tcm alert thread (Jun '23 - tcm alert: dead)

Like cinephiles were outraged when Ted Turner was colorizing old movies in the '80s – apparently the Nat'l Film Registry was created (in part) as a response – but he eventually launched TCM and that was cool. I don't know what you can do but hope for the best, when it comes to corporate inheritors of classic films preserving their legacy.

...as somewhat of a tangent, I've been surprised to see how few of these film noir–type movies (which I've been looking back into lately) are streaming anywhere. I would have thought they'd be licensed out to whoever cared to have them – an easy way to fill the bucket – but apparently not. And with physical media falling more & more out of favor, the outlook isn't good for folks to watch them unless they really do legwork.

^^That's always been problem in the streaming era with most old movies that aren't big ticket classics, stuff on the Criterion Channel, or public domain titles anybody can carry.

at this point if you care at all about cinema before 1990 you need to get into physical media, pirating, or both. streaming era is a joke.

morrisp the thing about the Eastwood story is it's part of a larger pattern of behaviour of contempt towards artists that goes beyond the usual executive fuckery: the Batgirl situation, the animated shows he had removed, etc. I think ppl are very right in this thread to be skeptical of statements coming from a bunch of his employees who, very reasonably, want to keep their jobs.

Yeah, I guess my feeling is that it is at least marginally encouraging that the company bothered at all with a PR push (via the EW puff piece); they at least seem to want ppl to think they’re committed to TCM. Either it makes money, or the prestige factor is something they value (for now…).

RIP TCM Underground, I'm sure the $500 a week they saved from running a couple of bad movies will fix all of the problems

^^^ they save from not running a couple of bad movies

Today I learned you can't tweet about hoping David Zaslav falls out a high window without twitter zapping your account inside of 15 seconds. I've never seen it happen that fast!

Anyway, fuck that motherfucker to the center of the earth.

JFC
https://www.thewrap.com/tcm-executives-out-warner-bros-television-layoffs/

More top brass from Turner Classic Movies are on their way out as Warner Bros. Discovery layoffs are underway across the conglomerate’s TV networks division, TheWrap has learned.

Individuals at the network with knowledge of the situation told TheWrap that TCM’s senior vice president of programming and content strategy Charles Tabesh, vice president of studio production Anne Wilson, vice president of marketing and creative Dexter Fedor and TCM Enterprises vice president Genevieve McGillicuddy will all exit the company.

The latest departures follow news on Tuesday that TCM general manager Pola Chagnon is leaving the company after more than 25 years.

Ugh

Previously I've not gotten fussed over TCM being pulled into corporate cross-promotion. But apparently Ben M. just included a reference to The Flash in a recent interstitial.

In the wake of the last round of articles about changes at TCM, D3nn1s D0r0s of M1l3st0n3 claimed that TCM employees were telling him off the record that everything was fine. But as I said upthread, I remember enough of the decline and fall of AMC.

I barely remember when AMC was good, seems many decades ago.

I don't care how Morbs this makes me, but I still blame the audiences who opt for Real Housewives for TCM's inevitable demise

I'm guessing an underrated stupid factor here, if I know this type of guy at all, is that Zaslav is rankled that TCM is named after a different billionaire.

Also guessing what will happen is that they'll be ordered to show a mix of only the most well-known classic films plus Batman stuff and change the channel name to Fylm or Dreamz or something.

omg otm

Zaslav seems so dreary. It’s not exactly that I long for a better class of billionaire, I understand that the problem is systemic. But jeez why do you want to rule an empire of shit?

Dear David Zaslav: Gutting TCM Will Not Help You Win Filmmakers Back to Warner Bros.

https://www.indiewire.com/features/commentary/tcm-layoffs-warner-bros-spielberg-scorsese-paul-thomas-anderson-protest-1234877220/

The Flash Flopped. Is Turner Classic Movies Paying the Price?

https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2023/06/the-flash-flopped-is-turner-classic-movies-paying-the-price

Zaslav is an impulsive guy, but deciding to clean house at TCM between Sunday night and Tuesday morning based on The Flash's poor performance seems like a stretch. It's more likely he's been planning this for weeks or months, while indicating the exact opposite in public.

Also, now he's claiming he's the one who called the meeting with Spielberg, Scorsese and Anderson lol, in an effort to invite them to be more involved with the direction of the network.

BUT WHY? The reason they're such big proponents of the network in the first place is due to the hundreds of people laboring day and night to keep its mission clear and vital. These dudes don't have the time in their days to take on a burden like that.

