Made for TV Movie: Difference between revisions

Line 2:

{{quote|''If it were any good, it would have been in theaters!''|'''Martha'''|''[[Martha Speaks]]''}}

A one-off two-hour program, made to be shown on television instead of a film in cinemas. Also, a [[Miniseries]] can be comprised of two or more 2-hour-long installments. Each episode will be approximately 90 minutes on DVD because of the lack of commercial breaks.

A '''Made for TV Movie''' (also called a "[[telefilm]]") is a one-off two-hour program, made to be shown on television instead of a film in cinemas. Also, a [[Miniseries]] can be comprised of two or more 2-hour-long installments. Each episode will be approximately 90 minutes on DVD because of the lack of commercial breaks.

Examples: ''National Lampoon's Thanksgiving Reunion'', ''The Perfect Husband: The Laci Peterson Story''.

This was a popular format for feature programming in the 1970s, with [[Wheel Program|a block of the schedule given an anthology title]] and the viewers (who didn't read ''TV Guide'') not knowing which characters would fill the airtime that week. One memorable example is ''[[The NBC Mystery Movie]]'', which alternated two-hour movies from ''[[McCloud]]'', ''[[Columbo]]'', ''[[McMillan & Wife]]'', ''[[Hec Ramsey]]'', ''[[Banacek]]'', ''[[Cool Million]]'', ''[[Madigan]]'', ''[[Faraday & Company]]'', ''[[Tenafly]]'', ''[[The Snoop Sisters]]'', ''[[Amy Prentiss]]'', ''[[McCoy (TV series)|McCoy]]'', ''[[Quincy|Quincy, M.E.]]'', and ''[[Lanigan's Rabbi]]''. (''Columbo'' and ''Quincy, M.E.'' ended up outliving the anthology series.) If one of the series was at risk of [[Schedule Slip]], it could simply be replaced with telefilms from another series until they were back on track.

This was a popular format for feature programming in the 1970s, with [[Wheel Program|a block of the schedule given an anthology title]] and the viewers (who didn't read ''TV Guide'') not knowing which characters would fill the airtime that week. One memorable example is ''[[The NBC Mystery Movie]]'', which alternated two-hour movies from ''[[McCloud]]'', ''[[Columbo]]'', ''[[McMillan & Wife]]'', ''[[Hec Ramsey]]'', ''[[Banacek]]'', ''[[Cool Million]]'', ''[[Madigan]]'', ''[[Faraday & Company]]'', ''[[Tenafly]]'', ''[[The Snoop Sisters]]'', ''[[Amy Prentiss]]'', ''[[McCoy (TV series)|McCoy]]'', ''[[Quincy|Quincy, M.E.]]'', and ''[[Lanigan's Rabbi]]''. (''Columbo'' and ''Quincy, M.E.'' ended up outliving the anthology series as notmal series, not telefilm series.) If one of the series was at risk of [[Schedule Slip]], it could simply be replaced with telefilms from another series until they were back on track.

The plots of later made-for-TV movies are often [[Ripped from the Headlines]]. For example, the Amy Fisher affair of the early [[The Nineties|'90s]] spawned at least ''three'' made for TV movies. They are often full of [[Glurge]] and/or melodrama, and are often marked for their low quality (a stereotype that is exemplified by [[Syfy]] Original Movies, which are often watched solely for the [[Narm Charm]]). The exception to this rule seems to be [[HBO]], whose own TV movies are usually quite well-made and have even won awards, thus "making up" for the lack of [[Act Break|act breaks]]. Most made-for-TV movies are targeted at female audiences (e.g.: ''[[Hallmark Hall of Fame|Hallmark]]'' films; ''Mother May I Sleep With Danger?'', or any other ''[[Lifetime Movie of the Week]]''), while the aforementioned [[Syfy]] and other movies are targeted at men.