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Turner Classic Movies
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Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is a cable television channel featuring commercial-free classic movies, mostly from the Turner Entertainment and Warner Bros. film libraries, which include many MGM, United Artists, RKO and Warner Bros. titles.
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.
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.
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Encyclopedia
Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is a cable television channel featuring commercial-free classic movies, mostly from the Turner Entertainment and Warner Bros. film libraries, which include many MGM, United Artists, RKO and Warner Bros. titles.
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.
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 CBS Television Distribution. 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
In stark contrast to 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 (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 (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 "second audio program" (or SAP) option through a television menu system 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 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 , 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 a new late-night series hosted by rocker/filmmaker Rob Zombie called "TCM Underground," 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. (1924), The Music Box (1932), 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).
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 Star Choice 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. It 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 no longer available in India.
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 is called, TCM Classic Hollywood.
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
Brazil
Satellite
Cable
Bulgaria
Canada
Satellite
Cable
Chile
Cable
CIS countries
Satellite
Colombia
Costa Rica
Cable
Satellite
Denmark
Digital
France
Germany
Greece
Israel
Satellite
- yes D.B.S. Satellite Services
Mexico
Satellite
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 Showtime Arabia and the Orbit Network, 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
External links
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