Sunday, August 30, 2009

a.k.a.: Wheels of Death!

I'm not sure how, somewhere in the dark recesses of my late '70s television addled brain, I could have missed remembering the 1979 TV movie Death Car on the Freeway... but apparently I did! Featuring major plot points focusing on 8-tracks & vans, with A grade chase music and D grade acting, and directed by Smokey and the Bandit's Hal Needham! Starring Frank Gorshin, George Hamilton, Peter Graves, Shelly Hack, Abe Vigoda and Dina Shore (whew... my link button is getting tired!). I mean...COME ON!

It's like CHiPs meets Jaws. All wrapped up in an Airport '77 tortilla!

With an extra helping of Duel on the side.

Not available on DVD (well... legally at least), but you can, should you think it's wise, watch it here...

And read all about it here...

A big thanks to Kevin L. Wagner for turning me on to this and providing the screen shots and ad! Kev's also shared another tv movie classic, 1979's Disaster on the Coastliner (starring Lloyd Bridges, Bill Shatner and Raymond Burr) at YouTube!

3 comments:

K0dama said...

Hey, shouldn't it be "Death VAN"?

Glen Mullaly said...

K: My thought exactly! Although maybe they're referring to the cars that the van targets?
I think The Center for Research on American Programming published a number of discussion papers on this very subject in the early eighties. I believe their findings were mixed.

K0dama said...

:snicker: I just got the acronym.