The Forum for Questions for Charlie Tabesh

Past chats with our guests.
jdb1

Re: The Forum for Questions for Charlie Tabesh

Post by jdb1 »

ChiO wrote:
no, we've never done any sort of research at all on what festivals or films we want to play.
Then, if anarchy is the code and the market be damned, I suggest that one 6-hour slot each week be devoted to Timothy Carey Movies -- or, as we affectionately refer to it -- TCM.

And thank you for THE WORLD'S GREATEST SINNER.
Charlie, I'd like to second ChiO's Tim Carey proposal. In fact, as a proud Brooklynite, I'd like to suggest that TCM show more films about Brooklyn, or that have the word "Brooklyn" in the title, or that feature some of the many very interesting and talented actors (such as Carey) who were born in Brooklyn. There is certainly plenty to choose from in each of those categories.

Such suggestions are not as facetious as they may sound: what I really wanted to tell you here is that I have heard many acquaintances and co-workers comment in the recent past that they tend to watch TCM more frequently when there is a particular theme going. One co-worker - not really a Classic Hollywood fan - said that she felt she somehow appreciated the movies more when they were grouped in some logical way.

Many thanks for your wonderful work at TCM. Honestly -- I just don't know what I'd do without you.

Regards from Judith in Brooklyn
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MissGoddess
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Re: The Forum for Questions for Charlie Tabesh

Post by MissGoddess »

tcmprogrammr wrote: comprehensive festivals of some Fox stars would be great (Monroe, Power, Grable, etc.);

Yes! Yes! Yes! We need some more Marilyn on TCM! :D I saw her all over the place in France, it was so cute
how everyone everywhere still loves her.
"There's only one thing that can kill the movies, and that's education."
-- Will Rogers
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Gagman 66
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Re: The Forum for Questions for Charlie Tabesh

Post by Gagman 66 »

Dear Mr. Tabesh,

:D Thank you for letting us know that we should be seeing BARDELYS THE MAGNIFICENT in the future. Maybe as part of a John Gilbert night with THE BIG PARADE? That would be very exciting. BARDELYS really merits a Prime-time premier, since it is a film that was lost for 70 years. Just an amazing story. I was very surprised with the other feature MONTE CRISTO a much darker picture than BARDELYS, and should note that allot of people are kind of expecting that to pop up on TCM as well. Though I figured on just BARDELYS since it was an MGM Silent.

Incidentally, it is wonderful to see Lillian Gish being honored in October for her Birthday. Finally, has there been any luck with licensing INCENDIARY BLOND or some of the other long unseen Betty Hutton features from Universal? And I have noticed you are getting allot of requests for THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE, which I have asked about in the past once or twice. Have to sneak this in as far as the "Private Screenings" specials go, has Doris Day ever been approached? It would be wonderful for her to have a chat with Robert Osborne while She is still with us. Doris has been life long favorite of mine. My late Mother loved her so.

Thanks so much for your having been our guest here these last three days. Taking time out of your busy schedule to honor us with you presence. Once more, I just can't express my sincere appreciation enough for TCM, and all the hard work that you do. It is the only station that I watch regularly, and has been for years. Without TCM I would virtually be at a total loss. Keep up the great work, and God bless you and your family.
Last edited by Gagman 66 on August 6th, 2009, 12:41 am, edited 1 time in total.
tcmprogrammr
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Re: The Forum for Questions for Charlie Tabesh

Post by tcmprogrammr »

I know I need to reply to several questions - it was a busy day at work and I'm off to dinner, but I will try to get to all of them tonight. Thank you.
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Birdy
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Re: The Forum for Questions for Charlie Tabesh

Post by Birdy »

Okay, now for shameless begging:
It's been a few years - so it's time to replay all those Golddiggers / Broadway titles.
Poor Glenda Farrell needs her day rescheduled after being bumped.

How about a 'character of the month'? Then we could get Zasu Pitts and Patsy Kelly and Allen Jenkins and all those wonderful characters we love. You could pick out a few hours in the middle of the night. I'm sure no one would notice. (I have a DVDR)

Thanks again for answering our questions, please drop over anytime.
We appreciate all you do.
Birdy
tcmprogrammr
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Re: The Forum for Questions for Charlie Tabesh

Post by tcmprogrammr »

Chris, I'm not sure I understand your question about anniversary programming. Nothing specific to TCM's 15th anniversary is coming up. As for the microsite, I completely agree. Our web staff does an incredible job and I think this month's site feature the posters for Summer Under the Stars is the best yet.
tcmprogrammr
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Re: The Forum for Questions for Charlie Tabesh

Post by tcmprogrammr »

Moxie:

1. Yes, over 99% of what we play are 35mm films transferred onto digibeta. As several people know, there were a couple of times this year that 16mm transfers were the only option for us, but that's very rare.

