Best Tv Movie Movies of 1980

Shaggy and Scooby-Doo quit their Saturday morning TV series in pursuit of Hollywood stardom.

Docu-drama surrounding the events leading to the Soviet Union's invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968.

Lynda Carter's first musical TV special.

Mikhail Baryshnikov and his guests perform numbers from over a dozen renowned Broadway musicals including Oklahoma!, Fiddler on the Roof, Can-Can, The King and I, Cabaret, Where's Charley, Hello Dolly, Ain't Misbehavin', Guys and Dolls, The Boyfriend, Kiss Me Kate and A Chorus Line.

Willy Krueger, a lonely and aging widower, lives in a basement apartment with only his cat George for company. Finishing his work for the day as the custodian for the building, he ventures out on Christmas Eve to buy a tree and on the way, he imagines he is a well-dressed gentleman while peering at some fine tailoring in a shop window along the snowy street. Returning home, he falls asleep listening to an LP by The Mormon Tabernacle Choir, dreaming that he is conducting them in carols of the season. Awakening to find some carollers outside his window, he beckons them to visit him offering hot chocolate, but they leave after only one song. In trimming the tree, he places upon it the mittens left behind by Clarissa, the youngest of the carolling group. Handling figures of the small nativity beneath his tree, Willy finds himself in the manger for the very first Christmas.

When a Jewish songstress is plucked from the stage and sent to Auschwitz, she and other musicians find themselves assigned to a terrible task—using their talents to soothe fellow prisoners who are sentenced to die in the gas chambers.

Two Hobbits struggle to destroy the Ring in Mount Doom while their friends desperately fight evil Lord Sauron's forces in a final battle.

George Orr, a man whose dreams can change waking reality, tries to suppress this unpredictable gift with drugs. Dr. Haber, an assigned psychiatrist, discovers the gift to be real and hypnotically induces Mr. Orr to change reality for the benefit of mankind --- with bizarre and frightening results.

True story of Clarence Gideon's fight to be appointed counsel at the expense of the state. This landmark case led to the Supreme Court's decision which extended this right to all criminal defendants.

Even the most devout Star Wars fan might not know that filmmaker and journalist Michel Parbot was once given unprecedented access to the set, stars, and filmmakers behind The Empire Strikes Back. The resulting work, The Making of The Empire Strikes Back, has apparently never been commercially released. Most of the footage has been lost, but 15 minutes has circulated online in recent years. Now, the 1 hour cut of Michel Parbot’s lost documentary has been found.

A runner, serving a life sentence at Folsom Prison, works at becoming the world's fastest miler and wins a chance to compete for a spot on the Olympic team.

Dominick Hide, a time traveller from the year 2130, is studying the London transport system of 1980. Time travellers are supposed to be observers, and are strictly forbidden to land their flying saucers. One time traveller who broke this rule accidentally killed a dog, changing history and causing many future people to disappear. Inspired by his Great Aunt Mavis, Dominick decides to find his great great grandfather. He begins to land in 1980, where his strange clothes and speech make him seem an eccentric oddball. His quest brings him into contact with beautiful boutique owner Jane, and they fall in love. As Dominick's visits become more frequent and more prolonged, he increasingly risks his indiscretion being discovered by his boss, Caleb Line, and every moment he spends in the past increases the danger that he will catastrophically change the future

Sammy Garrett, the wife of a champion rodeo performer, is tired of her subsidiary role at home as a housewife. So she becomes an aspiring rodeo rider herself, encouraged by her one-time performer mother, and eventually confronts her new lifestyle, despite her husband's disapproval. Based on the true story of rodeo champion Sue Pirtle.

A poor, elderly white woman living in a tenement in a black ghetto is befriended by a neighborhood boy, and the two of them form a mutually beneficial relationship: he provides her companionship and protection, and she becomes the mother he never had.

Hosted by Mark Hamill, this revealing documentary offers behind-the-scenes glimpses into the amazing special effects that transformed George Lucas’ vision for Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back into reality!

