The 15th Anniversary of Turner Classic Movies and Looking Ahead to Its Future

While the majority of the country probably hadn't even heard of Turner Classic Movies until at least five years after it went on the air, its debut in April of 1994 was ultimately one of the biggest blessings for the future of cable TV. I remember hearing in the media about the channel starting back in 1994 and its small "grand opening" ceremony in NYC with a gathering of various former movie star legends--many of whom have since passed away. With TCM airing snippets of the tape from that opening off and on this month for their 15^th anniversary celebrations, you can see the adamancy then in the eyes of host Robert Osborne, as well as in the expressions of the late Van Johnson, Jane Powell and myriad others mostly from the glory years of MGM. Osborne hasn't changed much, but you could see that they knew classic films were starting to already be siphoned away on TV by 1994.

For most people, TCM wasn't anywhere to be found on their cable systems, and American Movie Classics was one of a few cable networks in 1994 to air movies from the 1930's-1960's. Seeing grainy-looking prints of old movies on your local stations (a rite of passage for most people who grew up in the Baby Boom or Gen X years) had pretty much ended by the late 80's when Ted Turner acquired the MGM library. Local stations stopped airing all old movies by the early 90's when cable became too much competition--hence leading to more competitive programming to stave it off. It's never been a surprise then why generations born in the 80's and 90's have a lack of knowledge about many of the classic movies every movie fan should know.

American Movie Classics helped to some degree back in its own early days of the early 90's. With hosting duties provided by Bob Dorian, those little introductions at the beginning of the movie came back to TV as you'd sometimes get years before on local airings with a well-known local host. Dorian was as personable and welcoming as Robert Osborne has become on TCM, plus filled his intros and outros with enough useful movie trivia to offset the later rise of IMDb.com. In fact, Dorian and Osborne were on the air concurrently for a while in the mid 90's before AMC decided to overhaul their format for the worst.

Out went Bob Dorian, in came newer movies on AMC (with commercials), and up went TCM (slowly but surely, plus staying commercial-free) in cable systems adding the network to their channel lineup.

There was only one time when I saw Robert Osborne do an intro to a classic movie before having a chance to see TCM. If I remember correctly, it was on WTBS where Ted Turner was giving viewers a temporary opportunity to see Osborne as host while airing an occasional MGM classic on the famous Atlanta Superstation. It wasn't until about 1999 when my local cable system finally added Turner Classic Movies to its programming grid. When I watched it for the first time, I knew the network was going to become the new haven of classic movies, both of the feature and short variety. By the turn of the 21^st century, it became the only place that was airing the old MGM library--right along with the movie catalogue of Warner Brothers, RKO and most of the others over a period of time. The adamancy of it flourishing was also seen by its loyal viewers who wrote in praising it up and down.

Now it's a miracle to realize it's been on 15 years already. It's also hard to believe one can get nostalgic this soon looking back at some of the little segments we've seen on the network dozens of times and seeing them in their earlier incarnations on TCM's 15^th anniversary website...
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Of course, celebrating TCM's anniversary now rather than waiting until the 20^th anniversary is a wise marketing move to gain more attention for those still in the dark about the network's existence. When you go on their anniversary site (see source link below), you'll have a chance to see the history of what they've done and aired so far if you're investigating for the first time. Everything from the video history of Robert Osborne's encyclopedic intros, an interesting Q&A and videos of their bombastic bumpers can be perused there. You can also view that oft-run "100 Years at the Movies" short that might be outdated by fifteen years, yet always gives you a thrill rush seeing the history of film up to 1994 in ten minutes.

Then you'll run across a curious page that will probably stir up some TCM fans: A gathering of the network's avid viewers chosen specifically to guest host with Osborne through April.

One thing you'll notice about Osborne's intros over the last fifteen years: The man has never changed in appearance other than the set around him. The current set used now in Atlanta is much more inviting and warm than the first one you can see in the first few years. In the first, Osborne descends a winding staircase in what could pass as his own little abode. But Osborne has always made a movie intro look easy when it's clearly not. Writing just the right dialogue and trivia to fit into a three-minute intro and outro (plus making it inviting enough to inspire someone to watch the movie) is really an art form.

We get a bit of an insight into Osborne's mindset with the fascinating Q&A that mostly gives stats--such as telling how many intros RO has done in fifteen years. They should have just said "too many to count" or given a "hey, he brought his furniture here, ok?", yet gave a specific number closing in on 50,000 to date. Osborne himself answers questions about his own background that makes you want to learn more.

And, yes, there's that thing about bringing in TCM fans to guest host. As a fan, I never saw an ad on the site this last year asking for people to send in an application for this event. Keep in mind, however, that these guest hosts are truly avid watchers of or website contributors to the network. Gratifyingly, they're having one teen co-hosting (Juan Castro) who we'll hope isn't just an anomaly in watching TCM. I'm one to think that younger demographics are watching it now more than Nielsen can calculate.

From your humble writer, though, I must say that perhaps I and my fellow writing associate here (Timothy Sexton) should have been asked to co-host based on past articles we've written analyzing or praising the network. Not that I'm crazy about being seen on TV. Nevertheless, Tim above started writing articles praising the worth of TCM a couple of years before I did. I'd guess that he's probably turned hundreds if not thousands of people on to the channel based on his inspiring and original analysis of classic films.

No matter, we're both pleased as punch in making TCM better known to the masses through our own form of mass communication. Consider this one of them through the purpose of putting TCM into a more profound perspective at its 15^th anniversary turning point. If the network hadn't been around now, the history of film would be swallowed up into oblivion or a minority demographic, unless you're fortunate to have a local theater or college that screens classic movies seasonally.

May TCM last forever...even if Robert Osborne has to someday be wheeled out to give his movie intros...

Source:

http://www.tcm.com/2009/15thAnniversary/index.jsp