Category Archives: Made for TV Movie

MILL CREEK THE SWINGIN’ SEVENTIES: Concrete Cowboys (1979)

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This movie is very much something I would have watched as a kid on TV.

It was a pilot for a TV series that was actually on the air from February 7 to March 21, 1981 for seven episodes, with Jerry Reed playing J.D. Reed and Geoffrey Scott taking over Tom Selleck’s role as Will Eubanks. The movie itself was released as a film in other countries with titles such as Highway Action, Nashville Detective and Ramblin’ Man. 

Reed and Eubanks are two friends who constantly get on each one another’s nerves in the best of ways. Reed is devoted to gambling while Eubanks always has a book in hand. They leave a rigged card game by destroying the gas station that it was in and hop a train for Hollywood but end up in Nashville. There, they stay in the home of their friend Lonnie (Randy Powell) and get caught up in a scheme that involves Kate (Morgan Fairchild) looking for her lost singer sister Carla (also Fairchild), which brings them into the orbit of Ray Stevens, Roy Acuff and Barbara Mandrell, all playing themselves. There’s also famous country star Woody Stone (Claude Akins), a sheriff played by Elvis’ bodyguard Red West, a madame played by Lucille Benson (Mrs. Elrod, who is a major star here) and it’s all written by Hammer writer Jimmy Sangster. Huh? How is this possible? What if I told you that Grace Zabriskie (Sarah Palmer, of course) is also in this?

It’s directed by Burt Kennedy (Support Your Local Sheriff!, All the Kind Strangers, Suburban Commando) who was also a noted writer of Westerns and a fencing stunt double. He was in vaudeville at the age of four and received the Silver Star, Bronze Star,and Purple Heart with oak leaf cluster for his bravery in World War II.

I love that each chapter has paintings by Jaroslav Gebr. It gives the show a Western feel while showcasing his great art. Gebr also worked on The Sting, Buck Rogers In the 25th Century, Battlestar Galactica, Xanadu, The Blues Brothers and so many more TV shows. You can learn more about his art at the official website.

Don’t have the box set? You can watch this on Tubi.

MILL CREEK THE SWINGIN’ SEVENTIES: The Borrowers (1973)

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The Clock Family — Pod (Eddie Albert), Homily (Tammy Grimes) and Arriety (Karen Pearson) — are Borrowers, small people who live in the houses of human beans, as they call big people, and stay out of view. Arriety, unlike any Borrowers before, becomes friends with the eight-year-old (Dennis Larson) who lives in the house they have turned into their world.

Based on the book by Mary Norton, this was directed by Walter C. Miller (who mainly worked on the Grammy, CMA and Tony award show broadcast, as well as directing several Rodney Dangerfield specials) and written by Jay Presson Allen, who wrote the screenplays for Marnie, Funny Lady, Cabaret and Death Trap. She was a screenwriter when few women were.

The Borrowers was also made into two BBC TV series, a 1997 and 2011 movie and an anime in Japan called Karigurashi no Ariettii that was produced by Studio Ghibli.

Don’t have the box set? You can watch this on YouTube.

Tales from the Crypt S1 E6: Collection Completed (1989)

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Man, why does Mary Lambert hate cats so much?

The last episode of season 1, this starts with the Crypt Keeper saying, “Before I get to tonight’s terror tale…I’d like to introduce you to my pet, Peeves. He has a terror tale of his own. Tonight’s skin-pimpling story is about a couple with their own pet peeves. I call this chunk of chilling charnel chatter “Collection Completed.””

Based on the story in The Vault of Horror #25, written by Bill Gaines and Al Feldstein with art by Graham Ingels, this is not the story to check out if you love animals.

Jonas (M. Emmet Walsh) is retiring after 47 years of working at a tool company. He didn’t want to be done, but that’s the way it went. He’s supposed to be relaxing, but he soon learns that his wife Anita (Audra Lindley) has kept from being lonely all these years by having animals all over the house.

She starts treating him like one of them, giving him his pills in food and feeding him cat food. She even names a dog after him, which is the point he goes insane and starts killing all of her animals and stuffing them. Yet when he tries to kill her cat Mewmew, she uses the gold hammer Jonas was given for his retirement to take care of him. And then she stuff him.

This episode was written by A. Whitney Brown, who some of you may remember from Saturday Night Live.

With that, we end the first season of this show. Anyone interested in season 2?

MILL CREEK SCI-FI CLASSICS: Moon of the Wolf (1972)

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Daniel Petrie made some pretty much films — Fort Apache the Bronx, A Raisin in the Sun and The Betsy — as well as some memorable made-for-TV movies like Sybil (which ruled mid-70s bookshelves and viewings) and The Dollmaker.

Here, he’s in Louisiana along with a stellar cast making a movie that honestly could have played drive-ins. That’s how great these made-for-TV films were.

