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56-615: Intended as a version of the ABC Movie of the Week for kids, this series was produced by several production companies — including Hanna-Barbera , Filmation and Rankin/Bass — and mostly contained features based on popular cartoon characters and TV shows of the time, such as Yogi Bear , The Brady Bunch and Lost in Space . Some of the films served as pilots for new TV series. The theme music and main titles were composed by Steve Zuckerman. For

112-464: A Richard Matheson short story from Playboy , was director Steven Spielberg 's first feature film, catapulting his career and enabling him to move from television to theatrical films. ABC earned four Emmys , a Peabody Award and citations from the NAACP and American Cancer Society for an airing of Brian's Song in 1972. The 1971–72 season of the series finished as the fifth highest rated series of

168-642: A double agent that the West wants to plant high in the KGB . Starring: Robert Horton , Jill St. John , Sebastian Cabot , Eric Pohlmann , Dudley Foster , Eleanor Summerfield A racist commando must lead an all-African-American squad of misfits on a secret mission in Nazi Germany . Starring: Stephen Boyd , Robert Hooks , Susan Oliver , Roosevelt Grier **, Moses Gunn **, Richard Pryor **, Billy Dee Williams **, Glynn Turman **, Paul Stewart ** A documentary tracing

224-474: A pacifistic hippie draftee . Starring: Darren McGavin , Jan-Michael Vincent , Earl Holliman Three of the gang reunite to help a geriatric comrade, especially after he becomes marshal of Waco and has to face down bank robbers. Starring: Walter Brennan , Edgar Buchanan , Chill Wills , Andy Devine , Fred Astaire **, Parley Baer , Walter Burke , Lana Wood Two notorious outlaws work to earn amnesty , but their former gang has other plans for

280-410: A $ 2 million diamond from a tycoon, but they find they have competition. Starring: Patrick Macnee , Connie Stevens , Herbert Lom , Marty Allen Double-crosses abound as various people try to get $ 38,000 that was embezzled from a Santa Fe bank. Starring: Roger Davis , Pete Duel , Walter Brennan , Joan Hackett , Wally Cox A man blinded by guilt comes home to live with his sister, but

336-417: A cab driver. Starring: Jason Evers , Judy Pace , Zalman King , Tom Fielding, Anjanette Comer *, Keenan Wynn *, James Shigeta *, Richard Pryor *, Dick Bass *, Michael Parks **, George Macready ***, Louise Latham ***, Barry Atwater ***, Georg Stanford Brown *** Former government assassin turned private investigator John Smith finds himself caught in a web of deceit involving a notebook containing

392-547: A dying billionaire after his blood is found to provide almost miraculous healing and life extension properties. Starring: Christopher George , Carol Lynley *, Barry Sullivan *, Jessica Walter *, Ralph Bellamy * Four elderly Texas Rangers come out of retirement to oust the corrupt crime boss mayor of a frontier town. Starring: Walter Brennan , Pat O'Brien *, Edgar Buchanan *, Chill Wills *, Edward Andrews *, Jack Elam *, Andy Devine *, Gypsy Rose Lee *, Ricky Nelson * Unlicensed private investigator Gus Monk

448-520: A famed gunslinger gives up violence but has to find a way to save a frontier town. Starring: Lloyd Bridges , John Beck , Ed Begley, Sr. , Edd Byrnes , Pernell Roberts , Susan Howard After breaking up with Moondoggie, Gidget becomes a United Nations tour guide and begins a love affair with an older Australian agriculture consultant. Starring: Karen Valentine , Edward Mulhare , Paul Peterson , Warner Anderson **, Bob Cummings **, Nina Foch **, Paul Lynde ** Independent scholars try to find

504-470: A handbuilt glider . Starring: Doug McClure , Rene Auberjonois , Richard Basehart **, Max Baer Jr. **, Chuck Connors **, Tom Skerritt An ESP researcher investigates mysterious happenings surrounding a widow to find out if she is being gaslighted by someone with psychic powers. Starring: Alex Dreier , Stefanie Powers **, Pat Hingle , Louise Latham , Steve Ihnat , Brenda Scott , Chris Robinson Death takes human form and falls in love with

