THE 3,000 MILE CHASE DVD (1977) $14.99
run time: 94 mins. USA. Color.
directed by: Russ Mayberry
description: Secret courier Matt Considine accepts the mission to escort chief witness Dvorak and his wife from San Francisco to a trial in New York. They have to cover 3,000 dangerous miles, because the drug mob wants to kill them at any price. A casual glance at the cast list for the made-for-TV 3000 Mile Chase might lead one to conclude that stars Cliff De Young and Glenn Ford play dual roles. In fact, De Young is a bonded courier, and Ford is a government witness. Produced by Roy Huggins, 3,000 Mile Chase was a revamping of his earlier busted pilot film Target Risk (1974). Originally telecast June 16, 1977, Chase likewise failed to graduate to a weekly series. WATCH CLIP

AMY PRENTISS: AKA THE CHIEF PILOT DVD (1974) $14.99
run time: 88 mins. USA. Color.
directed by: Boris Sagal
description: The two-hour final episode of Ironside's seventh season serves as the pilot film for the spinoff cop series Amy Prentiss. Jessica Walter plays the title character, a hardworking San Francisco police woman who aspires to the position of Chief of Police. Though up against a lot of resistance from the all-male establishment, Amy has a staunch supporter in the form of former chief Robert Ironside (Raymond Burr)

BAFFLED! DVD (1973) $14.99
run time: 90 mins. UK / USA. Color.
directed by: Philip Leacock
description: Leonard Nimoy stars as a race car driver with psychic visions in "Baffled!" After Tom Kovack (Nimoy) reports on television that he had a vision that caused him to lose control of his race car during a competition, he is visited by a psychic (Susan Hampshire) who believes he should follow up on what he saw - a manor house in England. "Baffled" seems to have been a pilot for a TV series. The stars - Hampshire and Nimoy - are delightful, and the story is an interesting one that manages to tie in not only psychic phenomenon but a satanic element as well.

THE BAIT DVD (1973) (TV) $14.99
run time: 71 minutes. Color. USA.
directed by: Leonard Horn
description: Donna Mills was still in her "imperiled heroine" career stage when she starred in the made-for-TV The Bait. Mills is a policewoman who goes incognito to solves a baffling series of rape-murders. Almost as deadly as the rapist is the sexism Mills must suffer from her superior officer (Michael Constantine)--which at times is played for laughs. Based on a novel by former policewoman Dorothy Uhnak, who must have been appalled at the liberties taken with her work by this film, The Bait was the pilot for an unlaunched weekly TV series.

BUT I DON'T WANT TO GET MARRIED DVD (1970) $14.99
run time: 75 minutes. Color. USA.
directed by: Jerry Paris
description: This made-for-TV movie stars Herschel Bernardi as a middle-aged widower, contentedly resigned to his bachelorhood. Bernardi's well-meaning friends and relatives are tireless in their efforts to hitch him up with a new bride. All the candidates are played by prominent actresses (Shirley Jones, Tina Louise, June Lockhart et. al.); few of them are compatible with poor Mr. Bernardi. The bemused bachelor is determined to remain unmarried until he meets a lovely widow who is similarly indisposed to matrimony. Under the directorial guidance of Jerry Paris, But I Don't Want to Get Married rolls along with TV-sitcom efficiency.

THE CITY DVD (1977) $14.99
run time: 78 minutes. Color. USA.
directed by: Harvey Hart
description: Miami Vice superstar Don Johnson and Star Wars' Luke Skywalker, Mark Hamill, come face-to-face in this action-charged police adventure. Hamill plays an unpredictable psychotic who reveals a deadly grudge against a famous country singer (Jimmy Dean) who punched him in the face when he was a baby. Robert Forster teams up with Johnson to protect the singer and track down the assailant. Hamill stalks the singer, murdering a detective along the way. The killer terrorizes the singer's family, leaving their dead dog on the lawn and threatening the wife and small son at knifepoint. While investigating the case, the police duo come upon family connections between the singer and the killer that pull together the pieces of this tense thriller.

