fxreyman

Boy, one of the few instances where I agree with you. You do not have to make a federal case of this. All I did was refernce one point you made about my needing eye glasses over on the GET TV thread. If you do not know what you wrote and who you wrote it to, don't try and pass this off as my problem. You are the one who created this thread. And as Movie Madness has written, you have to be a little more tolerant with others here. Everyone has the right to post comments. But when you go on the attack like you did earlier with Movie Madness, someone has to stand up and point this out to you.

Well as you wrote on another post in another thread (?) about me needing eye glasses, you should re-read what I wrote to you about you editing your comments to me.... Here is what I wrote: Well Professor, I am not the one who goes around chastising people for what they may think are well-meaning and thoughtful comments. I see where you have now edited your original comment to me. I wonder why that is? The comment I made here above was not nasty nor was it erroneous. Unless what I wrote to you is nasty? But by all means keep reporting me to the moderators. I mean that is what you do around here, especially when someone posts something you don't like, isn't it?

Yes, you are correct about the editing features from the upgrade. However, when one makes a somewhat objectionable remark towards someone and that poster goes back in to edit those comments, I think that maybe there should be more of a waiting period to re-edit those comments. Like maybe 5 minutes. That is why they still have a preview button. In many ways it is sort of like a fail-safe procedure to let people undo potentially nasty comments. And in many cases I think it has worked out quite well. Although I have posted several times and then gone back in to edit the posts only to have you come in so fast that you basically do the same thing I did in my reply to you about editing your post. As far as me being abusive, I think you are way off the mark. I have at times been supportive of many comments you have made in the past. Lately however you seem to be offering more negative un-constructive criticism which in your reply to Movie Madness was not good. IMHO. I think you will find eventually that your argument is going to fall on deaf ears around here. It is not me who goes around and tries to nitpick posts made by people who are not that into themselves like you obviously are. To me you often sound like a film studies instructor who has decided to come on the message boards to instruct others here who may be willing to forgive your crass attitude and unforgiving nature. But when you go on and on about how others may mistreat you, then maybe it is time for you to look into the mirror. Because you sir, do that all the time.

Well Professor, I am not the one who goes around chastising people for what they may think are well-meaning and thoughtful comments. I see where you have now edited your original comment to me. I wonder why that is?

This is not only unbelievable, but in many ways downright mean, as you have written... The moment someone makes what they consider a thoughtful response, you come along and make it sound like the guy is failing in your film studies class. How pathetic it must be that many of the posts written here do not obviously match with your style and or percieved substance.

Your point is well taken. The reason I use 1960 as the beginning of the count for post code films is simple. There are plenty of fans of TCM who write here that they find anything shown on TCM made after 1960 to be something of a problem. The problem for them as well as TopBilled (according to his latest post) is that TCM is a "classic" movie channel and therefore should "only" show insert year here on their schedule. Even though the Hays Code existed well into 1968, many films by that time were being made contrary to their rigorous guidelines. The movie industry was well on it's way to different film making by the mid 1950's, but for many studio's I think that they simply thought they needed to make films using the Hays Code's guidelines and rules. Some studios obviously did not, where as others were still clinging onto the Hays Code guidleines. Over-simplification? Probably. So, yes I would agree that for the most part the Hays Code went away in 1968 but in reality many films made during the early to late 1960's (before 1968) were already much differently filmed than what the Hays Code allowed. So I have included 1960 as the break for so-called Code films, and everything later is post Code. This is MHO, of course. Plus it makes it easier to count the sixties as a whole decade instead of just breaking the decade into two parts, one from 1960 to 1967 and the other from 1968 though the end of 1969.

You apparently can not count. Yes, there are a lot of post code films on the schedule. But if you look at the raw numbers, something you don't do, 63% of all the movies being shown for 31 Days are from 1959 and back. Only 37% of the films are being shown from 1960 forwards. And being that 31 Days of Oscar has always celebrated the Academy Awards, and TCM has always shown newer films on their schedule, I find that 37% is an acceptable figure. Maybe James would disagree as you have indicated. A typical month sees no more than 20 to 30% of post code films on the schedule. So these figures are not too bad. The breakdown is this: 1920's: 5 films 1930's: 64 films 1940's: 78 films 1950's: 69 films for a total of 216 films or 63% of the total. 1960's: 65 films 1970's: 30 films 1980's: 17 films 1990's: 7 films 2000's: 6 films 2010's: 2 films for a total of 127 films or 37% of the total.