560-414: A kidnapped scientist who has developed a biological agent that can turn humanity into mindless slaves. Starring: Christopher George , Avery Schreiber , Marlyn Mason *, William Windom *, John Vernon *, William Schallert *, Gloria Grahame * An OSS officer tasked with smuggling a nuclear physicist out of Nazi Germany plots to fly themselves out of a POW camp located in a mountain castle using

616-402: A lead-in from 7:30 to 8:30, bringing the younger demographic . The shorter running time of the film freed the 10 p.m. time slot for a full 60-minute program, initially Marcus Welby, M.D. during the first season. Starting earlier at 8:30 could also prevent viewers from switching to competing movies at 9:00. Beginning with the 1971 season, ABC added a second MotW on Saturday night and adjusted

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672-547: A list of names of spies. Starring: Robert Horton , Jill St. John , Sebastian Cabot , Lee Montague , Eleanor Summerfield , Barbara Shelley Struggling wedding consultants desperately try to get three couples legally married after finding out they accidentally had an actor officiate the original weddings. Starring: Michael Callan , Ann Prentiss , Eve Arden **, Ruth Buzzi **, Christopher Connelly ,** Bill Daily **, Elinor Donahue **, Herb Edelman **, Paul Ford ,** Elsa Lanchester ** After nearly shooting an innocent,

728-462: A long lost Spanish galleon while an unscrupulous, wealthy thief shadows them to get the treasure for himself. Starring: Keir Dullea , Bradford Dillman , France Nuyen , Aron Kincaid , Lana Wood , Jacques Aubuchon , Paul Hampton , Ricardo Montalbán ** Former government agent turned private investigator John Smith agrees to participate in a scheme to be captured by the Soviets and exchanged for

784-593: A motorhome on a journey of self-discovery to a hippie music festival , where he falls in love with gravely ill girl. Starring: Carl Betz , Vera Miles , Jeff Bridges , Ruth McDevitt , Michael Anderson, Jr. *, Howard Duff *, Kim Hunter *, Renne Jarrett *, Sal Mineo *, Tyne Daly An African American sheriff tries to prove that a racist raped a young black girl. Starring: Ossie Davis , Kaz Garas , Kyle Johnson , John Marley *, Edward Binns *, Lynda Day George *, Ruby Dee *, Moses Gunn *, Ross Martin *, Brenda Sykes * A famed escape artist has to find

840-442: A mysterious boarder may be trying to kill him. Starring: Anthony Perkins , Julie Harris , Joan Hackett , Kent Smith , Robert H. Harris A man with a steel plate in his skull sees everyone else in a town he is visiting leave in a trance -like state every night. Starring: James Franciscus , Lee Grant , Leslie Nielsen **, Tisha Sterling . An elderly man sees a close friend beaten to death, but all witnesses contradict him,

896-450: A sixth Star Trek film that would take a different approach from the previous films. Titled "The Academy Years", it would have focused on the characters of Kirk and Spock when they were much younger and cadets at Starfleet Academy . It would have delved into the early relationships between these characters, and shown how they developed such a close friendship over the years. While William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy would have had cameos at

952-437: A television producer, along with MGM TV employee Harris Katleman, which was joint partner from 1977 to 1980. His projects at Columbia Pictures included the series Salvage 1 (1979) and the miniseries The Jesse Owens Story (1984). While working at Columbia Pictures TV, Bennett was also brought to Paramount Pictures to work in their television division producing television series. One of his first productions for Paramount

1008-708: A time. Following his work with ABC, Bennett moved over to production. His first project was to develop a television series with producer Aaron Spelling called The Mod Squad , which Bennett produced from 1968 until 1973. Following The Mod Squad , Bennett joined Universal Studios where he produced a variety of television series and miniseries . The best known of these series are probably The Six Million Dollar Man (1973–78) and The Bionic Woman (1976-78). Other series and miniseries he produced at Universal include Rich Man, Poor Man (1976), The Invisible Man (1975) and Gemini Man (1976). Bennett then moved to Columbia Pictures Television where he continued as