COFFEE, TEA OR ME? DVD (1973) $14.99
run time: 74 mins., USA. Color.
directed by: Norman Panama
description: A dirty joke that became a "clean" TV movie, Coffee, Tea or Me stars Karen Valentine, cast to type as a perky stewardess. In a chaste variation of The Captain's Paradise, Valentine finds herself married to two different men in two different countries. Since the men are played by John Davidson and Michael Anderson Jr., each in his own way as cute as Valentine, the girl's dilemma is profound. Until its cop-out ending, Coffee Tea or Me glides through its risque situations with class and finesse. The film was directed by Norman Panama, who earlier had been responsible (in collaboration with Melvin Frank) for such comedies as Danny Kaye's The Court Jester ('56) and the film version of the Broadway musical Li'l Abner ('59). WATCH CLIP

THE COUPLE TAKES A WIFE DVD (1972) (TV) $14.99
run time: 74 minutes. Color. USA.
directed by: Jerry Paris
description: Contrary to popular belief, "B" pictures didn't die in the 1970's; they just changed their classification to "ABC Movies of the Week". First telecast December 5, 1972, The Couple Takes a Wife is a by-the-numbers screwball comedy with a spirited all-TV cast. Career-minded couple Bill Bixby and Paula Prentiss just don't have time to watch the kids or attend to the housekeeping. So they advertise for a "wife", to assume wifely duties around the house. Enter Valerie Perrine, who takes her job very seriously-much to the dismay of real wife Prentiss. Myrna Loy, a seasoned veteran of this sort of frothy fare, appears as Prentiss' mother, while other key roles are filled by Nanette Fabray and Robert Goulet.

DAUGHTER OF THE MIND DVD (1969) $14.99
run time: 90 mins. USA. Color.
directed by: Walter Grauman
description: Psychologist Don Murray investigates the claim of Nobel prize winning scientist Ray Milland, who insists he has spoken to his young daughter. The thing of it is, the daughter has been dead for several weeks. At first dismissing the claims as the delusions of a grief-stricken man, Murray decides to stick with the case when he notices that the Government is acutely interested in Milland's ethereal "conversations". As the story unfolds, we learn that the apparitions are tied in with a complicated espionage plot. Daughter of the Mind was one of the first high-quality offerings of ABC's Movie of the Week series. The film also represented the TV-movie debut of Gene Tierney, as the other woman in the scientist's life. WATCH CLIP

DEADLY DREAM DVD (1971) $14.99
run time: 73 mins. USA. Color.
directed by: Alf Kjellin
description: Where do dreams end and reality begins? That's the question facing research scientist Lloyd Bridges in the made-for-TV Deadly Dream. Each night, Bridges suffers nightmares, in which he is on trial for his life before a mysterious tribunal. The whys and wherefores of Bridges' torment are revealed bit by bit throughout the film's 73 minutes. Co-starring Janet Leigh, Leif Erickson, and Don Stroud, The Deadly Dream was the September 25, 1971 installment of ABC's Movie of the Week anthology.

DEADMAN'S CURVE DVD (1978) $14.99
run time: 100 mins. USA. Color.
directed by: Richard Compton
description: Deadman's Curve is a made-for-TV biography concerning "California sound" rock-n-rollers Jan and Dean. Richard Hatch plays Jan Berry, while Bruce Davison is seen as Dean Torrence. The meat of the story is Jan's grueling efforts to fully recover from a disastrous 1966 auto accident. The film's most powerful scene occurs when the still-shaky Jan attempts a concert comeback, only to be booed offstage when the audience realizes that he's lip-synching. First telecast February 3, 1978, Deadman's Curve is seasoned with cameo appearances by Dick Clark, Wolfman Jack, and Beach Boys Mike Love and Bruce Johnson.

THE DEATH OF OCEAN VIEW PARK DVD (1979) $14.99
run time: 100 mins. USA. Color.
directed by: E.W. Swackhamer
description: The demolition of a real-life amusement park in Norfolk, Virginia was excuse enough for made-for-television movie The Death of Ocean View Park. Factual footage of the park's destruction is blended into a fictional plotline by screenwriters John Furia Jr. and Barry Oringer. Mike Connors, Diana Canova, Perry Lang, Caroline McWilliams and James Stephens are among a group of funfair revellers who attend OceanView Park on the Fourth of July. It isn't long before Mother Nature puts on a real fireworks display-a devastating hurricane. WATCH CLIP

DEATH TAKES A HOLIDAY DVD (1971) $14.99
run time: 90 mins. USA. Color.
directed by: Robert Butler
description: Death (Monte Markham) takes a human form and visits Earth to try to find out why humans want so desperately to cling to life. He unexpectedly falls in love with a beautiful young woman (Yvette Mimieux). This 1971 TV movie remake of the 1934 film of the same name, Death Takes A Holiday is a very tender story for fans of romance with supernatural undertones.

