All-Time Best Films Made for Television
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- DirectorEdward ZwickStarsEd FlandersKathryn WalkerRoxanne HartA TV reporter and cameraman are taken hostage on a tugboat while covering a workers strike. The demands of the hostage-takers are to collect all the nuclear detonators in the Charleston, SC area so they may be detonated at sea. They threaten to detonate a nuclear device of their own if their demand isn't met.
- DirectorJoseph SargentStarsDarren McGavinEarl HollimanJan-Michael VincentA Marine Corps drill instructor who is disgusted by the fact that the Corps now accepts draftees finds himself pitted against a hippie who has been drafted but refuses to accept the military's way of doing things.
- DirectorSteven SpielbergStarsDennis WeaverJacqueline ScottEddie FirestoneA business commuter is pursued and terrorized by the malevolent driver of a massive tractor-trailer.
- DirectorJohn ErmanStarsGena RowlandsBen GazzaraSylvia SidneyA young lawyer hasn't told his parents about his homosexuality. Now he must tell them--at a time when the diagnosis was still a death sentence--that he has AIDS.
- DirectorBuzz KulikStarsJames CaanBilly Dee WilliamsJack WardenBased on the real-life relationship between teammates Brian Piccolo and Gale Sayers and the bond established when Piccolo discovers that he is dying.
- DirectorBuzz KulikStarsCliff De YoungAnthony HopkinsDenise AlexanderOn March 1, 1932, the infant Charles Lindbergh, Jr., the son and namesake of the famed pilot, is kidnapped. After he is later found dead, a German immigrant named Bruno Hauptmann is tried for kidnapping and murder.This is the film I first noticed the wonderful Anthony Hopkins, and he nabbed an Emmy for his performance, to boot!
- DirectorFielder CookStarsPatricia NealRichard ThomasEdgar BergenOn Christmas Eve 1933, the Waltons prepare for the holiday, but they are becoming increasingly worried because John Walton, who was forced to take work in another part of the state, has not yet returned home.This is the film that served as the pilot for the TV series "The Waltons" but had Patricia Neal as Olivia Walton, Andrew Duggan as John Walton and Edger Bergen as Grandpa Walton.
- DirectorPaul WendkosStarsElizabeth MontgomeryFionnula FlanaganEd FlandersIn 1893 Massachusetts, Lizzie Andrew Borden is put on trial for murdering her father and stepmother with an axe.
- DirectorJohn Kent HarrisonStarsMatthew ModineClaire BloomJudith IveyArriving in a new town, a child pretends to be deaf-mute to protect himself - a ruse which works so well that for twenty years he is custodian to all the town's secrets.
- DirectorDaniel PetrieStarsLloyd BridgesShirley JonesLynn CarlinOver the Christmas holidays in a small New England college town, a man and a woman share a brief interlude. He is there to visit his wife, who is a mental patient at the university, and she is there visiting her son, who is a student, after discovering her husband's infidelity.
- StarsJoanne WoodwardSally FieldBrad DavisA young woman whose childhood was so harrowing to her that she developed sixteen different personalities is treated by a doctor.
- StarsJudy DavisVictor GarberHugh LaurieThe Judy Garland story from the 1930s until her death.
- DirectorRoger SpottiswoodeStarsMatthew ModineAlan AldaPatrick BauchauThe story of the discovery of the AIDS epidemic, and the political infighting of the scientific community hampering the early fight with it.
- DirectorDonna DeitchStarsErik KnudsenBrittany MurphyJason PriestleyThis movie contains three short stories dealing with the theme of homosexuality. In "A Friend of Dorothy," a woman joins the Navy during the 1950s and discovers lesbianism. In "Mr. Roberts," a teacher in a 1970s classroom struggles with his closeted gay status. Finally, in "Amos and Andy," a father wrestles with his own emotional acceptance of a present day wedding between his son and another man.
- DirectorRoss Kagan MarksStarsGarry MarshallFaye DunawayJill BernsteinWhen Suzanne Stein has a genetic analysis done on her unborn child, she discovers that although she has a healthy baby, the child will most likely be born gay, like her brother, David. She must decide whether to keep the child, or to have an abortion. Her family enters a crisis about love and acceptance as she makes this difficult choice.
- StarsPatricia WettigDean StockwellTom HollandMost of the passengers on an airplane disappear, and the remainder land the plane in a mysteriously barren airport.
- StarsSam WaterstonMary Tyler MooreRichard MulliganAfter arriving in Washington in 1861 after his election, Abraham Lincoln struggles with personal and political problems during his Presidency.
- DirectorNicholas MeyerStarsJason RobardsJoBeth WilliamsSteve GuttenbergThe effects of a devastating nuclear holocaust on small-town residents of eastern Kansas.