1064-452: A woman who was supposed to die, so people stop dying. Starring: Yvette Mimieux , Monte Markham , Myrna Loy , Bert Convy , Melvyn Douglas Harve Bennett Harve Bennett (born Harvard Bennett Fischman ; August 17, 1930 – February 25, 2015) was an American television and film producer and screenwriter . Bennett was born to a Jewish family in Chicago , Illinois , in 1930,

1120-428: Is entangled in a scheme involving a Mob-connected lawyer who claims his boss is out to kill him. Starring: George Maharis , Janet Leigh , Rick Jason , Carl Betz *, Jack Albertson **, Raymond St. Jacques ***, William Smithers , Jack Soo , Mary Wickes A Boston attorney leaves to take control of a legal aid program staffed by students. Their first case is to defend two Black men accused of robbing and beating

1176-516: Is often cited as the creator of the Movie of the Week (MotW), although the concept was actually originated by producer Roy Huggins . Huggins reasoned that many older theatrical films ran shorter than 90 minutes so requiring a 120-minute time slot was unnecessary. His proposal was rejected by NBC and CBS but became the subject of a cover story in the March 21, 1968 issue of Variety magazine. ABC executives read

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1232-634: The ABC Friday Night Movie and the ABC Sunday Night Movie . The Tuesday Movie of the Week would later be incorporated as part of ABC Late Night , a replacement of ABC's Wide World of Entertainment that ran from 1976 to 1982; the late-night version would mainly feature repeats of movies, both made for television and traditional theatrical releases, that were previously seen on ABC and other networks. ABC continued to premiere new TV films on Sunday nights in prime time until 2005. During

1288-626: The Star Trek films — and The Final Frontier . In addition to serving as producer, Bennett also wrote Star Trek III , co-wrote the story and screenplay for Star Trek IV , and co-wrote the story for Star Trek V . Bennett also made cameo appearances in Star Trek III (as the voice of the flight recorder) and Star Trek V (as a Starfleet Chief of Staff Admiral who gives Captain Kirk his orders). Following Star Trek V , Bennett developed an idea for

1344-580: The Variety article had effectively placed the concept into the public domain , ABC continued to develop it without Huggins' permission or involvement. ABC consoled Huggins by allowing him to produce several films, including The Young Country, precursor to Alias Smith and Jones . Michael Karol repeated the claim in his book The ABC Movie of the Week Companion: A Loving Tribute to the Classic Series that

1400-426: The 'hook' he was looking for, and led him to develop a sequel to the episode. Bennett's idea formed the beginnings of what would become The Wrath of Khan . Bennett himself developed the original story premise, and then worked with screenwriter Jack B. Sowards on the early drafts of the screenplay. Nicholas Meyer was later introduced to Bennett and completed the final drafts of the script, in addition to directing

1456-413: The 1960s, movie studios viewed television as a second-rate medium but also as a threat to their theatrical revenue, so they charged high fees for the privilege to broadcast their films. The networks experimented with having films made specifically for TV to lower expenses. NBC created the first weekly umbrella for such films with their World Premiere Movie in 1966, running in a two-hour time slot. Until

1512-455: The 1970s, ABC's local owned-and-operated stations ( in a few of the nation's biggest cities ; at the time, they all broadcast on channel 7) featured The 4:30 Movie on weekday afternoons (the actual time varied by city, but generally after ABC's morning/midday game shows and soap operas); it featured mainly major Hollywood theatrical releases, but some installments of the Movie of the Week were also rebroadcast here. A man flees from

1568-649: The Artful Dodger" have been released on DVD as part of a two-disc set titled Hanna-Barbera Specials Collection . "Lost In Space" was included on the Lost In Space complete series Blu-ray set. ABC Movie of the Week The ABC Movie of the Week was an American weekly television anthology series featuring made-for-TV movies that aired on the ABC network in various permutations from 1969 to 1975 . In

