Television movie
A
television movie (also known as a
TV film,
TV movie,
TV-movie,
feature-length drama,
made-for-TV movie,
movie of the week (MOTW or MOW),
single drama,
telemovie,
telefilm, or
two-hour-long drama) is a
film that is produced for and originally distributed by a
television network.
The term "made-for-TV movie" was coined in the
United States in the early 1960s as an advertising gimmick to encourage even larger numbers of the cinema-going audience to stay home and watch television, on the premise that they were going to see the equivalent of a major, first-run theatrical motion picture in the comfort of their own homes. 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.
The Killers, starring
Lee Marvin, was filmed as a made for TV movie, although it was decided to be too violent and switched to cinema release instead.
These events originally filled a 90-minute time slot (including commercials), later expanded to two hours, and were usually broadcast as a weekly anthology series (for example, the
ABC Movie of the Week). Most TV movies featured major stars, and some were accorded even higher budgets than standard series television programs of the same length, including the major dramatic anthology programs which they came to replace.
Today the advent of cable television has served to increase the number of venues for the broadcast of TV movies as well as their form. Budgets may be higher and the constraints of writing to fill fixed-time slots while accounting for commercials have been eliminated on the subscription-based cable stations. Conversely, the dispersal of the audience for TV-movies among numerous cable channels with a penchant for "original programming" has resulted in lower budgets, lesser-known performers, and even cheaper effects and settings, along with formulaic writing, on commercial-driven channels. Some networks (such as
Nickelodeon) have also recently stretched the definition of a "TV movie" as counting what would normally be a hour long special, as a movie. They may also be an extended episode of a series already airing on a network, such as
Zoey 101's
Spring Breakup, and several
Jimmy Neutron,
Drake and Josh and
The Fairly Oddparents specials, which have all been promoted on Nickelodeon as "full-length movies".
The most-watched TV movie of all time was
ABC's
The Day After, which aired on
November 20,
1983, to an estimated audience of 100 million people. The film depicted America after a
nuclear war with the
Soviet Union, and was the subject of much controversy and discussion at the time of its release.
Another popular and critically acclaimed TV movie was 1971's
Duel directed by
Steven Spielberg and starring
Dennis Weaver. Such were the quality and popularity of
Duel that it was released to cinemas in
Europe and later the US. Another was
Brian's Song, which also saw theatrical release. However, many 1970s TV movies were a source of controversy, such as
Linda Blair's movies
Born Innocent and
Sarah T. - Portrait of a Teenage Alcoholic, as well as
Dawn: Portrait of a Teenage Runaway and
Alexander: The Other Side of Dawn, which were vehicles for former
Brady Bunch actress
Eve Plumb.
Often a successful series may spawn a TV movie
sequel after ending its run, and TV movies may also be used as the first episode of a series, otherwise known as a
pilot. For example, the 4-hour miniseries
Battlestar Galactica (2003), orginally aired on the SciFi channel in December 2003 became a television series beginning in 2005. With high ratings, executives for the SciFi channel
greenlit the weekly series for full production and is currently in its 3rd season.
TV movies are often broadcast on major networks during
sweeps season or on cable networks that specialize in producing them such as
Hallmark Channel,
Lifetime, and
HBO.
There are also TV movies known as "reunion movies," which bring back the cast of TV series. These include:
*
Return to Mayberry*
Dynasty: The Reunion*
Mary and Rhoda*
A Very Brady Christmas*The Growing Pains Movie
*Growing Pains: Return of the Seavers
Despite their promise to compete with theatrical films, network-made TV movies in the USA have tended to be inexpensively-produced and low quality. The stories are written to reach periodic semi-
cliffhangers coinciding with the network-scheduled times for the insertion of
commercials; they are further managed to fill, but not exceed, the fixed running times allotted by the network to each movie "series". The movies tend to rely on small casts and a limited range of settings and camera setups. Even Spielberg's
Duel, while a well-crafted film, features a very small cast (apart from Weaver, all other acting roles are bit-parts) and mostly outdoors shooting locations in the desert. The movies are typically made by smaller crews, and they rarely feature expensive
special effects. Often they are recorded in less expensive
video rather than the preferred motion picture medium of
film. Some TV movies are notoriously
melodramatic, with
soap opera style plots; typical plots associated with the genre include "
disease of the week" movies or films about
domestic violence. The series of
Moment of Truth Movies that run on the
Lifetime cable network exemplify these melodramatic tendencies. Certain actresses, such as
Valerie Bertinelli,
Michele Lee and
Nancy McKeon, have been stereotyped as TV actresses due to the number of TV-movies in which they have appeared.
TV movies often follow specific naming conventions. For example, the title of many
biographical films consist of a dramatic phrase, followed by "The
[Firstname] [Surname] Story". Examples of this naming format include
Love and Betrayal: The Mia Farrow Story, and
Fight for Justice: The Nancy Conn Story.
*
Direct-to-video*
TV Specials
