Whether it’s the incredibly bad acting, the scripted that resembled something a pre-schooler put together or a combination of both there have been some Made for TV movies. Here is the place to vent about the.

This is a spin-off of the Best TV Movie


My pick is the 1987 version of The Secret Garden.

I don't know who wrote the script for it but it had very little to do with the book. They changed the relationship between Mary & Colin so they were no longer cousins. In this version Mary's mother and Colin's mother were childhood friends so the Craven's were Mary's godparents. At the end they had a grown up Mary return to Miselthwaite Manor were she falls in love with Colin. Not only that Dickon became a member of the psychic friends network and can predict his own death. I'm not going to talk about the fact that although the movie is set in England the cast was American and nobody attempted a British accent, although if they did it may have made this movie even worst.

Scarlett

The book was bad enough, but the mini-series was worse. Timothy Dalton was no Rhett Butler. I think only Clark Gable could pull it off. One part that was bad was Scarlett getting raped and then accused of murder.

mjcapri, did you remember that Colin Firth played grownup Colin? Also, Dickon was Bastian from Neverending Story. Many of the actors were British (I think only Mary and Dickon weren't) and the actress playing Mary kept changing from a British accent to an American one. Come to think of it, I think the actor who played Colin did, too.

I haven't watched this movie since 1998 when it ran on the Disney channel, and for some reason I just remember people talking with American accents. As for Colin Firth being in this movie, if he's smart he won't put this on his resume.

The Sun Also Rises, with Hart Bochner and Jane Seymour, is a woeful adaptation of my favorite novel of all time. My English teacher had us watch it when it aired, and even he threw in the towel halfway through.

Any of those Tori Spelling vehicles. The only one that I can remember by name is 'Mother May I sleep With Danger'.

Speaking of movies that completely screwed up the book they were based on was a TV movie adaptation of the book "One Child" by Torey Hayden. They massacred the book, and the author agreed. Apparently, there's another adaptation of one of Hayden's books with Kiefer Sutherland that's better, but I haven't seen it.

Have just seen Beauty with Jamey Sheridan and Janine Turner which stank

My definition of a "bad" TV movie is one that burns such an indelible impression of badness in your mind that it spills over into everyday life.

For example: I used to love the musical Once Upon a Mattress. I always thought it was a fun, silly little play full of catchy tunes and quirky characters.

Then they made a TV movie of it. Not the classic TV version with Carol Burnett, but a newer version that aired a couple of years ago.

I tried to watch it, but after half an hour of sitting there with my mouth hanging open at its unmitigated awfulness, I had to change the channel. I've hated everything about that show ever since. Ruined! Thanks, awful TV Movie Making People.

ETA: And that goes for the insipid Matthew Broderick Music Man as well.

I never saw that one..who played Danger?

How about the movie "The Accident: A Moment of Truth Movie." That one deserves points, especially for the portrayal of the victim's family.

Note to the filmmakers: Demonizing the victim's family so that the viewer would wish they had died in the accident, too, never works.

"Liar Liar: Between Father and Daughter," about a girl named Kelly who accuses her father of molesting her, but no one believes her because she is known to lie. Aside from Kelly looking like a scared chihuahua and reprehensible acting, this might just have the worst script of any TV movie. Here are some gems:

Lawyer: Kelly, we are losing this case because of you. (Way to make a kid feel better.)

Mother: You are forcing me to pick between my husband and my child and I don't know which one to choose. (Your child, you cold-hearted bitch.)

Older Sister, admitting in court that her father molested her, too: It was always ANALLY. DADDY said it wasn't SEX unless it was in the VAGINA.

Kelly to Older Sister: You knew! You know you knew! And now I know! I know you knew you knew. You know you knew! (That is definitely not the quote verbatum, but you get the idea.)

We have a winner. Gawd, that movie was a swirling vortex of suck.

Any movie showing at 9 pm Saturday on the SciFi channel owns this thread.

