NewYorkGuy

The Last Picture Show is the one movie I remember going to with just my dad. And although we'd both by that point seen women's breasts in a couple of movies, yeah, it was a new experience for both of us when the guy got out of the pool. And then the girl, top and bottom visible. Interesting that TCM blew up the image the other night when the guy got out so we didn't see below his waist, but not the girl. We'll assume that's because it was still in prime time... But so much for the uncut part of "uncut and commercial free" (and, yeah, that can be a double entendre).

Sigh. This morning's Saturday morning programming opened with "Blackboard Jumble" from 1957. The opening credits and end title were in Cinemascope but the cartoon itself was shown as I've titled this topic, in pan and scan. There's a Tom & Jerry cartoon I've seen on TCM shown the same way. I don't know about others, but I consider things like this at odds with TCM's "uncut" advertising. The question is, Why? It was an MGM cartoon so I'd think there wouldn't be rights issues.

My pet peeve on closing credits: Lists of "production babies" -- births by apparently anyone who took a phone call connected with the film.

It's quite a film. But I'm surprised/shocked it aired in early evening right before prime time rather than, say, in TCM Underground. And I'm not going to be surprised if it wasn't supposed to be shown when the listing seems confused between The Cremator (1969; Czech) and The Cremators (1972). The latter is more in keeping with the sci-fi films that preceded it earlier yesterday. In other words, I think somebody screwed up.

Lit, as in how many watts they're using to light their faces. It's the HDTV equivalent of smearing Vaseline on the camera lens. I love Carol. I'm old enough to have seen all seasons of her variety show. But this is TCM. If she and Illeana are doing eight minutes of intro/outro, I'd think most of the time would be about the movie. That's all -- so please don't others here put words in my mouth.

This is a pet peeve, when a guest star is there to talk about movies and seems to have done little homework and knows next to nothing about the movie other than having watched it and liked it. I've expected a little more from Carol -- we're getting more comments about her TV show and own film appearances than context about the films. The latter's all falling on Illeana, but thank goodness she knows her stuff. And while I'm whining ( ? ), the funniest thing about the intros and outros so far is the way Carol and Illeana have been lit.

I don't see any other threads on SOTM Leslie Howard, so I'll just chime in here to say I'm a bit surprised the comedy "Stand-in" wasn't programmed as part of this month's series. It's a great send-up of Hollywood and has the always charming Joan Blondell as Howard's leading lady. That, plus the wickedest contemporary Shirley Temple parody ever seen on film. TCM has shown this film every 2-3 years, so I'd have thought it would be easily available to slot in along with the various Howard films preceding or following the prime time movies.

Right on, Dargo. And, we have our answer. They aburptly cut out of the McCay shorts at 12:14 to get back to the original schedule. I already saw Prince Achmed during the animation festival two years ago, and I think I saw it's on demand this week for anyone who's still curious. So -- set the DVR for Gulliver's Travels and Magic Boy and hit the hay. I guess they'll reschedule the Van Beuren shorts someday.

What's going to be interesting, of course, is what happens when the Winsor McCay shorts are over.

Well, if you can believe this, now we're getting a repeat of the Winsor McCay program in the correct aspect ratio. So at least there's that. But it's 11 p.m. and the Van Beuren shorts aren't on the air. What the heck is going on at either or both of TCM and Time Warner Cable in NYC?

Both my channels are in HD -- 82 and 631 in Manhattan. I don't know that that's the issue. It's never been a problem before. Editing 10 minutes later -- the aspect ratio is now correct at the top of the Bray Studios segment. So -- who knows what was going on here during the Winsor McCay segment? Again, sigh... But I'm glad it's correct now!

Sigh. I don't know what the rest of you are seeing, but the Winsor McCay programming so far -- about an hour in -- isn't in the original aspect ratio but formatted to fit current flat screen TVs. I didn't pick up on it during the first two shorts, but I realized it when Gertie the Dinosaur's head was chopped off. Very disappointing. Reminds me when Li'l Abner was shown years ago by TCM with too much of the original image, with studio lighting and rigging visible at the tops of the image.

My two cents -- My Panasonic recorder prefers -Rs. My Sony recorder prefers +Rs. Separately, my Sony cannot record certain cable channels, including the Turner Network channels. Its advantage is that it has an SLP setting that is close to SP quality (and markedly better than LP) and gives you 2 hr. 25 min. recording time. My Toshiba, which I bought when the Panasonic was in for repair, works just fine with either -R or +R. Those are the only brands I can vouch for. When I write "prefer," it means I've had problems with discs suddenly being unable to be read or finalized when using the other format disc. My Panasonic can record/finalize on R as long as it's only an occasional disc and not, say, trying to record nothing but R for 10, 15 or more discs in a row. Definitely do not leave discs unfinalized too long. I had a huge pile of unfinalized discs when the Panasonic had to be fixed and was relieved when it came back in good working order. Good luck!

Someone's already mentioned *Leave It to Beaver* -- kids I can relate to. Some of the *Dennis the Menace* kids were OK, but I'd forgotten how sarcastic Rusty Hamer was on *Make Room for Daddy*. He was pretty brilliant -- and the writers dressed Angela Cartwright in cute dresses and bows but her character could be a devil too.

What I'm wondering, after seeing that there's already been a "TCM Remembers" tribute for Shirley Temple before 4 p.m. eastern time today, is whether there was one for Maximilian Schell? I missed it, if so. Certainly Philip Seymour Hoffman's death somewhat overshadowed Schell's, for understandable reasons. I will never forget how impressed I was with Schell the first time I saw "Judgment at Nuremburg." RIP