lzcutter

MyidolSpencer, Up the River is being shown as part of the Ford at Fox tribute in December. TCM is highlighting the upcoming box set, being released by 20th Century Fox in time for the holidays, all next month. Given that Fox has its own movie channel, FMC, many of us are surprised at the riches being shown on TCM next month. Kudos to Fox and TCM for making this possible. WHO IS (KIM?) SHOWN ON A RECENT "IN-BETWEEN SEMENT" ON TCM???>> That is poster Kimpunkrock!

This new layout has symbols at the top of the "Reply" form for Bold, Italics, Underlined, etc, but I can not seem to get them into play as I can on other sites. Is there a heading or website where instructions for this can be found? >> cmvgor, I'm not Mongo but the symbols haven't worked since the upgrade to the boards that occurred just before Labor Day. The tech guys have replied in the tech forum that they are working on it. Hang in there!

.would like to add your address as well>> JB, Feel free to post a link to my site. That would be great. Thank you!

I have a blog about Classic Las Vegas that includes a list of films shot in Southern Nevada called Las Vegas on Film: www.classiclasvegas.squarespace.com

Brother Kyle, I was wondering if anyone else is having problems opening this thread? Since the Challenges began to be posted, I cannot easily open the thread by clicking on the title. The only way I can get it to open is to click on the last posters name. Some of us had the same problem during the last Challenge. I don't know what it is, a stray emoticon or what, but wanted to see if anyone else was having this problem.

As Kyle in Hollywood pointed out, TCM has always run a mix of Classic Studio era films and included films from the 1980s in their first ten years of existence and have included films from the 1990s when they entered their second decade on the air. The Lord of the Rings that is being run in February is an anamoly but it is being run because February is dedicated to the 31 Days of Oscar which honors films nominated for Oscars in all decades. TCMProgrammr has posted here numerous times that TCM is not going to follow the same path as AMC and FMC. Because of long term lease contracts with Sony and Paramount we will seeing many more of the Columbia films and the post 1949-Paramount library. If TCM was planning on following AMC's lead, they wouldn't be spending the money they are to lease these films. TCM has always run older films in the late and wee hours. There are posts on usenet groups and even here in the early days to attest to that. As for films since 1970, TCM is the only channel that will run these films commercial free, uncut AND in their original aspect ratio.

yes these are great movies, but the point of TCM is to honor the great film classics of the past.>> But the point of TCM is in the eye of the beholder, Arturo. You see their mission as honoring the classic films of the past whereas I see it as honoring the classic films (good and bad) of all decades. Doesn't mean either of us is wrong. But the TCMProgrammr and crew are trying to program the channel so that everyone gets to enjoy the films they love.

This is awful! What is happening to TCM???>> It's okay, TCM is not going to the dogs or the way of AMC. It is, as it always has been, the 31 Days of Oscar celebration where TCM honors Oscar nominated films from all decades. They've been doing this celebration for at least ten years now. In early March, TCM will revert back to its normal schedule.

It seems to have taken just under three hours from the posting of the 31 Days of Oscar schedule to the first post complaining about the "modern" movies. Frankly, that was longer than I expected....>> I'd like to see a sticky (or a TCM announcement, as they are called here) that explains the 31 Days of Oscar. I don't know if people would read it but it might curb the number of threads that will be started between now and the first of March bemoaning the fate of TCM. I'd also like to see a sticky (over two years and still waiting) that explains which studios own which libraries and some of the obstacles to leasing films, why TCM can't show every film ever made and legal issues such as the Abend decision. A girl can dream.....

I'm looking forward to Wings, Little Big Man, Save the Tiger, 3 Days of the Condor (three great films from the 1970s) as well as Breaker Morant and LA Confidential. Wish LA Confidential had been on preceded by Chinatown but that's just me. Wish Parallax View had been included but I don't remember if it garnered any Oscar nominations. Would have fit right in with 3 Days of the Condor though.

Jorge, The matter has been resolved and the misunderstanding cleared up. As was indicated in the PM that was sent to you earlier today, all you have to do is reply to it and you will be re-instated. Bob Birchard is at the SSO until Friday, so I hope you will come back!

Fred, Did you see it on another cable channel? If so, that's why TCM can't run it. Another channel has the lease rights to it.

