ITS!... The 12th Edition of The Programming Challenge

[movieman1957]

Welcome to the Programming Challenge No. 12. I am your host for this challenge by the unbelievable result that I won Challenge No. 11.

 

This challenge will run one month from January 12 to February 11, 2009. All schedules must be posted by midnight February 11th PST.

 

This is a fun event that was started by fellow member path40a as a way to challenge people to program a week's schedule as if they were the holder of this most important job. The only prize will be that the winner of this challenge will host the next one. This contest is in no way sponsored, endorsed or coordinated by the folks at TCM.

 

One thing to note is that the TCM programmer has often looked in and on occasion mined the brilliance of some contestants for use in the actual broadcast schedules. You could possibly have the warm fuzzies knowing you helped program a theme that may one day show up on TCM.

 

*Programming Requirements*

 

1. Selevt any week for the upcoming 12 months. Your week starts at 6am ET and end on Saturday at 5:59 ET.

2. Each day ususally begins at 6am ET but can start later if needed.

3. One night of at least four films must be devoted to a Star Of The Month. Be sure the person you select would have enough movies to schedule over a four week period.

4. This challenge's special event is an interview program of your creation. You are the host. It might be modeled on the "Private Screenings","Under The Infuence" or "Gene Wilder" specials. Pick a person you would like tp interview. Give a title to the show. I your remarks give a description of the show with format and features and why we should watch. Schedule movies by your guest or related to your guest. Start at 8pm ET and followed by a feature film. Rebroadcast your show at 11pm (west coast showing) followed by additional features.

5. All other evenings are themes of your choosing. Daytime themes are encouraged. Feel free to mark birthdays, anniversaries and historical events, etc. for any portion of the day.

6. Feature films start on the top, quarter, bottom, three-quarters of the hour.

7. Primetime features start at 8pm ET. Please allow enough time on your evening schedule to allow for intros and outtros for each film.

8. You are not required to but feel free to include short films, featurettes, trailers, etc. in your schedule.

9. Please program the regular TCM features in your schedule. "SIlent Sunday Nights" begin around midnight Sunday and is followed by "TCM Imports." "TCM Underground" starts about 2am ET on Friday. Those start times can be flexible. Saturday's "The Essentials" must start at 8pm. ET.

 

Please include some notes on your schedule. We are interested to know why you picked a selection and your inspirations.

 

*Premieres*

 

This challenge will allow for 8 premieres. This is roughly a weekly average for TCM to show over a month. A premiere is classified as any movie not available through the core libraries and has not been shown on TCM. Movies for "Silent Sunday Nights", "Underground" and "Imports" are not counted against the 8. Public Domain films are not counted against the total premieres.

 

The film libraries (with hyperlinks) for use in this Challenge are -

 

Warner Bros: http://www.imdb.com/company/co0026840/

 

MGM (pre-1986): http://www.imdb.com/company/co0020206/

 

RKO (all): http://www.imdb.com/company/co0041421/

 

Columbia Pictures (all) http://www.imdb.com/company/co0071509/

 

United Artists (after 1950): http://www.imdb.com/company/co0026841/

 

Samuel Goldwyn (all): http://www.imdb.com/company/co0016710/

 

Walt Disney (Live Action only): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Disney_live_action_films

 

Public Domain list - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Public_domain_films

 

And, as always, you are free to program any film that has already been presented on TCM regardless of library affiliation and should be designated with a "p/s" symbol (designating "previously scheduled"). And you can find running times for your film selections by using IMDB.com or TCMDB.com to research your titles.

 

Format your listing by showing the time it shows, name of the film, year it was produced, star or person of interest, studio, running time, premiere or previously scheduled.

