Not everybody is like us

A lot of times when it comes to the programming of the TCM schedule, I'll see people complaining that the prime time schedule doesn't have sufficiently obscure movies. And yet, there are a lot of people out there who don't know the "well-known" classics very well. Last night on Jeopardy!, the Final Jeopardy category was "Oscar Nominations", and the clue was something like, "The only time three actors received Best Actor nominations for the same movie was for this high-seas adventure." Now, those of us who are fans of old movies should know this one right away. And, to be fair, since it's only about nominations and not very directly about the plot of a film (as with, say Casablanca, it's not as easy a clue as us film buffs might be.

So it wasn't that much of a surprise that only one of the contestants came up with the correct response. That having been said, I was surprised to see somebody guess Down Periscope. No Titanic? Still, it should be a reminder to us classic movie fans that not everybody shares our interests. The more interesting question of course for people like the programmers at TCM is how to keep the TCM brand growing in the longer term. After all, they do need to reach out to new fans, or else us current fans are going to die off. I obviously don't know how to do it, or I'd be in charge of programming cable channels.

In case you didn't know, the correct response to the Final Jeopardy clue was "What is Mutiny on the Bounty?" I wonder, though, what the Jeopardy! contestants were thinking when Alex Trebek mentioned Franchot Tone.