NOW I'M REALLY MAD ! ! !

[misswonderly3]

Yes, this thread is nothing but a vent-ful hissy fit. I know I've complained about this many times before, but really, THIS IS TOO MUCH !(Looks like I'm turning into Lorna here.)

Ok. There are lots of times when I get kind of excited about some film or other I've always wanted to watch, I see it on the TCM schedule, anticipation mounts, but NO !  Once I have the sense to click on the CANADIAN schedule, sure enough, IT'S NOT AVAILABLE FOR VIEWING IN CANADA !  (I should pay Lorna some kind of royalty fee for these block caps...)

I hate this, it really makes me feel frustrated and angry, not only because I don't get to see some film I want to see, but also because I don't understand why. Some of these films are very old and obscure, is there really a lot of money to be made from them? It seems like this "rights" issue has gone out-of-control. Seems to be a combination of greed (on the part of whoever owns the rights) and laziness (on the part of those who don't seem to know who owns the rights and can't be bothered to find out) and -oh, just a tangled stupid web of "rights" and confusion and vagueness. I mean, how can it matter that much if some decades -old movie (some go back to the 30s or earlier) is aired in Canada? TCM isn't even making any money from broadcasting these old films, so what's the harm in making them available in Canada too? I say Aargh aargh aargh !

BUT ! ! ! That's not even what I'm ranting about !  This is the final outrage: I check out the TCM schedule for Monday night (January 14th) at 8:00 pm, and see a "TCM Presents" Special. Oh good, I like those "TCM Presents" mini-docs. They're usually fun and interesting. And -sweet ! -this one's about two of my favourite classic era actors, James Stewart and Robert Mitchum. Good, this will be so much fun to watch, I'll make sure I remember to turn on TCM at 7:50 pm, some good programming to look forward to.

But NO !  For some reason, even this, an original TCM documentary, is NOT AVAILABLE IN CANADA. But why not? This is not an old movie, it can't be part of that tangled "rights" web I was just talking about . It's a TCM original presentation. I was so disappointed, and so puzzled as to why even this can't be shown in Canada, I just had to vent.

If anyone has any idea as to the reason for this outrage, I'll be so grateful I'll ship them a whole truckload of butter tarts and legal marijuana (oh, wait, that won't fly past the border....) Maybe I'll have to just move to the States, this is getting worse all the time.

 

[Polly of the Precodes]

This documentary probably contains excerpts from one or more movies that are tied up in this rights hell. If this is the case, the documentary maker had to make the necessary effort to license the clips to show them in the United States, and didn't do the additional work to also clear the Canadian rights.

Having said that, I stand (and SCREAM) with you.

[hutz]

i know your pain

I keep a running list of movies I've been screwed out of seeing.

some show up on premium channels up here which may interfere with their availability but it's frustrating when they're movies you've been keeping an eye out for

it doesn't help that the canadian schedule goes up weeks or even months after the american one

I saw the thin man movies about three years ago but they've been switched out ever since.

Meet John Doe has also been blacked out here recently

a few others that I've never been able to see on tcm canada include:

Arsenic and Old Lace

Random Harvest

Diabolique

Rififi

The Steel Helmet

Peeping Tom

Foreign Correspondent

The Ladykillers

Le Samourai

Le Cercle Rouge

The Small Back Room

World on a Wire

 

to name but a few

[Fedya]

The documentary is about the two faces of America, not the two faces of Canada. 

And as my piano teacher liked to say, humans get angry; dogs go mad.

[Thenryb]

5 minutes ago, Fedya said:

The documentary is about the two faces of America, not the two faces of Canada. 

And as my piano teacher liked to say, humans get angry; dogs go mad.

Poking the bear I see. Canada is not part of "America", and "mad" only means "rabid".

[jamesjazzguitar]

7 minutes ago, Thenryb said:

Poking the bear I see. Canada is not part of "America", and "mad" only means "rabid".

Canada isn't part of North America?     