If those stats that someone provided the link to a few weeks ago are in any indication the TCM website does not get a lot of traffic. We like to think that everyone is computer savvy and knows how to google to find stuff but the sad fact is that a number of people just aren't that computer savvy. Add to the fact that they get the name of the station wrong or confused with other channels. TCM has devoted a great deal of time, expense and effort on the overall web site adding a ton of new content in the last few years and they are always adding new content, sometimes on a weeky basis. But what's the point of providing that content if no one is visiting your web site? Without foot traffic at your web site what's the point of having a site as varied as this and what is the alternative? Shut down the majority of the site and just keep the home page and the schedule? Or try to encourage your viewers to visit the web site? Yesterday, according to the stats on the main forum page there were over 1100 guests (those who just visit but don't log in) and 11 users (folks like us who have registered and log in when we visit). That's an incredible discrepancy between casual guests to their site and those of us who visit on a regular basis and those of us who practically live here. TCM is trying to convert more of the guests to fans of the web site as well because today's market demands that you have a presence on the web. TCM is meeting that demand but, again, if those numbers were anywhere near correct, they are failing to convert the guests into daily or weekly users of the site.

Kenneth, A few years back Fox Movie Channel publicized that they had restored and would be running the Charlie Chan series. Film buffs were happy because many of them hadn't been seen for years. However, there were protests from the Chinese community that these films were racist and they were upset that the Chan films featured a white actor playing Chinese and talking in dialect that they considered offensive. FMC backed down and pulled the Chan series from broadcast and from retail shelves. I believe it was just last year that they quietly released the series and quietly played the series on FMC without incident.

FF, I believe that Bob Birchard was a contributor to the book that the documentary was based on.

Sylvia, There is an internationally well-known conference centered around TWOZ here in Southern California this weekend The screening on TBS and TNT may have been in support of that.

Just a friendly reminder that author, film historian, preservationist and Cinecon member Robert S Birchard will be joining us at the Silver Screen Oasis for the week beginning Monday. So, please join us over there and feel free to join in the conversation!

Just a friendly reminder that author, film historian, preservationist and Cinecon member Robert S Birchard will be joining us at the Silver Screen Oasis for the week beginning Monday. So, please join us over there and feel free to join in the conversation!

Luv, If you scroll down to Fedya's post concerning the TCM Challenge and click on the highlighted words TCM Programming Challenge, that will link you to the thread about the TCM Challenge that is currently under way. Message was edited by: lzcutter

Which makes me wonder as well what happened to all of the obscure early Paramount talkies?>> Given Paramount Home Video's reputation, they may be squirreled away in one of the vaults but until the folks at PHV hire some knowledgeable people who understand the studio's history, they are likely to remain as in the dark as some of the current employees.

The short feature is part of Fanatic! a new promo featuring Ben M. and folks that love TCM. The first one created for this promo series was with TCM message board poster, Kimpunkrock. There are more to come from what we hear.

luvmytcm, TCM usually honors the veterans on Memorial Day with a block of programming.

Filmlover, It hasn't been working properly since the end of August when the Forums were upgraded. I hope it gets fixed soon as it was great to be able to search a year or two back, especially when we are doing the TCM Challenges.

The Writer's Strike, especially if it goes on for many weeks or months, will likely derail a number of these projects.

t would seem that TCM has cherry picked about a hundred of these features, with an emphasis on the 50's and 60's (as usual). But where are the b-level William Powell, and Cary Grant and Sylvia Sidney films? For that matter, the b-level Paramount stars, like Tallulah Bankhead, Ruth Chatterton and Charlie Ruggles? They're just too old, I guess, for the ones that did the cherry-picking.>> Factotum, Paramount does not own its 1930 - 1948 film library. That was sold years ago to MCA and is now under the care of NBC/Universal. Paramount retains control of its silent films and its post-1948 library. TCM was able to do a long term deal with Paramount (according to a post from TCMProgrammr last year) for a variety of post-1948 Paramount films. As for the silents, Paramount has earned its reputation for being clueless about its silent library. Some of the people in Home Video have no idea what silent films they even have. As for the B-level films from the 1930s and 1940s that you are looking for those belong to Universal who is almost as clueless as Paramount when it comes to their Film Library and Home Video. Universal believes it makes more money on box sets of its vintage television series than it does on its classic films and that is one of the reasons they don't put out a great deal of classic films on DVD. So, TCM is not the culprit in just cherry picking the films with a emphasis on the 1950s and 1960s because the truth of the matter is that until NBC/Universal decides to work a deal with TCM, their hands are tied.