The only person I think that might have been able to pull it off would have been Chad Everett. For some reason I always remember that stupid Scarlett delivery scene when I think of the movie.

My vote: Anne of Green Gables: The Continuing Story. Poor Kevin Sullivan just couldn't leave well enough alone after he was no longer allowed to use L.M. Montgomery's books to make the movies, so he decided to come up with one on his own. The only things worthwhile in that movie were when Anne and Gil get married and when Anne finds Gil and rushes into his arms. Oh and I'm putting a vote in for Anne of Green Gables: A New Beginning because Barbara Hershey is in the cast, so it's automatically crap.

Tee-hee, I kind of like "Scarlett". One of those "so bad, it's good" kind of things.

Oh no, Scarlett sucked big time. The book was bad enough (Scarlett owns a town in Ireland). But the producers of the movie decided the public wouldn't like the whole hiding the IRA in the town thing, so they totally changed it to her getting involved with the other land owner and being jailed for his murder. yeah, that is a muuuuuuch better plot.

The only thing that will be worse is when they make Rhett Butler's People into a movie. I couldn't even finish the book -- which is saying something for me.

"15 and Pregnant" starring Kirsten Dunst.

"Ooooh! It's so cute!"

I saw 5 minutes of that movie and I wanted to smack her.

Here's a goodie:

With only one or two exceptions, any movie or miniseries based on a Danielle Steele book.

ACK.

I would say the samething for any movie based on Nora Robets books. If the character is described as being in her mid to late 20's Heather Locklear shouldn't be playing the part.

How could I forget that one! OMG, I hate that movie. I haven't met anyone who likes it. I want to smack her too, but I equally want to smack her mother, played by Park Overall! Enabling much? One of the wsorst scenes is when Park's character makes her younger daughter, who has a leg in a cast, give up her seat for the pregnant one GRRRRl!

"Night Sins", based on a Tami Hoag book

And "The '60's" and "The 70's".

"The 70's" was even worse, as all the major events of the decade were afforded all of 2 minutes of screen time, coupled with incredibly bad acting.

"The '60's" managed to be mediocre at least.

Oh my, that scene makes me so angry every time I see it. And I get sucked into that stupid movie every time, too.

Yes, Scarlett was a vat of suck. I thought it kind of started off good, and it had people I liked (Jean Smart), but the farther along it goes, the more it falls apart.

My vote for number 1 most terrible TV movie is that Lifetime achievement - Bella Mafia. Oh my GOD - what a terrible, terrible movie. And it has actors that are supposed to be good in other things, but they all suck in this. It is so long, and so convoluted, and has the WORST dramatic music playing in the background. It's one of those you have to watch just to see what a train wreck it is.

On the third Anne of Green Gables film: I wouldn't dislike it so intensely, were it not for my wholehearted love for the first two films, which were near-perfect pieces of television. The ending of Anne of Avonlea was perfect. This is the ending the series needs. As far as I am concerned, the third film doesn't exist.

Got one from 30 plus years ago..."A Sensitive, Passionate Man", starring David Janssen as an aerospace engineer whose life spins out of control due to alcoholism. The only scenes I remember clearly from the movie (I was probably laughing too hard the rest of the way) are:

Janssen showing up shit-faced drunk at Career Day at his kid's school, demonstrating how a rocket launches, and slurring something like, "And Boom goes the rocket...And here...Embarrassingly...Go I", after which he left the classroom (to throw up, maybe?), followed by his kid yelling, "I HATE YOU, DAD!"

Angie Dickinson, as his wife, having to take a job passing out free food samples at the grocery, and running into one of her rich friends while doing so (handing her a piece of cheese on a toothpick, asking, "Would you like a taste? It's wine flavored.")

And, of course, Janssen, hammered again, falling down the stairs, and yelling, "MAAAARGIE!!!" (Angie's character's name was "Margie".)

All pure badness in its most delightful form...

