The Forum for Questions for Charlie Tabesh

Past chats with our guests.
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MissGoddess
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Re: The Forum for Questions for Charlie Tabesh

Post by MissGoddess »

Oh my goodness, CHARLIE!! That's fantastic news about Warners/The Hanging Tree!!! I mean it's so much more encouraging than anything I've yet heard!!!! I know all the Coops Girls are going to be delighted to hear this, thank you!
"There's only one thing that can kill the movies, and that's education."
-- Will Rogers
tcmprogrammr
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Re: The Forum for Questions for Charlie Tabesh

Post by tcmprogrammr »

Jeffrey, as usual you have more information than I do. But our best ally is Flicker Alley in trying to access the Paramount silents (including "Children of Divorce"). I don't know anything about "Lilac Time" but can ask around at Warner Brothers to see what might be happening.
tcmprogrammr
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Re: The Forum for Questions for Charlie Tabesh

Post by tcmprogrammr »

MissGoddess - I hope my earlier reply on hd answered your question.
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movieman1957
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Re: The Forum for Questions for Charlie Tabesh

Post by movieman1957 »

A small question. On those few occasions where you have premiered a movie the same day as the DVD release (or at least close to it) has that been initiated by TCM or does the studio sometimes come calling?

(The time that comes to mind is the night "Easy Living" and "Midnight" and "The Major and The Minor" premiered last year.)
Chris

"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana."
tcmprogrammr
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Re: The Forum for Questions for Charlie Tabesh

Post by tcmprogrammr »

Chris - it can happen either way. The contact is between our marketing department and the marketing department of the studios. But it's up to us in programming to determine if we want to play the films.
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Birdy
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Re: The Forum for Questions for Charlie Tabesh

Post by Birdy »

I just wanted to say how much I appreciate TCM, the huge variety of movies shown each month, and the variety of themes. My favorites are the birthday tributes to the lesser or near forgotten stars or character actors. For example, Una Merkel's birthday. ( My favorite movies are pre-code comedies, but I like all 30s movies. )

What's been one of the mini-themes you've enjoyed programming?
Thanks for being here,

Birdy
tcmprogrammr
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Re: The Forum for Questions for Charlie Tabesh

Post by tcmprogrammr »

Hi Birdy - I probably enjoy mini-themes like "sheep night" and "how to murder your wife night" the most, but I love nights like Una Merkel as well. I like it when we can bring lesser-known (but deserving) films/actors/directors to the attention of our audience. And we have a staff of programmers that are always coming up with great things.
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CoffeeDan
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Re: The Forum for Questions for Charlie Tabesh

Post by CoffeeDan »

Hi Charlie! We corresponded several years ago after you started posting on the TCM boards, and I think I may have talked to you on the phone once. Having been a film programmer myself, I know the job can be both thankless and highly rewarding, so I thank you for taking the time to chat with us on SSO!

Since I'm so fascinated by silent film and have programmed some live events myself, I've always wondered how labor-intensive it is to present them on TCM. On average, how long does it take to restore a silent film, commission and record a score, and finally present the whole thing on TCM? And how many silent films remain to be restored and scored in the Time Warner library?

Again, thanks for coming over and keeping TCM the best thing on TV. It's still the the only reason I have cable.
markfp
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Re: The Forum for Questions for Charlie Tabesh

Post by markfp »

Hi Charlie,
Thank you for the great effort by you and everybody at TCM to make it what it is. I'll also give you my personal thanks for all the terrific British films you've been getting from MGM and other sources. These are films that nobody else shows in the U.S. and are not on DVD. If it wasn't for TCM we just wouldn't have a place to see them.

I don't have to tell you that TCM has a very loyal core audience and we all have varied tastes when it comes to films and what we expect from TCM. It has to be very challenging to try and program something for everybody. Are there times when you're working on a schedule and just pounding your head on your desk trying to decide whether to add a lesser know, seldom seen, classic for all of us serious film buffs or another run of some well know film (like "Singing in the Rain") in an effort to get viewers who may tune in because they've seen it before or at least have heard of it? How do you do it?

Thanks for your time in joining us here on SSO.

Mark
tcmprogrammr
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Re: The Forum for Questions for Charlie Tabesh

Post by tcmprogrammr »

coffeedan - It is labor intensive but, of course, most of the work isn't done by us. Truthfully, I don't really know much about how film is preserved, but I do know that the people at Warner Brothers, or Film Preservation Associates or Kino or Flicker Alley (among a few others) put a lot of time into going frame by frame of each film to make them look good. Then we (or they) hire someone to compose and record a score. This is also very labor intensive, maybe even more so, I'm not sure. Then, once the score is composed it has to be "married" to the film. A sloppy job could be done by anyone along the way and it would be easier and cheaper that way, but the quality wouldn't be as good and most people care enough to really want to do a good job. The scores themselves can range from a simple piano score to a full orchestra - the more instruments the more difficult they are to compose and record. Some films are fine with piano scores while others really need to be composed for multiple instruments. I think we've commissioned about 30 scores ourselves and worked with various distributors on many others (sometimes our license fees have paid for the preservation and scoring of the films). That's a rough number off the top of my head.
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knitwit45
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Re: The Forum for Questions for Charlie Tabesh

Post by knitwit45 »

Hi Mr. Tabesh! Thanks for all the great films you find for us, and all the interesting "themes", both monthly and daily. How do you come up with ideas for them. And, how do you choose the Star of the Month? Lastly, is the "Young Composers" contest still happening, or have you put that one to bed?