I don't need eye glasses to read that there was an implied message meant for me. Here is what you wrote in the post: "Funny how when one stops harassing, the other one magically pops up". The "other one" is me, correct? Or were you writing about someone else? James is right about two things.... One is that you made the implication that once DarkBlue stops harassing you, I pop up. Now to me and it would seem to James that this is a direct implication against me made by YOU. The second thing James was right about is this.... You run to the moderators whenever you see some sort of "implied" injustice applied toward you.

I hope the moderators were able to get back to you. I am sure if they did they would have informed you that yes indeed we are two separate entities. Even though we both joined the boards in 2007, I joined in July and he joined in October. I find it extremely funny that just by typing the phrase Hmmm that suggests that I am harassing you. Maybe you should look the meaning of that phrase up in the dictionary.

Hmmm...

I know for some folks around here the discussion that takes place frequently on several older threads and severl newer threads is how TCM MUST be losing viewers to GET-TV, ME-TV, THIS-TV, COZY-TV and the other over the air tv channels showing old movies and tv shows. What I am about to post is a question and answer session at the 2013 TCM Classic Film Festival covering ratings. It is important to remind folks around here that TCM does not use ratings to gauge how many people are watching their movies and or other programming. So the title of this thread is somewhat misleading.... The following was posted on Will McKinley's blog after he had attended the festival. McKinley is a New York City-based writer, producer and classic film obsessive. He’s been a guest on Turner Classic Movies (interviewed by host Robert Osborne), Sirius Satellite Radio and the TCM podcast. Will has written for PBS and his byline has appeared more than 100 times in the pages of NYC alt weeklies like The Villager and Gay City News. Update #3: 10 Things I Learned at the TCM Classic Film Festival One of my favorite things about the annual TCM Classic Film Festival is meeting and interacting with the talented people who bring the channel to life. In addition to impromptu chats at screenings and during communal gatherings at the Roosevelt Hotel, two scheduled events gave passholders and credentialed media like me (don’t hate) an opportunity to question key members of the Turner Classic Movies staff. These sessions provided a rare opportunity to look “behind the curtain” at our favorite channel without a trip down the Yellowbrick Road to Atlanta. The day before the 2013 edition of the Festival began, Robert Osborne, Ben Mankiewicz, vice president of programming Charlie Tabesh (a 16-year veteran of the channel), and festival managing director Genevieve MacGillicuddy addressed reporters and bloggers for a combined ninety minutes. The following day, TCM senior writer/producer Scott McGee moderated Meet TCM, a panel featuring six senior staffers: Tabesh, general manager Jeff Gregor; Pola Chagnon, vice president and creative director for TCM On-Air; V.P. of original production Tom Brown; Richard Steiner, vice president of digital activation; and Sean Cameron, vice president of studio production. TCM DOESN’T CARE ABOUT RATINGS. Ever since the channel formerly known as American Movie Classics stopped showing, well, American movie classics, and started airing commercials, some TCM viewers have feared the same fate. Conspiracy theorists bemoan broadcasts of more recent releases, suspecting a secret strategy to alter programming, even though a thorough review of the monthly schedule usually indicates a consistent breakdown by decade, month after month (with one obvious exception). “There’s no specific agenda or intent to bring in newer movies,” Tabesh said. “It happens naturally some times, as we program thematically and we want to go in depth with whatever theme, whatever star we’re looking at. And sometimes that context leads us to newer movies.” He went on to acknowledge that during one month of the year, he does intentionally program more recent films.“(During) 31 Days of Oscar, which was a couple months ago, if the movie won an Academy Award, we’re not going to shy away from it if it’s more contemporary. And I think you’ll tend to see more contemporary movies in that month than you will in others,” he said. “There’s no cutoff date, no strict definition for classic, other than, ‘What’s the context in which we’re playing it?’” Ben Mankiewicz backed up this perspective during the Wednesday afternoon event. “We have a very open mind as to what makes a classic movie. It’s not really about years removed from a movie’s release that makes it okay,” the host said. “We always, always want to find something that will be relevant and emotional for our audience to see.” “(O)ur programming won’t change,” Mankiewicz added. “Nothing is going to stop us from showing the movies we already show.” On Wednesday, Tabesh was asked how much pressure he was under to generate high ratings. “Zero. We don’t get ratings. We’re not even allowed to get ratings,” he said. “When AMC went commercial many years ago, the cable affiliates freaked out, because they were getting a lot of complaints from subscribers and they wanted to make sure that TCM never added commercials. And we’ve never have plans to add commercials. I think it’s actually written into some of our affiliate agreements.” “It’s not only important from a business perspective that we remain commercial-free, but we know that is the core of the TCM brand,” festival managing director Genevieve MacGillicuddy added. “That’s extremely important for fans, for the network, for the vision of what the network is. And we’re very proud of having stayed true to what that vision was for the network when we launched in 1994.” Tabesh added: “We’re not trying to reach a broad audience. We’re not trying to maximize the demo. We’re not trying to get the 18-34, whatever it is. There’s none of that that’s considered at all.” So get off the ledge, people.