 

Here are links to previous schedules:

Challenge #11 http://forums.tcm.com/jive/tcm/thread.jspa?messageID=8155190

Challenge #10 ( http://forums.tcm.com/jive/tcm/thread.jspa?threadID=127551&start=30&tstart=495&messageID=8088572#8088572 )

Challenge #9 (http://forums.tcm.com/jive/tcm/message.jspa?messageID=8046284#8046284)

Challenge #8 (http://forums.tcm.com/jive/tcm/message.jspa?messageID=8013984#8013984)

Challenge #7 (http://forums.tcm.com/jive/tcm/message.jspa?messageID=7973260#7973260)

Challenge #6 (http://forums.tcm.com/jive/tcm/message.jspa?messageID=7934043#7934043)

Challenge #5 (http://forums.tcm.com/jive/tcm/message.jspa?messageID=7877675#7877675)

Challenge #4 (http://forums.tcm.com/jive/tcm/message.jspa?messageID=7847611#7847611)

Challenge #3 (http://forums.tcm.com/jive/tcm/message.jspa?messageID=7827881#7827881)

Challenge #2 (http://forums.tcm.com/jive/tcm/message.jspa?messageID=7794350#7794350)

or the original from the immortal Path40a

Challenge #1 (http://forums.tcm.com/jive/tcm/message.jspa?messageID=7781430#7781430)

 

At the conclusion of the contest a separate thread will be opened for voting. Please have fun.

 

(Being the technologically challenged soul I am I apologize for how sloppy this is.)

 

Message was edited by: movieman1957

 

To include notes regarding films in the Public Domain.

[pancakes_barbara]

It's here! It's here!

 

8 premieres, eh? ***I think I can, I think I can...***

 

And your post isn't sloppy at all! I even checked all of the links, and they work fine.

[patful]

Thanks, Chris! A perfect Challenge for any newcomers out there who might be terrified of joining in here.

 

*Pick a person you would like to interview.*

 

Hmm, that's a tough call. ;-)

[CineMaven]

I've never tried the Challenge (too hard) but I want to send out my kudoes to all of you challengers. I know you'll do well.

[ChipHeartsMovies]

At last!

[movieman1957]

I hope it was worth the wait.

[sugarpuss]

Hey, ITS a Monty Python reference in the subject line! Now all we need is Michael Palin to stagger into the thread, somehow. Or even the knight who hits people with a rubber chicken.

 

I like this Challenge already!

[lzcutter]

Chris,

 

Just for sake of clarification, I'm guessing the interview subject we choose has to actually be alive as opposed to a famous deceased star or director or whatever?

 

Just making sure.

 

I love the idea by the way!

[movieman1957]

Hi Lynn:

 

I thought I typed that in but must have backed out on it. The idea would be that they were alive by today's date. This way if by some unfortunate chance someone were to die through the contest the schedule would not have to be changed.

 

Sugarpuss;

 

Just envision me for the next thirty days as John Cleese sitting at the moving desk playing the part of news reader.

[rohanaka]

Chris...nicely done. I am already losing hair just sitting here thinking about what a challenge this would be. I am going to have to remain an interested fan on this one....but I bet you get several takers and I imagine you and the judges will have some tough challenges ahead too when choosing the winner. Good luck everybody. :-)

[patful]

Hey, Chris, your first confused entrant! On the night with the special guest interview, is the first film shown after the 8PM interview to be shown again after the 11PM repeat? Or just different films? Or better wording: *can* the film be repeated? Thanks.

[ChipHeartsMovies]

I have spent half the day on this already...it's so much fun!

[patful]

*I have spent half the day on this already...* - Chip

 

10 minutes here! Almost done. ;-)

[movieman1957]

In light of the way I know TCM to do this, the interview is repeated at 11 ET but a different movie is shown after the second showing of the interview.

[patful]

*...different movie is shown after the second showing...*

 

That's what I thought, on to idea #2!

[ILoveRayMilland]

Just saw this thread! I'm so excited. I already have tons of ideas.

 

Thanks, movieman!

[movieman1957]

I've been waiting on you. Young minds always have tons of ideas. Good luck and thanks for joining in.

 

Chris

[movieman1957]

The tension is building. Of course it might be a headache.

 

I have visions of Patful hard at work at his desk with a movie book, a pen and a cup of coffee. He asks himself "Should I stay up or go to bed? This is so much fun."