Again, thanks for the great films! I loved the month you did all the "series" films. The Five Little Peppers was a favorite.

Nancy
tcmprogrammr
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Re: The Forum for Questions for Charlie Tabesh

Post by tcmprogrammr »

Mark - yes. That is really the balance that we try to achieve. As you suggest, our hardcore fans, and I assume most people here at Silver Screen Oasis, are excited about the rare or obscure titles. But we're also a place that many people discover classic movies for the first time. In addition - because there are so few options out there for classic movie fans - some people are watching TCM almost all the time and, to them, any repeat is annoying because they might have seen that film on the channel a month or two ago. One more point: if we play a title 5 or 6 times a year, that's a whole lot for us; that might happen with less than a dozen titles each year and the average title plays between 1 to 2 times in a year. And even when we play a film 5 or 6 times, it's almost always at different times of the day. But if you've seen those films a few times you want something new and different. So we're trying to please a lot of people and different levels of classic movies fans. I'm sure we get it wrong sometimes but we do take pride in our role and try to do our best.
tcmprogrammr
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Re: The Forum for Questions for Charlie Tabesh

Post by tcmprogrammr »

Hi Nancy - one of the great pleasures of our job is to figure out different ways to explore film history and learning so much when working on a theme. But the ideas seem endless. And we really aren't shy about stealing from people, whether it's from different people within Turner or people doing programming challenges on the message boards or friends and colleagues with suggestions. Not only do films involve a lot of people - actors, directors, cinematographers, etc., literally hundreds of people and roles just to make one film, they also explore so many themes and have social and political relevance in so many different ways. So right there you can legitimately look at a film from so many different angles. And I know that when I'm at the movies with my wife or watching a movie at home now I always think to myself how it's interesting in a maybe unexpected way, I notice things I'd never noticed before and think about how that might connect to other films. As for Young Film Composers, that's not my department (it was initiated and run through our marketing department) so I don't want to speak for them, but my guess is that it's not coming back. And as much as I loved the competition (and was fortunate enough to be a judge a couple of times) it was much more expensive to do it that way than to commission a score for a film directly or to license a silent film from a distributor (which helps to pay for a score). Anyway, as I said, my guess is that it's unlikely to come back but I'm not certain.
tcmprogrammr
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Re: The Forum for Questions for Charlie Tabesh

Post by tcmprogrammr »

Nancy, as for star-of-the-month a lot depends on either stars we haven't done before or for a long time, what films we have under license, key birthdays, etc. Since a lot of films are licensed years in advance a lot depends on what we have available.
Vecchiolarry
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Re: The Forum for Questions for Charlie Tabesh

Post by Vecchiolarry »

Hello Mr. Tabesh,

Thank you very much for scheduling Marion Davies movies today. I have spent the entire day drinking tea, diet coke and eating sandwiches just watching her and marvelling at what a wonderful personality she was.
From the age of 4 in 1946, til 1961 when she died, I knew Marion Davies very well and she was a warm and fun person in real life; but I never really knew she was a movie star (nor several others I also knew) until about 1952 when we got a TV set and some of their movies were shown.
However, Marion Davies films were not shown then and I have never actually seen one entirely until today - - so thank you for this!!!

Also, another thank you for showing "The Rains Came" twice in the last few months and what a great film that was.
I know "The Rains of Ranchipur" is a 20th Century Fox film, but it would be nice if you could play that sometime; although I will understand if you cannot arrange this.

And again, another thank you for scheduling "Midnight" jus a few days ago....
I knew Mary Astor and enjoyed seeing her in that movie. Would it be possible to again play "The Palm Beach Story"???? That's always a fun film...

I am looking forward to viewing Merle Oberon films later this month, as she is also a warm memory for me, as a little boy....


Others I knew but haven't seen too many or none of their films:

Pola Negri - "A Woman Commands" (RKO) and any Paramount silent she did - I've seen none of these.
Martha Raye - my godmother. I've never seen any of her Paramount pictures.
Rex Harrison - is it possible to show some of his British movies?
Paulette Goddard - "Diary of a Chambermaid" and "Kitty" and her C.B. DeMille movies...
Ramon Novarro - "Mata Hari" and his MGM silents..

And finally, Mae Murray, Laura LaPlante, Betty Blythe and Mercedes McCambridge
I know some of these would be difficult but just a suggestion (a bug in your ear, if you will!!)....

Thanks again for all the great classics you and your collegues provide!!

Larry
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