From the mid-1980s, Taylor acted mostly in television productions. She made cameos in the soap operas "Hotel" and "All My Children" in 1984, and played a brothel keeper in the historical mini-series "North and South" in 1985. She also starred in several television films, playing gossip columnist Louella Parsons in "Malice in Wonderland" (1985), a "fading movie star" in the drama "There Must Be a Pony" (1986), and a character based on Poker Alice in the eponymous Western (1987). She re-united with director Franco Zeffirelli to appear in his French-Italian biopic "Young Toscanini" (1988), and had the last starring role of her career in a television adaptation of "Sweet Bird of Youth" (1989), her fourth Tennessee Williams play. During this time, she also began receiving honorary awards for her career – the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1985, and the Film Society of Lincoln Center's Chaplin Award in 1986.