NEW HOSTS DAVE KARGER AND ALICIA MALONE...

[JamesJazGuitar]

38 minutes ago, DVDPhreak said:

He also compared the other nominees who were not frontrunners as "high school football teams, and not good ones at that."  Essentially he was saying the other nominees were totally worthless.  James Franco was one of the nominees that year whom Mank compared to a high school football team, and he (Franco) mentioned in a post-Oscar interview that he wasn't happy.  It was just a bad, cringeworthy analogy because all nominees should be considered winners.

Green Bay Packers fans didn't cringe.  

[sewhite2000]

I think you're misreading what he's saying. He's not saying the talent level of the other nominees is the equivalent of a high school team playing the Green Bay Packers. He's saying their chances of winning were about the same. He's not being insulting to them, I'm sure. I'm not crazy about the horse race aspects of the awards shows, but most Americans who watch the Oscars seem to be into that, so he's just playing to his audience.

[gigiblu]

Dave Karger, so refreshing and interesting to listen to his comments

[LsDoorMat]

On 3/5/2018 at 6:21 PM, LawrenceA said:

The article states that Ben will remain the Thursday through Sunday primetime host, while Karger and Malone will rotate through all the other needed intros.

I like both Dave Karger and Alicia Malone, but what is up with Ben? After just two years of being the primetime host is he scaling back to the schedule Robert Osborne had due to illness towards the end?  Think about all Robert Osborne did the first ten years he was at TCM - I believe he was pretty much the ONLY host, he did the Private Screenings interviews, prepared for all of the guest programmers, wrote articles about TCM stars of the month and other TCM special events, and still managed to write for the Hollywood Reporter, a job he had from 1983 until the middle of 2009. I realize Robert Osborne had incredible energy and passion, but is Ben already getting bored with the job? Just wondering.

[Barton_Keyes]

4 minutes ago, calvinnme said:

I like both Dave Karger and Alicia Malone, but what is up with Ben? After just two years of being the primetime host is he scaling back to the schedule Robert Osborne had due to illness towards the end?  Think about all Robert Osborne did the first ten years he was at TCM - I believe he was pretty much the ONLY host, he did the Private Screenings interviews, prepared for all of the guest programmers, wrote articles about TCM stars of the month and other TCM special events, and still managed to write for the Hollywood Reporter, a job he had from 1983 until the middle of 2009. I realize Robert Osborne had incredible energy and passion, but is Ben already getting bored with the job? Just wondering.

No, it's just that Ben Mankiewicz does a lot of other stuff on the side, beside his hosting for TCM. He is also a regular contributor to the YouTube channel The Young Turks, hosting TYT Sports and the What the Flick!? movie review show. And unlike Robert Osborne, who was 62 when TCM launched and had no children, Ben Mankiewicz has a young family in Los Angeles. As it is, he already commutes to Atlanta to record TCM segments once every three weeks. Asking much more of him would seem unreasonable. For Robert Osborne, seems fair to say that movies were pretty much his life. With Ben Mankiewicz, talking about movies is certainly something he is passionate about, but he is first and foremost a broadcaster, whereas Osborne was always considered a film historian. Important distinction, I think. Mankiewicz, it seems, wants the freedom to do other things in addition to his TCM hosting duties. 

[lydecker]

1 hour ago, Barton_Keyes said:

No, it's just that Ben Mankiewicz does a lot of other stuff on the side, beside his hosting for TCM. He is also a regular contributor to the YouTube channel The Young Turks, hosting TYT Sports and the What the Flick!? movie review show. And unlike Robert Osborne, who was 62 when TCM launched and had no children, Ben Mankiewicz has a young family in Los Angeles. As it is, he already commutes to Atlanta to record TCM segments once every three weeks. Asking much more of him would seem unreasonable. For Robert Osborne, seems fair to say that movies were pretty much his life. With Ben Mankiewicz, talking about movies is certainly something he is passionate about, but he is first and foremost a broadcaster, whereas Osborne was always considered a film historian. Important distinction, I think. Mankiewicz, it seems, wants the freedom to do other things in addition to his TCM hosting duties. 