DISCO BEAVER FROM OUTER SPACE DVD (1979) $14.99
run time: 51 mins. USA. Color.
directed by: Joshua White
description: National Lampoons mockery of everything that is wrong with cable TV. For anyone who remembers the 70's it is a real blast from the past on the attitudes and stupidity of that time, with some seedy comedy that is funnier than anything going on today. A collection of completely disconnected sketches that are portrayed as if the viewer is channel surfing, this is the perfect movie for a group of immature high-school kids or a group of immature older people to pop in the VCR and laugh at and remember the 70's. Credited cast: Lynn Redgrave, Rodger Bumpass, Alice Playten, James Widdoes, Lee Wilkof, Michael Simmons, and Sarah Durkee. Writing and producing staff includes Tony Hendra and Harry Shearer of Spinal Tap fame.

DO NOT FOLD, SPINDLE, OR MUTILATE DVD (1971) $14.99
run time: 74 minutes. Color. USA.
directed by: Ted Post
description: Helen Hayes, Mildred Natwick, Myrna Loy and Sylvia Sidney star as four elderly pranksters devoted to practical jokes. When one of the ladies gets hold of a computer-dating questionnaire, the others invent a mythical girl and feed the falsified information into the computer. Alas, the description matches a very real young lady, who becomes the target of a murderous rapist (Vince Edwards). Attacked at the time of its release for making light of a potentially deadly situation, Do Not Fold, Spindle or Mutilate led to the casting of Helen Hayes and Mildred Natwick in the weekly detective series The Snoop Sisters.

DRIVE HARD, DRIVE FAST DVD (1973) (TV) $14.99
run time: 90 minutes. Color. USA.
directed by: Douglas Heyes
description: Producer Roy Huggins and director Douglas Heyes, Maverick veterans both, reteamed for the made-for-TV Drive Hard, Drive Fast. Brian Kelly stars as a race car driver who would have been better off sticking to the track. Upon hopping out of his slicked-up auto, Kelly gets mixed up in an unsavory love triangle involving Joan Collins and Joseph Campanella. Before long, Kelly has to keep peeking over his shoulder to avoid being hacked to piece by a machete-wielding assailant. Completed in 1969, Drive Hard, Drive Fast was not telecast until September 11, 1973.

THE ELEVATOR DVD (1974) (TV) $14.99
run time: 75 minutes. Color. USA.
directed by: Jerry Jameson
description: An all-star "disaster" flick set in an elevator: is there no limit? This made-for-TVer top-bills James Farentino as a bank robber suffering from claustrophobia. Fleeing from his latest crime, the criminal is forced to take an elevator, populated with the likes of Roddy McDowall, Craig Stevens, Teresa Wright, Myrna Loy and Carol Lynley. Naturally, the elevator stalls between floors, high above ground level. The Elevator debuted as an ABC Movie of the Week on February 9, 1974.

THE FAILING OF RAYMOND DVD (1971) $14.99
run time: 73 mins. USA. Color.
directed by: Boris Sagal
description: Jane Wyman makes her TV-movie debut in The Failing of Raymond. She plays a middle-aged schoolteacher on the verge of retirement. Just before packing up and heading out, she is terrorized by former student Dean Stockwell. Having flunked out of her class ten years earlier, the demented man intends to kill his ex-teacher unless she changes his grade. Talk about your "permanent record"! The Failing of Raymond debuted November 27, 1971.

FAMILY FLIGHT (1972) (TV) $14.99
run time: 74 minutes. Color. USA.
directed by: Marvin J. Chomsky
description: The family in "flight" is played by Rod Taylor, Dina Merrill and Kristoffer Tabori. While taking an airborne vacation to Mexico, the family crash-lands somewhere in the Baja peninsula. Having taken the vacation as a means to patch up a variety of differences, the family is forced to pull together to survive. At times, however, it looks like no one will return to tell the tale. Made for television, Family Flight debuted October 25, 1972.