2. We're in discussions with WB for broader access to their library, but that deal hasn't been completed yet. We have to negotiate with them just as we do any other studio, which surprises a lot of people, but it's true.

3. No studio strikes new prints for us, including WB. And if a film hasn't yet been transferred to video, they usually will only do the transfer themselves if there's a dvd market for the film, our license fee is high enough to cover that cost (plus a little more), or if we pay for it ourselves. There are some exceptions, but economics certainly drives a lot of the decision-making, as you might expect. With regard to WB specifically, many of the films were transferred years ago by Ted Turner. In the '90s WB acquired the TEC library but for a lot of films we still use transfers that were made many years ago. We're in conversations now with WB on the best way to update the library, and I should say there are some people there (one in particular) who are very passionate about that and they're taking a leading role in the process.

4. With the Holmes films it a matter of the rights and the cost to acquire them. But we are interested in obtaining them if we can afford it.

5. I agree, the Summer of Darkness was great and it might be time to do that again at some point in the near future.
tcmprogrammr
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Re: The Forum for Questions for Charlie Tabesh

Post by tcmprogrammr »

Lynn, the documentary will be a very extensive, in-depth look at the film industry, from the end of the 19th century to the demise of the studio era. That's pretty much all I can say about it, but I'm confident it will be very good based on scripts and some early rough cuts of the first couple of episodes.
tcmprogrammr
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Re: The Forum for Questions for Charlie Tabesh

Post by tcmprogrammr »

Carrie, those are all great suggestions - while w don't have the rights to them at the moment my guess is we could obtain them, so I am noting those as requests.
tcmprogrammr
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Re: The Forum for Questions for Charlie Tabesh

Post by tcmprogrammr »

TikiSoo - almost all of our revenue comes from our cable/satellite affiliates. As you suggest, that's very rare in the television world. As most people know, what seems to happen is that a channel starts out with a niche (A&E, AMC, Bravo, etc.), then once they have a certain level of distribution, they become much broader in order to attract more ad dollars. With AMC, once they added advertising it really dictated that they change their programming in order to attract audiences that advertisers wanted. But one consequence of them doing that was that their loyal viewers were pretty upset, which led to a long period where a lot of people feared TCM would do the same thing - there were never any plans to do that on our end, but I actually think the outcry over AMC made us more committed than ever to keep it that way. The truth is there's just no way to do a lot of the programming that we do if the business model is based in any significant way on advertising (which makes it much more fun for us as programmers). I don't think I explained that very well, but the end result is that being commercial-free makes our brand stronger; it also means we can take more chances and do things that we consider interesting and important, rather than trying to attract advertiser-friendly audiences. And playing films uncut and in their original aspect ratios also helps us establish ourselves as a network that truly cares about these films and their history (which we genuinely do). Our business isn't at big as many of the ad-supported networks out there, so our budgets are smaller, but I think we do pretty well with what we have. As for the interstitial pieces, promos, introductions, website, they're all done at the network and they're consistently fantastic - they're essential to our brand and people that create them care deeply about the films and are extremely creative. And, of course, Robert Osborne is the most important of all, we're very lucky to have him.
tcmprogrammr
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Re: The Forum for Questions for Charlie Tabesh

Post by tcmprogrammr »

Jeffrey, I have a hard time keeping up, but I absolutely trust your knowledge of what's happening in the silent film world and use your input and suggestions often when planning future projects.
Ollie
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Re: The Forum for Questions for Charlie Tabesh

Post by Ollie »

I certainly have enjoyed all of these topics, questions and answers. I wish I'd have asked, "Tell us some programming horror stories-!" but then again, maybe I'm not THAT interested in those!

Your discussions of "the TCM brand" is almost soft-pedaled - you really CAN stand up and beat your chest with pride. I'm sure there are many citizens who don't pay attention to it, but I think for film fans, there is One Station and One Station Only for huge portions of their viewing pleasure. And that's TCM, and that's because of the programming that is routinely delivered to us.
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