Turner Classic Movies (
TCM) is a
cable television channel featuring
commercial-free classic movies, mostly
from the
Turner Entertainment
and
MGM,
United
Artists,
RKO and
Warner Bros. film libraries.
Background
The channel, created by
Ted Turner as
part of his
Turner
Broadcasting System, began broadcasting on
April 14,
1994. The date was
chosen for its significance as "the exact centennial anniversary of
the first public movie showing in New York City." The very first
movie ever screened on TCM was the 1939 classic epic
Gone With The Wind, exactly
what its sister station,
TNT aired
6 years before.
Before the creation of TCM, quite a few titles from its vast
library of movies were broadcast — with commercial interruptions —
on Turner's
TNT channel,
along with Turner's controversial
colorized versions of black-and-white classics
such as
The Maltese
Falcon.
When TCM was created in 1994, however, colorization did not carry
over to the new channel. As Gary R. Edgerton wrote in the winter
2000 issue of
The Journal of Popular Film and Television,
TCM immediately advertised itself in April 1994 "with the promise:
'uninterrupted, uncolorized and commercial-free!' Attitudes had
evidently come full circle. Colorization was now unfashionable and
unprofitable — even for Ted Turner and his colleagues at
TBS."
In
1996, the Turner Broadcasting System merged
with
Time Warner. Not only did this put
TCM and Warner Bros. under the same corporate umbrella, but it also
gave TCM access to the post-1948 Warner Bros. library (which itself
includes other acquired properties such as the
Lorimar,
Saul
Zaentz, and National General Pictures libraries).
Besides MGM, Warner Bros. and United Artists releases, TCM also
shows films under license from
Universal Studios,
Paramount Pictures,
20th Century Fox,
Walt Disney Productions and
Columbia Pictures. Most pre-1950 Paramount
releases are owned by
EMKA, Ltd./
NBC Universal Television
Distribution, while Paramount (currently owned by
Viacom) holds on to most of its post-1950 releases,
which are handled for television by
Trifecta Entertainment &
Media. Columbia's output is owned by
Sony
through
Sony Pictures
Television, the films of 20th Century Fox (owned by the
News Corporation), are handled for
television by
20th Television, and
Walt Disney Productions (owned by
The Walt Disney Company) has their
output handled for television by
Disney-ABC Domestic
Television.
About TCM
Unlike
American Movie Classics
(AMC), TCM is essentially
commercial-free (advertising only
products available at the TCM Web site, a subscription-based
monthly program guide, and movies airing on TCM and only airing
these advertisements in between features so as not to interrupt the
film). TCM's content has also remained mostly uncut and uncolorized
(depending upon the original content of movies, particularly movies
rated by the
MPAA after 1968). From
time to time, the channel shows restored versions of films,
particularly old silent films with newly commissioned musical
soundtracks.
The British
version of
TCM does interrupt movies for commercials, although the majority of
movies are uncut and uncolorized (depending on what time of the day
the movie is transmitted). TCM is also a major backer of WGBH
's Descriptive Video Service program,
and many of the films aired on the network have visual description
for the blind and visually-impaired, which are accessible through
the SAP option through a
television or cable/satellite receiver.
As a result, viewers interested in tracing the career development
of actresses like
Barbara Stanwyck
or
Greta Garbo or actors like
Cary Grant or
Humphrey
Bogart have the unique ability to see most of the feature films
made during their careers, from beginning to end. Unlike AMC or
FMC, Turner Classic Movies presents many of its features in their
original screen format (widescreen or full screen) whenever
possible. (TCM considers the issue so important they occasionally
run an informational short subject educating viewers as to why
letterbox presentation of widescreen films
is preferred, showing viewers just how much of the picture is
missed when such a film is presented in the
pan and scan format.) TCM also regularly
presents widescreen presentations of films not available in the
format on any home video release (one example being
Columbia Pictures'
The Trouble with Angels
(1966)), indicating they have the clout to obtain their own
widescreen masters of such films from studios.