[ILoveRayMilland]

> {quote:title=movieman1957 wrote:}{quote}

> I've been waiting on you. Young minds always have tons of ideas. Good luck and thanks for joining in.

>

> Chris

 

Thanks! It's gonna be a very interesting comp.

[patful]

*I have visions of Patful hard at work at his desk with a movie book...*

 

Not quite yet, Chris. I usually wait a few days for the ideas to stop bouncing around in my skull. Probably Saturday.

 

*He asks himself "Should I stay up or go to bed?...*

 

Not a problem. I sleep on the floor beside my computer (really!), and have been known to wake up from a dream and begin typing new ideas into my rough draft. But fun it certainly is!

[Fredmill38]

Count me in on this challenge. I've participated in 3 of them and they're really fun to do and be a part of. I already have some ideas mapped out.

 

~Donna

________________________________

*"You're the detective. Don't ask me for answers."*

*~ Jarvis Goodland (Ray Milland) ~ Columbo: The Greenhouse Jungle*

 

*"I never discuss business before dinner."*

*~Jean Lafitte (Fredric March) ~ The Buccaneer (1938)*

 

*"Having some trouble Mr. DA?"*

*~Joe Lilac (Dana Andrews) ~ Ball of Fire (1942)*

 

*"If you're not gonna electrocute me on the spot, I think I'll run along."*

*~Joel Sloane (Robert Montgomery) ~ Fast and Loose (1939)*

 

*"When I start a fight, I like to finish it."*

*~Britt Reid/The Green Hornet (Van Williams) ~ The Green Hornet: Freeway to Death*

[movieman1957]

Hi Donna:

 

So glad to see you here. I'm very happy you're joining in again. Good luck.

 

Chris

[ILoveRayMilland]

Just thought I'd bump this thread up.

[movieman1957]

Thanks. Life got in the way today.

[WhyaDuck]

I'll be glad to do the programming challenge for a year instead of a month. It's easier that way.

 

First I would seperate a day into four 6 hour sections. Prime Time, Late Night, Morning and Afternnoon. I would use Eastern Standard Time.

 

Second I would make it a rule that no movie can be shown twice in the same year in any one section. No matter who dies or who gets to pick the essentials, this is a rule that would not be broken. If a movie has already been shown in prime time in the last 12 months, it is on the daed movie list for prime time and can't be shown again.

 

Now this would keep certain movies from being shown over and over and over because it's the actors birthday or the actresses birthday or the supporting stars birthday or the directors birthday or somebody died, or a guest host picked it as one of their essential.

 

This would force TCM to show 365 movies times 3 or 4 in prime time. Ball Park it around 1460 movies. If TCM does't have this many, then purchase more.

 

This still leaves it possible for the movie to turn up in another time section, and could be shown as often as 4 times a year, but a good rule of thumb would be to try to hold all films to twice a year. Twice a year is plenty for any one film.

 

Now I think thats a good fomula to stop some of these movies from being shown over and over and over. I don't care how good a movie is, you can get sick of it.

 

I think it's also a good formula to force other movies to be shown. If you go from the silent movie up through the 1970s, thats alot of movies. It wouldn't kill Turner and corporated to make a deal to buy or borrow some other movies. There are stars and movies we never see on TCM because they probably don't have the rights to those flicks. Then make a deal and get them. .........but even with the movies TCM has, I'm sure it would be very possible to limit a movie to one prime time showing a year and try to keep it to only twice a year period.

 

In doing this, movies like The Apartment or Citizen Kane would become once a year events that you might look forward to, instead of saying to yourself, " I can't believe it's on again ". If once a year use to be good enough for The Wizard Of Oz, then once a year should be what TCM should be going for on prime time. Again, this lets the movie still be shown 3 more times in other time slots, but I would even try to hold the movie to just twice a year across the board.

 

And that is my programming suggestion. Yes, I think it can be easily done......My goal would be to provide a wider selection of movies over the course of the year to the prime time audience, and the other viewers at other times as a whole. More movies, less repeats.

 

Message was edited by: WhyaDuck

 

Message was edited by: WhyaDuck