The USA World Premiere Movie Project: Week One

Happy New Year!

It looks like 2014 may prove to be a grand year for Made for TV Mayhem. For one, I have a bit more time to dedicate to the blog and I have a few fun posts I hope to get to soon. However, one of the most exciting things to happen to MFTVM in some time is a new collaboration with Paul Freitag-Fey of The Daily Grindhouse. We are uniting in our love for the USA World Premiere Movie and embarking on a year long retrospective! Paul just posted his first piece, which is on The Forgotten!

There are many things to love about the USA TV movies (and Paul hits on many of those points in his post), but one of my favorite things about USA is that they breathed new life into what was a dying genre. Arguably, the TVM output from the Big Three in the 90s was still decent, but they were heavily concentrated on true crime thrillers and those always cheerful disease-of-the week pics. USA was different. Certainly they dabbled in all kinds of stories, but they brought back sensational drama and fun chillers and thrillers of the golden age. Their productions may have held that late 80s/early 90s sheen, but the passion was pure 70s old school. Both Paul and I will be talking more about these films though the year, and if that doesn't make 2014 look crazy awesome, very little else will.

Me-TV's Summer of Classic TV Blogathon

As a non-cable-renting-retro-TV-loving gal, I adore Me-TV. It is our home's one stop shop for great entertainment. You can imagine my excitement when the folks at the Classic TV Blog Association and Me-TV joined forces for Me-TV's Summer of Classic TV Blogathon, which is coming your way from July 15th - 19th. I'll be talking about Columbo on the 15th, and posting links to the other content as we go along.

The Classic TV Blog Association is looking for other people to join the podcast and they also sent out this press release, so here are all the deets you need to know:

"The Classic TV Blog Association will host Me-TV's Summer of Classic TV Blogathon on July 15-19. The blogathon will consist of blog posts about TV series currently on the Me-TV schedule. A blogathon post may be: an overview of a TV series; a profile of one of the series' stars; an article on the blogger's favorite episode(s), etc. Any blogger may participate, providing that he or she complies with the family-friendly blogging guidelines of the Classic TV Blog Association.

No more than three bloggers can post about the same TV series. All posts will appear on the blogger's web site. Individuals are responsible for the content of their blog posts, to include the use of any photographs, video clips, etc. A master schedule of all blogathon posts will appear on the Classic TV Blog Association's web site. The number of participating bloggers will be limited to 60 and posting dates will be assigned to participants.

Each post will contain the following verbiage at the beginning or end: "This post is part of Me-TV's Summer of Classic TV Blogathon hosted by the Classic TV Blog Association. Click here to view more posts in this blogathon. You can also click here to learn more about Me-TV and view its summer line-up of classic TV shows."

If you're interested in participating, send an e-mail to classic.tv.blog.assoc@gmail.com with the subject line of "Me-TV Blogathon." Be sure your e-mail includes your name, blog's name and web address, and the title of your post about a TV series on Me-TV's summer schedule.

The cut-off date for accepting blogathon entries will be Friday, July 12."

Oh, and one more thing... 

You can also see who is currently participating, what they are writing about, when they are writing it and where you can find them by clicking on this all-purpose link.

Classic TV Variety Show Blogathon!

 The fine folks at the Classic TV Blog Association are putting on a crazy awesome blogathon this week. We are looking at different variety shows and the thon (as it were) will last from February 3 - 5th. My entry will come up on Tuesday and I hope you enjoy it. For now, here is a list to participating blogs who have been posted so far. Linked for your pleasure! Ooh la la! Anyway, I'll be updating it through the week. It's all fantastic so dive in!

How Sweet it Was dishes on The Judy Garland Show
It's About TV waxes poetic about The Dean Martin Show
Outspoken and Freckled covers one of my favorites, The Flip Wilson Show
And TV Gems tackles The Muppet Show

Four more blog posts today:

The Thrilling Days of Yesteryear takes a look at The Jerry Lewis Show
Michael's TV Tray gets the goods on the Brady Bunch Variety Hour 
Go get nostalgic with a Frank Sinatra Show Christmas
Classic Sports and Media TV looks back at Howard Cosell's Saturday Night Live on ABC

And even more posts today!

Have some toe-tapping fun at the Classic Film and TV Cafe's look back at Shindig

 

Last Call at Southfork!

If you'd like to write a review of the new Dallas, please email me at amanda@madefortvmayhem.com by Wednesday morning at 10 AM (EST, preferably) so I can get it up by the evening. I have already received two wonderful responses, and as luck would have it, iTunes uploaded the first two episodes so I'm also going to chime in on what I thought.

And don't worry TVM fanatics, I'm going to be posting a new movie review either tonight or tomorrow. Thanks all for indulging my Dallas obsessions!

Help a Dallas Fan Out!

Tonight is the night, gang! I am soooooo excited for the new Dallas, I can't even begin to form the right words. But check this out: I don't have cable. Since I went back to school I learned the hard way that cable is a luxury. This makes me sad, but I know the new Dallas will eventually show up on my doorstep (hopefully via Hulu or iTunes).

However, my sadness will surely turn to gladness if you lucky cable subscribers would email me your thoughts on the show. It's easy: Email me at amanda@madefortvmayhem.com and let me know what you think of the new millennium's most dysfunctional family.

Your reviews can be big or small, positive or negative (although any unfavorable positions should be worded without the normal vitriol that is reserved for other sites/blogs), just be honest and please let me know what you liked or disliked, not just that you thought it was good/bad, por favor. I will cobble together the best parts and create a community driven review. And I will link to your site if you like, so please forward your url along with your thoughts.

I will live vicariously through you, and honestly, if I can't be there myself this is the best way I can  think of to enjoy Dallas 2012!



Who knew the end was just the beginning?
(ad courtesy of Vintage Toledo TV)

Yahoo for Yahoo Groups!

Come and take a look inside! Muwhahahaha!
Back in the day, I had a Yahoo Group dedicated to TVMs. I was perusing it yesterday and got all nostalgic for those glory days just a few years ago when you could still find a lot of made for television movies on various cable channels such as Encore Mystery and TBS. There's still a few around, but the numbers have dropped immensely and it's sad. I also realized that my group was pretty dang fun and extremely interactive. I'd love for anyone who visits here and is interested in this little genre of film to please sign up. I think leaving comments is so completely awesome, but this will allow fans to talk about whatever we want, whenever we want.

One of us! Gooble gobble. Gooble gobble. One of us. Sign up now!

My group promises to be full of salacious surprises!