Sepiatone Posted December 11, 2016 Share Posted December 11, 2016 Recently, a newcomer here asked about the why pertaining to TCM not showing "It's A Wonderful Life" during the holiday season. I believe the reason given was that NBC had exclusive rights to the flick or something on that order. So imagine my surprise just now in "surfing" into the movie on the USA Network. So it might seem that the grip has loosened somewhat. Sepiatone Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RoyCronin Posted December 11, 2016 Share Posted December 11, 2016 USA and NBC are now the same big corporate conglomerate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jakeem Posted December 11, 2016 Share Posted December 11, 2016 The USA Network aired "It's a Wonderful Life" three times last year. Just consider USA to be a basic cable satellite of NBC in the Kabletown universe. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sewhite2000 Posted December 11, 2016 Share Posted December 11, 2016 http://www.tvguide.com/movies/its-a-wonderful-life/tv-listings/102384/ Just like ABC shipped Monday Night Football off to ESPN some years back (both are owned by Disney), and just like Fox has shuffled all its baseball playoff games except for the World Series to FS1, it appears NBC is increasingly handing It's a Wonderful Life over to USA. But yes, USA is wholly owned by NBCUniversal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sepiatone Posted December 12, 2016 Author Share Posted December 12, 2016 USA and NBC are now the same big corporate conglomerate. That might explain it then. But it also now makes me wonder... The USA network shows an awful ot of "Modern Family" reruns, which is an ABC show. They ust have made one hell of a deal. Sepiatone Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmovieviewer Posted December 12, 2016 Share Posted December 12, 2016 Another surprise I came across is that HBO has scheduled Miracle on 34th Street (1947) for 11am EST on Christmas day. Don't see it showing on any other networks in my area during the next 2 weeks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sewhite2000 Posted December 12, 2016 Share Posted December 12, 2016 I don't think syndication (the showing of reruns) has much of anything to do with the network on which original episodes air. The money for syndication rights to Modern Family, for example, goes to the production company that makes the show, not to ABC. Once a show has accumulated enough episodes that can be bundled together in a syndication package (usually five seasons), anyone can purchase that package. ABC doesn't have any exclusivity on showing Modern Family reruns, just new episodes. I'm sure it's not cheap, but it may not be as much money as you think. For example, Seinfeld, once it had been on the air for five seasons, you could find reruns of it airing everywhere. NBC didn't have any control over the airing of those reruns. So, there's nothing odd about USA, an NBC-owned station, showing reruns of an ABC show. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markfp2 Posted December 12, 2016 Share Posted December 12, 2016 OOPS! SORRY DOUBLE POSTED Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markfp2 Posted December 12, 2016 Share Posted December 12, 2016 USA and NBC are now the same big corporate conglomerate. Yup. Last year I read in one of the trade papers that they renegotiated NBC's long-term contract for IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE to include showings on USA. You can bet that cost them big bucks and will be exclusive for decades to come. We should live long enough to see it turn up on TCM. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Movie Collector OH Posted December 12, 2016 Share Posted December 12, 2016 http://www.tvguide.com/movies/its-a-wonderful-life/tv-listings/102384/ Just like ABC shipped Monday Night Football off to ESPN some years back (both are owned by Disney), and just like Fox has shuffled all its baseball playoff games except for the World Series to FS1, it appears NBC is increasingly handing It's a Wonderful Life over to USA. But yes, USA is wholly owned by NBCUniversal. So does this mean it is not going to be shown any longer on the free channels? If so, then that answers that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RexFlix Posted December 12, 2016 Share Posted December 12, 2016 I remember when it was in the public domain and every time you turned on the tv it was playing on one channel or another and it was also in every discount VHS video bin! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LawrenceA Posted December 12, 2016 Share Posted December 12, 2016 It's a Wonderful Life will be on NBC at 8:00 PM EST on December 24th. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EricJ Posted December 12, 2016 Share Posted December 12, 2016 It's a Wonderful Life will be on NBC at 8:00 PM EST on December 24th. Eh, who needs to see it if you already grew up with it in your hometown? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LawrenceA Posted December 12, 2016 Share Posted December 12, 2016 Personally, I've never understood why people get worked up over whether this is being shown on TV, or Miracle on 34th Street or The Ten Commandments, or whatever other title. If the movie means something to you or your friends and family, just buy a copy of it on DVD or VHS. None of those movies are expensive to purchase, and even if you never passed the VCR phase of home entertainment, you can find used tapes online or at your local flea markets/swap meets for only a couple of dollars, if that much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmovieviewer Posted December 13, 2016 Share Posted December 13, 2016 LawrenceA, I agree with your point that we should acquire a copy of the titles we're fond of, especially since you never can be sure of if/when they will be shown on an available network these days. I think part of seeking out the movies on TV may be the association with traditions we had in the past. When I was growing up, for whatever reason one of the local channels would play the 1954 version of White Christmas every year around 10 pm on Christmas Eve. So when my family would come back from the Christmas Eve church service it was always on. With repetition this has now been stamped in my memories of Christmas Eve with my family, so I will always look back fondly on this film. Even through changes in time and distance I still check the TV listings half expecting it to be showing on Christmas Eve. But I do own the DVD now so I can do my own programming if needed 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EricJ Posted December 13, 2016 Share Posted December 13, 2016 I think part of seeking out the movies on TV may be the association with traditions we had in the past. When I was growing up, for whatever reason one of the local channels would play the 1954 version of White Christmas every year around 10 pm on Christmas Eve. So when my family would come back from the Christmas Eve church service it was always on. With repetition this has now been stamped in my memories of Christmas Eve with my family, so I will always look back fondly on this film. Even through changes in time and distance I still check the TV listings half expecting it to be showing on Christmas Eve. But I do own the DVD now so I can do my own programming if needed It's part of our cultural "TV DNA" that we still want the tradition of thinking that the entire country is sitting down to watch something we all like at the same time. Everyone's got a copy of Wizard of Oz on their shelf, but it doesn't have the same feeling as when you saw the ad in TV Guide that it was going to play on TV the next week. Similarly, everyone's got a copy of The Grinch, Rudolph and Charlie Brown, without having as much of their original 60's running times cut for commercials, but it's not the specials we want to watch, it's the ritual of seeing them aired as proof that the holiday was coming. These are things we lost, and Netflix binge-watching and Hairspray: Live aren't going to bring them back. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dargo Posted December 13, 2016 Share Posted December 13, 2016 Eh, who needs to see it if you already grew up with it in your hometown? You'll have to forgive Eric here, folks. Ya see, Eric here is the grandson of the REAL Sam "Hee-Haw" Wainwright of Seneca Falls, New York. And whenever he sees IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE, it reminds him how close he came to having the REAL Mary Hatch, also of Seneca Falls, as his grandmother. (...yep, if it wasn't for that damned ill-timed phone call his gramps made to Mary's house at one fateful night, things might've sure turned out differently, alright) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tikisoo Posted December 13, 2016 Share Posted December 13, 2016 Eh, who needs to see it if you already grew up with it in your hometown? Well I'm from the area too and I attend ITS A WONDERFUL LIFE screening every year with a fellow Cinephile. References to Rochester & Elmira always get a twitter of applause from the audience. There's NOTHING like seeing 35mm projected on a huge screen with and audience enjoying it with you. On a recent NPR story about Seneca Falls' annual IAWL celebration, they failed to mention Main St of Bedford Falls is named "Genesee St". Route 5 goes through several NY towns and is called "Genesee St" in each of them- Auburn, Syracuse, Utica & even Schenectady. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sepiatone Posted December 13, 2016 Author Share Posted December 13, 2016 Eh, who needs to see it if you already grew up with it in your hometown? They had a similar looking bridge here that connected Lincoln Park with Ecorse MI. It spanned the Ecorse creek. But they took it down about 20 or so years ago. And they never DID have a tobacco spittin' attendant who sat all night in a little shack at one end. Sepiatone Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EricJ Posted December 13, 2016 Share Posted December 13, 2016 They had a similar looking bridge here that connected Lincoln Park with Ecorse MI. It spanned the Ecorse creek. But they took it down about 20 or so years ago. And they never DID have a tobacco spittin' attendant who sat all night in a little shack at one end. Yes, but yours didn't have the local handed-down legend that Frank Capra was looking at Auburn, NY as inspiration for a colorful Victorian-houses upstate-NY town, stopped through Seneca for a haircut, and heard the local-hero legend of Antonio Varacalli, who dove off the bridge to save a woman from drowning back in 1917. (Seneca was famous for its 2nd-generation Italian population, since the local bank had helped build a big housing section of the town for many of the overflowing early-20th-cty. NYC immigrants, just like the Bailey Savings & Loan had for Mr. Martini.) http://therealbedfordfalls.com/antonio-varacalli-day/ And I remember having to pass so many old three-story Victorian houses on State St. on the way to school, the Bailey house just seemed, well, normal to me. Nobody threw rocks at the windows though, they might sic their dogs on you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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