1624-517: The Movie of the Week was Diller's idea, but this was based on hearsay. The shorter format allowed a smaller budget than two-hour TV movies. At $ 350,000 per film, it was less than half the budget of NBC's World Premiere movies. It featured the work of producers like Aaron Spelling , David Wolper and Harve Bennett (all of whom later developed hit series of their own), and was produced by different production companies such as Bing Crosby Productions and

1680-776: The United States Army. He served in the Military Police Corps , based at the United States Disciplinary Barracks in Lompoc, California . He was honorably discharged in 1955 with the rank of corporal . Bennett then began his career as a production executive. He first worked at CBS in New York City and later moved to the programming department of ABC , becoming Vice President of Daytime Programming. At ABC, he rose to become Vice President of Programming for

1736-446: The Week ). The title sequence was designed by Harry Marks and animated by Douglas Trumbull using the slit-scan process that he had created for 2001: A Space Odyssey . The accompanying theme music was an orchestral version of "Nikki", a song composed by Burt Bacharach and named for his daughter. The theme was chosen by Marks and arranged by Harry Betts . Over the music was narration voiced by Dick Tufeld . "The Movie of

The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie - Misplaced Pages Continue

1792-520: The Week. Presenting the world premiere of an original motion picture produced especially for ABC (or 'for the Movie of the Week' in some seasons)." That would be followed by a promotional teaser for the movie. The opening for the Saturday Movie of the Weekend featured footage of a silhouetted "rotating cameraman " operating a 35 mm movie camera ( [1] ). This footage would later be incorporated into

1848-694: The actors in non-recurring roles appeared only once or twice in the series. Notable exceptions who appeared in three or more films as different characters include Doug McClure , Darren McGavin , Dennis Weaver , Clint Walker , Earl Holliman , Leonard Nimoy , Robert Culp , Barbara Eden , Larry Hagman , Elizabeth Montgomery , Donna Mills , Ed Nelson , Ken Berry , Connie Stevens , Lee Majors , James Brolin , Lloyd Bridges , Cloris Leachman , Ricardo Montalbán , Richard Anderson , Lesley Anne Warren , Janet Leigh , John Marley , William Schallert , Karen Valentine , Ben Murphy , Barra Grant , Myrna Loy , Carl Betz , Henry Jones and William Windom . Many of

1904-411: The article and contacted Huggins, who did not want to sell the idea but could produce the series through Universal , where he was under contract. Universal demanded a larger budget than ABC wanted to spend, as well as the exclusive right to produce all future TV movies for ABC, conditions that pushed ABC to control production on their own, purchasing films from various studios and production companies. As

1960-523: The bank where they are employed. Starring: Pete Duel , Ben Murphy , Forrest Tucker , Susan Saint James , James Drury , Jeanette Nolan , Earl Holliman ** Cold War intrigue with traitors trying to steal top secret anti-ballistic missile controls being tested on a U.S. nuclear submarine. Starring: Leonard Nimoy *, Joseph Cotten *, William Windom *, Keenan Wynn *, Lloyd Haynes *, Dewey Martin *, Malachi Throne , Ron Masak A medical intern visiting his home town comes to believe his mentor ,

2016-455: The beginning and end of the film to "bookend" the story in flashback form, new actors would have portrayed most of the roles in the film, including the young Kirk and Spock. Although Paramount was initially enthusiastic about the idea, feedback from fans was almost universally negative over a Star Trek film without the established actors that fans had come to know and love. Also, Martin Davis who at

2072-654: The blame on ABC's overreliance on the MotW, which had suffered from ratings fatigue and a perceived drop in quality despite some notable films. The latter was symptomized by an increased number of pilots as well as remakes and variations of established intellectual properties, such as The Swiss Family Robinson, The Mark of Zorro , The Hatfields and the McCoys and Matt Helm. After that, ABC's made-for-TV movies were aired either as stand-alone specials or shown in time slots that included both original and theatrical movie presentations, notably

