Turner Classic Movies
Turner Classic Movies is an American movie-oriented pay-TV network operated by Warner Bros. Entertainment, a subsidiary of AT&T's WarnerMedia. Launched in 1994, TCM is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcasting campus in the Midtown business district of Atlanta, Georgia.
The channel's programming consists mainly of classic theatrically released feature films from the Turner Entertainment film library – which comprises films from Warner Bros., Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and the North American distribution rights to films from RKO Pictures. However, TCM also licenses films from other studios, and occasionally shows more recent films.
The channel is available in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Malta, Latin America, France, Italy, Greece, Cyprus, Spain, the Nordic countries, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia-Pacific.
History
Origins
In 1986, eight years before the launch of Turner Classic Movies, Ted Turner acquired the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film studio for $1.5 billion. Concerns over Turner Entertainment's corporate debt load resulted in Turner selling the studio that October back to Kirk Kerkorian, from whom Turner had purchased the studio less than a year before.As part of the deal, Turner Entertainment retained ownership of MGM's library of films released up to May 9, 1986. Turner Broadcasting System was split into two companies; Turner Broadcasting System and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and reincorporated as MGM/UA Communications Co.
The film library of Turner Entertainment would serve as the base form of programming for TCM upon the network's launch. Before the creation of Turner Classic Movies, films from Turner's library of movies aired on the Turner Broadcasting System's advertiser-supported cable network TNT – along with colorized versions of black-and-white classics such as The Maltese Falcon.
Launch and contributions
Turner Classic Movies debuted on April 14, 1994, at 6 p.m. Eastern Time, with Ted Turner launching the channel at a ceremony in New York City's Times Square district. The date and time were chosen for their historical significance as "the exact centennial anniversary of the first public movie showing in New York City". The first movie broadcast on TCM was the 1939 film Gone with the Wind, the same film that served as the debut broadcast of its sister channel TNT six years earlier in October 1988. At the time of its launch, TCM was available to approximately one million cable television subscribers.The network originally served as a competitor to AMC—which at the time was known as "American Movie Classics" and maintained a virtually identical format to TCM, as both networks largely focused on films released prior to 1970 and aired them in an uncut, uncolorized, and commercial-free format. AMC had broadened its film content to feature colorized and more recent films by 2002.
In 1996, Turner Broadcasting System merged with Time Warner which, besides placing Turner Classic Movies and Warner Bros. Entertainment under the same corporate umbrella, also gave TCM access to Warner Bros.' library of films released after 1950 ; incidentally, TCM had already been running select Warner Bros. film titles through a licensing agreement with the studio that was signed prior to the launch of the channel.
In the early 2000s, AMC abandoned its commercial-free format, which then led to TCM being the only movie-oriented basic cable channel to devote its programming entirely to classic films without commercial interruption or content editing.
On March 4, 2019, Time Warner's new owner AT&T announced a planned reorganization that would dissolve Turner Broadcasting. TCM, along with Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, and over-the-top video company Otter Media, will be moved directly under Warner Bros.. Speaking about the move, then-Warner Bros. CEO Kevin Tsujihara explained that TCM was "a natural fit with Warner Bros." due the company's massive film library.
TCM Young Composers Film Competition
In 2000, TCM started the annual Young Composers Film Competition, inviting aspiring composers to participate in a judged competition that offers the winner of each year's competition the opportunity to score a restored, feature-length silent film as a grand prize, mentored by a well-known composer, with the new work subsequently premiering on the network. As of 2006, films that have been rescored include the 1921 Rudolph Valentino film Camille, two Lon Chaney films: 1921's The Ace of Hearts and 1928's Laugh, Clown, Laugh, and Greta Garbo's 1926 film The Temptress.TCM Classic Film Festival
In April 2010, Turner Classic Movies held the first TCM Classic Film Festival, an event—now held annually—at the Grauman's Chinese Theater and the Grauman's Egyptian Theater in Hollywood. Initially hosted by Robert Osborne, the four-day long annual festival celebrates Hollywood and its movies, and featured celebrity appearances, special events, and screenings of around 50 classic movies including several newly restored by The Film Foundation, an organization devoted to preserving Hollywood's classic film legacy.Programming
Turner Classic Movies essentially operates as a commercial-free service, with the only advertisements on the network being shown between features – which advertise TCM products, network promotions for upcoming special programs and the original trailers for films that are scheduled to be broadcast on TCM, and featurettes about classic film actors and actresses. In addition to this, extended breaks 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, and Robert Benchley – under the banner name TCM Extras. In 2007, some of the short films featured on TCM were made available for streaming on TCM's website. Partly to allow these interstitials, Turner Classic Movies schedules its feature films either at the top of the hour or at :15, :30 or :45 minutes past the hour, instead of in timeslots of varying five-minute increments.TCM's film content has remained mostly uncut and uncolorized, depending upon the original content of movies, particularly movies released after the 1968 implementation of the Motion Picture Association of America's ratings system and the concurrent disestablishment of the Motion Picture Production Code. Because of this, TCM is formatted similarly to a premium channel with certain films – particularly those made from the 1960s onward – sometimes featuring nudity, sexual content, violence and/or strong profanity; the network also features rating bumpers prior to the start of a program.
