We now return ...The ABC ABC in full American Broadcasting Co. Major U.S. television network. It began when the expanding national radio network NBC split into the separate Red and Blue networks in 1928. Movie of the Week Companion * Michael Karol * TV Tidbits-iUniverse Duel. Brian's Song. That Certain Summer. What do all these TV landmarks have in common? They were all part of the ABC Movie of the Week, a once radical experiment to make new films for television that yielded a handful of extraordinary movies in the first half of the 1970s. But MOTW MOTW Member of the Week MotW Movie of the Week MOTW Mark of the Wolves (SNK game) MOTW Mark of the Web (Microsoft Internet Explorer) MOTW Monster of the Week (from X-files TV Series) wasn't all highbrow high·brow adj. also high·browed Of, relating to, or being highly cultured or intellectual: They only attend highbrow events such as the ballet or the opera. n. : Gen X and baby boomer couch potatoes still fondly remember the tawdry Bad Ronald, the darkly comic The Girl Most Likely to ... (starring Stockard Channing in a script by Joan Rivers), and the flat-out terrifying ter·ri·fy tr.v. ter·ri·fied, ter·ri·fy·ing, ter·ri·fies 1. To fill with terror; make deeply afraid. See Synonyms at frighten. 2. To menace or threaten; intimidate. Trilogy of Terror "Trilogy of Terror" was also a derogatory term used to refer to the three fighting games produced by Kronos Digital Entertainment, Criticom, Dark Rift and Cardinal Syn. , featuring Karen Black on the run from an unforgettably creepy Zuni fetish doll. Reading The ABC Movie of the Week Companion, I remembered lots of childhood favorites, including Wake Me When the War Is Over, a dopey comedy starring Ken Berry and Eva Gabor. (Why does no one rerun re·run n. The act or an instance of rebroadcasting a recorded movie or a recorded television performance. tr.v. re·ran , re·run, re·run·ning, re·runs To present a rerun of. these Nixon-era chestnuts? In fact, why isn't there an entire channel devoted to them?) But apart from a list of titles with cast lists and plot summaries, the book makes you wish the author had talked to more of the writers, directors, and producers involved. Some cultural context would have helped as well--for instance, what kind of backlash did ABC get for airing That Certain Summer, about a teenager meeting his father's male lover? Flaws aside, however, if you're a TV junkie of a certain age, every page of The ABC Movie of the Week Companion will set off a flood of memories--and maybe inspire you to write letters to TV Land asking them to rerun How Awful About Allan or The Feminist and the Fuzz. |
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