Help Save Turner Classic Movies (TCM’s) Future
A classic is a classic. It should be cherished, preserved and not messed with. That includes Turner Classic Movies (TCM), a network devoted to sharing films from the past 100 years — allowing viewers to rewatch their old favorites and discover new ones, as well as educating a younger audience to these timeless treasures. It’s a network that has built a community of film fanatics who are equally as passionate of the preservation and discovery of cinema’s diverse offerings.
Turner Classic Movies was introduced under Ted Turner’s reign 29 years ago. It was the final cable channel that came out of his empire (which also included networks like TNT, TBS and CNN), launching on April 14, 1994 at 7:10pmET. The date and time of the network’s launch speaked to its passion, as it was timed to sync with the 100th anniversary of the first commercial U.S. motion picture exhibition at a theater in Times Square. The mission was simple, the network touted they would showcase the greatest movies of all time, all the time, and feature more than 300 different movies per month, commercial-free, unedited and uninterrupted. And they’ve stuck to that mission all these years.
“Context and curation is what we’re known for,” said Charlie Tabesh, senior VP of programming for Turner Classic Movies, to Variety back in 2019. “We’ve never programmed the channel with ratings in mind. If we did, we wouldn’t be playing silent films or 1930s black-and-white movies.”
Now, with all of the changes CEO David Zaslav has been making to his newly combined HBO and Discovery Networks under the WBD brand, the fear is real on the network’s future. Even directors Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese and Paul Thomas Anderson banded together to try and help ensure that TCM’s programming is untouched and protected.
How can you help the cause?
Watch more TCM!
Here’s just a handful of upcoming highlights.
Vertigo
(Saturday, June 24 at 10pmET/7pmPT)
This classic 1958 psychological thriller is not only often regarded as Alfred Hitchcock’s most masterful film, but also as one of the greatest movies ever. James Stewart plays retired detective Scottie Ferguson, who, after an incident on the job, has acquired vertigo and a fear of heights. Hired by an old friend to uncover the secret his wife (Kim Novak) is keeping from him, Scottie finds a forbidden romance, a deadly plot and an obsession that transcends the grave. Hitchcock’s brilliant direction is accompanied by terrific performances; stunning, Oscar-nominated art direction; and a swooning musical score from the great Bernard Herrmann that all help carry viewers to the heights of suspense.
Everett Collection\Mondadori Portfolio
Pride and Prejudice
(Sunday, June 25 at 2:15pmET/11:15amPT)
Jane Austen’s timeless 1813 novel of unlikely romance is richly adapted in this lavish Academy Award-winning 1940 classic, which also draws from Helen Jerome’s 1935 stage adaptation of the book. Greer Garson portrays spirited Elizabeth, one of five Bennet sisters hoping for matrimony. Laurence Olivier plays Darcy, whose arrival at a nearby estate sets maiden hearts aflutter. But first impressions can mean so very much. Elizabeth and Darcy find reasons to view each other with disdain, setting in motion a velvet struggle of pride and prejudice, perception and reality, forgiveness and love.
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TCM Birthday Tribute: Eleanor Parker
(Monday, June 26 beginning at 6amET)
Turner Classic Movies remembers famed actress Eleanor Parker on what would have been her 101st birthday (she was born June 26, 1922, in Cedarville, Ohio; she passed away Dec. 9, 2013, at age 91, in Palm Springs, California) with an eight-film lineup. Enjoy Parker in the following films starting this morning and into the early evening: Many Rivers to Cross (1955, pictured), a Western costarring Robert Taylor; another Western, Escape From Fort Bravo (1953), which also features William Holden and John Forsythe; The Very Thought of You (1944), a romantic drama also with Dennis Morgan; One for the Book (1947, aka The Voice of the Turtle), a romantic comedy costarring Ronald Reagan and Eve Arden; Of Human Bondage (1946), a drama based on W. Somerset Maugham’s novel that also stars Paul Henreid; the film noir Lizzie (1957); Valley of the Kings (1954), an adventure film that again pairs Parker and Taylor; and Scaramouche (1952), a swashbuckler set around the time of the French Revolution that costars Stewart Granger, Janet Leigh and Mel Ferrer.
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D.O.A.
(Wednesday, June 28 at 3pmET/12pmPT)
Edmond O’Brien leads this classic 1949 film noir as Frank Bigelow, a man who, after finding out he has been fatally poisoned, spends his remaining days and hours desperately trying to find out who did it, and why. The movie’s promotional poster touted that it is “A picture as excitingly different as its title!” and it still does feel like it stands out a bit from others in its genre. From the opening sequence where Frank reports his own murder to police, and throughout his story, which is told in flashback up until its inevitable conclusion, D.O.A. delivers plenty of suspense.
© Courtesy Everett Collection
Star of the Month: Katharine Hepburn: “Hepburn and Tracy”
(Thursday, June 29 at 8pmET/5pmPT)
This final evening in Turner Classic Movies’ monthlong Thursday salute to legendary star Katharine Hepburn offers a lineup of five of the nine films that she made with longtime partner and frequent costar Spencer Tracy (a few others have already aired earlier in the month). The first four of tonight’s featured titles are romantic comedies; the evening concludes with a drama. The lineup features Desk Set (1957), the couple’s eighth onscreen pairing; Without Love (1945), which marked the third time they appeared together; Pat and Mike (1952), in which Hepburn gives a Golden Globe-nominated performance in her seventh onscreen pairing with Tracy; Adam’s Rib (1949), the pair’s sixth time working together; and Keeper of the Flame (1942), Hepburn and Tracy’s second film.
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TCM Morning & Afternoon Movies: “Beach Party”
(Friday, June 30 beginning at 7:15amET)
Summer is officially here, and if you can’t physically head to the beach or a tropical island for some fun in the sun, check out the next best thing — this morning and afternoon’s lineup of beach-themed films on Turner Classic Movies. The cinematic beach party features Pagan Love Song (1950, pictured above), a musical led by Esther Williams and Howard Keel; On an Island With You (1948), another Williams-led musical, also starring Peter Lawford, Ricardo Montalbán and Cyd Charisse; Girl Happy (1965), the Elvis Presley musical comedy costarring Shelley Fabares; You’re Only Young Once (1937), the second entry in the Andy Hardy series of comedies starring Mickey Rooney as young Andy; Catalina Caper (1967), a comedy/mystery led by Tommy Kirk; Where the Boys Are (1960), the influential teen comedy starring Connie Francis, Dolores Hart, Paula Prentiss, George Hamilton and Yvette Mimieux; and Palm Springs Weekend (1963), a comedy starring Troy Donahue and Connie Stevens.
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Classic Hollywood Hunks
September 2019
Cary Grant, Sean Connery, Rock Hudson and Paul Newman, smoldered onscreen and, in addition to being smokin’ hot, they were effortlessly cool.
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