[Thenryb]

5 minutes ago, jamesjazzguitar said:

Canada isn't part of North America?     

Apparently not, according to Fedya or maybe his piano teacher. I always thought it was, but who am I?

[Fedya]

My piano teacher would also like to say if we misbehaved during lessons, "I'll crown you!"  At some point later in church we learned the hymn "Crown Him with Many Crowns", which of course took on a new meaning to us.

[misswonderly3]

Thanks for all the sympathy, Fedya, Thenryb, and james. (sarcasm intended.)  I'd like to know how you'd feel if the situation were reversed.

No butter tarts for you !

[hutz]

we should build a border wall that stops only sarcasm

[Fedya]

I'm saving you from the onslaught of evil American culture.

As the saying goes, Ice hockey is Canada's #1 national sport.  Canada's #2 international sport is USA-bashing.

[Thenryb]

30 minutes ago, misswonderly3 said:

Thanks for all the sympathy, Fedya, Thenryb, and james. (sarcasm intended.)  I'd like to know how you'd feel if the situation were reversed.

No butter tarts for you !

Actually, I do have sympathy for your situation and my comment was intended as a negative reaction to Fedya's post. I need to adopt your parenthetical. James also read my post as agreeing that Canada was not part of America.

 

[Sgt_Markoff]

Unconscionable treatment of our neighbors-to-the-North!

Brave Canada! Loyal Canada! We fought shoulder-to-shoulder against the Hun in the dark days of WWII. But how now? How does this fell deed come to pass? Is this the pallid courtesy we now dash at the feet of our steadfast ally? Is it? Answer me!

I want the names of the men responsible for this disgrace! When I have this intelligence, I will personally contact the American Ambassador to the Commonwealth of Canada and believe you me, those heads will roll! They'll never work in cable television again!

[jamesjazzguitar]

46 minutes ago, misswonderly3 said:

Thanks for all the sympathy, Fedya, Thenryb, and james. (sarcasm intended.)  I'd like to know how you'd feel if the situation were reversed.

No butter tarts for you !

I do have sympathy that you can't see certain films due to 'rights' issues.

As for how would I feel if the tide was turned? Hopefully nothing since this falls under 'it is what it is' and I try hard to not get upset about things outside of my control.   (but I could be blowing smoke here and for all I know I would blow my top!).

 

[speedracer5]

I think it's absurd that these films aren't available in Canada.  Canada, the United States and Mexico are all part of North America.  Why does only part of the continent receive the scheduled programming? It's silly.  I also agree with you that it's absurd that there are still rights issues with 70-80 year old movies.  Who's hanging onto the rights? How much money are they really making from them? I can see if the film in question were something like The Wizard of Oz or something like that that is enmeshed with pop culture, but I doubt that is the case with something like Lured. 

On the flipside, there was a week or so where my Dish was randomly showing the Canadian TCM schedule (I have no idea why) and I was disappointed, because there was an Errol Flynn movie scheduled that I hadn't seen and when I selected it, another movie started in its place.  I looked up the TCM schedule online and that's when I determined it was the Canadian schedule showing on my guide. 

I'm curious, on TCM, when a Primetime movie is replaced, does another movie just casually air in its place without an introduction? 

 

[LsDoorMat]

3 hours ago, misswonderly3 said:

If anyone has any idea as to the reason for this outrage, I'll be so grateful I'll ship them a whole truckload of butter tarts and legal marijuana (oh, wait, that won't fly past the border....) Maybe I'll have to just move to the States, this is getting worse all the time.

 

Don't move down here. We'd love to have you, but something tells me that having a functional national government and socialized medicine outweighs having full access to the goodies on TCM USA.

[Dargo]

5 hours ago, misswonderly3 said:

...Maybe I'll have to just move to the States, this is getting worse all the time.

 

Yep MissW, as calvinnme just said here, while we'd love to have you down here, there would be certain write-offs you'd have to put up with if you made this move and which probably in the long run wouldn't be worth it.

