972)
- All My Darling Daughters (1972)
- Call Her Mom (1972)
- Every Man Needs One (1972)
- Explosion! (1972)
- Family Flight (1972)
- Getting Away from It All (1972)
- Gidget Gets Married (1972)
- Goodnight, My Love (1972)
- Hardcase (1972)
- Haunts of the Very Rich (1972)
- Home for the Holidays (1972)
- Lieutenant Schuster's Wife (1972)
- Moon of the Wolf (1972)
- Night of Terror (1972)
- No Place to Run (1972)
- Playmates (1972)
- Pursuit (1972)
- Rolling Man (1972)
- Say Goodbye, Maggie Cole (1972)
- Second Chance (1972)
- Short Walk to Daylight (1972)
- That Certain Summer (1972)
- The Astronaut (1972)
- The Bounty Man (1972)
- The Couple Takes a Wife (1972)
- The Crooked Hearts (1972)
- The Eyes of Charles Sand (1972)
- The Heist (1972)
- The Longest Night (1972)
- The People (1972)
- The Rookies (1972)
- The Screaming Woman (1972)
- The Victim (1972)
- The Weekend Nun (1972)
- Two for the Money (1972)
- When Michael Calls (1972)
- Women in Chains (1972)
- A Cold Night's Death (1973)
- A Summer Without Boys (1973)
- Beg, Borrow, or Steal (1973)
- Blood Sport (1973)
- Class of '63 (1973)
- Death Race (1973)
- Deliver Us from Evil (1973)
- Divorce His, Divorce Hers (1973)
- Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (1973)
- Dying Room Only (1973)
- Firehouse (1973)
- Go Ask Alice (1973)
- Guess Who's Sleeping in My Bed? (1973)
- Hijack (1973)
- Isn't It Shocking? (1973)
- Legend in Granite (1973)
- Letters from Three Lovers (1973)
- Maneater (1973)
- Money to Burn (1973)
- My Darling Daughters' Anniversary (1973)
- Ordeal (1973)
- Outrage (1973)
- Runaway! (1973)
- Shirts/Skins (1973)
- Snatched (1973)
- The Affair (1973)
- The Cat Creature (1973)
- The Chill Factor (1973)
- The Connection (1973)
- The Devil's Daughter (1973)
- The Gift of Terror (1973)
- The Girl Most Likely to... (1973)
- The Girls of Huntington House (1973)
- The Letters (1973)
- The Man Without a Country (1973)
- The Picture of Dorian Gray (1973)
- The President's Plane is Missing (1973)
- The Six Million Dollar Man (1973)
- The Third Girl from the Left (1973)
- Toma (1973)
- Trapped (1973)
- Trouble Comes to Town (1973)
- What Are Best Friends For? (1973)
- You'll Never See Me Again (1973)
- A Cry in the Wilderness (1974)
- All the Kind Strangers (1974)
- Bad Ronald (1974)
- Betrayal (1974)
- Can Ellen Be Saved? (1974)
- Cry Panic (1974)
- Death Cruise (1974)
- Death Sentence (1974)
- Get Christie Love! (1974)
- Heatwave! (1974)
- Hit Lady (1974)
- Houston, We've Got a Problem (1974)
- I Love You, Goodbye (1974)
- It Couldn't Happen to a Nicer Guy (1974)
- Killdozer (1974)
- Killer Bees (1974)
- Live Again, Die Again (1974)
- Locusts (1974)
- Melvin Purvis, G-Man (1974)
- Men of the Dragon (1974)
- Mrs. Sundance' (1974)
- Murder or Mercy (1974)
- Nakia (1974)
- Only with Married Men (1974)
- Panic on 5:22 (1974)
- Planet Earth (1974)
- Pray for the Wildcats (1974)
- Roll, Freddy, Roll (1974)
- Scream of the Wolf (1974)
- Shootout in a One Dog Town (1974)
- Skyway to Death (1974)
- The California Kid (1974)
- The Chadwick Family (1974)
- The Day the Earth Moved (1974)
- The Death Squad (1974)
- The Elevator (1974)
- The Girl Who Came Gift-Wrapped (1974)
- The Godchild (1974)
- The Great Ice Rip-Off (1974)
- The Great Niagara (1974)
- The Gun and the Pulpit (1974)
- The Hanged Man (1974)
- The Last Angry Man (1974)
- The Mark of Zorro (1974)
- The Morning After (1974)
- The Rangers (1974)
- The Sex Symbol (1974)
- The Story of Pretty Boy Floyd (1974)
- The Stranger Who Looks Like Me (1974)
- The Stranger Within (1974)
- The Tribe (1974)
- This Is the West That Was (1974)
- Trapped Beneath the Sea (1974)
- Unwed Father (1974)
- Winter Kill (1974)
- Wonder Woman (1974)
- A Cry for Help (1975)
- Barbary Coast (1975)
- Dead Man on the Run (1975)
- Hey, I'm Alive (1975)
- Huckleberry Finn (1975)
- Matt Helm (1975)
- Mobile Two (1975)
- Promise Him Anything (1975)
- Returning Home (1975)
- Satan's Triangle (1975)
- Someone I Touched (1975)
- Starsky and Hutch (1975)
- The Abduction of Saint Anne (1975)
- The Daughters of Joshua Cabe Return (1975)
- The Desperate Miles (1975)
- The Family Nobody Wanted (1975)
- The First 36 Hours of Dr. Durant (1975)
- The Hatfields and the McCoys (1975)
- The Legend of Lizzie Borden (1975)
- The Missing Are Deadly (1975)
- The Nurse Killer (1975)
- The Trial of Chaplain Jensen (1975)
- Trilogy of Terror (1975)
- You Lie So Deep, My Love (1975)
- Brenda Starr (1976)
- Bridger (1976)
- Death at Love House (1976)
- High Risk (1976)
- Kiss Me, Kill Me (1976)
- Panache (1976)
- The New Daughters of Joshua Cabe (1976)
- Time Travelers (1976)
- Twin Detectives (1976)
See also
- List of television films produced for American Broadcasting Company
- The New CBS Tuesday Night Movies - CBS's weekly television movie program
References
- ^ p.3 Karol, Michael The ABC Movie of the Week Companion: A Loving Tribute to the Classic Series iUniverse, 01/11/2008
- ^ a b "The ABC Movie of the Week Opening by Harry Marks". TVparty. Retrieved 2010-01-27.
Watch
External links
- ABC Movie of the Week
- American Broadcasting Company network shows
- Motion picture television series
- 1960s American television series
- 1970s American television series
- 1969 American television series debuts
- 1976 American television series endings
- American anthology television series
- English-language television programming