A FAMILY UPSIDE DOWN DVD (1978) $14.99
run time: 98 mins. USA. Color.
directed by: David Lowell Rich
description: A Family Upside Down stars Fred Astaire and Helen Hayes as a retired married couple. Always proud of his independence and resilience, Astaire suffers a sudden heart attack. Though he recovers, Hayes is unable to care for Astaire herself, so she and her husband are compelled to move in with son Efrem Zimbalist Jr. and daughter-in-law Pat Crowley. Astaire's heart problems persist, and the family must face the unpleasant alternative of placing him in a nursing home. Though A Family Upside Down threatens to become an uninterrupted wallow in misery, the film takes several unexpected twists and arrives at a reasonably upbeat conclusion. A Family Upside Down co-stars Patty Duke Astin as Astaire and Hayes' emotionally overwrought daughter. The made-for-TV film, which won Fred Astaire the last of his many Emmy awards, originally aired April 9, 1978.

FEAR NO EVIL DVD (1969) $14.99
run time: 98 minutes. Color. USA.
directed by: Paul Wendkos
description: Richard Alan Simmons, scriptwriter of Fear No Evil, evidently held fond memories of the old British chiller Dead of Night (a cornucopia of inspiration for programs like The Twilight Zone). The "Mirror Sequence" in the earlier film was gussied up for the basic plotline of this 1969 TV-movie. Bradford Dillman purchases an antique mirror, which turns out to be the portal for a supernatural world. Upon Dillman's death, his fiancee (Lynda Day George) discovers that the mirror might be able to bring back her lost lover. Fear No Evil did so well in the overnight ratings that it spawned a sequel, 1970's Ritual of Evil.

FOOTSTEPS DVD (1972) $14.99
run time: 73 minutes. Color. USA.
directed by: Paul Wendkos
description: A has-been football coach (Richard Crenna) tries to make a comeback after being hired by a small college to shape up its football team. Soon after, he finds himself in trouble with local gambling czar who doesn't want the team to improve. Based Hamilton Maule's novel, Paddy, this made-for-television movie (also known as "Nice Guys Finish Last") aired on CBS on October 3rd, 1973 and received a Golden Globe award nomination for "Best Movie Made for TV." Co-starring Joanna Pettet, Forrest Tucker, Ned Beatty, and Clu Gulager.

THE FORGOTTEN MAN DVD (1971) $14.99
run time: 72 minutes. Color. USA.
directed by: Walter Grauman
description: The Forgotten Man is an updated variation on the "Enoch Arden" theme. Dennis Weaver stars as Lieutenant Joe Hardy, who when captured by the Vietcong is reported killed. Upon his release, Hardy returns to his hometown, only to discover that life has gone on without him. His wife (Anne Francis) has remarried; his daughter (Pamelyn Ferdin) is living with another family under another name; and his friends and former business associates treat him as though they wish he was dead. Unusually powerful for a TV movie of its era, The Forgotten Man debuted September 14, 1971. WATCH CLIP

THE GIRL ON THE LATE, LATE SHOW DVD (1974) $14.99
run time: 73 minutes. Color. USA.
directed by: Gary Nelson
description: Don Murray stars as slick network news producer William Martin in The Girl on the Late, Late Show. In addition to his administrative duties, Martin is a news reporter, and it is in this capacity that he investigates a series of Hollywood murders. The unifying link between the killings would seem to be faded movie queen Carolyn Parker (Gloria Grahame). Several Tinseltown veterans show up in key roles in this made-for-TV mystery, including Van Johnson, Cameron Mitchell, John Ireland, Walter Pidgeon and Frankie Darro. First telecast April 1, 1974, Girl on the Late, Late Show was designed as the pilot for a weekly Don Murray TV series.

THE GIRL WHO SAVED THE WORLD DVD (1979) $14.99
run time: 91 minutes. Color. USA.
description: Susan Williams is a photojournalist who searches for the men who killed her reporter brother just before he revealed a vast international conspiracy. Fashion model Susan Anton is a capable actress and likable heroine as a globe-trotting reporter who gets in all kinds of trouble. She is threatened by every animal imaginable from a cobra, to a lion to a herd of elephants in Africa. The Girl Who Saved The World is a combination of the segments from the Cliffhangers telefilm "Stop Susan Williams" plus an added ending.