Interesting.  I, too, miss seeing Ben more often.  I've always been a fan.  Though I really understand his desire to "do other things"  while Osborne was nearing the end of his career when he became the TCM Host (and so knew that TCM was his dream job!) Ben is still a (relatively) young guy.  Also, I'm sure Ben was able to negotiate a very favorable deal with TCM when RO died since the network would have done anything to keep him on TCM.  I'm just glad when he's on and the new hosts are going to do just fine. 

[LsDoorMat]

18 hours ago, Barton_Keyes said:

No, it's just that Ben Mankiewicz does a lot of other stuff on the side, beside his hosting for TCM. He is also a regular contributor to the YouTube channel The Young Turks, hosting TYT Sports and the What the Flick!? movie review show. And unlike Robert Osborne, who was 62 when TCM launched and had no children, Ben Mankiewicz has a young family in Los Angeles. As it is, he already commutes to Atlanta to record TCM segments once every three weeks. Asking much more of him would seem unreasonable. For Robert Osborne, seems fair to say that movies were pretty much his life. With Ben Mankiewicz, talking about movies is certainly something he is passionate about, but he is first and foremost a broadcaster, whereas Osborne was always considered a film historian. Important distinction, I think. Mankiewicz, it seems, wants the freedom to do other things in addition to his TCM hosting duties. 

Thanks for the information on all that Ben does, and I realize I'm being over sensitive. However as a 60 year old with no children and who just lost both parents within two weeks of one another, I was already feeling like an old tree with no roots and no leaves. I believe the concise term for such a tree is lumber. So this  comment (unfairly) sounded like - "hey, Osborne was old and had no kids. What else did he have to do with his life but work." It just makes me feel like the people in this commercial:

 

[Fedya]

Do you have money coming out the wazoo, too?

[CaveGirl]

Just in case these two don't work out, I hear Max Headroom is looking for a new gig!

[cigarjoe]

49 minutes ago, CaveGirl said:

Just in case these two don't work out, I hear Max Headroom is looking for a new gig!

[CinemaInternational]

I must say that the few times I have seen Alicia Malone so far, she has been great. Wonderful voice, warm demeanor, just makes for a very appealing host.

[Click5]

I think Dave Karger is the best addition to TCM in a long time.  He's thoroughly professional, charming, intelligent and informed.  In addition, his classy demeanor hearkens back to Robert Osborne's prime and, in my opinion, helps fill the gap of Osborne's loss with an understated sincerity that is just right.

[LornaHansonForbes]

On 4/12/2018 at 5:31 PM, CinemaInternational said:

I must say that the few times I have seen Alicia Malone so far, she has been great. Wonderful voice, warm demeanor, just makes for a very appealing host.

I know, right?

I caught her for the first time today introducing one of those stupid Lassie movies, and while I had absolutely no intention of watching the film, she was so utterly charming that after another minute of her persuasion, I might possibly have changed my mind.

I just realized yesterday for the first time that Vasquez is gone (was searching for the remote so I could hit the mute button when I was pleasantly surprised to hear Dave)

who says nothing good has happened in 2018?

[cigarjoe]

On 4/12/2018 at 5:31 PM, CinemaInternational said:

I must say that the few times I have seen Alicia Malone so far, she has been great. Wonderful voice, warm demeanor, just makes for a very appealing host.

I've reached my tipping point yesterday, I had TCM on most of the day, the accent is starting to grate. 

[Hibi]

I admit her accent takes a lot of getting used to (and I'm not sure I ever will get used to it) but she seems knowledgeable and has some gravitas (as in knowing what she's talking about). As opposed to T.V. whom I always felt was just reading from a teleprompter........

[speedracer5]

I love Alicia Malone's accent.  I find it charming and have no issues with it.  She seems so much more comfortable in front of the camera too.  I actually find her pleasant to listen to, as opposed to Tiffany's perpetual "first day of high school speech class" presentations.

[spence]

I recall Karger from my EW mag subscribing & strongly disliked his reviews then, but for a few reasons I simply loath what the pc culture is doing & has for about 10yrs rating movie on a school teacher's grade of A, B, C, D,etc

 

These ridiculous ratings starting on the net & from wet behind the ears college kids to start with

 

Karger never really even wrote about classic cinema-(20-25yrs & older) in his pieces either, now all of a sudden his either Maltin or the next Mr. 0sborne?