Strike Throughs instead of direct responses.... hmmm I guess you can't respond to people's questions after all.

Yes, this conversation seems to have a life of it's own and continues to draw people to it. Again, as has been discussed at length in this thread and other threads... how can you or anyone else say "Svengoolie's show is cutting into TCM's audience for the Essentials program" when you have NO proof what so ever of any ratings info from TCM and how it would compare to ME-TV's ratings? In the first place TCM does not subscribe to ratings services simply due to one major reason... they do not show regular television commercials on the channel. So there is no need for TCM to purchase rating services from any of the rating bureaus. Add to that any idea what kind of ratings ME-TV gets? I am sure you could find out but again there would be no comparison available except of course the posters here who all say that they watch ME-TV on Saturday nights.... Not very scientific if I may say....

As far as I am concerned what you wrote about not being an egotist is not far from the truth. Who else would come on a message board and create a thread that counts the number of active threads with the number of views? And then write that you consider yourself influential. Why not just say that your threads generate many views and comments. I do not think that what you write or start as threads can even remotley be called "influential". Popular? Yes. I am not aware of many others who post on the message boards that would indicate that they like their threads to remain HOT and on page one. You sir are the only one who would say this.

Are these reliable facts? Or is this just your opinion? 100 times in 20 years is a lot of showings. It could be 100 maybe more than 100. And if so I'd say in relation to films that are harder to rent like the Universal titles, then why not NBNW then? It is probably Hitchcock's most favorite film of all of his titles. At least according to many of my friends.

Rich Koz IS a Chicago legend. The Museum of Broadcast Communications & MeTV Network to Honor Rich Koz – Celebrating 35 years as 'Svengoolie'..... official news release from September 3, 2014: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-museum-of-broadcast-communications--metv-network-to-honor-rich-koz---celebrating-35-years-as-svengoolie-273729661.html from Count Gregula's Crypt. An account of the evening's festivities: http://www.chicagonow.com/count-gregulas-crypt/2014/10/event-recap-an-evening-with-rich-koz-celebrating-35-years-of-svengoolie/

Another thread where the subject really is just a little too..... much ado about nothing..... IMHO

