NEW ROBERT OSBORNE ANNOUNCMENT...

[Sue Sue Applegate]

Just read this new letter from ROBERT OSBORNE posted on Facebook:

A Note from Robert Osborne to his fans
If you've noticed some slight changes around TCM lately, let me explain. It has to do with something I became aware of for the first time last year: the word "vacation." Lovely word. And there's a reason it hadn't been a part of my vocabulary earlier during the past 18 years at Turner. Ever since I started doing movie intros for TCM back in April of 1994, taking a bona fide vacation never seemed necessary. My primary responsibility at the channel was hosting four prime time movies per night, seven nights a week--a pure pleasure for me. Easy to do, too, since during TCM's first few years in existence, we had a taping structure that allowed me get the required work done and be able to take a month's hiatus every year, without interrupting the flow of my being on air.

However, the more popular the channel has become, the more there has been to do. First, we added the Private Screenings series. Then, the Guest Programmer franchise. Then extras such as co-hosting specials with people like Priscilla Presley about Elvis, Stephen Bogart about his dad, Robert Morse about composer Frank Loesser and myriad others. Then we began our once a year Race in Hollywood series, and added promotional screenings in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Cleveland, Seattle, Atlanta and elsewhere around the country. I started making "Movie Night" appearances with Symphony Orchestras in Atlanta, Boston, Cleveland, at the Hollywood Bowl in California, Tanglewood (with John Williams) in Lenox, Massachusetts, Wolf Trap near Washington D.C. and other venues. Added into all that came two particular biggies--both enormously fun but also events that require extra time and focus: our yearly TCM Classic Film Festival and the TCM Classic Cruise.

You see where this is going. I thoroughly enjoy it all, and having the chance to interact with TCM watchers, but the slate has become so full there's been less and less time to catch a breath. (Those month-long hiatus periods we used to have in the early days went bye-bye long ago.) That's why in 2011, for the first time in 18 years, I took a bona fide vacation; I did again this September. (And, by the way, I really appreciate the letters and emails to our website that you noticed I was briefly missing in action.) But--from here on--I'm going to be following a new schedule on the channel, one which will give me a chance to occasionally sleep and stay as healthy as possible while also participating in many of those Turner Classic Movies adventures like our TCM Classic Cruise this coming January, the TCM Classic Film Festival the following April and other activities as well. (Mixing into all this, I've also taken on another job: updating my history of the Oscars for the Academy in Hollywood, a book which will be published next year by the Academy and Abbeyville Press, "85 Years of the Oscar.")

So now the plan is this: I'll still be hosting prime time movies six nights a week, every Monday thru Thursday, but taking Friday nights off. Ben Mankiewicz will initially step in, until, in early 2013, there will be a series of guest movie experts presenting special Friday night screenings. Every Saturday night, I'll continue hosting The Essentials with Drew Barrymore, at 8 pm Eastern (Drew is joining me throughout the 2013-14 season as well). Each Sunday night, I'll be at my regular spot hosting the movies at 8 pm and 10 pm Eastern. It's a schedule that lessens my on-air work load to a degree that makes it very comfortable and do-able for me, and one I hope you'll find agreeable as well. You'll be seeing more news about all this as things take shape in the coming months. I just wanted you to know.

-- Robert O.

[movieman1957]

He still sounds like his schedule is loaded. At his age he could use a regular break.

[moira finnie]

I am so glad RO is doing this to preserve his stamina and sanity. That schedule he described is way too taxing. I'm overjoyed that he and Drew Barrymore are going to continue as a tag team. I tune in just to see the two of them enjoy each other's company. Thank you for posting this here, Christy.