Its programming season runs from March until the following February
of each year when a retrospective of
Oscar-winning and Oscar-nominated movies is
shown (this festival is called
31
Days of Oscar). TCM occasionally shows some classic
20th Century Fox,
Paramount Pictures,
Universal Studios and
Columbia Pictures movies, but they have to
be licensed individually. Gaps between
features are filled with theatrically released
movie trailers and classic short subjects (from series such as
The Passing Parade,
Crime Does Not Pay,
Pete Smith
Specialties,
Robert
Benchley, etc.) as part of TCM's
One Reel Wonders.
Beginning
10 September 2007 some of the
short films
featured on TCM appeared on their online TCM Schedule at
www.tcm.com. Critically acclaimed
documentary films are frequently shown,
along with limited-run television shows (such as reruns or new
episodes of
The Dick Cavett
Show, Thursdays at 8 pm ET, during the Fall 2006
season.)
Although a vast majority of TCM's movies are classics from the
1930s-1960s (with
silent movies and
post-1970 movies being occasionally shown; among the most recent
films shown on the network were
2001's
Spirited Away,
2002's
The Clay
Bird and
2003's
The Lord of the
Rings: The Return of the King), the network also airs
original content, mostly documentaries about classic movie
personalities and particularly notable films. Most feature movies
shown in prime time (8pm-3am
Eastern Standard Time) are
presented by film historian
Robert
Osborne, who has been with the network since its launch in
1994. More recently, movies shown during the daytime on weekends
are presented by
Ben Mankiewicz,
talk radio host (
The Young Turks),
Herman Mankiewicz's grandson and
great-nephew of
Joseph L.
Mankiewicz.
The Essentials is a
weekly program on Saturdays at 8pm EST, spotlighting a specific
movie and containing a special introduction and post-movie
discussion. The spotlight movie is often replayed the following
Sunday at 6 pm EST. The current hosts are Osborne and
Alec Baldwin.
Each August, TCM suspends its regular schedule for a special "month
of stars", featuring entire days devoted to a single star, offering
movies and specials pertaining to the star of the day.
Sunday nights at midnight is Silent Sunday Nights, which features
silent movies from the United States and abroad, usually in the
latest restored version and often with new music scores. Silent
Sunday Nights is occasionally pre-empted for other special
programming.
In 2000, TCM launched the annual
Young
Composers Film Competition, inviting aspiring composers to
participate in a judged competition. Grand prize has been the
opportunity to score a restored, feature-length silent film,
mentored by a well-known composer, with subsequent premiere of the
new work on the TCM channel. As of 2006, films which have been
rescored include
Camille (
1921) with
Rudolph Valentino, two
Lon Chaney films,
Ace of Hearts
(
1921) and
Laugh, Clown, Laugh
(
1928), and
Greta
Garbo's The Temptress (
1926).
In
November 2004, perhaps in response
to
Cartoon Network's removal of
classic
cartoons, TCM began to broadcast a
half-hour monthly (bi-weekly as of the fall of 2005) show entitled
Cartoon Alley which featured
cartoons from
animation's
Golden Age. Cartoon
Alley has since been canceled.
In October 2006, the network premiered
TCM Underground, a late-night series
hosted by rocker/filmmaker
Rob Zombie,
which features a number of
cult films
personally selected by Zombie. Films in the series include
Plan 9 from Outer
Space (1959),
Sisters (1973),
Night of the Living Dead
(1968),
Bride of the
Monster (1955),
Faster Pussycat!
Kill!
Kill! (1965),
and
Electra Glide in
Blue (1973).
In the summer of 2007, the network began a "Funday Night at the
Movies", hosted by voice-over actor
Tom
Kenny (best known as the voice of
SpongeBob SquarePants). This series of
programming, which lasted throughout the summer, brought classic
films such as
The
Wizard of Oz (1939),
Sounder (1972),
Bringing Up Baby (1938),
Singin' in the Rain (1952),
Mr. Smith Goes to
Washington (1939),
The Adventures of Robin
Hood (1938), and
20,000 Leagues
Under the Sea (1954) to a whole new generation of children
and their families.