 

Ebert & Siskel, Schickel, Corliss, Premiere & many others got infuriated when these up & comers started that rating system, ALWAYS sticking with the four star system that started in Daily News & in the 1920's

 

& not certain but what well be thee A No.1 all-time finest film critic & of course screenwriter James Agee-(l909-55) would turn over in his grave.

 

I can wager right now that if the current TCM likes of David Karger didn't use cue cards on even say "Captains Courageous" "Treasure of the Sierra Madre" & mayb even the legendary "KANE" he couldn't know the facts in his head.  Not to begin to include the silent era

 

THANK YOU FOR YOU TIME

 

 

[spence]

GEE, wonder what happened to the too young Tiffany Vasquez?  I know what likely happened TOO YOUNG!  I started studying cinema history at 14 to 15, but wasn't on the airwaves

 

 

BRING WINONA BACK, she loves & knows her stuff sports fans    Even a couple days a week

[spence]

Ben Mankiewicz' all-time favs in cinema-(l967-) most know it's hard to locate his favs & had a couple discussions about this matter on the boards, though I found his tops months ago)>

 

1st *"WEST SIDE STORY" (l96l)

2nd *ALL ABOUT EVE": (l950-Fox)

3rd *"BEN-HUR" (l959-MGM)-(maybe his #1?)

4th "OUT OF SIGHT" (l998)

& Ben's actors>

1st STEVE MCQUEEN-(l930-l980)-(he often says he want to be "The King of Movie Cool")

2nd *LEE MARVIN (l924-87)

 

Not yet certain of his favourite actress though, ANYBODY KNOW?

 

& I THANK YOU

 

(P.S. For those they not be familiar with Ben's relatives *J.L. Mankiewicz & *Herman J. Mankiewicz-("Kane") he still really looks like both men, but much lighter)

 

[speedracer5]

21 minutes ago, spence said:

GEE, wonder what happened to the too young Tiffany Vasquez?  I know what likely happened TOO YOUNG!  I started studying cinema history at 14 to 15, but wasn't on the airwaves

 

 

BRING WINONA BACK, she loves & knows her stuff sports fans    Even a couple days a week

Tiffany was 30-something. She was perfectly old enough to discuss film. 

[film archivist]

I would like to know, what happened to Tiffany Vazquez also? She was a pleasant host for weekend afternoon hosts. i think she was 30 something, and I thought TCM was trying to meet a younger audience to introduce them to a wide range of classic film? It's hard to know in film what a newer audience would enjoy watching on a classic film channel, like TCM, whom ever the host maybe?

[LawrenceA]

2 minutes ago, film archivist said:

I would like to know, what happened to Tiffany Vazquez also? She was a pleasant host for weekend afternoon hosts. i think she was 30 something, and I thought TCM was trying to meet a younger audience to introduce them to a wide range of classic film? It's hard to know in film what a newer audience would enjoy watching on a classic film channel, like TCM, whom ever the host maybe?

Tiffany is no longer a host. She still works for TCM, from what I've read, but she works behind the scenes on their social media aspects and live events.

[JamesJazGuitar]

1 minute ago, film archivist said:

I would like to know, what happened to Tiffany Vazquez also? She was a pleasant host for weekend afternoon hosts. i think she was 30 something, and I thought TCM was trying to meet a younger audience to introduce them to a wide range of classic film? It's hard to know in film what a newer audience would enjoy watching on a classic film channel, like TCM, whom ever the host maybe?

Vazquez had a one year contract and it wasn't renewed.    I assume she wasn't able to use social media to bring in enough new TCM viewers, which was one of the things she was hired to do,  to justify renewing her contract.

But getting anyone to watch movies that were made before they were born is a difficult task.     

 

 

[film archivist]

Thanks to the both of you, responding to my question about Miss Vasquez.

[limey]

11 hours ago, jamesjazzguitar said:

But getting anyone to watch movies that were made before they were born is a difficult task.  

I think that there may be a generational aspect at play with this - when I was a nipper, TV stations used to show a couple of movies a day as part of their regular schedule & these were nearly always older than I was. Later on, as schedules became 24/7, the overnight was oft populated with old b/w flicks of yore - that's really where my taste for 'classic' was nurtured.