Animalympics is all about the Animal Olympics Contest where all the animals around the world gather to take part in everything from skiing in North America to the very long marathon race in humid conditions.

A couple of private eyes, a laid-back Californian and a streetwise New Yorker, team up to track down a killer in Hawaii known as "The Cane Field Murderer" in this unsuccessful pilot to a detective series.

A drifter stranded in Kansas accepts a job offer from a wheat harvester who, in desperation over his cancer and financial woes, attempts suicide but becomes a father-figure to the young man.

An acclaimed TV miniseries based on the classic sci-fi novel.

A Liverpool tarmac gang set off for a contract in Middlesborough. After a day of work, the group are approached by two gypsies who offer them a lucrative side job.

A lighthearted dramatization of the autobiography of Harold Krents, a blind Harvard Law School student trying to make his way in a sighted world.

When Rupert and his friend Amelia find the new substitute teacher doing odd things, they discover that she is actually a witch with a magical talking cat who sought them out in order to stop an evil coven of witches from destroying her.

This Western adventure, inspired by Kenny Rogers' hit song, tells how fictional gambler Brady Hawkes, going in search of a young son he never knew he had, teams up with an impetuous young admirer and a shady lady on his journey, which also involves him with an arrogant railroad owner and a gang of villains.

The Titanic disaster as seen through the eyes of one couple in each of the three classes on board.

Baptista has two daughters: Kate and Bianca. Everyone wants to wed the fair Bianca, but nobody's much interested in problem child, Kate. Baptista declares that he won't give Bianca away in a marriage until he's found a husband for Kate, so all the suitors begin busily hunting out a madman who's willing to do it, and they find Petruchio: a man who's come to wive it wealthily in Padua. And Petruchio marries Kate with a plan to tame her, while everybody else begins scheming to win Bianca's hand.

A jive-talking Easter Bunny named Jack decides to retire, so his friends throw him a crazy roast before he officially hangs up his basket. A series of kooky flashbacks tells of his life-story and career, but will all this reminiscing only convince him not to quit after all?

The story of the life and times of the legendary Hollywood blonde bombshell, Marilyn Monroe, from her meteoric rise to stardom to her marriages and untimely death.

In March 1970, a U.S. Army officer arrived at the Iowa farm of Peg and Gene Mullen and informed them that their son Michael had been killed in Vietnam by "friendly fire." Their determined attempts to learn more about the circumstances of their son's death are the subject of this true account film.

Viola and Sebastian are lookalike twins, separated by a shipwreck. Viola lands in Illyria, where she disguises herself like her brother and goes into the service of the Duke Orsino. Orsino sends her to help him woo the Lady Olivia, who doesn't want the Duke, but finds that she likes the new messenger the Duke's sending. Then, of course, Viola's brother shows up, and merry hell breaks loose. Meanwhile, Olivia's uncle and his cohorts are trying to find some way to get back at Olivia's officious majordomo, Malvolio.

A teenage runaway attempts to readjust to home and family life in Minnesota after returning home after years of working on the streets of New York City as a hooker and tries desperately to regain her parents' understanding and love.

Billie Dupree is a flight instructor at an old Texas airport. When a young girl in a wheelchair finds the airport by watching gliders fly, she decides she wants to learn how to fly. Dupree teaches her to fly with some special controls compensating for her handicap. Koup Trenton runs an aircraft repair service and is trying desperately to get an old airplane back in the air. The three, together, put the young girl and the old plane up in the air.

Dick and Mandy, a young working class couple, move into a council house in Canterbury, and find Mr. Butcher, one of their former teachers, living next door. Mandy's unmarried sister, Gloria, is constantly dropping in, and will not take any hints that the couple would prefer to be left alone, until her presence finally goads them to action.

Second World War drama - A young woman decides against working in a munitions factory, and lands a post with the signals corps attempting to crack the Enigma code.

