Darin Magaven

[gman41]

Two movies of Darin Magaven, also the father on A Christmas Story, I'd love to see once again are as follows,

Law and Order. This is a movie about a law enforcement family from the 40's on up to modern times which was the 1970's when it was made.

Tribes. This is about a drill sgt in the Vietnam era marines trying to make a marine out of hippie Jan Michael Vincent. I believe I still have this on VHS but unsure of how it held up all these years.

 

[Nathan Dodge]

Tribes. This is about a drill sgt in the Vietnam era marines trying to make a marine out of hippie Jan Michael Vincent. I believe I still have this on VHS but unsure of how it held up all these years.

You must mean "Darren McGavin."

TRIBES is obviously a product of the Vietnam era and its style shows. Lens bursts--or "lens flares", are popular again in today's movies--the hippie background of Jan-Michael Vincent's pacifist, dream/flashback sequences of JMV and his maxi-dress-wearing girlfriend, etc. It's still fascinating look into the time and the two sides. The best performance of the three leads is Earl Holliman, whose Marine Corps D.I. is one bad dude.

 

[Doctor Strange]

Let me tell you, though: I was 15 when Tribes originally aired as an ABC Movie of the Week in 1970, and it was damn impressive - and very unusual - for a mainstream production at that moment, in that it respected both its hippie protagonist and McGavin's tough drill sergeant. It was thoughtful and well done, and it made a big impression in my high school, anyway.

I watched about half of it recently, and thought it held up pretty well, given its extreme 1970ness.

 

[Nathan Dodge]

Let me tell you, though: I was 15 when Tribes originally aired as an ABC Movie of the Week in 1970, and it was damn impressive - and very unusual - for a mainstream production at that moment, in that it respected both its hippie protagonist and McGavin's tough drill sergeant. It was thoughtful and well done, and it made a big impression in my high school, anyway.

I watched about half of it recently, and thought it held up pretty well, given its extreme 1970ness.

I'm not surprised at the existence of a high-quality telefilm at that stage of the game. Ever read Movies Made for Television by Alvin H. Marrill? It's a fine resource for most every TV movie made, though it hasn't been updated in some time. Seems like TV movies were a promising concept until they descended into "Disease of the Week" and Lifetime Channel dreck. I remember several excellent ones, particularly from the 1970s. Even the less-than-stellar offerings like, say, Scream of the Wolf (1974) has its appeal. These were staples on TBS once upon a long ago, but alas, no more.

 

[Doctor Strange]

I haven't read that book, but I lived through the era of the improving made-for-TV movie as a viewer. Some of them were very good, especially the supernatural-themed ones that weren't far from the territory of Twilight Zone/Night Gallery (which itself started with a TV flick pilot, with its best segment directed by a very young Steven Spielberg) - Something Evil, Crowhaven Farm, Haunts of the Very Rich, The Night Stalker, The People...

As Universal figured out how to transition from B-movies and bottom-of-the-double-feature programmers to made-for-TV films (and the many series they spawned thereafter from pilots) - which, similarly to the old cheapies, were shot fast on standing sets with simple lighting and basic editing - there was a period when some quite interesting films were made. But once you got past roughly 1967-1972, it was all downhill to today's Hallmark/Lifetime/SyFy dreck!

 

[Wally_Hood]

Indeed, wasn't Spielberg's Duel a made-for-tv movie?

 

[Doctor Strange]

Yup. But I have to admit, I somehow missed it and didn't see it until years after it had first aired, when Jaws and Close Encounters had made Spielberg famous.

 

[Tomasso]

You must mean "Darren McGavin."

.

Pedant, stickler ...................

 

[bunnyb.gal]

I haven't read that book, but I lived through the era of the improving made-for-TV movie as a viewer. Some of them were very good, especially the supernatural-themed ones that weren't far from the territory of Twilight Zone/Night Gallery (which itself started with a TV flick pilot, with its best segment directed by a very young Steven Spielberg) - Something Evil, Crowhaven Farm, Haunts of the Very Rich, The Night Stalker, The People...

As Universal figured out how to transition from B-movies and bottom-of-the-double-feature programmers to made-for-TV films (and the many series they spawned thereafter from pilots) - which, similarly to the old cheapies, were shot fast on standing sets with simple lighting and basic editing - there was a period when some quite interesting films were made. But once you got past roughly 1967-1972, it was all downhill to today's Hallmark/Lifetime/SyFy dreck!

There were so many super horror-type made for TV films and series made at that period. I was too young at the time to appreciate them now so I've been trying to rediscover them. I've always remembered and loved "The Night Stalker" series, "Night Gallery" and "Dark Shadows", but one which really stuck out for me was "The Dark Secret of Harvest Home" and would give a limb to see it reissued uncut on DVD. I've recently seen "Bad Ronald" which was nicely creepy.
I'm going to seek out some of your abovementioned, especially with Halloween coming up and all...