- DirectorDavid GreeneStarsCarol BurnettNed BeattyDennis ErdmanWhen they try to learn how how their son died in Vietnam, the Mullens meet lies and evasion on all sides.
- DirectorRandal KleiserStarsEve PlumbLeigh McCloskeyLynn CarlinA 15-year-old girl runs away from home and arrives in Hollywood, but winds up becoming a prostitute to support herself and gets involved with a tough-talking pimp.
- DirectorDee ReesStarsQueen LatifahKamryn JohnsonRikki McKinneyThe story of legendary blues performer Bessie Smith, who rose to fame during the 1920s and '30s.
- DirectorRyan MurphyStarsMark RuffaloJonathan GroffFrank De JulioIn the early 1980s, the onset of the HIV-AIDS crisis in New York led to an emergence of homosexual activists. With support from the medical community, they try to raise awareness about the disease.
- DirectorSteven SoderberghStarsMichael DouglasMatt DamonScott BakulaA chronicle of the tempestuous six-year romance between megastar singer Liberace and his young lover Scott Thorson.
- DirectorMichael SucsyStarsDrew BarrymoreJessica LangeJeanne TripplehornThe lives of Edith Bouvier Beale and her daughter Edith, aunt and cousin of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.
- DirectorMick JacksonStarsJames WoodsMercedes RuehlLolita DavidovichLawyers and the media argue the alleged child abuse at the McMartin preschool in Manhattan Beach, California.
- DirectorFrank PiersonStarsJames WoodsJoe Don BakerJoseph BolognaAs lawyer and power broker Roy Cohn lies dying of AIDS in a private hospital room, ghosts from his past visit him as he reflects on his life and loves.
- DirectorBarry LevinsonStarsAl PacinoBrenda VaccaroJohn GoodmanA look at the life and work of doctor-assisted suicide advocate Jack Kevorkian.
- DirectorCherNancy SavocaStarsDemi MooreShirley KnightCatherine KeenerThe movie examines the abortion issue through three stories set in different eras: 1952, 1974 and 1996.
- DirectorMichael CristoferStarsAngelina JolieFaye DunawayElizabeth MitchellThe story of the life of Gia Carangi, a top fashion model from the late 1970s, from her meteoric rise to the forefront of the modeling industry, to her untimely death.
- StarsGary SiniseAngelina JolieStieven DavidsonFollowing Alabama governor George Wallace through segregation, presidential elections, an assassination attempt and personal trauma.
- DirectorRoberto RosselliniStarsPierre ArditiRita ForzanoGiuseppe AddobbatiBlaise Pascal struggles to understand the natural world around him, in addition to an inner quest for religious faith.
- DirectorJohn NewlandStarsKim DarbyJim HuttonBarbara AndersonA young couple inherits an old mansion inhabited by small demon-like creatures who are determined to make the wife one of their own.
- DirectorDan CurtisStarsRobert BurtonJohn KarlenGeorge GaynesThree bizarre horror stories, all of which star Karen Black in four different roles playing four tormented women.
- DirectorJohn CarpenterStarsKurt RussellShelley WintersBing RussellBiographical movie about the famous rock singer Elvis Presley.
- DirectorMark RydellStarsJames FrancoMichael MoriartyValentina CerviThe man behind the legend and 1950's Hollywood are revealed in this dynamic biopic of the meteoric star whose troubled life echoed his gut-grabbing performances in East of Eden, Rebel Without A Cause and Giant.
- DirectorDonald WryeStarsLinda BlairJoanna MilesAllyn Ann McLerieA young girl runs away from her abusive family and ends up in a girls' juvenile detention center, where she's raped and brutalized by her sadistic peers. Only one honest social worker shows interest in helping her.
- DirectorRobert GreenwaldStarsFarrah FawcettPaul Le MatRichard MasurAn abused battered wife has had enough of her husband beating up on her. Everywhere she turns for help, there's not much anyone will do. After he rapes her one night, she sets the bed on fire with him in it asleep.
- DirectorJay RoachStarsKevin SpaceyBob BalabanDenis LearyA chronicle of the weeks after the 2000 U.S. Presidential election, and the subsequent recounts in Florida.
- DirectorDavid MametStarsAl PacinoHelen MirrenJeffrey TamborA drama centered on the relationship between Phil Spector and defense attorney Linda Kenney Baden while the music business legend was on trial for the murder of Lana Clarkson.
- DirectorJay RoachStarsEd HarrisJulianne MooreWoody HarrelsonGovernor Sarah Palin of Alaska becomes Senator John McCain's running mate in the 2008 Presidential election.