Movies have been already around for so long, as long as more than 100 years.  Over this time, they continue to provide pleasure for anyone who can afford to have a television set at home, for TV movies are rampant, before and even more now.  Television films or likewise known as TV movies, TV films, feature-length dramas, single drama, telefilms, telemovies, movie of the week, original movies or made-for-television-movies, are films specially produced and originally produced by television networks.

Way before, as far as 1957, there were already TV movies, though at that time, these films were not accurately labeled as such.  There was the TV film called ‘High Tor,” which starred Julie Andrews and Bing Crosby, as well as “The Pied Piper of Hamelin,” with Van Johnson.  The latter was then the first family musical directly made for television viewing.  And then from the 40’s to the 50’s, there were hundreds of feature-length, live dramas being aired on television, including the famous production of Requiem for a Heavyweight in 1956 by Rod Serling as the screenwriter. 

TV movies or “made for TV movie” was made known in the US during the early days of 1960.  It was initially intended to induce movie audiences to just stay at home and watched whatever was promoted as a counterpart of theatrical motion pictures premiere.  It all started out in 1961 with the NBC Saturday Night at the Movies, showing the television premiere of a major film.  After which, soon enough, other television networks copied the scheme.  And thereafter, television networks had their own movie nights, which eventually resulted to shortage in studio film products.  “See How They Run” was the first among the series of TV movies, which debuted on October 7, 1964 on NBC, a leading television network.  Prior to this, there was “The Killers”, which starred Ronald Reagan and Lee Marvin that was supposed to be shown on television.

The TV movies then originally ran for about 90 minutes with commercials included, and then, it expanded to two hours.  The first TV movies used to feature a lot of major stars.  In fact, some of them had higher budgets as compared to the standard television programs, including the anthology programs and series within the same length.

The television network ABC, introduced to the public the most watched and notable TV movie of all time, “The Day After.”  It was first aired on November 20, 1983 with an approximately 100 million viewers hooked on the screen.  The film characterized America following a nuclear war against the Soviet Union that carried a lot of discussions and controversies on the day it was released.  

Apart from “The Day After,” Steven Spielberg’s “Duel” in 1971 was critically acclaimed and popular too as a TV movie, which starred Dennis Weaver.  Because of the popularity and the good quality of this TV movie, it made its way to cinemas in Australia and Europe and coveted a limited cinema production in some locations in the US.  Moreover, the hit TV movie, “Brian’s Song,” also saw its theatrical release.  Furthermore, during the 1970’s, there were quite a number of TV movies that became sources of controversies such as “Born Innocent” by Linda Blair and “Portrait of a Teenage Alcoholic” by Sarah T., as well as “Alexander” The Other Side of Dawn,” and “Dawn: Portrait of a Teenage Runaway.”  Oftentimes, if a series is successful, it produced a TV movie as a sequel after the last episode. Also, TV movies were likewise used as the pilot episodes of television series, such as “Babylon 5: The Gathering,” which served as the launching for the fictional series entitled, “Babylon 5.” 

Presently, TV movies are most of the time broadcast on leading networks on sweeps seasons or cable networks specializing in production of such films like HBO, Lifetime and the Hallmark Channel.