Direct-to-video movies have earned a poor, but fair, reputation over the years. After all, most of them are blatant rip-offs of whatever movie is popular or assumed to be popular before release, like Snakes on a Train. However, made-for-TV movies are more difficult to generalize. After all, for every Sharknado, there's a thought-provoking character-driven work (though, probably not on the Syfy Channel).
The latter has become especially prevalent as audience interests have changed and their desire to see different tales told from the viewpoint of a marginalized group expanded. And, primarily thanks to pay television networks such as HBO, those types of films have been released with an impressive regularity. But, not every TV movie worthy of your time hit screens in the 2010s or 2020s. They've been produced ever since the '70s, if not before then, though that aforementioned decade represented a sort of boom. Particularly when it comes to moving TV movies featuring cast members the audience is used to seeing on the big screen.
10 James Caan & Billy Dee Williams in Brian's Song (1971)
Featuring not just a great James Caan performance, but a heartbreaking one as well, Brian's Song is one of the ultimate made-for-TV movies of the 1970s. Mentioned in various pop culture products over the years, it also has a legacy, with even a remake hitting TV screens back in 2001. And it's easy to see why, as the tale of friendship between Chicago Bears players Brian Piccolo (Caan) and Gale Sayers (Billy Dee Williams) is a touching one.
Brian's Song Is a Tearjerker
This ABC Movie of the Week focuses on Piccolo's cancer diagnosis at the young age of 26 and the support he finds thanks to Sayers. The film was released one year after Piccolo's death, and it doesn't shy away from showing that death. But, it's equally about an unlikely friendship, given it takes place primarily in the 1960s.
9 Anthony Hopkins in The Lindbergh Kidnapping Case (1976)
Beloved actor and Wrexham mascot Anthony Hopkins has had one of Hollywood's most storied and respected careers. In terms of his early work, this retelling of the 1932 kidnapping of Charles Lindbergh Jr. is a high point. Considering he's playing abductor Richard Hauptmann in The Lindbergh Kidnapping Case, it was certainly a telling display of Hopkins' range.
The Lindbergh Kidnapping Case Tells a Horrifying True Story
Can Hopkins play villainy well? Of course, The Silence of the Lambs exists. But Hauptmann, who denied guilt until his dying day, is arguably as complex as Hannibal Lecter, if not more so. And, considering Hopkins' Hauptmann gets as much screen time as Cliff DeYoung's Charles Lindbergh (Sr.), he gets plenty of time to make the audience question the morality of his character as they did Hauptmann in real life.
8 Sally Field in Sybil (1976)
Sally Field has delivered many fantastic performances in both movies and television, but her most striking work may very well have been in this merging of the two mediums. Sybil tells the story of teacher Sybil Dorsett, who begins to feel herself unraveling and seeks the counsel of psychiatrist Dr. Cornelia Wilbur. The latter discovers the former has multiple personalities and, together, they seek to find out the point of origination.
Sybil Is a Masterful Performance by Field
Sybil's mother had paranoid schizophrenia and she often abused her daughter. It was so bad, in fact, that one of the results (other personalities such as Peggy, effectively the child version of Sybil) was internal scarring. Once Sybil is able to reconcile the Peggy part of herself with her current self, she's able to move forward.
10 Greatest Made-for-TV Movies of the ‘90s
Whether they were remakes, adaptations, or based on true events, no one can deny that it was a decade of great made-for-TV movies.7 JoBeth Williams & Steve Guttenberg in The Day After (1983)
Like the televised adaptation of Stephen King's The Stand, The Day After is a post-apocalyptic TV film with an incredible cast. That said, it's not nearly as epic in terms of runtime, and that's a benefit. It's essentially a hypothesis of what would happen if the United States and the Soviet Union started exchanging nukes, making it unfortunately relevant in modern times, just as it was in the early '80s.
The Day After Is a Revered TV Movie
Director Nicholas Meyer helmed this just one year after successfully breathing life into Star Trek's effort to become a film franchise via Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Like in that film, he keeps the pacing tight, allowing someone who doesn't gravitate toward apocalyptic material to find it accessible. With Jason Robards, Poltergeist's JoBeth Williams, Seinfeld's Wayne Knight, Steve Guttenberg, John Lithgow, Field of Dreams' Amy Madigan, and National Lampoon's Animal House's Stephen Furst on the cast list, there's bound to be a recognizable face no matter who's watching.