2128-401: The film with Bennett as executive producer and Robert Sallin as producer. Star Trek II proved to be an enormous success, both in terms of the box office receipts and fan response. Following the success of Star Trek II , Bennett served as producer on the next three Star Trek films: The Search for Spock , The Voyage Home — which for a long time stood as one of the most successful of

2184-420: The film would have to be completed in order to coincide with Star Trek ' s 25th anniversary. This marked the end of Bennett's association with the Star Trek franchise, and shortly thereafter he left Paramount. The sixth Star Trek film was later titled Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country and was released in movie theaters on December 6, 1991. After producing the Star Trek films, Bennett wrote

2240-449: The late 1960s, ABC ran a distant third behind rivals CBS and NBC , leading to jokes about it coming in fourth among the three networks or about its acronym meaning "Almost Broadcasting Company". Desperation and a looser corporate structure allowed ABC to consider plans that the other two networks would not. Barry Diller , then a junior executive at ABC and later a co-founder of the Fox network,

2296-623: The network's own ABC Circle Films . Spelling was particularly prolific, producing films under his own credit as well as through Spelling-Goldberg Productions and Thomas-Spelling Productions (partly owned by Danny Thomas ). The MotW provided ABC with a ratings hit and, along with Monday Night Football , helped establish the network as a legitimate competitor to rivals CBS and NBC . The films themselves varied in quality and were often escapist or sensationalistic in nature ( suspense , horror and melodrama were staples), but some were critically well received. For example, Duel (1971), based on

The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie - Misplaced Pages Continue

2352-685: The opening of ABC's New York City television station WABC-TV 's various movie umbrellas beginning around 1972–73, including and especially their weekday afternoon movie showcase The 4:30 Movie . The series was often used as a platform to show pilots for possible series for the network. It allowed the network to air pilots that it had already commissioned and paid for but had not ordered as regular series. As well, pilots that had already been sold as ongoing series or were being tested such as Kung Fu , The Six Million Dollar Man , Starsky and Hutch , Longstreet , Toma , Alias Smith and Jones and Get Christie Love! premiered here and returned on

2408-550: The police won't believe him and his son suspects him of paranoia . Starring: Edward G. Robinson , Diane Baker , Ruth Roman , Percy Rodrigues , Sam Jaffe , Martin Balsam **, Edward Asner , Martin E. Brooks , Virginia Christine A woman who has inherited an old Georgetown manor learns that her family property is a breeding ground for the supernatural. Starring: Barbara Stanwyck , Richard Egan , Michael Anderson Jr. , Kitty Winn A Marine drill instructor comes to respect

2464-481: The political life and career of Robert F. Kennedy . Starring: John Huston (narrator) Conflict and crises at a hospital run by a medical patriarch and his three sons – all doctors – including a cholera outbreak and a movie star with kidney failure . Starring: Gary Collins , John Dehner , Susan Howard , Gordon Pinsent , Dan Ferrone, Wally Cox *, Sam Jaffe *, Terry Moore *, Sharon Farrell ** Suave con artist Dudley Jerico and his sidekick scheme to steal

2520-580: The regular schedule after minor to major alterations to the premise and/or cast. Other programs are sometimes mistakenly believed to have aired under the Movie of the Week banner. Marcus Welby, M.D. , for example, premiered after Seven in Darkness and was the lead-out for the Tuesday installment. Still others, like Earth II and Robert Conrad 's version of Nick Carter were actually shown on other movie series, such as The ABC Sunday Night Movie . Most of

2576-457: The results of Star Trek: The Motion Picture , was looking for someone new to take over the next film in the series. According to Bennett, Bluhdorn asked him what he thought of the first Star Trek film and, after Bennett said he found it boring, Bluhdorn asked him if he could make a better picture and if he could do it for less than $ 45 million (the eventual budget of the first film). When Bennett said that he could, Bluhdorn said "do it" and he