The network's programming season runs from March of one year until the following February of the next when a retrospective of Oscar-winning and Oscar-nominated movies is shown, called 31 Days of Oscar. As a result of its devoted format to classic feature films, viewers who are interested in tracing the career development of actresses such as Barbara Stanwyck or Greta Garbo or actors like Cary Grant or Humphrey Bogart have the unique opportunity to see most of the films that were made during their careers, from beginning to end. Turner Classic Movies presents many of its features in their original aspect ratio whenever possible – widescreen films broadcast on TCM are letterboxed on the network's standard definition feed. TCM also regularly presents widescreen presentations of films not available in the format on any home video release.
Occasionally, TCM shows restored versions of films, particularly old silent films with newly commissioned musical soundtracks. Turner Classic Movies is also a major backer of the Descriptive Video Service, with many of the films aired on the network offering visual description for the blind and visually impaired, which is accessible through the second audio program option through most television sets, or a cable or satellite receiver.
''Now Playing''
TCM publishes Now Playing, a monthly guide, originally available through a standalone subscription, which provides daily listings and descriptions for films scheduled to air on Turner Classic Movies in the coming month. The digest-size magazine highlights a featured actor on the cover, and features essays about the "guest programmer" as well as a movie-and-actor themed crossword puzzle. The May 2017 issue, following the death in March 2017 of host Robert Osborne, contained "Remembering Robert Osborne" by Ben Mankiewicz. TCM ceased print publication of Now Playing with the August 2017 issue, moving it to an electronic format available via email free of charge.During the prime time hours, an ident for the "Watch TCM" app is shown after every movie.
Movie library
TCM's library of films spans several decades of cinema and includes thousands of film titles. Besides broadcasting films owned or licensed by Warner Bros., Turner Classic Movies also licenses films from Universal Studios, Paramount Pictures, The Walt Disney Company, Sony Pictures Entertainment, StudioCanal, and Janus Films.Also, TCM has aired movies from the 1900s through the 1920s. Although most movies shown on TCM are releases from the 1930s to the 1960s, some are more contemporary – Turner Classic Movies sometimes airs films from the 1970s and 1980s, and occasionally broadcasts movies released during the 1990s and the early 2000s.
Hosted and special programming
Regular features
Most feature movies shown during the prime time and early overnight hours were presented by film historian Robert Osborne, Ben Mankiewicz presenting primetime films on Wednesday through Sunday evenings, Jacqueline Stewart presenting "Silent Sunday Nights" on Sundays, Tiffany Vasquez presented the films on Saturday afternoons from 2016-2018 when Dave Karger began presenting Saturday afternoons and the primetime films on Mondays, and Alicia Malone presenting the films on Sunday afternoons and the primetime films on Tuesdays.TCM regularly airs a "Star of the Month" throughout the year on Wednesdays starting at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time, in which most, if not all, feature films from a film star are shown during that night's schedule. February and August are the only months to not have a "Star of the Month" due to special programming months. The network also marks the occurrence of a film actor's birthday or recent death with day- or evening-long festivals showcasing several of that artist's best, earliest or least-known pictures; by effect, marathons scheduled in honor of an actor's passing pre-empt films originally scheduled to air on that date. TCM also features a monthly program block called the "TCM Guest Programmer", in which the host is joined by celebrity guests responsible for choosing that evening's films ; an offshoot of this block featuring Turner Classic Movies employees aired during February 2011.
The Essentials, with various hosts since 2001, is a weekly film showcase airing on Saturday evenings at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time which spotlights a culturally significant movie and contains a special introduction and post-movie discussion.