A rich merchant, Antonio is depressed for no good reason, until his good friend Bassanio comes to tell him how he's in love with Portia. Portia's father has died and left a very strange will: only the man that picks the correct casket out of three (silver, gold, and lead) can marry her. Bassanio, unfortunately, is strapped for cash with which to go wooing, and Antonio wants to help, so Antonio borrows the money from Shylock, the money-lender. But Shylock has been nursing a grudge against Antonio's insults, and makes unusual terms to the loan. And when Antonio's business fails, those terms threaten his life, and it's up to Bassanio and Portia to save him.

Filmed on location at Alcatraz Island, this two-part "whole story" actually concentrates on a handful of the denizens behind the cold grey walls of "The Rock". Michael Beck plays the real-life Clarence Carnes, an Oklahoma Choctaw Indian said to be the youngest man ever incarcerated in the notorious maximum security prison. Serving a 99-year sentence for a gas station holdup and murder, Carnes makes periodic attempts to escape, the final attempt being the most violent. Many of the subordinate characters are fictional (as are most of the details concerning Carnes' escape efforts); the one exception is Robert Stroud, the "Birdman of Alcatraz", here portrayed by Art Carney as a gentle, kindly philosopher. Telly Savalas, a costar of the Burt Lancaster vehicle Birdman of Alcatraz, also guest starred in the 1980 film. Originally titled Alcatraz and Clarence Carnes, this made-for-TV movie wavers between gritty realism and "I'm bustin' outta here!" artifice.

A modern-day pirate hijacks private yachts, steals the valuables on board, and sends the passengers to the bottom of the ocean. But his current captives have no intentions of being tossed into the briny.

A british colonel and his wife decide to remain in India after the departure of the British raj in the 1940s.

A wife is sick and tired of her husband's infidelities, so she leaves home and goes back to grad-school. There she meets many self-confident women who help her find her own voice.

In an attempt to be rehabilitated, a rapist goes to therapy while in prison.

Hamlet comes home from university to find his uncle married to his mother, and his father's ghost haunting the battlements and scaring the watch. Then his father's ghost directs him to seek revenge.

In this prelude to the television series 'The Raccoons', Bert, Melissa, and Ralph Raccoon have their home accidentally stolen when it is cut down to become a Christmas tree.

A family of gnomes preparing for the wedding of their eldest son must engage in a battle of wits with an enemy family of vicious trolls.

Steve Martin's second NBC special was made up entirely of sketches. Highlights include: Marty Robbins' "El Paso" with monkeys; "The Death Of Socrates"; and "Bizarre Oddities Of The World."

Captures the essence of Willa Cather's haunting story of Pittsburgh circa 1900. Lost in a world of fantasy, young working-class Paul dreams of escaping his dreary existence in turn-of-the-century Pittsburgh. As fate would have it Paul gets his chance by stealing some money and subsequently running off to glamorous New York City.

Prospero, the true Duke of Milan is now living on an enchanted island with his daughter Miranda, the savage Caliban and Ariel, a spirit of the air. Raising a sorm to bring his brother - the usurper of his dukedom - along with his royal entourage. to the island. Prospero contrives his revenge.

A puppy encounters a series of tragedies and losses brought on by the evils of uncaring humans as she tries to find a family and a place to call home.

Past and present intertwine: An elderly couple returns to the hotel where they became close when they were young and flashbacks to the earlier visit reveal the origins of both their pleasures and problems. Somewhere between the past and the present, Dennis Potter attempted to find "the shape of a life, of two lives..."

Based on the autobiography of Brooke Hayward, daughter of famous Broadway producer Leland Hayward and actress Margaret Sullavan, who grows up in the glamorous, cruel and emotionally unstable world of her parents.

The horse Gay Future is at the centre of an Irish betting syndicate in 1974 which saw trainer Antony Collins present a poor performing horse at his stables. The betting stakes were subsequently raised, before the real horse was entered in the race.