Network made-for-TV movies have become as rare as hen’s teeth. Or a CBS show without bloodshed. And NBC hasn’t made it easy to find “Secrets of the Mountain” (8 p.m., NBC, TV-PG) by airing it on Friday, when viewers for all shows except “Ghost Whisperer” seem to have vanished.
“Mountain” was produced and subsidized by two major advertisers in an effort to return “family-friendly” fare to prime-time. The film was not offered for review.
Time was, TV movies were a weekly affair, offering good, bad and so-bad-they’re-great fare starring familiar faces from Hollywood’s past and other talent more suited to “Love American Style.” Over the years, the number of nights devoted to such films dwindled from few to fewer to nearly none. Now CBS offers the occasional “Hallmark” movie and Jesse Stone sequel. ABC has the occasional prestige presentation from Oprah Winfrey’s production company, and that’s about it.
On basic cable, only Lifetime, Syfy and the Family network seem to be in the original-movie business, and most of their fare is aimed squarely at very specific slices of an already fragmented audience. Gone are the days when original movies or miniseries provided water-cooler conversation and generated some of the highest ratings of the broadcast year.
For the record, “Mountain” stars Paige Turco as a single mom who travels to the mountains to look into an offer on the cabin she inherited from her favorite uncle (Barry Bostwick). But there are secrets to learn and dangers to evade before anyone signs on the dotted line.