In the Lousiana bayou country of Marsh Island, two farmers (Royal Dano! and John Davis Chandler) find the ripped apart remains of a local woman. Sheriff Aaron Whitaker (David Janssen!) and the victim’s brother Lawrence Burrifors (Geoffrey Lewis!) both show up at the scene, but it’s soon determined that somehow, some way, the girl died from a blow to the head. Lawrence blames her most recent lover. The sheriff thinks it was wild dogs. And the Burrifors patriarch claims that it was someone named Loug Garog.

That mysterious lover could have been rich boy Andrew Rodanthe (Bradford Dillman!), who along with his sister Louise (Barbara Rush, It Came from Outer Space) lives in an old mansion, the last of a long line.

Based on Les Whitten’s novel, this originally aired as an ABC Movie of the Week on September 26, 1972, then reran as part of ABC’s Wide World of Mystery on May 20, 1974.

Don’t have the box set? You can watch this on Tubi.

Tales from the Crypt S1 E5: Lover Come Hack to Me (1989)

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Directed by Tom Holland and written by Steven Dodd and Michael McDowell (Beetlejuice, Thinner), “Lover Come Hack to Me” is based on the story “Lover, Come Hack to Me!” Haunt of Fear #19. That was written by Bill Gaines and Al Feldstein with art by George Evans, colors by Marie Severin and lettering by Jim Wroten.

“It’s good to have you back, you horror-hungry humans. You know by now who’s here to feed your fear. It’s me, the Crypt Keeper with another flesh-creeping scream story for your shivering pleasure. I’m calling this bite of bitter bile: Lover Come Hack to Me. So plump up that coffin pillow and settle back your bones. We’re going to take a little ride to honeymoon hell!”

Peggy (Amanda Plummer) has married her fiancee Charles (Stephen Shellen), who informs her aunt Edith (Lisa Figus), who worries about her rich niece that she’s out of a place to live after the honeymoon. On the way to that vacation, their car breaks down and they end up in an abandoned house where they make love and notice a gigantic axe on the wall. Charles actually falls for her, overcome by a woman he was never attracted to. That night, Charles has a nightmare where he watches Peggy kill another lover. It’s actually her mother and he tells her about what he saw when he wakes up. It was all not a dream and he pulls out a gun. There are no bullets and she kills him, secure that he has given her the gift of a daughter and that she won’t need a man ever again.

Amanda Plummer would play a killer again — spoiler — in So I Married an Axe Murderer.

Tales from the Crypt S1 E4: Only Sin Deep (1989)

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“Mirror, mirror, on the wall… who’s the fearest of them all? Looks like I just bought 7 years’ bad luck! Speaking of bad luck, it’s time for another nasty little terror tale from my crawly collection… and this one’s got a message, too. It’s a story about greed, death and a girl, who learned that beauty… is Only Sin Deep!”

This story originally appeared in Haunt of Fear #24. It was written by Otto Binder and drawn by Jack Kamen.

Sylvia (Lea Thompson) is a call girl who sells her beauty to a pawn shop operator named Joe (Britt Leach) so that she can get the money she needs to lure Ronnie Price (Brett Cullen) into marrying her. Joe uses a plaster cast of her face to bring his dead wife back and tells her in a few months, if she doesn’t pay him back, her face will start to lose its looks. The problem is, she forgets when the money is due and suddenly needs a hundred thousand to get her face back. By this point, no one recognizes her, not even her rich new husband, who she shoots to get the cash. But alas — it’s way too late to fix anything.

Thompson’s husband Howard Deutch (Pretty In Pink, Some Kind of Wonderful, The Great Outdoors) directed her in this story and she was friends with Cullen for a long time, which made the love scenes somewhat hard to film. This episode was written by Fred Dekker and Steven Dodd.

I have to confess, I’ve had a crush on Lea Thompson forever and seeing her be a cruel woman who kills a pimp and uses a rich man, well, that adoration is not leaving me any time soon.

“Poor Sylvia, eh, kiddies? Guess she heard the old saying, “if looks could kill”… so she did! Haha! Just goes to show ya, if you wanna sell yourself, take a look in the mirror, first. Eurgh! Well, see you next time, boys and ghouls!”

THE IMPORTANT CINEMA CLUB’S SUPER SCARY MOVIE CHALLENGE DAY 23: The Power Within (1979)

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October 23: A Horror Film That Features Someone That Has Lightning Powers

Directed by John Llewellyn Moxey and written by William Clark and Edward J. Lakso, The Power Within is about Chris Darrow (Art Hindle), a pilot who is struck by lightning and gains the ability to shoot it out of his fingers. In order to get a handle on his powers, he turns to his father, General Tom Darrow (Edward Binns) and learns that he has to recharge those powers when he uses them or he’ll die.

