I won’t shock you with the similarities I share with former Saturday Night Live superstar Mary Katherine Gallagher, portrayed by the amazing Molly Shannon. In many ways, I’m the male version of Mary Katherine. But that’s another story. One thing we have in common are those made-for-TV movies of the ’70′s. Mary Katherine (and I)  can quote everything from The Boy In The Plastic Bubble to Sybil. Both of those films are in my collection which currently numbers upwards of 1500.

Some of my favorites include Hitchhike! with Cloris Leachman, Skyway to Death with a who’s who of ’70′s television, Elizabeth Montgomery in The Legend of Lizzie Borden, The Initiation of Sarah with the incredible Kay Lenz, the bitchiest role Morgan Fairchild every played and the outrageously creepy Shelley Winters, and, of course, Killdozer starring an unknown Robert Urich. That list just begins to scratch the surface of favorite 70′s TV films.

As it turns out, the best place to find many of these TV gems is, of all places, on YouTube. As a collector, I’ve found hundreds of otherwise unfindable films on YouTube. True – the quality often sucks. True – the audio is often painful to hear. True – these films have been transferred from the old Beta to VHS to DVD to MP4 and then uploaded to YouTube so finding one that’s still watchable is like hitting the lottery. Most of these films I’ve either watched as a child – or could only listen to from my bedroom as my parents watched the heavily-promoted Movie of the Week just downstairs in the living room.

I’m actually watching YouTube more often than the mass of channels I pay $142 a month for from DirecTV. Is it any wonder why so many people are pulling the plug on their cable or satellite providers?

I’m sure some of these people uploading these films  are violating some production company’s copyrights… but because many of these films are all but forgotten, no one seems to care if they survive on YouTube. While I don’t upload these films myself, I do watch most of them and I’m not above linking to them – sometimes they’re up indefinitely, sometimes they get removed when the copyright holder files a complaint. So watch ‘em while you can.

Here’s one of my all-time favorites that scared the hell out of me as a kid. It’s Valerie Harper being stalked on a freeway by a desperate killer in Night Terror from 1977. Ironically, the killer, Richard Romanus, was also appearing around this time on Valerie’s sitcom Rhoda as her best friend and neighbor.  Another 70’s favorite of mine, Quinn Cummings, plays Valerie’s daughter.

Enjoy it while you can…