God, yes. But it was CBS, not Lifetime, FYI, though Lifetime reairs it.
I think the part where the rival assassin tries to seduce all of the widows, including, unbeknownst to either of them, his own mother, had to be the lowest point.

I kind of like Danielle Steele movies in that "so bad, cheesy way" but the one that I've seen that is particularly heinous: Palomino starring Lindsay Frost. I mean, seriously it was unbearable. It was like the kitchen sink and more thrown in--betrayed woman, finding one's roots, hot cowboys! (uhh..sort of), mother figures, horses!, urban vs. rural dynamics=forbidden romances, sad old couples, angst!, we can't be together...for stupid reasons, death(s)!, accidents, angst, paralysis!, trying to walk again, moping, cute orphans with disabilities, horses!!!!, hot cowboy sex in a tub! (uh sort of hot), adoption, horses and kids!, and finally true love. It was truly a new stage in Danielle Steele movies.

I don't post a lot, but I have to chime in on this thread with "A Wrinkle in Time" from 2003. Anyone else remember it?

It was horrible - ugly & badly acted on top of major changes to the novel (I don't remember the changes exactly, but I do remember being angry about them).

I remember that I was teaching the novel to my students right when it came out, and I had to bribe them not to watch it with the promise that I'd tape it and we could watch it after we finished studying the book. I then re-bribed them with an entirely different movie in lieu of this one because it was so awful.

Well, that's the thing with the books. About 58 million tragedies get thrown at the female protagonist (who without fail is always stunningly gorgeous and looking much younger than her age--early to mid 40's), but there's always the happy ending. It's grindingly predictable.

I never saw it, but I heard "The 10th Kingdom" was really bad. Which is a shame, I always like those alternate universe, what happened after the end of the fairy tale stories.

And critics trash this one:

"The Thorn Birds: The Missing Years"
The acting is fine, and technically, so is the script--but it COMPLETELY lacks continuity with the original film. First off, it doesn't cover the 19 years not featured in the original miniseries, it only covers about A year. The characters are completely different, the storyline doesn't fit, etc.

Word. And Disney's "The Ring of Endless Light," with blond, chubby Ryan Merriman playing Adam.

I don't care what anyone says, I absolutely love this mini. Haven't watched it in years but my sister and I were like the two people watching it when it aired and my sister even bought it (on tape no less). I've loved it ever since.

I just bought the DVD of the The 10th Kingdom about two months ago, and still thought it was brilliant. Aside from a cast that really seemed to love what they were doing and a movie that was gorgeous just to look at, I can't not love a movie that returned fairy tales to their original form of the girls saving themselves rather than being rescued and did it so well. (The number of people I heard talk about that being political correctness rather than a return from an unfair theft of power is a whole 'nother problem.) I've always wondered if the fact that they stretched it to 5 parts and 10 hours with commercials hurt its reception since that requires a certain amount of commitment.

Thirding this, Tenth Kingdom is one of my all time favorites, it caused me to become a die hard Scott Cohen fangirl, obligated to watch anything featuring Scott Cohen including Fatal Contact: Bird Flu in America .

Followed Thomas Gibson's work for a few years, which also made me obligated to watch some stinkers, such as Evil Never Dies, someone kills Detective Mark Ryan's wife, he goes nuts and ends up the security guard on a college campus. College is doing Frankenstein style experiments, and re-animates his wife's killer.

Also an honorable mention goes to Pandora's Clock, someone has a mysterious virus on a passenger jet, passenger jet can't land anywhere. Loads of sappy, laughable scenes.

Virtually any TV disaster movie can fit in this category. Big-screen disaster movies are cheesy enough, but small-screen ones, especially the earthquake movies of the early 2000s (The Big One, 10.5. etc.) make me cringe.

I don't remember the title, but Fox showed a movie about killer ants. Cheesy doesn't even begin to describe it. At times they used real ants, other times they used CGI ants. I laughed at it all the way through. Especially when the people were trying to out run ants. It wasn't like they were giant ants. They were regular sized ants that ate people.

