Originally airing on May 22, 1977, this attempt at a weekly series comes from director Paul Wendkos (The Mephisto Waltz, Secrets, Haunts of the Very Rich) and Hammer veteran Jimmy Sangster (The Legacy; Scream, Pretty Peggy; Horror of Dracula; The Revenge of Frankenstein).

I was really excited about the potential of this one, which promises from its Amazon listing that writer Andy Stuart (Dack Rambo) teams up with an exorcist named Father Kemschler (Dan O’Herlihy!) to battle Satan and a group of devil worshipers led by Mr. Rimmin (Richard Lynch!).

Seems like Rimmin has been after a girl named Jessica from the moment she was born, as her mother was drugged and attended to by nuns who took her baby away the moment it was born. Her mom was then killed by a black cat and Jessica is raised by his people, with her origins kept a secret.

When Andy and Jessica hook up and decide to get married, she’s unable to even get near the altar. That’s because she’s been promised to the demon Astaroth and must be kept a virgin until the beast comes back and puts a devil baby in her womb. Now, the cult that has been behind every moment of her life must keep her a virgin by cockblocking Andy at every turn.

I was totally prepared for pure 1970’s Satanic bliss, only to find myself in the midst of a relationship drama for much of the films first half. Sure, there was a flashback where a woman imagined a nearly nude and totally burned up Lynch — he came by those scars the hard way — attacking her. I was thinking — is this the TV movie version of Enter the Devil — only for cruel reality to make me learn differently.

That said, there are some good moments here, like a woman being killed by her own housecats under Rimmin’s command. And Elyssa Davalos as Jessica has plenty of great qualities that make her a wonderful horror heroine in distress. And while she’s top billed when you look this film up, Kim Cattrall makes a short appearance.

I wanted to love this. It has all the elements that you would think would lead to magic. Yet it can’t put them all together. Sometimes when you deal with the devil, you don’t get what you wanted.

Directed by William Graham (Return to the Blue Lagoon) and written by George Kirgo, this is the pilot movie for the eventual series that starred Teresa Graves as Christie Love. Graves was the second African-American woman to star in her own television series after Diahann Carroll in Julia.

Based on the novel The Ledger by Dorothy Uhnak, this movie has the book’s lead Christie Opara — a white NYPD detective — become black detective Christie Love. Obviously finding some inspiration from Coffy, Foxy Brown and Cleopatra Jones, Love even had her own catchphrase: “You’re under arrest, sugah!”

Between the pilot and series, Graves became a Jehovah’s Witness and demanded that the show not be as sexual as the movie, which had Christie having an affair with her captain. She’s on the case of an informant, Helena Varga (Louise Sorel), who is about to testify against her boyfriend. There’s also a serial killer that Christie goes undercover to catch.

It’s nowhere near as exciting as the movies it wants to be. Graves is pretty good, however. The series lasted 22 episodes, which was a full first season. She would retire from acting and become really involved in her religion. Sadly, she died in 2002 after an accident in her apartment with a space heater.

The same year this was made, Graves also played Countess Vampira in Old Dracula.

You can watch this on YouTube.

Thomas Thompson wrote Richie, all about the death of George Richard “Richie” Diener Jr. at the hands of his father, who was not charged with the shooting death of his son. The TV movie is directed by Paul Wendkos, who also made another great drug movie, Cocaine: One Man’s Seduction. He also directed the remake of The Bad Seed and The Mephisto Waltz, among many more movies.

Richie Werner (Robby Benson) and his friends only care about getting high, which means more than school, work or anything else. That’s something his father George (Ben Gazzara) can’t understand, that his mother Carol (Eileen Brennan) attempts to and that he himself tries to shield his brother Russell (Lance Kerwin) from.

Richie and his dad do at times get along, like when he gets a job working at a fast food place and when he’s trying to win the heart of Sheila (Cynthia Eilbacher). Yet their relationship is often one of near violence and constant arguments. By the end, Richie is taking handfuls of Secobarbital and threatening his dad with a pair of scissors, telling him he doesn’t have it in him to shoot him. He does, cut to a funeral.

I’m maddest at Sheila, who went from a cute date to telling Richie she already had a guy to finally reading Psalm 23 at his gravesite. You know when he needed you, Sheila? When he was taking handfuls of pills and smoking that reefer.

The sound of Richie yelling and the loud gun blast upset so many people that it was edited from future showings of this on TV. Speaking of being out of control, Richie’s thug friend Brick grew up to be Roger Rabbit. Yeah, Charles Fleischer. And his friend Peanuts? Clint Howard. No wonder his dad was worried, those are some insane friends.

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

Delbert Mann won the Academy Award for Best Director for the film Marty as well as the infamous NBC TV movie Heidi, Which interrupted the upset of the Oakland Raiders beating the New York Jets. The adaption was by Jack Pulman, who was also the writer for I, Claudius.

It stars Robin Phillips (who I know as the rich guy who kills Arthur Edward Grimsdyke in Tales from the Crypt) as David Copperfield. The cast is packed with stars, including Richard Attenborough as Mr. Tungay, three-time Academy Award nominee Edith Evans as Betsy Trotwood, Cyril Cusack as Barkis, Pamela Franklin (The Legend of Hell House) as Dora Spenlow, Susan Hampshire (The Trygon Factor) as Agnes Wickfield, Wendy Hiller as Emma Micawber, Ron Moody (Dominique) as Uriah Heep, Laurence Olivier (do I have to tell you?) as Mr. Creakle, Vanessa and Lynn’s father Michael Redgrave as Daniel Peggotty, Ralph Richardson as Wilkins Micawber, Emlyn Williams as Mr. Dick, Sinéad Cusack (Cyril’s daughter) as Emily, James Donald (Quatermass and the Pit) as Edward Murdstone, James Hayter (The Blood On Satan’s Claw) as Porter, Megs Jenkins as Clara Peggotty, Anna Massey (The Vault of Horror) as Jane Murdstone, Andrew McCulloch as Ham Peggotty, Nicholas Pennell as Thomas Traddles, Corin Redgrave as James Steerforth, Isobel Black (Twins of Evil) as Clara Copperfield and Liam Redmond (23 Paces to Baker Street) as Mr. Quinion.

This was on NBC in the U.S. but was in theaters everywhere else.

I think it proves how cultured I am that I went through everyone in a movie based on a classic and told you what British horror movies they were in.

Directed by William A. Graham (Return to the Blue Lagoon, Change of Habit) and written by Stanley Z. Cherry, this movie finds Johnny Gaines (Bill Bixby) learning that he has a son named B.J. (Darrell Larson) whom he’s never known, all while he’s still sleeping with 16-year-olds. Or nearly sleeping with them, as his kid shows up right before his initials happen to his dad.

Johnny is still a boy, protected by his father Al (Jack Albertson) and mother Ethel (Ann Sothern) who are starting to wonder why their son doesn’t want to settle down with Edye (Diane Baker). Can Johnny settle down and become a father to the son he never knew while maybe not being someone who double books dates and tries to get his son drunk to go out with someone as his replacement?

Plus: Tom Bosley as Edye’s dad and Judy Strangis in the cast (she was Dyna Girl!).

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

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.

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.

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.