I am looking for the name of a movie I saw on TV in the 1980s.  It may
have been a made for TV Movie.  The only thing I remember about the
movie was that the parents pulled up to a restaurant and told their
kids to go in and get the hamburgers, and said that they (the parents)
would wait in the car.  Then the parents drove off and abandoned the
children.  Also, is the movie available on DVD?  I have tried using
the Internet Movie Database and googling for 1980s TV movies, with no
luck.

Hello.

It sounds like you're describing "Broken Promise," a CBS TV movie.

From a newsgroup message archived by Google Groups:

"I'm desperately looking for a made for tv movie made in 1980,titled "Broken
Promise".  It was a Golden Showcase Presentation on CBS TV.  It starred Chris
Sarandon and Melissa Michealson.  It was about 5 kids who were abandoned by
their parents at a truckstop diner and the oldest girl was left to take care
of her younger brothers and sisters."
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.video.tape-trading/msg/76667c4819febdaf?hl=en&

Imdb.com listing:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080471/

Unfortunately, the movie doesn't appear to be available on either DVD or VHS. 

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search strategy:
google groups: "kids abandoned" movie

I hope "Broken Promise" is the movie that you had in mind.  If you
have any reason to believe that it's not the right movie, please use
the "request clarification" feature to let me know.  Thanks.

Thank you for the tip.
-juggler