The conversation we have had with this thread which has undergone in the past week or so is typical of many conversations we have here on the message boards. The only difference is your belief that the topic you are addressing is NOT getting the same level of conversation that you require. Remember and I know that at times this is hard for you to understand, that for many of us we are just regular everyday people who just like to come here and write about and share our thoughts and opinions about movies. Sometimes we get into very heated debates and of course there are times when some people try to tell other people how wrong they are. Which has happened on this thread several times. If you are looking for multiculturalism here is a suggestion: Go to PBS to watch it or listen to NPR. Or better yet, go to your local library and check out books and or videos that you like to read or watch that supports multiculturalism. As good as TCM is, the problem with wanting to show films that deal with a certain person's birth date or a certain event or in the case of Martin Luther King, there is going to be a finite number of films that can be shown. As far as the case of MLK and TCM is concerned the channel has only so many titles to choose from. Now I will agree with you that maybe TCM makes a feeble attempt to showcase what you have labeled as multicultural films and show them on MLK’s holiday, but in reality are the same old tried and true Sidney Poitier films. It could be that this is all they can acquire form distributors, maybe not. Maybe the TCM programmers are just a bit too lazy to really do an extraordinary job of selecting films they believe some viewers like you would appreciate. I think that for the most part what TCM programs is pretty good. Do they make some mistake? Sure they do. But they also only have so much money to spread around. It's not like they can show commercials between movies to help pay for rental agreements. There is a finite amount of money available to them. Now as far as having a black history month available on TCM, well unfortunately for fans of such a month, that is trumped by the 31 Days of Oscar celebration that many here do not like, but is here to stay for the foreseeable future. And until something else happens to change the date the Academy Awards are broadcast, then the month of February into the first few days of March will continue. Several years ago the actor Morgan Freeman was being interviewed on CBS’ 60 Minutes when he was asked about Black History Month. Here is some of what he said: “In 2005, during a 60 Minutes interview with Mike Wallace, the actor Morgan Freeman, widely known for his film role in Driving Miss Daisy, reignited a debate about the celebration of the achievements of African-Americans during Black History Month. According to Freeman, there should be no Black History Month. He has publicly criticized the nation’s celebration of Black History Month and claims that he does not participate in any of the events related to Black History Month. Freeman told Mike Wallace, “I don’t want a black history month. Black history is American history.” Morgan Freeman went on to ask “Are you going to relegate my history to a month?” and noted that there was no “white history month.” According to Freeman, the only way to end racism is to stop talking about it. Freeman then told Mike Wallace, “I am going to stop calling you a white man and I’m going to ask you to stop calling me a black man.” In the interview, Freeman raises an important question, “Is Black History Month still relevant in contemporary American society?” IMHO, I would say that it is not. Maybe for the back youth it is, but I think for the most part the whole Black History Month was really an exercise for white Americans to cleanse their guilt towards black Americans and for what they as a people had to endure for over 200 years here on the North American continent. I think we are beyond this now for the most part. And in many ways the treatment of the original Indian tribes of North America was as much a lasting negativity for the United States than what happened to the native African Negroes who were brought here against their wishes originally. My opinion.

Please do me a favor..... Please consider NOT writing that other poster's opinions are FLAWED. You should be able to comment on other's opinions and simply write that you agree or disagree with them, but to write that they are flawed indicates to me that you may see yourself as some sort of judge, teacher, instructor and or professor. Their opinions are just that, opinions. No one's opinions are flawed unless we are in the vacuum of a classroom or we are out in the "real" world where decisions / opinions can be made and proven right or wrong. You have NOT set any guidelines for this discussion which would include descriptions and or rules by which others are to follow... In your original post way back on January 21st, 2013 you asked for thoughts on this subject. Thoughts can be opinions usually, don't you agree? "In general, an opinion is a judgment, viewpoint, or statement about matters commonly considered to be subjective (like most comments here on the message board). Based on that which is less than absolutely certain, and is the result of emotion or interpretation of facts. What distinguishes fact from opinion is that facts are verifiable, i.e. can be objectively proven to have occurred. An example is: "America was involved in the Vietnam War" versus "America was right to get involved in the Vietnam War". An opinion may be supported by facts, in which case it becomes an argument, although people may draw opposing opinions from the same set of facts. Opinions rarely change without new arguments being presented. It can be reasoned that one opinion is better supported by the facts than another by analyzing the supporting arguments. In casual use, the term opinion may be the result of a person's own perspective, understanding, particular feelings, beliefs, and desires. It may refer to unsubstantiated information, in contrast to knowledge and fact." "Collective or professional opinions are defined as meeting a higher standard to substantiate the opinion." The above two paragraphs were copied from excerpts from Edward Damer’s book “Attacking Faulty Reasoning”.

Yes, quite impressive. You should be congratulated for having a thread like this reach that many views. However with just a little over a 3.4% response rate that is pretty darn pitiful. It would be saying something if lets say you had a 10% response rate would it not? Over 2,800 responses. Now that would be something to cheer about. As you and I have commented before just because you have a thread with this many views is not as important in my view than having more responses. That is why a message board exists in the first place... to generate responses and create discussions. The more the merrier.

