This series of 90-minute feature films was produced especially for television. It was an ambitious goal – to present an original film every week – and it provided ABC with a ratings hit.
Ranging in scope from comedy, drama and action-adventure through film biography, science fiction, horror and suspense, the films were the work of several production companies, including 20th Century Fox, Paramount, Screen Gems, Thomas/Spelling Productions and Britain’s ATV.
Deburing on 23 September 1969 with Seven in Darkness (the story of a group of blind plane crash survivors, starring Milton Berle in a dramatic role), the movies originally aired on Tuesday nights, with the network adding a second film on Saturday nights in 1971.
Satan’s School for Girls
The Saturday film moved to Wednesdays the following season, and the titles were adjusted to Tuesday Movie of the Week and Wednesday Movie of the Week.
During the 1973–74 season, ABC added another movie on Saturday nights to their schedule, this time titled the ABC Suspense Movie, and usually consisting of thriller, mystery and horror films.
Some of the memorable films aired on Movie of the Week include:
Wake Me When The War is Over
Wake Me When The War is Over, with Ken Berry accidentally falling out of a plane in Germany just as World War II is ending, only to be rescued by a lovely baroness (Eva Gabor) who takes a shine to him, so doesn’t tell him the war has ended.
The Pigeon, with Sammy Davis Jr as a hip private eye. Off-beat casting had Pat Boone as his duplicitous partner.
The Feminist and The Fuzz
The Old Man Who Cried Wolf featuring Edward G Robinson in his final TV appearance.
Run Simon Run with Burt Reynolds as a Native American just out of prison and out to avenge his brother’s death.
The Feminist and The Fuzzwith Barbara Eden as a feminist doctor who become roommates in San Francisco with a male chauvinist cop played by David Hartman.
The Point, an animated tale by Harry Nilsson about a boy named Oblio who is banished to the Pointless Forest with his dog, Arrow, for having a round head.
The Night Stalker
Duel, the now-famous Steven Spielberg film which went on to have a successful theatrical release.
The Astronautwith Monte Markham as a down-and-out ex-Air Force pilot who takes the place of a dead astronaut with the aid of a plastic surgery.
The Night Stalker and The Night Strangler with Darren McGavin as a feisty vampire-hunting reporter (which then became a series – Kolchak: The Night Stalker).
Madame Sin
Madame Sin with Bette Davis in her small-screen debut, camping it up in the title role as she directs sinister global operations from her castle lair in Scotland.
Playmates, the story of two divorced men who make secret plays for each other’s ex-wives, with Alan Alda, Doug McClure, Connie Stevens and Barbara Feldon.
Go Ask Alice, the first (and still the best) of the kids-getting-into-drugs-at-school genre.
Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark
Divorce His and Divorce Hers broadcast over two nights and starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton (while the couple were heading for marital disaster in real life).
Satan’s School for Girls starring future Charlie’s Angels stars Kate Jackson and Cheryl Ladd).
Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark, with Kim Darby moving into a Victorian house that has tiny, demonic creatures living in it.
Trilogy of Terror
Killdozer, featuring a sentient killer bulldozer (!)
Hitchhike!with Cloris Leachman as a lonely woman who picks up a young hitchhiker, unaware that he has just killed his stepmother.
Bad Ronald, a psychological thriller about a teenage murderer hidden inside the walls of a Victorian home.
It Couldn’t Happen to a Nicer Guy, with Paul Sorvino in a comedy dealing with male rape (!)
Trilogy of Terror, a horror/thriller anthology film starring Karen Black, which has become a cherished cult favourite;
By the final season (1974 – 1975), ABC Movie of the Week was mostly presenting retreads (or downright implausible stories) and neither the Tuesday nor Wednesday movie made the Nielsen Top 30 in the final year.
Theatrical movies were becoming more accessible to TV and the “movie of the week” concept didn’t seem as innovative and remarkable as it had when the series debuted six years earlier.
