TURNER CLASSIC MOVIES NEWS

[GaryCooper]

Why Turner Classic Movies Being Gutted Matters
BY
LISA LAMAN
PUBLISHED 20 HOURS AGO
The staff behind Turner Classic Movies has been gutted, which will have enormous consequences for cinema as an art form.

>> https://collider.com/turner-classic-mov ... explained/

Warner Brothers is carrying a huge amount of debt -- 50 billion. Wall Street is looking on. Still, TCM is a relatively small piece of the puzzle.

G.C.

[jimimac71]

TCM Movies UK To Shut Down: Farewell To Classic Cinema
https://www.cordbusters.co.uk/tcm-movie ... shut-down/

[CinemaInternational]

Opinion piece from Maureen Dowd that appeared in the New York Times concerning TCM in jeopardy, and ruminations on the titanic after this week (and word to Dowd, nobody should brag about being involved with Raise the Titanic, one of the most boring films of any era):

WASHINGTON — I co-starred with Sir Alec Guinness in a movie where a submersible travels down to the Titanic, springs a leak and implodes.

Co-star might be a bit strong. I walked around for a second in the background of “Raise the Titanic,” a 1980 film about a superpower race to retrieve a superpowerful mineral locked in the ocean liner’s vault. One scene was shot in the newsroom of The Washington Star, where I worked.

It was cool to do because my father had a ticket for the Titanic when he was a teenager. His mother cried so much, he sold it to a young woman. She survived, but her hair turned prematurely white. My Irish dad immigrated to America the following year.

“Raise the Titanic” pops up on Turner Classic Movies sometimes, along with other sagas like the 1953 “Titanic” with Barbara Stanwyck and Clifton Webb, the 1958 “A Night to Remember” and James Cameron’s epic 1997 “Titanic” with Jack and Rose clinging to that notorious wooden door.

Some in the Twitterverse have complained that we shouldn’t have lavished so much attention on the Titan submersible tragedy, dismissing it as rich people with their toys. But thanks to books and movies, the Titanic is one of our primal stories, and the Titan echoes were stunning.

“I think that there is a great, almost surreal irony here,” James Cameron told Anderson Cooper, “which is, Titanic sank because the captain took it full steam into an ice field at night, on a moonless night with very poor visibility, after he had been repeatedly warned.”

Just like Captain Edward J. Smith, Stockton Rush, OceanGate’s C.E.O., ignored warnings, this time from the deep-submergence community, that his uncertified, experimental design was, as Cameron put it, “completely inappropriate.”

In an email exchange in 2018, Rush snapped back at one OceanGate consultant who claimed passengers were in danger: “We have heard the baseless cries of ‘you are going to kill someone’ way too often.”

Given my father’s near miss (and by extension mine), I have studied the Titanic disaster for decades on TCM. Before we experience life, how do we learn about life? Novels, plays, TV, dance, music and movies teach us how to live by giving us examples of experiences we have never had and some that we’re not likely to have. Movies are a great expander of horizons.

I have never had a stylist, interior decorator, life coach or psychiatrist. I have used TCM for all that, and it has gotten me through bouts of sickness, stress, mourning and insomnia. Studying the channel’s film noir femmes fatales taught me that women could be tough and play the game better than any man. Watching screwball comedies taught me the value of a zany streak.

So naturally, when news broke this past week that Warner Bros. Discovery had jettisoned the top five executives at TCM and the specter was raised that the channel might be in jeopardy, I was distraught.

TCM is more than a cable channel. It’s a public good, like libraries or the Smithsonian. It enshrines our cinematic past. Anyone in power in Hollywood should feel it is a matter of honor to protect this legacy.

I knew that David Zaslav, the C.E.O. of Warner Bros. Discovery, loved TCM and watched it all day long in his office and on weekend mornings. He had texted me while watching “Annie Hall” and “Miracle on 34th Street.”

He tried to reassure jittery Hollywood titans who, like me, believe TCM is part of their identity; he had a Zoom meeting with Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese and Paul Thomas Anderson on Wednesday.

“We need TCM as a singular source of inspiration and history that is accessible to everyone,” Spielberg told me later.

I called Zaslav on Friday, too, just to make sure my femmes fatales weren’t getting taken away.

“YOU HAVE MEDDLED WITH THE PRIMAL FORCES OF NATURE, MR. ZASLAV,” I said, “AND YOU WILL ATONE.” He laughed at the line from “Network.”

