A television movie (also TV movie, TV-movie, made-for-TV movie, telefilm, etc.) is a film that does not appear in movie theaters but is produced for, and released to, television directly. It is commonly considered a type of movie, but some people restrict the latter term to those that do play in cinemas. Film refers to the celluloid media on which movies are printed Film is a term that encompasses motion pictures as individual projects, as well as the field in general. ... A typical megaplex (AMC Ontario Mills 30 in Ontario, California). ... Film refers to the celluloid media on which movies are printed Film is a term that encompasses motion pictures as individual projects, as well as the field in general. ...

The term "made-for-TV movie" was coined in the USA in the early 1960s as an advertising gimmick to encourage even larger numbers of the cinema-going audience to stay home and watch even more television, on the premise that they were going to see the equivalent of a major, first-run theatrical motion picture in the comfort of their own homes. These events originally filled a 90-minute time slot (including commercials), and later expanded to two hours, and were usually broadcast as a weekly anthology series (ABC Movie of the Week, e.g.). Most TV movies featured big stars, and some even were accorded higher budgets than standard series television programs of the same running time, including major dramatic anthology programs which they came to replace. One very popular and critically aclaimed TV movie was 1971's Duel directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Dennis Weaver. Such was the quality and popularity of Duel it was released to cinemas in Europe, and later the US. However many 1970s TV movies were a source of controversy, like Linda Blair's movies Born Innocent and Sarah T. - Portrait of a Teenage Alcoholic, as well as Dawn: Portrait of a Teenage Runaway and Alexander: The Other Side of Dawn which were vehicles for former Brady Bunch actress Eve Plumb. This article provides extensive lists of events and significant personalities of the 1960s. ... The ABC Circle logo, designed by Paul Rand in 1962. ... Duel is a 1971 television movie directed by Steven Spielberg, written by Richard Matheson, starring Dennis Weaver and a Peterbilt 351 logging truck. ... Steven Spielberg Steven Allan Spielberg KBE (born on December 18, 1946 in Cincinnati, Ohio but raised in the suburbs of Haddonfield, New Jersey and Scottsdale, Arizona), is an American film director whose films range from science fiction to historical drama to horror. ... Dennis Weaver (b. ... A satellite composite image of Europe Europe is geologically and geographically a peninsula, forming the westernmost part of Eurasia. ... This article provides extensive lists of events and significant personalities of the 1970s. ... Linda Blair (born January 22, 1959) is an American actress famous for her role as the possessed child in The Exorcist. ... For the Redd Kross album, see Born Innocent (album). ... The Brady Bunch was a US television situation comedy, based around a large blended family. ... Eve Plumb Leigh McCloskey and Eve Plumb in Dawn: Portrait of a Teenage Runaway Eve Plumb (born April 29, 1958) is an American actress, who is best known for her role as Jan Brady in the television sitcom The Brady Bunch. ...

Conversely, many foreign-made entertainment films were imported, dubbed, to the United States for direct syndication as "TV movies", thus adding to the catalogue of titles in this category.

Despite their promise to compete with theatrical films, network-made TV movies in the USA have tended to be inexpensively produced. The stories were written to reach periodic semi-cliffhangers coinciding with the network-scheduled times for the insertion of commercials, and were further managed to fill, but not exceed, the fixed running times allotted by the network to each movie "series". They tended to rely on small casts (vis-a-vis their theatrical counterparts) and a limited range of settings and camera setups. Even Spielberg's Duel, while a well-crafted film, features a very small cast (apart from Weaver, all other acting roles are bit-parts), and mostly outdoors location shooting in the desert. They are typically made by smaller crews and they rarely feature expensive special effects. Some TV movies are notoriously melodramatic, with soap opera style plots; typical plots associated with the genre include "disease of the week" movies, or films about domestic violence. The series of Moment of Truth Movies that run on the Lifetime cable network exemplify these melodramatic tendencies. Certain actresses, such as Valerie Bertinelli and Michele Lee, have been stereotyped as TV actresses due to the number of TV-movies in which they have appeared. A cliffhanger or cliffhanger ending is a plot device in which a movie or novel contains an abrupt ending, often leaving the main characters in a precarious or difficult situation (for instance, hanging from the edge of a cliff). ... From the earliest days of the medium, television has been used as a vehicle for advertising in some countries. ... Special effects (abbreviated SPFX or SFX) are used in the film, television, and entertainment industry to create effects that cannot be achieved by normal means, such as depicting travel to other star systems. ... Poster for The Perils of Pauline (1914). ... The first TIME cover devoted to soap operas: Dated January 12, 1976, Bill Hayes and Susan Seaforth Hayes of Days of Our Lives are featured with the headline Soap Operas: Sex and suffering in the afternoon. A soap opera is an ongoing, episodic work of fiction, usually broadcast on television... A disease is any abnormal condition of the body or mind that causes discomfort, dysfunction, or distress to the person affected or those in contact with the person. ... Domestic violence, by barest definition, is violence within a home. ... Moment of Truth Movies are a series of TV movies produced for the Lifetime cable television and movie networks during the 1990s. ... Categories: Pages needing attention | Television stubs | U.S. television networks ... Categories: Stub | 1960 births | American actors ... Michele Lee (born Michelle Lee Dusick on June 24, 1942 in Los Angeles) is an American actress, most known for her role as Karen Fairgate MacKenzie on the 1980s soap opera Knots Landing. ...

Today the advent of cable television has served to increase the avenues for broadcast of TV movies, as well as their form. Budgets may be higher and the constraints of writing to fill fixed time slots while accounting for commercials have been eliminated on the subscription-based cable stations. Conversely, the spread of the audience for TV-movies among numerous cable channels with a penchant for "original programming", has resulted in lower budgets, lesser-known performers, even cheaper effects and settings, along with the formulaic writing, on commercial-driven channels.

Often a successful series may spawn a TV movie sequel after ending its run, and TV movies may also be used as the first episode of a series, otherwise known as a pilot. Alternate use, hydrogen fuel car: General Motors Sequel A sequel is a work of fiction (e. ... A television pilot is the first episode of an intended television series. ...

TV movies are often broadcast on major networks during sweeps season, or on cable networks that specialize in producing them such as HBO. In the United States the sweeps period determines local advertising rates. ... HBO logo HBO (Home Box Office) is a premium cable television network. ...

Other countries

The phrase TV movie is not generally used unless the item in question originates in the USA. In British broadcasting it is more common to use phrases such as "single drama", "two-hour-long drama", "feature length drama" or "extended episode" if it is part of a regular series.

See also

TV Specials Direct-to-video movies. TV Special is the term used to define any television program which interrupts or temporarily replaces programming normally scheduled for a given time slot. ... A film that is released direct-to-video (also straight-to-video) is one which has been released to the public on home video formats first rather than first being released in movie theaters. ...