This is how AMC died, too

Perhaps nothing to be worried about, but a subject line like this fills me with the dread:

Turner Classic Movies Broadens Viewer Base with Innovative Programming Initiatives

Turner Classic Movies Broadens Viewer Base with Innovative Programming Initiatives

Auteur Filmmaker and Music Artist Rob Zombie (House of 1000 Corpses, The Devil’s Rejects) To Host Cult Movie Showcase

TCM Commissions Two Pilots for First Ever Original Series, One Featuring Wilmer Valderrama (That ‘70s Show)

Documentary Looks at Maverick Filmmakers

Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is moving forward with several programming initiatives geared to attract a broader viewer base, including a new cult film showcase hosted by auteur filmmaker and legendary rocker Rob Zombie (House of 1000 Corpses, The Devil’s Rejects); two pilots, one featuring Wilmer Valderrama (That ‘70s Show, Fast Food Nation), that could lead to TCM’s first-ever original series; and an exploration of the creative spirit and maverick determination of independent filmmakers in TCM’s first in-house documentary production.

“These programming initiatives allow us to cultivate a new generation of classic movie fans, helping us take viewers from novice to true fan through innovative approaches,” said Tom Karsch, executive vice president and general manager for TCM. “Whether it is Rob Zombie introducing cult classics or a young Hollywood star recreating iconic movie scenes, this entertaining content is certain to broaden TCM’s appeal beyond our loyal core audience.”

The following is TCM’s slate of upcoming programming:

TCM Underground hosted by Rob Zombie– TCM Film Showcase premiering in October

TCM unveils a new late-night showcase featuring auteur filmmaker and music artist Rob Zombie as the host.  Zombie will feature such cult and underground movies as Suzuki Seijun’s stylish Yakuza flick Tokyo Drifter, horror master George Romero’s The Crazies, Ed Wood’s Bride of the Monster, Francis Coppola’s creepy Dementia 13 and Leonard Castle’s offbeat The Honeymoon Killers.

Zombie has made a name for himself challenging audiences by stretching the boundaries of film, music and publishing.  He recently took film to a new level with his critically acclaimed House of 1000 Corpses and its high-octane follow-up The Devil’s Rejects, and he is now working on his next film project, the animated horror film The Haunted World of Superbeasto, starring  Academy Award^â nominee Paul Giamatti, slated for release later this year.

As the longest active artist on Geffen Records and the most prolific Geffen artist when it comes to Gold and Platinum discs, Zombie has sold in excess of fifteen million records worldwide. This past March, his new album Educated Horses entered the billboard charts at #5.  Zombie is also a seasoned video director, with more than 25 videos to his credit.  In 1995, he won an MTV Music Video Award for “More Human Than Human,” becoming the first self-directed artist to win such an award.

TAKE TWO (working title) – Original series pilot

This unique concept will give a young star the opportunity to act out (or completely re-imagine) an iconic scene from a classic Hollywood movie. The pilot for the series will feature Wilmer Valderrama re-creating a scene from The Lost Weekend. TAKE TWO comes to TCM from World of Wonders, with Fenton Bailey & Randy Barbato (Movies that Shook the World) serving as executive producers.

IDOLS (working title) – Original series in development

In IDOLS, a younger star working in film today has an opportunity to shadow and interview his/her classic film idol.  It comes to TCM from executive producer Robert Trachtenberg (Cary Grant: A Class Apart, The Dick Cavett Show with Special Guest Mel Brooks).

EDGE OF OUTSIDE– Original TCM Documentary premiering in July

In its first-ever completely in-house documentary production, TCM explores the uncompromising vision, creative spirit and maverick determination of independent filmmakers, both classic and current. A tribute to the fight for artistic freedom in American independent cinema, EDGE OF OUTSIDE features interviews with Ed Burns, Martin Scorsese, Spike Lee, Henry Jaglom, Arthur Penn, Peter Falk, Gena Rowlands and John Sayles, as well as friends and crew members who worked with such cutting-edge filmmakers as Sam Fuller, John Cassavetes and Sam Peckinpah.  In a year that saw independent movies take center stage at the Oscars^â, this documentary offers an intimate look at the various issues and struggles independent filmmakers face – creative and personal, financial and emotional.  It dispels the notion that an independent film is simply a low-budget film, instead defining the genre by the maverick filmmaker’s ability to infuse his or her films with creative spirit and determination.

Turner Classic Movies, currently seen in more than 70 million homes, is a 24-hour cable network from Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a TimeWarner company.  TCM presents the greatest motion pictures of all time from the largest film library in the world, the combined Time Warner and Turner film libraries, from the ‘20s through the ‘90s, commercial-free and without interruption.  Expanding TCM's role as a curator of movie history, the network recently launched TCMdb, the Internet's most media-rich interactive movie database.  For more information, please visit www.tcm.com.

Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a Time Warner company, is a major producer of news and entertainment product around the world and the leading provider of programming for the basic cable industry.

Comments

[Brendan]

Wilmer Valderrama + cable= eyes gouged out across America.

[Mark Jeffries]

Outside of "Idols," nothing all that far out of the box. They've done movie docs and interviews before--and the Rob Zombie thing fits its time slot and night. I just don't Robert Osborne introducing "Bride of the Monster."