“Let me start with this,” he said. “This is my favorite channel. I think it’s critically important. It’s like a trust. It tells you where America was and where America’s going. It defines how people see this country. This is a beautiful living history.”

We can learn everything from how Cary Grant gets dressed for a date, he said, to why it’s better to be the white hat in a western than the black hat. (I learned that when my older brother showed me “Shane.”)

Zaslav said he was keeping Ben Mankiewicz and the other TCM hosts and wanted to spend more money on the channel and market it better. He has a vision of people like Spielberg, Scorsese, Anderson and Guillermo del Toro getting involved in programming and curating, and he would love to see actors like George Clooney talking about the movies that inspired them.

“I think it could be bigger and more powerful with more reach,” Zaslav said. “This is going to be a magical thing.”

I’ll be watching.

[LostHorizons]

Just trying.
You might say generating revenue is important.
What fans want doesn't create income, does it?
My ideas don't 'suck.'
Where are yours?

I kind of agree and disagree at the same time. I couldn't care less if TCM shows commercials - as long as it's between movies that are still played uncut and commercial free during their run time.

It's certainly better than no TCM at all.

Commercials are one thing but he’s talking about commercials for current release movies out in theaters and entire round table discussions with the TCM hosts discussing them. Basically he wants an AMC 2. “Sucks” is the polite way of saying what I think of that idea.

[jimimac71]

I'm talking about promoting the company who owns TCM, WBD.
Promoting TCM is what they do now and how can that provide income?
I'm tossing out ideas.
Promos for Discovery channels and Discovery+ would be a start.
Promos (commercials) for Max too.
Xfinity is promoting their Max app.
People who watch TCM have kids and grandkids.
Guess who is going to the theater?
WB wants to be the top studio.
Sucks is not polite.
I say contribute or put a sock in it.
I'm being polite.

[Dargo]

Opinion piece from Maureen Dowd that appeared in the New York Times concerning TCM in jeopardy, and ruminations on the titanic after this week..

Nicely written article.

Sounds as though she's ultimately saying all we can do at this point in time is hope that Zaslav will turn out to be a man of his word, and that he'll end up bucking a trait that seems inherent within the power brokers of the world.

This of course being the idea that when the chips are down, they'll almost always place finance and the bottom line over people, Culture and the Arts, and because that's what they were hired to do in the first place.

(...personally, I'll be happily surprised if the man can indeed buck that trait, but being the realist that I am......)

[drednm]

Still no news that I've seen that says who's replacing Tabesh or who is going to be in charge of programming new films.

[Sue Sue Applegate]

Here you go: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movie ... 235522844/

Michael de Luca and Pamela Abdy.

[jimimac71]

My idea is still a work in progress for any of the hosts talking about new movies.
UPDATE: Remember Siskel and Ebert?
I use to watch it knowing nothing about the films, or even caring about them.
I enjoyed the most when they would disagree.
But the show was fun no matter what.
Once a week and a 30 minute time slot.
For TCM, same potential concept.
2 hosts only and the best would probably be Ben and Eddie.
I also believe,and should not have much opposition, Noir Alley should be Saturday at 8 PM.
Right there in competition with Svengoolie.
I think Svengoolie keeps MeTV a float.
Also believe Noir Alley is as critical to TCM as anything else.
I'm not a Noir fan and almost never see Eddie Muller.
Guess what I'm also trying to say is "More Eddie Please!"

[jimimac71]

Here you go: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movie ... 235522844/

Michael de Luca and Pamela Abdy.

Thank You Sue Sue!
I hope this means we can all sleep better at night.
I've learned things about film preservation by TCM, among other things recently.
It's like Wall Street, who gets nervous with uncertainty.
I worked once for a company purchased by a holding group (KKR).
I also worked for a brand new radio station on a shoe string budget.
When I voice an opinion for change, it isn't from a viewer's standpoint, but limited business experience.
Putting more money in the coffers for TCM should not be very difficult.
To quote a song title from Tony Martin, "I Get Ideas."
A magnificent Tango, also used in a Disney movie.

[drednm]

If THE FLASH doesn't kill off TCM, then Warners upcoming stinker BARBIE will.

[ziggy6708a]

GEE, ....what a SURPRISE

[txfilmfan]

Just catching up on this. I was in NYC and had my head buried in all things theater this past week. Such terrible news.

[ziggy6708a]

good news re: Tabesh