SST Death Flight (1977)
David Lowell Rich directed Eye of the Cat and Satan’s School for Girls before this made-for-TV movie, which originally aired February 25, 1977 on ABC. He also directed The Horror at 37,000 Feet, which probably is why he was selected to make the final movie in the Airport series, the absolutely insane The Concorde … Airport ’79. There’s also a European version of this called Death […]
ABC Afterschool Special: The Amazing Cosmic Awareness of Duffy Moon (1976)
Editor’s Note, January 2023: Lance Kerwin passed away on January 24, 2023, at the age of 62. Lance got his start in acting by way of his mother, who worked as a booking agent, and his father, who worked as an acting coach. Kerwin, who came to prominence for his work in the Michael Landon […]
NBC Special Treat: New York City Too Far from Tampa Blues (1979)
After ABC-TV found late-afternoon, weekday rating success with their Afterschool Special, NBC quickly followed with their weekday Special Treat anthology series that debuted in October 1975 and ran for eleven seasons until its 1986 cancellation. While not as popular ABC’s trailblazer or CBS-TV’s Schoolbreak Special knockoff, Special Treat had its share of standout episodes. Sunshine’s […]
Pray for the Wildcats (1974)
Do you want to see Sheriff Andy Taylor as a sociopath? Do you want to see a spineless, suicidal Captain Kirk? How about Mike Brady as a bastardly dolt of a husband? Or Marjoe Gornter (Starcrash and The Survivalist) with a knocked up girlfriend half his age? How about a movie where they’re bedding and […]
Black Noon (1971)
Bernard L. Kowalski has a decent horror pedigree, directing Night of the Blood Beast, Attack of the Giant Leeches, Krakatoa: East of Java, Terror in the Sky and Sssssss. Here, he puts the terror on a slow boil and puts Reverend John Keyes (Roy Thinnes, constantly battling the occult) and his wife Lorna (Lynn Loring, The Horror at 37,000 […]
Drive-In Friday: First Time Directors & Actors Night
The criterion for this Friday’s theme night is simple: all of tonight’s films are by first time directors and actors who didn’t attend, or at the very least, complete their studies through, a theatre arts program. Sure, we could revisit Kevin Smith’s Clerks and Troy Duffy’s Boondock Saints. But we’ve been there and done that […]
The Cat Creature (1973)
Originally airing December 11, 1973 on ABC, this Curtis Harrington-directed, Robert Bloch-written take on Cat People was originally planned as a starring vehicle for Diahann Carroll. However, her ABC contract ended and the film needed to be rewritten. It’s such a tribute to Cat People that Kent Smith, who starred in that film and its sequel, The Curse of the […]
NBC Monday Night Movie: Angel Dusted (1981)
As with our yesterday’s review of CBS-TV’s The Killing of Randy Webster, this NBC original movie held a young adult appeal, yet was far too dark for their weekday, Special Treat young programming block that also dealt with the issues of drug abuse — but not like this. Dick Lowry, best known for his Kenny […]
CBS Schoolbreak Special: Portrait of a Teenage Shoplifter (1981)
CBS-TV’s young adult programming block first aired in December 1978 as CBS Afternoon Playhouse and went through a revamp during the start of its 1983 season with the “Schoolbreak Special” moniker. After an 18 year run—and like everything else killed off by the multi-channel cable universe and the Internet—it was cancelled in January 1996. Under […]
The Old Man Who Cried Wolf (1970)
Luther Davis wrote Across 110th Street and this nihilistic TV movie, originally airing October 13, 1970. It’s directed by Walter Grauman, who was behind more than fifty episodes of Murder, She Wrote. What a cast — from Jay C. Flippen (a former blackface vaudevillian known as “The Ham What Am”), Martin E. Brooks (Dr. Rudy Welles from The Six […]
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