After all, a lot of those programmers and B pictures they've always run in late overnight and early morning have a very tenuous claim to "classic," unless you're the cinema equivalent of "The Drowsy Chaperone"'s Man in the Chair.

Better B movies and genre flicks than any flavor of "reality" on TCM. The lesser films in the library may not be "classic" in the same way as "Casablanca" but they often have decent stories and geniune historical interest to the film fan. TCM is a haven. It would be heartbreaking to see the channel go the way of AMC.

[scott]

It may be a small part in why AMC died, but the biggest reason it died was the fact they play horrid movies 75% of the time these days. They blew off their core audience when the quit show real "Classic" films and began showing movies from 1975 to almost present 90% of the time. I knew they were done when the 1st movie they showed when they changed their format was Dragnet. That was their BIG SHOWCASE film to show you where things were headed. Do Dan Ackroyd and Tom Hanks even list that film on their resumes? It was possibly the worst movie that either one of them were ever in and that's what the new brains at AMC chose to kick off their new format with. If it wasn't for James Bond and John Hughes Fans, AMC would have no viewers anymore. It's as though they forgot about every movie made in the 30's, 40's, 50's and 60's along with the folks that watched AMC regularly until the change. Take care all, Scott

[Faith]

I hated when AMC changed their formatting, and rarely watch that channel at all any more. (They're showing "Ronin" tonight, for example. What the hell?) I was grateful to have something like TCM to turn to, and it quickly became a favorite haunt for me on weekends and early mornings while on the treadmill/getting ready for work.

I agree with Mark, though. As long as they stick to the documentary style on their new shows, and keep things in appropriate time slots (and I personally could do with fewer westerns and more classic comedy/drama on weekends), then they should be fine. But I do think that the "Take Two" idea is horrendous. I like watching the original icon acting out their scene in their original movie. Don't see the point in watching someone try to botch it or "make it their own" or whatever. But then again, I can't even stand to watch remakes of The Philadelphia Story or Sabrina, so I might just have issues.

I just hope they don't start allowing commercials. That'd kill me...

[Paul Murray]

Actually, I think "Take Two" sounds more out of place than "Idols," which sounds like a cross between the Osborne interviews and the "appreciation" fillers. (I don't say that in a pejorative sense -- TCM has some of the most interesting promotions and fillers on cable.) And how often will we be subjected to "TCM Underground"?

The bigger question is why TCM feels the need to "broaden their base." I thought the point of cable was to provide niches -- and that niche has been perfect as is. In fact, marketing expert Al Ries warns about companies watering down brands by trying to expand them, and this sure sounds like an example of that.

If they screw up TCM (as I've been dreading for years), it will be time for us to re-evaluate paying for cable TV. Seriously, that channel has been the most compelling reason for us to keep paying the increasingly exorbitant rates.

[Mark Jeffries]

But let it be pointed out that AMC's ratings (particularly in the demographics advertisers want) and revenues have gone up considerably since they reformatted--and they've been able to keep their subscriber fees, once up there with ESPN due to no ads and escalating rights fees, down to where cable systems may consider dropping them.

Meanwhile, I guess you could wonder if the protection TCM enjoyed thanks to the other Turner channels' profits and a core library bought and paid for a long time ago is starting to erode and if Time Warner is demanding higher profit performance from every division.

[Mark Jeffries]

Make that "may not consider dropping them." D'oh!

[daphne]

This point of view upsets me a bit. I remember in 1973 that The Exorcist, a movie that still holds up in the special effect department to this very day lost the Oscar for BEST MAKEUP to The Sting? The Sting? What was so special about The Sting's makeup?

Nothing compared to Regan's legbursters and her facial deformation as a possessed child appeared in the western that I remember. Anyone can successfully pull off a squib sequence or two.

The industry snubbed Blatty because horror movies are seen as low class. And still today we have people cringing because some horror movies are going to be showed on TCM?

Isn't TCM about classic movies? I didn't notice that it was "TCM - but whitebread with out any horror" movies. While many of you might have not seen The Devil's Rejects, I have, and I was blown away by William Forsythe's performance. Rob Zombie declared that House of 1000 Corpses was a warm up for what he really intended to do - make a high-quality horror movie. Indeed he did.

He is well-educated in the field of horror, of Boris Karlof, (I don't think I spelled his name right), Lon Chaney, Bela Legosi. He enjoys classic horror as much as he does things that might make some of us cringe. To think that one can have a classic movie channel sans horror is to be as obtuse as the Academy for Motion Picture Sciences was in 1973 and again in 2001, because they thought a big eyebrow was harder to do on Salma Hayak than the hours and hours of work involved in the makeup used in The Two Towers. To be worried about horror is to forget the outstanding movies like Rosemary's Baby, The Changeling (with George C. Scott, possibly the best ghost story ever), or The Bad Seed.

Sure there are going to be campy movies shown, but in my opinion, many of the movies I see on TCM, especially some of the politically incorrect westerns, are worse than campy.

Besides, NOTHING could be worse than the over-saturated reality crap I have to endure on a nightly basis should I actually watch television. To me, Aaron, that's the REAL horror!

Best wishes.