This was a pilot for a series that never happened. Back then, comic book movies just took ideas from comics and made them their own. This is very Green Lantern mixed with the opening of The Hulk TV origin. I’m sure if I had seen this as a kid, I’d still be drawing scenes from this movie.

You can watch this on YouTube.

2023 Scarecrow Psychotronic Challenge Day 21: Dance ’till Dawn (1988)

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21. VIDEO STORE DAY: This is the big one. Watch something physically rented or bought from an actual video store. If you live in a place that is unfortunate enough not to have one of these archival treasures then watch a movie with a video store scene in it at least. #vivaphysicalmedia

Herbert Hoover High School is the setting for the biggest night of the year, the prom, which is being run by Patrice Johnson (Christina Applegate). The couple who should be queen and king, Shelley Sheridan (Alyssa Milano) and Kevin McCrea (Brian Bloom), have just broken up and are looking for new dates.

Shelley skips the prom and goes to watch a horror movie — this movie is not a documentary — and meets the geekiest guy around, Dan Lefcourt (Chris Young), who hates trying to live up to the lovemaking ways of his dad Jack (Alan Thicke). Kevin decides to go after Angela Strull (Tracey Gold), who he heard was easy, and who is being protected by her friend Margaret (Tempestt Bledsoe) as well as her father Ed (Kelsey Grammer).

Angela and Kevin end up winning, Shelley and Dan are going steady and the night is ruined for Patrice and Roger (Matthew Perry).

Oh yeah! Edie McClurg is great in this, as is Mary Frann.

I have a big weakness for TV movies that feature stars of other shows all in the same story. And hey, there’s a scene with Tracy Gold with big glasses picking movies out in a video store, which is pretty much heaven for teenage era Sam.

You can watch this on YouTube:

UNSUNG HORRORS HORROR GIVES BACK 2023: Deadly Game (1991)

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Each October, the Unsung Horrors podcast does a month of themed movies. This year they will once again be setting up a fundraiser to benefit Best Friends, which is working to save the lives of cats and dogs all across America, giving pets second chances and happy homes.

Today’s theme: Made for TV

In this USA Network movie, seven people — Lucy the dancer (Jenny Seagrove), Peterson the teacher who has Vietnam PTSD (Michael Beck), Jake the quarterback with a secret drunk driving accident on his consciousness (Marc Singer), Chang the yakuza member (Steven Vincent Leigh), Dr. Aaron (Roddy McDowell), Admiral Mark Nately (Mitchell Ryan) and Charley the businessman (John Pleshette) — have been brought to the island of Osirus, a masked maniac who wants revenge on each of them for reasons only he — and they — know. If they can reach the other side, they can each make a million dollars. Osirus also doesn’t plan on letting that happen, as they have a heavily armed gang ready to murder the defenseless protagonists.

This movie is so much fun. You get flashbacks to how each character met Osirus — I’m not revealing who they are — and the best is how Lucy had a love affair with this movie’s villain complete with a love scene where Osirus never removes its disguise. There are also plenty of kills, lots of jungle action and clues that trigger those memories. And oh yeah, Marc Singer playing his character in high school despite being 43-years-old when this was made.

Thomas J. Wright also directed the Hulk Hogan movie No Holds Barred and painted all of the artwork for Night Gallery. The fact that both of these things are true should make you happy to live in the reality that you occupy. Writer Westbrook Claridge did the scripts for all the TekWar stuff on USA and shows up as a security guard in The Incredible Melting Man.

You can watch this on YouTube.

Tales from the Crypt S1 E3: Dig That Cat… He’s Real Gone (1989)

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“Good evening, fiend fans, and welcome to my crawly crypt. This little drama is about one of life’s unexpected pleasures: dying, that is. Most of us only get to do it once, and it’s all over before you can really enjoy it. But one man did get to die again. And he liked it so much, he started doing it for a living. This is the story of Ulric the Undying, a sideshow performer who found death not only fun, but profitable. In fact, he’s dying to put on a show for you… right now!”

Originally appearing in Haunt of Fear #21 in a story written by William Gaines and Al Feldstein and drawn by Jack Davis, this is the tale of Ulric the Undying (Joe Pantoliano), who has been given the nine lives of a cat by Dr. Emil Manfred (Gustav Vintas). Or eight, as the cat had to die to get its gland.

Working in a sideshow, Ulric dies for money over and over, assisted by a barker (Robert Wuhl) and Coralee (Kathleen York). He’s not to be trusted, as he kills Manfred and instead of being about research, these shows are now just for cash. Money that Coralee steals after stabbing him, but he has a few lives left. How many? You’ll find out soon.

Directed by Richard Donner and written by Terry Black and Steven Dodd, the show creator, this is an episode in my head when I think of this show. It gets everything that makes it work — bad behavior is rewarded with a horrible ending for the villain — and is pretty funny, too.