![Mad :mad:](./images/smilies/icon_mad.gif)
How can you have a guest programmer who is a PUPPET?????
![Rolling Eyes :roll:](./images/smilies/icon_rolleyes.gif)
It really makes you wonder: do these guest programmers even get to pick any of these films they supposedly love? Or are they just told what they supposedly love by TCM: "If you want to be guest programmer for Feburary, this is what you have to love....because we need to get in our bazillionth showing of THE MALTESE FALCON."
I mean, last I checked, Kermit the Frog does not have an actual BRAIN. So how can he pick films?
For some months I have suspected that the guest programmer thing is sorta bogus, and that the 'guests' get to 'program' very little, in fact. Might not have always been that way...but based on recent picks, it sure does look fishy.
But this month's schedule really highlights the issue. Here you have about 30 individuals, none of whom pick a single film in common...and who AMAZINGLY seem to have picked the same films that TCM has been showing every other month again and again and again.
Bottom line: for me, this whole 'guest programmer' thing is starting to not pass the sniff test.
It's not the films that bother me really...because whether it's a guest programmer or not, TCM just seems DETERMINED to show certain films again and again and again. What bothers me is the representation that these people just love these films THAT much...when I'm starting to suspect that they have very little say in what actually gets shown...
Maybe they should change the title to 'guest co-host'. It might be more honest. Because I'm really beginning to doubt these guests actually do any programming whatever.
Certainly, Kermit the Frog flat out CAN'T. Someone is picking for him...which by definition lets him out of the title of 'programmer'.
I think if you are gonna have a guest programmer, then you need to let them honestly pick what they want. I really want to KNOW what these guys think are great films - and why. But if the whole thing is bogus, and these guys are really just guest co-hosts...then I am not getting the information that I am expecting to receive...and the information that is promised to me by the adverts.
Has anyone else started to wonder about the authenticity of the term 'guest programmer'????