One of the weekly blocks is "Noir Alley", featuring film noir movies. It broadcasts on Sunday mornings at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time and is hosted by Eddie Muller. The channel also broadcasts two movie blocks during the late evening hours each Sunday: "Silent Sunday Nights", which features silent films from the United States and abroad, usually in the latest restored version and often with new musical scores, and hosted by Jacqueline Stewart; and "TCM Imports", a weekly presentation of films originally released in foreign countries. TCM Underground – which debuted in October 2006 – as Saturday late night block which focuses on cult films, the block was originally hosted by rocker/filmmaker Rob Zombie until December 2006. TCM Underground recently changed its timeslot - it now airs early Saturday mornings at 2:00 a.m. Eastern Time
Seasonal blocks
Turner Classic Movies suspends its regular schedule twice each year for a special month of film marathons. 31 Days of Oscar is a programming block aired each Oscar season by the U.S. and Asian Turner Classic Movies cable networks during the month of the Academy Awards. Each feature that TCM airs in this block can be either an Oscar winner or nominee.Another is called "Summer Under the Stars", which features entire daily schedules devoted to the work of a particular actor, with movies and specials that pertain to the star of the day. In the summer of 2007, the channel debuted "Funday Night at the Movies", a block hosted by actor Tom Kenny. This summer block featured classic feature films aimed at introducing these movies to new generations of children, and their families.
Other programming blocks
"Funday Night at the Movies" was replaced in 2008 by "Essentials Jr.", a youth-oriented version of its weekly series, The Essentials, which included such family-themed films as National Velvet, Captains Courageous, and Yours, Mine and Ours, as well as more eclectic selections, such as Sherlock Jr., The Music Box, Harvey, Mutiny on the Bounty, and The Man Who Knew Too Much.In 2014, the channel debuted "Treasures from the Disney Vault", hosted by Leonard Maltin. This block showcased a compilation of vintage Disney feature films, cartoons, documentaries, episodes of the Walt Disney anthology television series, and episodes of The Mickey Mouse Club. The last scheduled "Treasures from the Disney Vault" aired on September 2, 2019.
Documentaries
In addition to films, Turner Classic Movies also airs original content, mostly documentaries about classic movie personalities, the world of filmmaking and particularly notable films. An occasional month-long series, Race and Hollywood, showcases films by and about people of non-white races, featuring discussions of how these pictures influenced white people's image of said races, as well as how people of those races viewed themselves. Previous installments have included "Asian Images on Film" in 2008, "Native American Images on Film" in 2010, "Black Images on Film" in 2006 "Latino Images on Film" in 2009 and "Arab Images on Film" in 2011. The network aired the film series Screened Out in 2007 and Religion on Film in 2005. In 2011, TCM debuted a new series entitled .TCM Remembers
Most of the actors appearing in most TCM films are deceased. In December 1994, TCM debuted "TCM Remembers", a tribute to recently deceased notable film personalities that occasionally airs during promotional breaks between films. The segments appear in two forms: individual tributes and a longer end-of-year compilation. Following the recent death of an especially famous classic film personality, the segment will feature a montage of select shots of the deceased's work.Every December, a longer, more inclusive "TCM Remembers" interstitial is produced that honors all of the noted film personalities who died during the past year, interspersed with scenes from settings such as an abandoned drive-in or a theatre which is closing down and is being dismantled. Since 2001, the soundtracks for these clipreels have been introspective melodies by indie artists and/or singer-songwriters such as Badly Drawn Boy or Steve Earle. 2015's song, "Quickly Now", was written especially for TCM Remembers by Chuck Moore and Reid Hall, and sung by Eryn McHugh.
TCM Remembers soundtracks
Accolades
TCM received a 2008 Peabody Award for its dedication to film preservation and "a continuing, powerful commitment to a central concept—the place of film in social and cultural experience".TCM received a 2013 Peabody Award for its presentation of Mark Cousins' , a 15-episode documentary about the development and advancement of the medium of motion pictures. Drawing on its exhaustive film library, TCM complemented each episode with short films and feature films from the familiar to the little-seen. The Peabody Award praised TCM's The Story of Film "for its inclusive, uniquely annotated survey of world cinema history".
Turner Classic Movies HD
Turner Classic Movies operates a high definition simulcast feed, with programs broadcast in HD presented in an upconverted 1080i resolution format; the HD feed of the network was launched in June 2009. Initial programming was not available in native high definition and was instead upconverted from standard definition, but benefited from the greater bandwidth allocated to the channel. By November 2014, film masters meant for high definition presentation, along with Osborne and Mankiewicz-hosted continuity had transitioned to the format.Merchandising
TCM Vault Collection
The TCM Vault Collection consists of several different DVD collections of rare classic films that have been licensed, remastered and released by Turner Classic Movies. These boxed set releases are of films by notable actors, directors or studios that were previously unreleased on DVD or VHS. The sets often include bonus discs including documentaries and shorts from the TCM library. The initial batch of DVDs are printed in limited quantities and subsequent batches are made-on-demand.- Universal Collection – Featuring films licensed by TCM from the Universal Studios vault.
- The Lost RKO Collection – Featuring RKO films from the 1930s.
- TCM Spotlight – A series of DVD boxsets released by Warner Home Video featuring Charlie Chan and stars such as Esther Williams, Errol Flynn, Jean Arthur, Deanna Durbin, and Doris Day.