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NEW YORK (AP) – There is always an asteroid, real or imaginary, on Turner Classic Movies.
Fears that something is reaching the bastion of Hollywood-style commercial-free classic movies are not always justified. But there is an instinctive understanding that keeping all that is good and pure alive in this dark and dark world is against all odds. Right now, TCM hosts and executives are used to receiving agitated and agitated fans to assure them that, yes, Turner Classic is fine, and that no, no advertising is forthcoming.
"I've been lucky enough to know Paul Thomas Anderson a bit and I want to say it this way: he never asks how I'm going," says Ben Mankiewicz, who in 2003 only became the second host of the MCT after Robert Osborne.
Almost everything in cable TV and in movies has changed since Ted Turner's launch of the network in 1994. But, through immense technological upheavals, four American presidents and three spider-men, Turner Classic remains humble, persistent and unlikely. On Sunday, TCM will turn 25 and celebrate its quarter century as a beacon of classical cinema. a ceaseless and vacillating beacon of Buster Keaton and Doris Day, Barbara Stanwyck and Ernst Lubitsch.
"We see ourselves as the guardian of the flame," said Jennifer Dorian, TCM's Executive Director. "We are stronger than ever."
This will be good news for TCM fans, whose heart rate has accelerated after AT & T's takeover of Time Warner, which bought Turner Broadcasting in 1996. This led to a restructuring, announced last month, placing TCM in "World's Children and Young Adults" by WarnerMedia subdivision, with Cartoon Network and Adult Swim. WarnerMedia also shut down TCM's nascent streaming service, FilmStruck, last November after calling it a "niche service." WarnerMedia will launch a larger streaming platform later this year.
The disappearance of FilmStruck caused an outcry from Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese and Christopher Nolan, who asked WarnerMedia to preserve it. Some of Hollywood's biggest names had the back of TCM. One of them told Mankiewicz: "If you think we are crazy about FilmStruck, wait until we see what we do if someone spoils the network."
Still, the filming of FilmStruck (its streaming partner, Criterion Collection, relaunched Monday as a standalone service) has raised fears that, despite all the juggling and merging of conglomerates, the MCT could slip through the cracks digital.
"The fact that there are passionate and vocal people helps us to stay the course. I think our business leaders do not want to upset these people, "said Charlie Tabesh, TCM programming officer and 21-year veteran of the network. "Although you can never promise anything, I've had enough of it not to be surprised if they change it."
Change can be a big word around TCM. "C tiny, please," says Mankiewicz. "Evolve" is better. TCM is, after all, a place where time almost stops. In the 25 years since its founding, its goal remains essentially the golden age of Hollywood. According to Tabesh, the films of the 30s, 40s and 50s represent about 70% of its programming.
"It's our daily bread," says Mankiewicz. "Who does not like bread and butter?"
To mark its 25th anniversary, TCM will broadcast Sunday again "Gone With the Wind", the film that it transmitted for the first time on April 14, 1994. Since then, the epic of 1939 has been aired more 60 times on the network. The 10th edition of the TCM Classic Film Festival will also begin Thursday in Los Angeles with "When Harry Met Sally …"
The fans of Turner Classic are as varied as Martha Stewart, Evander Holyfield, Alex Trebek and Kermit the Frog, all invited programmers. Scorsese continues to play in his editing suite. Keith Richards is said to be a devotee. Even Donald Trump once came to speak, among other titles, of "Citizen Kane". "Although I'm not sure that he's been watching the movies he's talked about, to be honest," says Tabesh.
Contemporary films have only made hesitant and thoughtful breakthroughs. (The latest films broadcast on TCM are "Hugo" and "The Artist", both from 2011.) Other international films have also been added slowly and cautiously. Over the years, TCM has expanded well beyond the Turner Library (about 4,700 MGM, RKO and Warner Bros. films from before 1950) via agreements with virtually every studio.
Dorian considers that the return home is under the control of Warner.
"We are getting closer to the library. We go to a part of society that is steeped in film history and that values the film's cultural heritage, "Dorian said. "We absolutely intend to be always multi-studio."
The cult of TCM has developed over the years. The sixth cruise of the network is due to embark in October. There is also a TCM wine club and a fan club, TCM Backlot. To celebrate 25 years, 25 fans will present a film with Mankiewicz. Turner Classic will also make another tribute to Osbourne, who for most of his story was his friendly and welcoming face. He died in 2017 after 62,851 appearances on the network.
New hosts joined the band, including Eddie Muller, Dave Karger and Alicia Malone, a writer and podcaster who grew up in Australia and dreamed of being Marilyn Monroe. She is proud to remind viewers of the place of women in the film history on TCM, which she says is programmed by people and not by algorithms.
"I had felt like I had found my tribe," Malone said about his involvement in the network last year. "It's part of preserving the movie's story. What the MCT does best is to tell these stories. "
Whether asteroid or not, there is an obvious smell of this word "c" in the air. "Obviously, we feel a radical change ahead," said Mankiewicz. WarnerMedia declined to comment on this article, but Dorian said that the message sent from the top is so far only positive.
"The big problem is that they want us to continue doing what we do," says Dorian.
With respect to TCM's place in the ever-changing world of streaming, Dorian says it's "to be determined". "Streaming offers a world of possibilities. I do not know the right approach for TCM right now, "she says. "In our company, we are developing our new plan right now."
But predicting the future is not in the nature of TCM. For a network that has always focused on the past, the present moment is to be savored.
"It seems to me memorable. One has the impression of having really accomplished something. It's a quarter of a century, "says Mankiewicz. "If you ask me what I would like to do in 25 years, I hope to be able to present films on TCM, have debates on whether you have to redo the movie" The Thin Man & # 39; and listen to those who say: & # 39; You & # 39; to show too many modern movies!
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Follow AP writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jakecoyleAP
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