2632-473: The second season, the series was retitled The New Saturday Superstar Movie . Five of the above films have been released on VHS videocassette : "Mad, Mad, Mad Monsters", "Yogi's Ark Lark" and "The Brady Kids on Mysterious Island" have been released on DVD , the latter two on the complete series releases for Yogi's Gang and The Brady Kids , respectively. "The Adventures of Robin Hoodnik" and "Oliver and

2688-515: The son of Kathryn (née Susman), a journalist, and Yale Fishman, a lawyer. As a young boy, Bennett appeared on the radio program Quiz Kids , which introduced him to show business . By the time Bennett had reached college age, the radio business was in decline, and he turned to the world of film . He entered the University of California, Los Angeles and graduated from their film school . Following his graduation from college, in 1953 Bennett joined

2744-492: The telefilms had actors credited as guest stars , special guest stars and "special appearance by", even if the movie was not a pilot for a series. Death Race and The Weekend Nun billed their lead actors as special guest stars. In the unusual case of Assault on the Wayne , all of the first-billed cast members were credited as guest stars. The series proper ended in 1975 as ABC's ratings collapsed that season. Analysts laid part of

2800-518: The television movie Crash Landing: The Rescue of Flight 232 (1992). He co-created and produced the science-fiction television series Time Trax (1993–1995), and produced the animated miniseries Invasion America (1998), for which Nimoy was a voice actor. Bennett died on February 25, 2015, in Medford, Oregon, due to a burst embolism in his small intestine and a second one found in his lung. His death occurred two days before that of Leonard Nimoy. He

2856-416: The time was the head of Gulf & Western, wanted a film featuring the original cast to mark Star Trek ' s 25th anniversary in 1991. Paramount offered Bennett the opportunity to produce this film with the original cast, even offering to produce his academy film afterward, but Bennett declined, citing multiple reasons including a lack of story ideas for the requested film and the rushed time frame in which

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2912-641: The titles of the shows to the Movie of the Week and Movie of the Weekend . The following season, the Saturday installment was moved to Wednesday night, 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 type films (some of which were reruns of movies which had originally aired as Movie s of

2968-568: The town's doctor, is murdering troublesome residents with poison. Starring: Bing Crosby , Frank Converse , Blythe Danner **, Barnard Hughes , Bethel Leslie Insurance investigator Mike Longstreet searches for the culprit who bombed his home, killing his wife and leaving him blind . Starring: James Franciscus , Martine Beswick *, Bradford Dillman *, John McIntire *, Jeanette Nolan *, Barry Russo A college dropout convinces his parents and grandmother to join him in an old bus converted into

3024-600: The year. The series was documented by Michael Karol in his 2005 book, The ABC Movie of the Week Companion: A Loving Tribute to the Classic Series , which was updated in 2008 ( ISBN   1-60528-023-2 ), and by Michael McKenna in The ABC Movie of the Week: Big Movies for the Small Screen . The MotW originally aired on Tuesday nights at 8:30 pm Eastern /7:30 pm Central . Established series The Mod Squad acted as

3080-459: Was a television miniseries for Paramount Domestic Television , A Woman Called Golda (1982), which was Ingrid Bergman 's final role and which co-starred Leonard Nimoy . In 1980, only a few weeks into his contract with Paramount, Bennett was called to a meeting with then top executives of Paramount Barry Diller and Michael Eisner , along with Charles Bluhdorn who was then head of Paramount's parent Gulf+Western . Bluhdorn, dissatisfied with

3136-571: Was hired. To prepare for the job of producing a Star Trek film, Bennett first screened all 79 episodes of the original Star Trek series in a projection room at Paramount. He was particularly drawn to the episode " Space Seed ," which featured Ricardo Montalbán as the genetically enhanced supervillain Khan Noonien Singh . At the conclusion of the episode, Khan and his followers are exiled to an uninhabited planet, and James T. Kirk and Spock wonder what will become of them. This gave Bennett

#191808