ABC Movie Of The Week

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The ABC Movie of the Week was a weekly television anthology series established by Barbara Seiden and Chase Mellen III for ABC Network featuring made-for-TV movies, that aired on the ABC network in various permutations from 1969 to 1975. “Love Boat“ was first aired as a MotW pilot before it was a spin-off series.


The MotW originally aired on Tuesday nights at 8:30 pm Eastern/7:30 pm Central. Established series The Mod Squad acted as a lead-in from 7:30 to 8:30, bringing the younger demographic. The shorter running time of the film freed the 10 p.m. time slot for a full 60-minute program, initially Marcus Welby, M.D. during the first season. Starting earlier at 8:30 could also prevent viewers from switching to competing movies at 9:00. Beginning with the 1971 season, ABC added a second MotW on Saturday night and adjusted the titles of the shows to the Movie of the Week and Movie of the Weekend. The following season, the Saturday installment was moved to Wednesday night, and the titles were adjusted to Tuesday Movie of the Week and Wednesday Movie of the Week.



During the 1973-74 season, ABC added another movie on Saturday nights to their schedule, this time titled the ABC Suspense Movie, and usually consisting of thriller, mystery and horror type films (some of which were reruns of movies which had originally aired as Movies of the Week).


Most of the actors in non-recurring roles appeared only once or twice in the series. Notable exceptions who appeared in three or more films as different characters include Doug McClure, Darren McGavin, Dennis Weaver, Earl Holliman, Leonard Nimoy, Barbara Eden, Elizabeth Montgomery, Donna Mills, Ed Nelson, Ken Berry, Connie Stevens, Myrna Loy and William Windom.



Many of the telefilms had actors credited as guest stars, special guest stars and "special appearance by," even if the movie was not a pilot for a series. Death Race and The Weekend Nun billed their lead actors as special guest stars. In the unusual case of Assault on the Wayne, all of the first-billed cast members were credited as guest stars.