For the summer of 2008, TCM launched "Essentials Jr.", a
youth-oriented version of its
The Essentials weekly series
hosted by actors
Abigail Breslin and
Chris O’Donnell, which
included such family-themed films as
National Velvet (1944),
The Courtship
of Eddie's Father (1963),
Meet Me in St. Louis (1944),
Captains
Courageous (1937), and
Yours, Mine and
Ours (1968), as well as more eclectic selections as
Sherlock Jr. ,
The Music Box ,
Harvey (1950),
20 Million Miles to Earth
(1957),
Mutiny on
the Bounty (1935),
On
the Town (1949), and
The Man Who Knew Too
Much (1956).
In June 2009, Turner Classic Movies (broadcast in the USA) launched
a high definition channel, showing the same programming as its
standard channel. Initial programming was not in native high
definition and was instead upconverted from standard definition but
benefited from the greater bandwidth allocated to the
channel.
More recently, TCM has collaborated in boxed set DVD releases of
previously unreleased films by noted actors, directors, or studios.
The sets often include bonus discs including documentaries and
shorts from the TCM library.
TCM is headquartered at the Techwood Campus in Atlanta, Georgia in
Mid-town. TCM is available in many other countries around the
world.
International versions
Canada
In Canada, Turner Classic Movies debuted on
November 1,
2005 on the
Shaw Cable system and
Shaw Direct satellite service.
Rogers Cable started offering TCM on
December 12,
2006 as a
free preview channel for all digital
customers, and added it to the "Ultimate TV" analogue package on or
around
February 1,
2007. While the schedule for the Canadian channel is
generally the same as the US channel, some films are replaced for
broadcast into Canada due to rights issues and other reasons.
Europe
In Europe,
Turner Classic Movies is available as four separate channels for
France
, Germany
, Spain
and the
UK
/Ireland
, and a panregional channel with various feeds in
different languages. While in Poland it was introduced in
1998 as part of the WizjaTV platform along with a local version of
Cartoon Network, the European feed was launched in 1999, when its
predecessor, the international version of
TNT dropped its film programming
to become a general entertainment channel. Its penetration
increased when it took over TNT's space on various platforms in
1999 and 2000.
Asia
In Asia and Oceania, Turner Classic Movies is available as one feed
that serves more than 14 territories. It was available in India
until March 2, 2009 exclusively on
Dish TV
along with
Boomerang. It is available in
India on
Tata Sky from August 2009 (
Channel No. 357)
Latin America
TCM is also available in
Latin
America, but this version receives little attention unlike the
US and Europe counterparts. This version in Latin America was
called
TCM Classic Hollywood until mid-2009.
Starting on
April 1,
2009, TCM Latin America was renamed
TCM Classic
Entertainment and started airing most of the programming
from the former channel
Retro,
also owned by
Turner
Broadcasting System, and which also aired classic series and
movies. Its programming is aired on TCM as Retro has been replaced
by
truTV.
TCM 2
In
Britain, TCM 2 launched on May 2 2006. The channel, which is a spin-off from the
UK version of TCM, shows the bigger films from the
MGM and
Warner film archives
including
Citizen Kane,
The Wizard of
Oz,
Casablanca,
North by Northwest and
Meet Me in St. Louis,
among others.
Availability
Albania
Austria
Asia Pacific
Belgium
Brazil
Satellite
Cable
Bulgaria
Canada
Satellite
Cable
Chile
Cable
CIS countries
Satellite
Colombia
Cable
Satellite
- Directv Latinoamerica
- Telefonica tv satelital
Costa Rica
Cable
Satellite
Denmark
Digital
France
Germany
Greece
Ireland
Satellite
Cable/Digital
Israel
Satellite
Mexico
Satellite
Cable
Middle East, Africa, and the Levant territories
For the
Middle East,
North Africa, and the
Levant territories broadcasting via satellite, from
pay-TV networks such as
Orbit
Showtime, and
ADD
The Netherlands
Norway
Poland
Satellite
Cable
cablevision.Cablenetwork n ok cable
Portugal
Cable
IPTV over ADSL
Republic of Ireland
Romania
IPTV
Internet TV
Satellite
Cable
Russia
Satellite
South-Africa
Satellite
Spain
+ Imagenio
Sweden
Digital Cable
Digital Fiber'
Digital Satellite
Digital Terrestrial
United Kingdom
Digital Terrestrial
Satellite
Cable
United States
Satellite
Cable
- Seen on most cable systems; check local listings for
availability
Venezuela
See also
References
External links
Wikis
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