The Golden Age of the TV Movie

Ah, the seventies.  The golden age of the US made-for-TV movie.  They were a phenomena created by US TV networks in order to ensure that they had a steady supply of 'movies' to fill regular slots in their schedules.  It was a demand that, by the seventies, couldn't be met by the film industry - not only were the number of productions at Hollywood studios in decline, but the networks had also pretty much run through existing film libraries.  Moreover, with Hollywood increasingly focusing on producing big-budget films at the expense of the mid and low budget movies they had previously turned out, new films were increasingly expensive to buy TV screening rights for network showings.  The answer was for the networks to produce their own 'movies', but on TV budgets, featuring TV stars and directed by TV directors.  They were a cheap solution to the problem, with the added advantage that they could be tailored to fit specific slots, both in terms of running times and content.  I remember that, as a kid, I quickly realised that you could always tell a TV movie from a 'real' movie due to the blandness of the sets, the TV-style lighting and flat direction.  Many of them came over as cheap versions of better known films, but without the stars or panache, always skimping on the action and ultimately disappointing.  Even those with half decent scripts and plot ideas just ended up feeling somehow lacking in execution.  Many were produced for the networks by Universal's TV unit and utilised the backlot sets familiar from many of their old movies - often the most interesting aspect of a typical TV movie lay in recognising various streets and buildings from old B-movies.

I was put in mind of seventies TV movies by a streaming channel specialising in seventies movies that I've been watching.  Inevitably, to fill its schedules, it is forced to pad them out with various TV movies from the era.  They are instantly recognisable for the reasons outlined above.  Among the most interesting of the ones I've seen was Beach Patrol (1979).  Interesting because I'd never seen it before, because, like a significant number of TV movies, it was a pilot for a TV series that never materialised, but mostly because it was filmed on the same Santa Monica beach locations as Baywatch was to be some ten years later.  All the familiar locations are there - the pier, the diner, the lifeguard towers, even 'Baywatch Lifeguard Headquarters', except here the building is doubling for a police station.  Indeed, Beach Patrol tries to tap into the same sort of sun and sand feelgood ambience as Baywatch would, but with cops patrolling the beach in dune buggies, rather than with lifeguards.  Which is where the problem lay - by using cops as its protagonists, it ends up being welded too firmly to the typical seventies TV cop formula.  By basing itself around lifeguards, Baywatch allowed itself more flexibility with its storylines, which undoubtedly contributed to its longevity.  Still, as a one off, Beach Patrol was still quite entertaining, if nothing else than for the sight of a pre-Star Trek: Next Generation Johnathon Frakes playing a hip young Jewish beach cop.

Of course, the TV movie is still with us - they've just become more sophisticated.  Those bland seventies TV movies were the forerunners of both direct-to-video and cable TV movies, which, as time has gone on, have gained bigger budgets, better production values and higher profile casts, production personnel and directors.  Indeed, nowadays they are usually pretty slick looking productions, barely distinguishable from movies intended for cinematic release.  I fact, whereas in the seventies a movie being made for TV release was seen as a mark of inferiority, nowadays, TV, cable and digital releases are commonplace, even for big budget films, often occurring simultaneously with their theatrical releases.  How times have changed from those days of the humble TV movie, when they were alwats seen as second best to their cinematic cousins.