THE GREAT AMERICAN BEAUTY CONTEST DVD (1973) $14.99 new transfer!
run time: 74 mins. USA. Color.
directed by: Robert Day
description: An unsubtle but effective TV-movie satire of the "Miss America" syndrome, Great American Beauty Contest stars Joanna Cameron as a fire-breathing feminist who enters the contest of the title. She plans to win the crown, then utterly destroy the contest by delivering a scathing attack on exploitation and sexism instead of an acceptance speech. A subplot concerns contest judge Louis Jourdan, who uses his position to extract sexual favors from the more desperate contestants. We won't spoil the twist ending, but we will note that one of the contestants is played by Farrah Fawcett, whose specialty is an endearingly ridiculous belly dance. WATCH CLIP

THE GUN DVD (1974) $14.99
run time: 71 minutes. Color. USA.
directed by: John Badham
description: Designed along the lines of the old multistoried film Tales of Manhattan (albeit with a tragic ending), the Richard Levinson/William Link TV-movie effort The Gun "stars" a .38 caliber revolver. Our first glimpse of the gun is as it is being assembled in the factory. From this point on, it passes through several hands, both legally and otherwise. After it has ruined--or, at least, radically altered--several lives, the gun is purchased by a homeowner...who has a curious, impulsive little boy. When originally telecast, The Gun ended with a "crawl" listing the most recent dates of accidental handgun deaths in the United States; the last date was November 13, 1974--which was also the day that The Gun made its network debut. WATCH CLIP

HAUNTS OF THE VERY RICH DVD (1972) $14.99
run time: 75 mins. USA. Color.
directed by: Paul Wendkos
description: A group of people, all of whom, we can only assume, are Very Rich, are on a plane flying to an island resort. When they land, they are greeted by a mysterious black man (Moses Gunn), and the plot thickens. Cloris Leachman gets a makeover from a mysterious black woman in a scene laden with homoerotic undertones, and Lloyd Bridges falls in love with her. We come to find out that Robert Reed is a minister tormented by his own conflicted spirituality. We also come to find out that just before setting off on their journey, each of the "guests" had narrowly escaped death -- or had they? WATCH CLIP

"HE & SHE" TV Series DVD (1967) 3-disc $23.99
run time: 264 minutes. USA. Color.
description: Dick and Paula Hollister (Richard Benjamin & Paula Prentiss) are a witty, sophisticated couple living in New York City. Dick is a comic-book artist who has become well-known for creating a superhero called Jetman, which has been turned into a TV show starring egocentric actor Oscar North (Jack Cassidy.) 12 episodes on 3 discs.

THE HORROR AT 37,000 FEET DVD (1973) $14.99
run time: 71 minutes. Color. USA.
directed by: David Lowell Rich
description: Featuring a smorgasbord of has-beens and never-weres only a Love Boat casting director could love, this silly '70s movie-of-the-week involves a demonically-possessed Druid artifact from an English monastery coming to supernatural life aboard a transatlantic airline flight, taking control of one of the passengers, and causing lots of made-for-TV mayhem. Panicked personnel include William Shatner as a besotted former priest, Buddy Ebsen as a boisterous tycoon and Chuck Connors as the gung-ho pilot. Even Gilligan's Island alum Russell Johnson is along for the ride. Shatner's performance falls a bit short of his eye-popping histrionics as another terrorized air traveler on an episode of The Twilight Zone.

HOUSE ON GREENAPPLE ROAD DVD (1970) $14.99
run time: 113 minutes. Color. USA.
directed by: Robert Day
description: House on Greenapple Road was an off-length TV movie (135 minutes instead of the usual 100), first telecast on The ABC Sunday Night Movie on January 11, 1970. Christopher George heads a stellar cast as Lt. Dan August, probing a homicide case in suburbia. The accused, a meek clerk (Tim O'Connor), had plenty of motive to kill his faithless wife (Janet Leigh). Only there's no weapon...and no corpse. After a series of revelatory flashbacks, August deduces that there may be a lot more people and issues involved than a missing housewife. Audience response to House on Greenapple Road was positive enough to spin off into a Dan August TV series. This pacey film boasts an amazing cast, including Julie Harris, William Windom, Walter Pidgeon, Edward Asner, Barry Sullivan, Keenan Wynn, Peter Mark Richmond, Lynda Day George, Eve Plumb, and many more. WATCH CLIP

I HEARD THE OWL CALL MY NAME DVD (1973) (TV) $14.99
run time: 79 minutes. Color. USA.
directed by: Daryl Duke
description: Made for television, I Heard the Owl Call My Name is set in an isolated Indian village in British Columbia. Tom Courtenay plays a naive young Anglican priest who is caught unawares by the primitiveness and poverty of his new parishioners. Bishop Dean Jagger, who's seen it all (and looks it!), uses alternating doses of toughness and tenderness to help Courtenay reach his flock. To do this, Courtenay must first reach within himself. Exquisitely adapted from the novel by Margaret Craven, I Heard the Owl Call My Name was first presented December 18, 1973.

