Beginning as merely an inexpensive way to fill time in a network's schedule in the 1960s, the made-for-television movie has grown into a staple of network and cable television programming. More made-for-television movies are broadcast on network television each year than movies are released in theaters, and cable channels such as USA Network, Lifetime, and HBO all rely heavily on their own original movies to attract audiences. Although there are inadequacies inherent in the television movie formula—budgets are lower than for theatrical releases, commercial interruptions are distracting, and the television medium is more likely to restrict content than is the motion picture—made-for-television movies have risen in quality and critical acclaim over the years, so that now a made-for-television movie can be quite prestigious, justifiably attracting large audiences among television viewers who are looking for material that they might not find elsewhere.

The first made-for-television...