Why does it take so long for memorial tributes to air?

[TopBilled]

This is not a complaint thread. But I am wondering. 

As everyone knows, Doris Day passed away yesterday. TCM has scheduled a 24-hour tribute for Doris on the 9th of June, nearly four weeks away.

I've never understood why it takes a month to do these? Most of the films are already available in the Turner library. So it's not like having to wait to get permission to show THE GODFATHER or STAR WARS.

Why can't they bump something later this week or next week? Having to wait a whole month seems anti-climactic. This has happened with other stars too. By the time they get to the tribute, people have moved on and it seems like the star being honored passed away ages ago.

The only time it made sense to me, to delay a memorial tribute was when Lauren Bacall died in mid-August, and they were in the middle of Summer Under the Stars so her tribute had to wait until September.

Anyway, it seems like TCM could be a bit more timely with these memorial tributes.

Thoughts..?

[Det Jim McLeod]

33 minutes ago, TopBilled said:

Anyway, it seems like TCM could be a bit more timely with these memorial tributes.

Thoughts..?

I agree. It may sound ghoulish, but when big stars get into their 90s maybe they should have one ready for when the time comes?

[TopBilled]

16 minutes ago, Det Jim McLeod said:

I agree. It may sound ghoulish, but when big stars get into their 90s maybe they should have one ready for when the time comes?

I believe news companies do this sort of thing. They have full obituaries written up and ready to publish at a moment's notice, when some celebrities reach a certain age. It's not an uncommon practice. Nor is it ghoulish or indicating the person will die soon. Though in some cases, if a person is known to have a terminal illness, then it's obvious they won't be around much longer.

I would imagine that TCM should have tributes already planned for Olivia de Havilland and Kirk Douglas. Yes?

[hamradio]

We need a Dead Stars Channel...showing only movies of people just deceased.

[TopBilled]

33 minutes ago, hamradio said:

We need a Dead Stars Channel...showing only movies of people just deceased.

Or movies where the entire cast is deceased. Right?  

[Movie Collector OH]

I haven't looked at the stuff they blew away to make room, but hopefully it is some of the more often-played MGM/WB stuff.

No word on a day for Tim Conway, hopefully they play an entire day of his non-TCM stuff.

[TopBilled]

1 hour ago, MovieCollectorOH said:

I haven't looked at the stuff they blew away to make room, but hopefully it is some of the more often-played MGM/WB stuff.

This is what got bumped to make way for Doris' memorial tribute:

[Dargo]

5 hours ago, TopBilled said:

Or movies where the entire cast is deceased. Right?  

And THIS would be different from TCM's normal fare how again, TB???

 

[TopBilled]

1 minute ago, Dargo said:

And THIS would be different from TCM's normal fare how again, TB???

Well Dargo it means that YOUNG MAN WITH A HORN would not air. None of Jimmy Stewart's movies with Kim Novak would air. And probably no films from the 21st Century would air.  

[Dargo]

1 minute ago, TopBilled said:

Well Dargo it means that YOUNG MAN WITH A HORN would not air. None of Jimmy Stewart's movies with Kim Novak would air. And probably no films from the 21st Century would air.  

Aah! Okay then. Good point I suppose.

Nor then also that movie which has become known among us regulars over the years as being somewhat of a joke in regard to how many times it continues to be shown on TCM on a regular basis.

YOU know! That movie where Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint (she, still among us) hang off George Washington's nose.  

 

[TopBilled]

5 minutes ago, Dargo said:

Aah! Okay then. Good point I suppose.

Nor then also that movie which has become known among us regulars over the years as being somewhat of a joke in regard to how many times it continues to be shown on TCM on a regular basis.

YOU know! That movie where Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint (she, still among us) hang off George Washington's nose.  

You know, Dargo...probably a lot of the films from the studio era that air on TCM still have living cast members. Especially the ones from the 50s and early 60s that had children in them. I remember when I lived in West Hollywood. I took my Pomeranian to the nearby dog park one day and struck up a conversation with a woman in her 60s who was also walking her dog that day. She told me she had once played Cary Grant's daughter. I had to work hard to get her to tell me which film, because I think she was afraid I was going to run off and watch it (HOUSEBOAT).

[Dargo]

11 minutes ago, TopBilled said:

You know, Dargo...probably a lot of the films from the studio era that air on TCM still have living cast members. Especially the ones from the 50s and early 60s that had children in them. I remember when I lived in West Hollywood. I took my Pomeranian to the nearby dog park one day and struck up a conversation with a woman in her 60s who was also walking her dog that day. She told me she had once played Cary Grant's daughter. I had to work hard to get her to tell me which film, because I think she was afraid I was going to run off and watch it (HOUSEBOAT).

Yeah, and maybe even that kid is still alive who plugs his ears just before Eva shoots Cary with that little pistol in my aforementioned film TOO, huh!

(...although even HE has got to be in his seventies by now, wouldn't ya think)

[TopBilled]

36 minutes ago, Dargo said:

Yeah, and maybe even that kid is still alive who plugs his ears just before Eva shoots Cary with that little pistol in my aforementioned film TOO, huh!