THE IMMORTAL DVD (1969) (TV) $14.99
run time: 74 minutes. Color. USA.
directed by: Joseph Sargent
description: The Immortal is the pilot film for a TV series that reversed the concept of Run For Your Life: Instead of a hero with only a few years to live, the hero of The Immortal can never die! Injected with an experimental serum, Christopher George finds that his blood system has built up an immunity to all diseases and that his ageing process has been halted. That should have been the end of the story, but a dying millionaire (Barry Sullivan) hopes to drain George of his blood and transfuse it to his own body. George is forced to go into hiding; in the subsequent series, he did the "Fugitive" bit, travelling from town to town and touching the lives of the citizens therein.

ISN'T IT SHOCKING? DVD (1973) $14.99
run time: 73 mins. USA. Color.
directed by: John Badham
description: This curious made-for-TV movie stars Alan Alda as a police detective in a small New England town. The community's elderly are dying at an unusual rate, prompting Alda to investigate. He deduces that the old folks are being murdered, but can't find a motive (there are no robberies involved, and none of the victims have any enemies to speak of). The hunt for the killer becomes personal when Alda's best friend, police chief Lloyd Nolan, falls victim to the unknown assailant. With the help of his funky girlfriend Louise Lasser, Alda assembles the clues and arrives at a startling conclusion. Isn't it Shocking? is enhanced by the presence of several veteran character actors, including Ruth Gordon as a disheveled cat fancier.

KILLDOZER DVD (1974) $14.99
run time: 74 minutes. Color. USA.
directed by: Jerry London
description: This inventive and genuinely creepy TV movie is scripted by acclaimed science fiction author Theodore Sturgeon. The plot involves a group of construction workers building an airstrip on a South Pacific island during World War II, who disrupt an ancient native temple and uncover a strange meteorite sealed within its walls. When they attempt to move the massive rock with one of their bulldozers, the noncorporeal entity contained within it enters the machine itself, which later grinds to malevolent life and attacks the team members. Boasting high production values and excellent special effects for a TV production, Killdozer is propelled by a unique premise that has garnered the attention of the likes of Stephen King, Mystery Science Theater 3000, and Conan O'Brien.

L.A. 2017 DVD (1971) $14.99
run time: 74 minutes. USA. Color.
directed by: Steven Spielberg
description: "L.A. 2017" was a 1971 episode of the television series The Name of the Game. A science fiction piece shot for only $375,000, "L.A. 2017" revolves around a publisher (Gene Barry) who finds himself suddenly plunged 46 years into the future only to find that the people of Los Angeles are living underground to escape the pollution and under the thumb of a fascist government run by psychiatrists. The 24-year-old director Steven Spielberg used imaginative camera angles to drive the movie-length television episode across. Special features includes trailer and 1977 Stephen Spielberg interview.

THE LAST CHILD DVD (1971) $14.99
run time: 71 minutes. Color. USA.
directed by: John Llewellyn Moxey
description: In the badly-overpopulated future of 1994, each couple is only allowed one child and people over 65 are forbidden medical care under a very draconian set of laws. A young married couple (played by Michael Cole and Janet Margolin), pregnant with their second child (the first died shortly after birth) enlist the help of an elderly former US Senator (Van Heflin in his final screen performance) to help them escape to Canada as they are persued by a Population Control agent (Edward Asner). This Aaron Spelling produced ABC "Movie of the Week" originally aired on October 5th, 1971. WATCH CLIP

LAST OF THE GOOD GUYS DVD (1978) (TV) $14.99
run time: 96 minutes. Color. USA.
directed by: Theodore J. Flicker
description: If it hadn't been a TV movie, Last of the Good Guys might have made a good episode of Car 54 Where Are You? The main good guy is rookie cop Dennis Dugan, who is assigned to take over for an ailing veteran police officer. When the replaced officer dies, Dugan realizes that the man's widow will never receive his maximum pension. Thus, Dugan and three fellow cops contrive to convince "by the book" desk sergeant Robert Culp that the dead man is still alive. Like many films of its era, Last of the Good Guys strives for political correctness by drawing the four compassionate cops from diverse ethnic and sociological backgrounds: One black (Ji-Tu Cumbaka), one Indian (Hampton Fancher), one Asian (Richard Narita), and one ex-hippie (Dennis Dugan, of course).