Are you suggesting that these shows should have been taken off the air or censored in some way by CBS when they first aired? Or are you suggesting that shows like the ones you mentioned should never have been aired in the first place? To me, shows like these were prevalent in the early to late 60's. It was not until the mid sixties that you started to see shows feature black performers such as I Spy, Star Trek, Mission: Impossible, Hogan's Heroes, Ironside, Daniel Boone, Mod Squa, Mannix, The Land of the Giants, N.Y.P.D to name a few.

What is some of the griping all about? I mean what is it exactly that has some of you upset with the films being shown on TCM in January? The fact that some of the films are repeats from more recent months? Or hows about the fact that the films being programmed are ones that have been programmed in the recent past? That there are only a few select newer films being broadcasted for January? What is it exactly that some of you expect from TCM? As Andy has written, “The January schedule is but the latest one that would seem a hundred times more exciting if I were just discovering TCM for the first time, whereas now it's pretty much only the silent and foreign films, along with the occasional premieres of cartoons / B-noirs / etc, that make me want to watch”. Now ToBilled has mentioned that maybe this is all due to the programmers possibly having less money to work with and that maybe this is a telling sign of things to come in 2015. Guess what? I agree with you. Turner Classic Movies is going to have to figure out ways of leasing films in a much better, and cheaper way in the future. And this might just mean additional repeats. Where I don’t agree with you is the following statement: “Next, the programmers are lauded for their occasional creativity, but this does not seem to support that notion. Let's face it, anyone can program a stew of Davis-Crawford in their sleep. I do not see anything very original about this, not even the split personality nature of Bette now Joan now Bette now Joan again. This proves to me that they are interested in scheduling superstar household names over equally talented, much more neglected stars. Wouldn't it have been nice instead to have a batch of Dorothy Lamour films or Betty Hutton films? We can watch the Davis-Crawford career decline campfest any old day. I am going to give it a thumbs down.” Well all I can say is what I have read about how TCM goes about renting/leasing films. They don’t always get what they want and have to at times go back to the old chestnuts. I tend to agree with Andy about all of this. After a while there are just so many films I can watch. If I was new to the channel I would be excited and thrilled to learn of it’s existence. But being that I have been a subscriber off and on for over fifteen years, there is a finite number of films that I can watch. Right now due to my employment status I can not afford TCM. That is not to say that I do not have access to older films, my personal dvd library has over 700 titles. And I have a membership to Netflix. So that helps. But, I am not always going to watch older films from before a certain time period. Some I do, many I do not. Heck, last night I watched Emperor on Netflix. Very good film about the end of the war in the Pacific and about the quandary the American forces found themselves in when they felt the need to prosecute the Emperor of Japan for supposed war crimes. As far as those repeats are concerned, if I had a subscription to TCM, I would still be just watching those films that interest me. I am not going to have the channel on 24/7. For one thing there are many other things I can do with my time than sitting in front of the TV. Like sitting in front of my computer. I think a lot of this graveling is just because some people expect so much from TCM and can not understand the complexities of programming. I think it does a disservice to those who read these posts to try and take away from the discussion that TCM is programming the way they are because they have no new ideas or are just resting on their laurels. Having read several excerpts of interviews from Charlie Tabesh over the years it is a very complex and often troubling exercise that the progammers have to resort to find the films TCM wants to lease but often can not due to outside forces working against them. Now if some want to call this being an apologist for TCM, go ahead and call me this. But the facts are facts. Especially when it comes from the programming department at TCM. There are just so many films available and TCM can not afford to show every film that IS available. If they did, then I think TCM would need to show commercials between the films. And we have all talked about that subject to death around here.

Unbelievable! Well maybe not really...

As far as helping the moderator... that is BS. The only thing the Ignore feature does is prevent people from reading other people's posts period. It is not really even about keeping people away from other people due to conflicts or disagreements. If you are not signed in to the boards, you can still read the people you have on ignore if you want. Totally useless feature and IMHO a chicken s * * t way of avoiding people.

Who me? Never would enter my mind. Thats right, can't comment about anything that could possibly be construed as non-related to the original thread here... Like this always happens when YOU don't like what some people have to say around here.... actually more like if you disagree with someone, oops, they go on your ignore list. My oh my. I guess that is where I am headed now.