ENCORE! ENCORE! MADE-FOR-TV FILMS GO TO DVD.

Byline: Greg Hernandez Staff Writer

Actress Stockard Channing has said that people often stop her at airports to talk about her 1973 ABC Movie of the Week ``The Girl Most Likely To--'' as much as any other work she's ever done, including her part of Rizzo in the blockbuster musical ``Grease'' and role as the first lady on ``The West Wing.''

Movies made for television like ``Girl'' are remembered by many, but have for decades been the type of entertainment that might air once or twice then possibly never surface again.

Channing's dark comedy about an ugly girl who turns beautiful after plastic surgery and seeks revenge on her tormentors has, for example, never even been released on home video.

But with the DVD industry looking for ways to continue growing, things are beginning to change.

A steadily increasing number of TV movies and miniseries are being made available on store shelves after they have aired on television.

``One of the few bad things about doing movies for television is that they would show one night, then they were gone,'' said veteran director Roger Young, whose recent credits include ``Hercules'' and ``The Perfect Husband: The Laci Peterson Story.''

``But now it seems to me that every year, more and more of them appear. I've done more than 40 films and I think 20 of them are on DVD.''

Kurt Indvik, editor of the industry trade publication Home Media Retailing, said HBO, Lifetime and Hallmark have emerged as the leaders in the TV movie DVD business.

``I think all of these companies are realizing the DVD market is a significant after-market that they have to take advantage of,'' Indvik said. ``Some of the miniseries have done very well like ``Empire Falls'' and ``Band of Brothers,'' and ``Angels in America'' was one of the top-selling videos.''

HBO has released on DVD some of its recent award-winning movies including ``Warm Springs'' about Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, ``Lakawanna Blues'' starring S. Epatha Merkeson, and ``The Life and Death of Peter Sellers'' starring Geoffrey Rush and Charlize Theron.

The Lifetime cable channel has started a line of DVD titles under the banner of Lifetime Original Movies that include such recent titles as ``Dawn Anna'' starring an Emmy-nominated Debra Winger, ``Homeless to Harvard'' and ``Gracie's Choice'' featuring Anne Heche and Diane Ladd. Director Tom McLouglin has been fortunate on the DVD front because most of his most recent films, including ``Cyber Seduction,'' ``His Secret Life'' and ``Odd Girl Out,'' have been aired on cable's Lifetime channel.

``I get the question, 'When is the DVD coming out?' a lot,'' McLouglin said. ``If it doesn't go to DVD, it's heartbreaking because basically you just have the one shot for people to see it.''

Hallmark Hall of Fame movies, which air on either the Hallmark Channel on cable or on a broadcast network, are regularly released on DVD and currently number more than 55 titles.

They include such films as ``Cupid & Cate'' starring Peter Gallagher and Mary-Louise Parker, ``Back When We Were Grownups'' starring Emmy nominee Blythe Danner, ``Fallen Angel'' starring Gary Sinese, ``Riding the Bus With My Sister'' with Rosie O'Donnell, and the ``Sarah Plain & Tall Collection,'' a trilogy of movies starring Glenn Close.

CBS even got into the TV movie DVD business last year with its ``Pope John Paul II'' miniseries starring Jon Voight as the pontiff. CBS ran 10-second spots during the airing of the program advertising a DVD of the film available for $29.99 on the CBS.com Web site.

``Producing a DVD ourselves is unusual,'' said Joan Yee, CBS' vice president of movies and miniseries. ``It was an interesting, new experience. We were able to direct-market; people could call a 1-800 number or order online.''

Meanwhile, there is a feeling among the creative community that specializes in films for television that these movies have never really gotten the proper respect or attention they are due. The Directors Guild of America hopes to change that. The guild announced last week that it will be kicking off an early May ad campaign called ``TV Movies: Four Decades of Directorial Excellence.''

The campaign will seek to bring attention to movies that the guild feels are too often dismissed as forgettable, cheap entertainment by critics and largely overlooked by the media.

``This is a grievous state of affairs,'' DGA President Michael Apted said at a gathering of television movie directors last week.

Among the movies the DGA highlights as having a lasting impact are ABC's ``Brian's Song'' and ``The Day After'' and NBC's ``The Burning Bed'' and ``An Early Frost.''

The DGA also notes that many directors cut their teeth on TV movies, including Steven Spielberg, who directed the cult classic ``Duel,'' which was released on DVD last year. Other memorable titles include the Emmy Award-winning miniseries ``Angels in America'' as well as ``Shogun,'' ``The Thorn Birds'' and ``Lonesome Dove,'' all out on DVD.

```That Certain Summer'' was a serious, sensitive well-written film and later, of course, there were movies like 'An Early Frost' and 'The Burning Bed,''' said Bob Thompson, chairman of the Center for the Study of Popular Television at Syracuse University.

``Even in the corny, schmaltzy arena, we had some really good ones like 'The Boy in the Plastic Bubble.' The epitome was 'Brian's Song,' which was one of the classic, four-tissue-box cries.''

``You ask anybody age 40 or above, they will rattle off a list of 10 made-for-TV movies that they really remember but saw it just the first time, once in their life,'' Thompson added. ``These things really did kind of come and go.''

Greg Hernandez, [phone]

greg.hernandez(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

4 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Steven Walters, left, and Rick Warden from HBO's ``Band of Brothers,'' will see a second life on DVD. More made-for-tv movies and miniseries, once thought lost or forgotten, are getting released on DVD.

(2 -- color) Damian Lewis, left, and David Schwimmer from HBO's ``Band of Brothers'' can be seen again on DVD.

David James/HBO

(3 -- color) ``Empire Falls,'' starring Ed Harris and Paul Newman, is available with other TV movies and miniseries on DVD.

(4 -- color) ``Warm Springs,'' the story of FDR's battle with polio, can be seen on DVD.