TCM versus everybody else

So today is Halloween. Unsurprisingly, cable channels are showing a lot of horror stuff. TCM's highlight is probably the 1931 Boris Karloff version of Frankenstein at 8:00 PM. Even though it's one that's more well-known -- I should think Karloff set the standard for what Frankenstein's monster has looked like for the past 80 years -- it's still a great movie that's well worth watching again. TCM is following it with another of the Universal Frankenstein movies at 9:30 PM, Son of Frankenstein. Frankly, I think Bride of Frankenstein is better, but I'm not the TCM programmer and I don't know whether TCM couldn't get Bride of Frankenstein this year. Other Universal horror movies showing up are The Mummy, overnight at 12:30; and Claude Rains as The Invisible Man at 4:30 AM.

Some may say it's a bad thing that TCM is showing a lot of the best-known Universal stuff, as well as a lot of Hammer horror this month. But it could be worse; just look at what the folks at Fox are doing. During their commercial-free FMC half of the day, they're showing 1980s schlock. (Although, to be fair, how much in the way of old horror films is their in the Fox library.) When the switchover to FXM comes at 3:00 PM, they're showing Monsters vs. Aliens. Then they're showing it again -- and again and again -- until the switchover back to FMC early the next morning. And you think what TCM does is bad?