I don't care how Morbs this makes me, but I still blame the audiences who opt for Real Housewives for TCM's inevitable demise

Can see it now: Real Housewives of TCM

Flash, won’t pick it up

I don't care how Morbs this makes me, but I still blame the audiences who opt for Real Housewives for TCM's inevitable demise

Can see it now: Real Housewives of TCM

― an icon of a worried-looking, long-haired, bespectacled man (C. Grisso/McCain), Wednesday, June 21, 2023 9:07 PM (five days ago) bookmarkflaglink

TCM already shows The Women (Cukor, 1939) at the remotest pretext.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/24/opinion/save-turner-classic-movies.html

TCM is more than a cable channel. It’s a public good, like libraries or the Smithsonian. It enshrines our cinematic past. Anyone in power in Hollywood should feel it is a matter of honor to protect this legacy.

I knew that David Zaslav, the C.E.O. of Warner Bros. Discovery, loved TCM and watched it all day long in his office and on weekend mornings. He had texted me while watching “Annie Hall” and “Miracle on 34th Street.”

He tried to reassure jittery Hollywood titans who, like me, believe TCM is part of their identity; he had a Zoom meeting with Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese and Paul Thomas Anderson on Wednesday.

“We need TCM as a singular source of inspiration and history that is accessible to everyone,” Spielberg told me later.

I called Zaslav on Friday, too, just to make sure my femmes fatales weren’t getting taken away.

“YOU HAVE MEDDLED WITH THE PRIMAL FORCES OF NATURE, MR. ZASLAV,” I said, “AND YOU WILL ATONE.” He laughed at the line from “Network.”

“Let me start with this,” he said. “This is my favorite channel. I think it’s critically important. It’s like a trust. It tells you where America was and where America’s going. It defines how people see this country. This is a beautiful living history.”

We can learn everything from how Cary Grant gets dressed for a date, he said, to why it’s better to be the white hat in a western than the black hat. (I learned that when my older brother showed me “Shane.”)

Zaslav said he was keeping Ben Mankiewicz and the other TCM hosts and wanted to spend more money on the channel and market it better. He has a vision of people like Spielberg, Scorsese, Anderson and Guillermo del Toro getting involved in programming and curating, and he would love to see actors like George Clooney talking about the movies that inspired them.

“I think it could be bigger and more powerful with more reach,” Zaslav said. “This is going to be a magical thing.”

I’ll be watching.

Nothing to see here, DO U SEE?

Wish this guy would take a FANTASTIC VOYAGE of his own.

According to this article, they already slashed the staff from 90 to 20 people...
https://www.thewrap.com/tcm-layoffs-restructuring-warner-bros-future-hosts/

The writing, as they say, is on the wall here I think

Dud.

Too bad Little Bonaparte is no longer with us to weigh in on this massacre.

Should we add RIP to the thread title?

tcm alert: dead

Let’s go with that.

Little Bonaparte

I think Morbs deserves better than that too

Has, knew that was coming.

Don’t know where that extra ‘s’ came from though.

https://www.tvinsider.com/1097230/tcm-layoffs-dave-karger-tweets/

https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/tcm-spielberg-scorsese-paul-thomas-anderson-partnership-charlie-tabesh-1235656973/

Cautiously optimistic--Tabesh is at least as big a factor as the on-air hosts in TCM's programming.

We’ll see.

FB post about pulled GQ article

And here

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/05/business/media/gq-david-zaslav-warner-bros-discovery.html

And via defector

https://defector.com/gq-rolled-over-and-showed-its-belly-to-david-zaslav

*sigh*

just saw first cross-promotion for Shark Week on TCM

— Brandon 🚷 (@bnowalk) July 7, 2023

B-b-but what about Jet Week?

recently watched: along the great divide (raoul walsh. 1951. kirk douglas.) dark of the sun (1968. jim brown. rod taylor. loved it!) flesh (1932. john ford. wallace beery.)

stuff i recorded that i need to watch: ah, wilderness!, midnight lace, the unsuspected, jewel robbery, witness for the prosecution, cynthia, the big trees, the feminine touch, don't make waves, first lady, the safecracker, close to the heart, our vines have tender grapes, on moonlight bay, fitzwilly, never say goodbye, hell's heroes, holiday affair, irene, winter meeting.

via tcm i developed a mad crush on miriam hopkins during the pandemic. oof!

Dark of The Sun is awesome.

it really is. i was surprised.