However, probably the BIGGEST write-off and/or adjustment you'd encounter would be of course dropping all those superfluous British letter 'U's in our shared lexicon that you Canadians still for some inexplicable reason insist upon inserting into various words whenever you correspond with others in text form.

(...and so and in closing, in addition to offering my upmost regrets about how TCM seems to constantly be screwing you and your fellow Canadian citizens in regards to the programs and movies they're denying you up that way, I would also suggest this thought about moving south would most likely be a most ill-considered move on your part)

 

[Vautrin]

O Canada!

 

[Dargo]

Okay Vautrin. While I like David Byrne as much as the next guy, don't ya think that was just a little too rockin' for this late in the evening?

And so may I suggest the following tribute to our neighbors(or as they say "neighbours") to the north instead...

(...now I ask you...wasn't THIS just a little more "soothing" for such a late hour?...nighty night...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz)

[Vautrin]

1 hour ago, Dargo said:

Okay Vautrin. While I like David Byrne as much as the next guy, don't ya think that was just a little too rockin' for this late in the evening?

And so may I suggest the following tribute to our neighbors(or as they say "neighbours") to the north instead...

(...now I ask you...wasn't THIS just a little more "soothing" for such a late hour?...nighty night...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz)

Hey, how did you know what was in my dad's record collection? Hugo Winterhalter. Sounds like a

Nazi who moved to the U.S. but was too dumb to change his name. I guess it beats the old Indian

test pattern and the I have touched the sky flyover thingie from years ago.

 

If you live in Canada you just may not see it at all.

 

[TikiSoo]

12 hours ago, misswonderly3 said:

I'll ship them a whole truckload of butter tarts and legal marijuana

Um I'd prefer Arrowroot Cookies & Poutine in a paper cup.

[Sepiatone]

Actually, I like those little butter tarts.  They sold them at the concession stand at the bingo hall we (my wife and I) used to go( Derby).  Those and the COFFEE CRISP bars were the only thing to ENTICE me to go to bingo.

Every time I bought a packet of those tarts I kept hearing Paul McCartney's "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey"    ("Butter pie?"--"The butter wouldn't melt so we put it in the pie......") 

Sepiatone

[Det Jim McLeod]

15 hours ago, misswonderly3 said:

TCM isn't even making any money from broadcasting these old films, so what's the harm in making them available in Canada too?

There is a Canadian movie that I wish TCM would show here in the States, It was called "Goin' Down The Road" (1970). I heard it's kind of a cult classic there in Canada. SCTV did a very funny spoof of it on their show.

Have you seen this one? Has it been on TCM in Canada?

[fxreyman]

I have a better idea Miss W, why don't we just invade Canada? I am sure the great military force of the US could simply overwhelm the Canadian military in a few days and viola! You would be able to see all of the movies we currently can see here in the good old USofA and you would never have to complain again.

[TomJH]

9 hours ago, Dargo said:

Okay Vautrin. While I like David Byrne as much as the next guy, don't ya think that was just a little too rockin' for this late in the evening?

And so may I suggest the following tribute to our neighbors(or as they say "neighbours") to the north instead...

(...now I ask you...wasn't THIS just a little more "soothing" for such a late hour?...nighty night...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz)

Thanks for posting Canadian Sunset, Dargo as it's a real nostalgia trip for me. This song was playing on the radio all the time when I was a kid. I was raised with the sound of this music as much as I was with our springer spaniel, Brownie, leaping all over me.

As a matter of fact some years ago I went to Sam The Record Man in Toronto (the biggest record store in the city and a retail legend, now long gone unfortunately) just to find that song. And it was there, part of a three disc collection of old nostalgia hits.

Hearing Canadian Sunset again even takes some of my anger away from all the TCM films that don't make it into Canada. Well, a little bit anyway. I'll probably be back to getting angry about it again once the soothing sounds of Canadian Sunset start to wear off on me.