(...although even HE has got to be in his seventies by now, wouldn't ya think)

You just gotta keep mentioning NORTH BY NORTHWEST don't you? LOL

[Dargo]

23 minutes ago, TopBilled said:

You just gotta keep mentioning NORTH BY NORTHWEST don't you? LOL

LOL

SURE I do!

So, do ya think the actress who's awakened by Cary as he climbs through her window and startled from sleep exclaims "STOP!", but then once she gets a better look at him, beckons him to her bed with a much more come-hither "stop", is still alive TOO???

(...sorry, couldn't resist)

 

[Polly of the Precodes]

I don't know the whole process, but Question 1) Do any of the films have to be licensed from sources outside the Turner film library?

Question 2) Will a current TCM presenter be hosting the tribute (intros and outros)? If yes, how far in advance does this have to be recorded and how long will it take to edit this?

Question 3) If TCM will be recycling old Robert Osborne intros and outros, how long does it take to research these, pull them from the archive, and edit them?

[TopBilled]

33 minutes ago, Polly of the Precodes said:

I don't know the whole process, but Question 1) Do any of the films have to be licensed from sources outside the Turner film library?

Question 2) Will a current TCM presenter be hosting the tribute (intros and outros)? If yes, how far in advance does this have to be recorded and how long will it take to edit this?

Question 3) If TCM will be recycling old Robert Osborne intros and outros, how long does it take to research these, pull them from the archive, and edit them?

Interesting questions. Thanks for posting that. However, I don't think it takes a month to do these things. A week at most is what I'd say.

My feeling is they don't want to disrupt the current month's programming. So they push these tributes off to the following month, where things haven't yet been set in stone.

[CinemaInternational]

Still, Doris didn't have to wait so long as some. Some don't get it until a film at year's end.

[TopBilled]

6 minutes ago, CinemaInternational said:

Still, Doris didn't have to wait so long as some. Some don't get it until a film at year's end.

You're right. The Burt Reynolds tribute was delayed until the end of December last year. And he passed away in early September.

I still don't understand why these can't be more timely is all.

[Movie Collector OH]

38 minutes ago, TopBilled said:

You're right. The Burt Reynolds tribute was delayed until the end of December last year. And he passed away in early September.

I still don't understand why these can't be more timely is all.

Rights issues for those scheduled for current month, maybe?  Otherwise it's not like 40-90 year old movies are going to go bad like milk.

[TopBilled]

1 hour ago, MovieCollectorOH said:

Rights issues for those scheduled for current month, maybe?  Otherwise it's not like 40-90 year old movies are going to go bad like milk.

But every day would have rights issues? I sincerely doubt it. I am sure there is a day between the 14th of May and the 31st of May when they could have scheduled Doris' memorial. Again I am not complaining. I am glad they are still doing it. But a month later seems so after the fact. It doesn't make sense to me.

This is a time when I wish someone from TCM would come on to the thread and explain it to us.

[Sukhov]

1 hour ago, MovieCollectorOH said:

Rights issues for those scheduled for current month, maybe?  Otherwise it's not like 40-90 year old movies are going to go bad like milk.

Most of the ones scheduled turn up pretty often so it's probably not a rights issue. I think they put it in a latter month so people have time to "prepare" for it. That would be my guess.

[Movie Collector OH]

9 minutes ago, TopBilled said:

But every day would have rights issues? I sincerely doubt it. I am sure there is a day between the 14th of May and the 31st of May when they could have scheduled Doris' memorial. Again I am not complaining. I am glad they are still doing it. But a month later seems so after the fact. It doesn't make sense to me.

This is a time when I wish someone from TCM would come on to the thread and explain it to us.

My DVR goes out to 13 days, and likely everyone else's more mainstream DVRs do too, which means that they probably plan accordingly.  Not that this always works out either though.

P.S, Just saw GF's post come in.  Yeah, pretty much what I was thinking too.

[jameselliot]

It would be a huge help and reduce the speculation if a TCM executive would drop in now and then and answer questions like this.

[DougieB]

14 hours ago, Gershwin fan said:

Most of the ones scheduled turn up pretty often so it's probably not a rights issue. I think they put it in a latter month so people have time to "prepare" for it. That would be my guess.

I wouldn't be surprised if cable systems need some lead time too, to make adjustments in their system schedules, especially for a block of programming. Like MovieCollector, I generally refer to my provider's schedule when setting up recordings, rather than to TCM's online schedule, even though it only goes two weeks ahead. There may be some requirements by cable providers we don't know about as far as advanced notice goes. jameselliot is right that input from programmers or moderators would be helpful.

[LsDoorMat]

18 hours ago, TopBilled said:

You know, Dargo...probably a lot of the films from the studio era that air on TCM still have living cast members. Especially the ones from the 50s and early 60s that had children in them. I remember when I lived in West Hollywood. I took my Pomeranian to the nearby dog park one day and struck up a conversation with a woman in her 60s who was also walking her dog that day. She told me she had once played Cary Grant's daughter. I had to work hard to get her to tell me which film, because I think she was afraid I was going to run off and watch it (HOUSEBOAT).

Something tells me if we ever heard the story of your life, TopBilled, it would be rather interesting.