Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Not everybody knows about the movies

So I was watching Who Wants to Be a Millionaire yesterday, and the contestant got to a question that went something like this: "The controversial 1998 book As Time Goes By tells the stories of Rick, Ilsa, and Victor after the end of what movie?" Now, anybody who reads a blog like this will probably know the answer without needing the four choices. The contestant sees the four choices, and says roughly, "I know that Ilsa was in The Sound of Music, so I'll say The Sound of Music, final answer." Oh, dear.

I think this encapsulates one of the problems faced by TCM in its programming. Some of the people who are avid movie fans will go nuts when TCM schedules Casablanca or Gone With the Wind yet again in prime time. And yet, there are clearly people who don't know movies like this well enough to avoid having a brain cramp about them on national television. Does anybody really expect the average TV watcher to get excited if TCM schedules something like The Millionaire as opposed to Slumdog Millionaire in prime time?

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