THE LINDBERGH KIDNAPPING CASE DVD (1976) (TV) 2-disc $19.99
run time: 148 minutes. Color. USA.
directed by: Buzz Kulik
description: The Lindbergh Kidnapping Case, based on newspaper coverage, court testimony and eyewitness accounts, was dramatized for television by J.P. Miller. Cliff DeYoung and Sian star as Charles Lindbergh and his wife Anne Morrow Lindbergh. The couple's 2-year-old son Charles Jr. is kidnapped from the family's Hopewell, New Jersey home on March 1, 1932; though the ransom is paid, the child's body is found a few days later. All circumstantial evidence points to German expatriate Bruno Richard Hauptmann (Anthony Hopkins) as the kidnapper/murderer. While never seriously challenging the notion of Hauptmann's guilt, the film raises several questions concerning the fairness of his trial. The Lindbergh Kidnapping Case first aired in a three-hour timeslot on Febrary 26, 1976.

THE LONGEST NIGHT (1972) $14.99
run time: 71 minutes. Color. USA.
directed by: Jack Smight
description: The Longest Night is a harrowing made-for-TV movie based on a real-life kidnapping. Karen Chambers (Sallie Shockley) is abducted from the home of her parents (David Janssen & Phyllis Thaxter) and held for ransom. Her captors (James Farentino & Skye Aubrey) entomb her in a homemade coffin buried several feet underground, with an air hose as her only conduit to the outside world. As the police close in on the kidnappers and search for the girl, she desperately tries to stave off hysteria and to prevent the cutting off of her air supply. This movie was originally shown as an ABC Movie of the Week on September 12, 1972.

LOVE FOR RENT DVD (1979) $14.99
run time: 100 minutes. Color. USA.
directed by: David Miller
description: Lisa Eilbacher is the innocent midwestern girl who comes to wicked old New York looking for her sister Annette O'Toole. O'Toole is now gainfully employed by an "escort bureau" (note those quote marks), and Eilbacher is likewise drawn into this questionable lifestyle. The ad copy for this TV movie notes that the sisters are "forced to face reality", which is more than the scriptwriters did. Not surprisingly, Love for Rent was based on a Playboy magazine story (by Don Pierce). Its initial audience on November 11, 1979, was most likely close to zero, since a rival network was offering the TV premiere of Dog Day Afternoon.

THE LOVE WAR DVD (1970) $14.99
run time: 74 minutes. Color. USA.
directed by: George McCowan
description: The ongoing war between the planets Argon and Zinan is slated to be resolved in a winner-take-all battle, to be held on the "neutral" planet Earth. Among the six representatives of the two planets is Argon warrior Kyle (Lloyd Bridges), who upon assuming human form arrives in a sleepy California town. Kyle's militaristic resolve is challenged by the curious emotions stirred up via his relationship with local resident Sandy (Angie Dickinson). The Love War was originally telecast on March 10, 1970 as an "ABC Movie of the Week" presentation. WATCH CLIP

THE MAN WHO COULD TALK TO KIDS DVD (1973) $14.99
run time: 74 minutes. Color. USA.
directed by: Donald Wrye
description: Peter Boyle plays a social worker who deals with "special needs" children. Most of Boyle's energies are devoted to communicating with an emotionally disturbed teen (Scott Jacoby). The difficulty of the job is doubled by the fact that the boy is alienated from his anguished parents (Robert Reed, Collin Wilcox-Horne), who may unknowingly be part of the problem. Filmed in semi-documentary fashion, The Man Who Could Talk to Kids transcends its "disease of the week" earmarks to become a TV movie of lasting value. The film also helped Peter Boyle shake his bullheaded Joe screen image. WATCH CLIP

MURDER AT THE WORLD SERIES DVD (1977) (TV) $14.99
run time: 97 minutes. Color. USA.
directed by: Andrew V. McLaglen
description: A disturbed young man (Bruce Boxleitner) who had tried out for the Houston Astros baseball team and been rejected, plots to take his revenge by a series of kidnappings during the World Series. Janet Leigh & Murray Hamilton led an all star cast in this "movie of the week" which included Lynda Day George, Karen Valentine, Gerald S. O'Loughlin, and Michael Parks. Murder at the World Series premiered on March 20th, 1977. WATCH CLIP