I hated Sweetwater: A True Rock Story. First of all, the wrap around story about the completely fictional journalist tracking down the lead singer? Totally unnecessary. And the main story? Maybe I'm just an unsympathetic prig, but I refuse to care about this charisma-free band of unwashed hippies that no one's ever heard of and no one cares to hear about. And I didn't give a fuzzy rat's ass about Nansi Nevins's plight (made worse by Amy Jo Johnson's hammy acting). "I'm a famous singer! I sang for millions at Woodstock and television!" Yeah, sweetheart, millions flocked to Woodstock, not to see Hendrix, Joplin, the Who, or Jefferson Airplane. Oh no!! They came in droves to see your unknown, bony self and listen to the dulcet tones your albatross-like voice!

Thank god that movie hasn't played on TV in years. I'm still bitter.

Yay for the Tenth Kingdom love! I have it on dvd and I absolutely love it. It's clever, sweet, and hilarious. Plus, Scott Cohen and the guy playing Prince Wendell are adorable and I'm shallow.

There was a time in the late 90's/early 00's when MTV went ape-shit and starting making terrible TV movies. The three I remember were Love Song (Monica falls in love with a white dude and Teck from The Real World has a blink-and-you'll-miss-him role), Jailbait(unfunny comedy about banging a sixteen-year-old), and Wuthering Heights (horrid adaptation set in modern day, where Heathcliff becomes a rock star). Anyone else remember these?

Haha, I remember them. The worst one imo, has got to be Wuthering Heights. That was the most boring modern adaptation ever. I still can't believe I sat through the whole thing.

Gah, seriously. That is one of my favorite books of all time, and the whole movie was just a mess. Besides the casting problems (I don't hate her, but Mischa Barton? Seriously? And I don't mind Jared Padalecki, but he's not exactly how I pictured Zach. And don't even get me started on the casting of Adam), they completely ruined the plot. Vicki has to save the dolphins from fisherman or something? I don't really remember exactly, but I do know that there was *nothing* like that in the books, and I hate how they had to change the plot in order to make a movie from it. Hmm, and I actually recorded one time when it was on Disney Channel a couple years back. I should find the DVD and watch it again.

I rented Jailbait as a bad movie to watch with friends on my birthday. The DVD has a LOT of scenes that weren't in the TV version. Scenes with boobs. Scenes that made it for VERY uncomfortable viewing.

Oh man, I love Love Song but only because Christian Kane is hot and a great singer. Monica is a HORRIFIC actress and should never do movies again. I enjoyed the songs too, but really wish they'd gotten someone else to play the lead.

I think we're all forgetting the worst (or maybe the best?) of them all - RIDING THE BUS WITH MY SISTER.

Is that the one starring Rosie O'Donnell and Andie MacDowell? I really wanted to see that one, but I was seriously into not wanting to have anything to do with O'Donnell at the time.

It is so bad. Rosie sounded like Peewee Herman and Andie was as cardboard as usual.

I used to work with mentally challenged people, so it irks me when actors play them like flesh and blood cartoon characters. If you can't play a mentally challenged person convincingly and with some dignity, don't play them at all!! This goes for you, Juliette Lewis! And Sean Penn! And Rosie most of all!!!!

"Well you'll have to excuse me because I have to use the bathroom! "

"I'm not stupid, I'm just different!"

Those lines will always be funny.

I actually credit Andie for maintaining her cardboard performance streak in Riding The Bus. I know if I was confronted with Rosie's performance in that movie -- I would be creased with laughter. It hurts just watching The Soup parody (the upload seems to have been officially added so I assume to link is OK).

I've only seen bits and pieces of Riding The Bus With My Sister. Whoever sat through the entire thing deserves combat pay.

And then there's the sucktacular Wheels Of Terror starring Joanna Cassidy as a school bus driver trying to rescue her daughter from a demonically possessed car. The climax boasts one of the longest and least exciting car chases in entertainment history. I've been on multistate road trips that have taken up less time.