Lifetime TV Network Reinvents Its Movie Melodramas

Flowers in the Attic, which aired last month on Lifetime, has the standard plot points of a made-for-TV melodrama: There’s a beautiful young heroine who’s been dealt a terrible hand, an inexplicably mean maternal figure (in this case two), and a forbidden love. Noticeably absent are cheesy tricks such as fuzzy-lens shots and soaring strings. And instead of D-list stars such as Sally Struthers or Yasmine Bleeth, viewers are treated to the emoting of Oscar-winning actress Ellen Burstyn. The movie’s polished 1960s-era set feels like a colorful, demented Mad Men, especially because the film also stars Kiernan Shipka, the actress who plays Sally Draper. Flowers was a hit—it drew in 6.1 million viewers, according to Nielsen, a two-year high for the network.

Lifetime, a subsidiary of A&E Networks, was launched in 1984 with a mission to focus on health and wellness programming for women. Over the next 15 years, it refocused on original movies and reruns of sitcoms such as Designing Women and became known as the channel where middle-aged moms went to unwind with a chardonnay and a good cry. Now it’s in the midst of yet another makeover—and who doesn’t love a makeover?