kaslovesTCM Posted December 23, 2011 Share Posted December 23, 2011 does TCM deliberately not show this movie? I have looked for it and do not see it showing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonasEB Posted December 23, 2011 Share Posted December 23, 2011 NBC has exclusive rights to it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fxreyman Posted December 23, 2011 Share Posted December 23, 2011 Welcome to the message boards! And Happy Holidays!! As JonasEB has indicated......The reason you will not find It's a Wonderful Life on the TCM schedule is that the NBC television network has exclusive rights to show the movie for the next few years. For many years the movie was in the public domain, and was shown on many television stations. But a few years ago the movie attained its copyright again, with TV rights sold to NBC. This is why you will not see the film on TCM probably for years to come. And it is a shame, since NBC loves to showcase the film twice during the holiday season with both showings airing during a special three-hour block of time with many pointless celebrities talking about watching the film and having many commercial breaks. Edited by: fxreyman on Dec 23, 2011 7:13 AM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
casablancalover Posted December 23, 2011 Share Posted December 23, 2011 This is one movie that could really use the latest techniques for restoration as well. I think the prints I've seen are not holding up at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fxreyman Posted December 23, 2011 Share Posted December 23, 2011 Totally agree. But really, I am not too concerned about watching this film on tv, especially in it's present form. I have the dvd, so I can watch it at anytime. But it probably deserves a new digital transfer and restoration as you indicated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
filmlover Posted December 23, 2011 Share Posted December 23, 2011 The Blu-ray (and I assume the DVD) that came out about a year or so ago from Paramount features an exceptional print. Especially when you compare to those PD versions that had been out there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FredCDobbs Posted December 23, 2011 Share Posted December 23, 2011 IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE will be shown on NBC broadcast network, tomorrow night: Christmas Eve, Saturday, December 24th 8/7c Portions of it will be shown in-between the commercials. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aimalac91748 Posted December 23, 2011 Share Posted December 23, 2011 It's true that a commercial driven channel has rights to show this movie. It has been shown many times and I'm sure almost everyone has their own copy by now. I have it on both VHS and DVD and way back when, I even had it on Beta. It is a great movie and worth watching, but only worth watching in the true TCM tradition uncut and commercial free. There is an alternative, if the viewers can convince the TCM programmers to obtain rights to televise "It Happened One Christmas". This is a TV movie from 1977 and is "It's A Wonderfull Life" with a female perspective. It stars Marlo Thomas as the female 'Jimmy Stewart', Wayne Rogers as the male 'Donna Reed', Orson Welles as the miserly 'Lionel Barrymore' and Cloris Leachman as the angel Clara Oddbody. I request this movie every now and then and if enough people request it maybe the programmers at TCM will obtain the rights and show it next Christmas and TCM can continue in it's programming excellence by bring us a movie not shown 100 times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LsDoorMat Posted December 23, 2011 Share Posted December 23, 2011 > {quote:title=aimalac wrote: ...}{quote}There is an alternative, if the viewers can convince the TCM programmers to obtain rights to televise "It Happened One Christmas". This is a TV movie from 1977 and is "It's A Wonderfull Life" with a female perspective. It stars Marlo Thomas as the female 'Jimmy Stewart', Wayne Rogers as the male 'Donna Reed', Orson Welles as the miserly 'Lionel Barrymore' and Cloris Leachman as the angel Clara Oddbody. I request this movie every now and then and if enough people request it maybe the programmers at TCM will obtain the rights and show it next Christmas and TCM can continue in it's programming excellence by bring us a movie not shown 100 times. It's interesting you should bring that one up, because I was just thinking about it today. For those of us old enough to remember the original broadcast it would be quite a trip down memory lane. Plus it was so 70's in the sense that it put a feminist twist on an old Christmas classic back in the days when "It's a Wonderful Life" was still in the public domain. Problem is,hasn't TCM avoided made for TV movies up to this point? The reason I think so is that TCM's parent company owns the rights to some wonderful made for TV movies that have never shown up on TCM. For example 1973's "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark" has even been restored and is in the Warner Archives, yet it is yet to show up on TCM. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aimalac91748 Posted December 23, 2011 Share Posted December 23, 2011 The shameful thing about it is that, there are plenty of quality made for TV movies that I'm sure many viewers would enjoy seeing. TCM has recently been showing 'Screen Directors playhouse' and perhaps they may be rethinking their position on TV movies. I for one would enjoy seeing the TV movie 'Brians Song' with James Caan and Billy Dee Williams and I never get tired of watching the 'Columbo' mystery movies even though I know all the ways the killer slips up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FredCDobbs Posted December 23, 2011 Share Posted December 23, 2011 I don't mean to insult anyone, but this made-for-TV movie looks more like a Saturday Night Live skit than a classic film. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ray Faiola Posted December 23, 2011 Share Posted December 23, 2011 Paramount is very lucky to have original negative materials on this film. NTA, who acquired the rights back in the early 60's, was very careless about maintaining its properties. If anyone saw the recent TCM telecast of GOOD SAM, that is a perfect example of a film that is seen in slipshod fashion, probably trasferred from a 16mm negative (resulting in a noisy track that had to be de-noised so as to come out very flat). NTA became Republic; Republic was sold to Spelling; Paramount bought Spelling and wound up with the library. I haven't seen LIFE on NBC lately, but I don' t know if they're botching it for HD/Widescreen etc etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
musicalnovelty Posted December 23, 2011 Share Posted December 23, 2011 > {quote:title=RayFaiola wrote:}{quote} > I haven't seen IT'S A WODERFUL LIFE on NBC lately, but I don' t know if they're botching it for HD/Widescreen etc etc. Good info, as always, Ray! Thanks! Warning: If you're a purist and love the movie, don't watch how they butcher the presentation of the end cast listing. Spare yourself the pain and frustration! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LoveFilmNoir Posted December 24, 2011 Share Posted December 24, 2011 > {quote:title=casablancalover wrote:}{quote}This is one movie that could really use the latest techniques for restoration as well. I think the prints I've seen are not holding up at all. I have 2 DVDs of this movie. Both prints are excellent. One even more crisp than the other....and one even has a colorized (gasp!) version included. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sprocket_Man Posted December 24, 2011 Share Posted December 24, 2011 >This is one movie that could really use the latest techniques for restoration as well. I think the prints I've seen are not holding up at all. The Blu-ray is excellent, and two weeks ago this evening I saw a newly-struck 35mm print of it at the Motion Picture Academy's Linwood Dunn Theater in Hollywood. I looked splendid (followed by Ben Burtt's indoor snow-making. A wonderful evening). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sepiatone Posted December 24, 2011 Share Posted December 24, 2011 We thought "It Happened One Christmas" was a hoot when it came out. Marlo Thomas had done the "feminist viewpoint" thing before, and while me and a few friends were squarely on the side of political feminism( we were raised by single mothers for part or all of our lives to adulthood) we thought Thomas was somehow cramming these concepts down peoples throats. The idea of a guardian angel coming down to help George Baily is what makes the movie fantasy for sure. But the idea that a woman took charge of a financial institution in the '30's was just too implausable. We wondered if Marlo would tackle other film classics with the feminist twist. Perhaps "Citizen Kate" or something to that effect. That being said, I cannot say anything bad about the perfomances of the cast in that effort. Sepiatone Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tikisoo Posted December 24, 2011 Share Posted December 24, 2011 >Paramount is very lucky to have original negative materials on this film. Yeas, I just saw a 35mm screening of this last week at the Capitol Theater in Rome NY and it was crisp, beautifully balanced and very three dimensional looking. I felt sucked into Bedford Falls! (and we were just in Seneca Falls the week prior for the It's A Wonderful Life night marathon. Carolyn Grimes starts the race with "Teacher says... gets his wings") Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kaslovesTCM Posted December 24, 2011 Author Share Posted December 24, 2011 too bad I hate the commercials happy holidays everyone Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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