Happy Birthday TCM!

Today marks the 15th anniversary of Turner Classic Movies. The first movie they aired was Gone With the Wind, so it's fitting that this is also the movie which will kick off prime time tonight. Those of us who enjoy classic films are thrilled to have TCM. Sure, there are always going to be people complaining that TCM is either showing too many new movies, or too many well-known movies, or even not honoring people correctly. (However, I don't see them honoring Marilyn Chambers by pre-empting their previously scheduled programming.) Still, TCM can't please everybody all the time, and they have to try to balance off various groups of fans by pleasing each of them at least some of the time. I, for example, don't care for a lot of musicals, so when TCM are showing a wreck like Seven Brides for Seven Brothers this Thursday evening, I'll just find something else to watch. TCM are doing the best they can, and if it weren't for TCM, there would be much less chance to see such films as Little Fugitive or The Runaway, or even a foreign film like The Cranes Are Flying, which I had waited for years to see. So a big happy birthday wish to TCM, and here's to many more years of classic movies!