A television film (also known as a TV film, television movie, TV movie, telefilm, telemovie, made-for-television film, movie of the week (MOTW or MOW), feature-length drama, single drama, and original movie) is a feature film that is a television program produced for and originally distributed by a television network, in contrast to many films explicitly made for showing in movie theaters.

Though not exactly labelled as such, there were early precedents for "television movies", such as the 1957 The Pied Piper of Hamelin, based on the poem by Robert Browning, and starring Van Johnson, one of the first filmed "family musicals" made directly for television. It was made in Technicolor, a first for television, which ordinarily used color processes originated by specific networks. (Most "family musicals" of the time, such as Peter Pan, were not filmed but broadcast live and preserved on kinescope. A kinescope is a recording of a television program made by filming the picture from a video monitor). This was the only way to record a television show until the invention of videotape).

Diane Borchardt was a former teacher's aide/study hall monitor at Jefferson High School in Wisconsin. She was convicted of hiring three of her students to murder her estranged husband, Ruben Borchardt, on Easter morning in 1994.

At her trial, Diane Borchardt was found guilty of first-degree intentional homicide. She was sentenced to life in prison, with no possibility of parole until she had served 45 years of her sentence.

The miniseries Seduced by Madness: The Diane Borchardt Story was broadcast on NBC and CHCH on February 25 and 26, 1996 and starred Ann-Margret as Diane.