The latest TCM documentary

I think I've stated before that I like seeing TCM do new documentaries. Not that I necessarily wind up liking all of them, but these are the sort of documentaries that are either a labor of love for the producer, or would never get made by any other cable channel. The Baby Peggy documentary which aired on TCM back in December was not a TCM original, but where else would it show up on cable? Maybe the Documentary channel, which actually did show Spint Tingler: The William Castle Story. But not many other places.

Anyhow, I say this because TCM has another documentary, which I think is a TCM original, premiering tonight: Don't Say No Until I Finish Talking: The Story of Richard D. Zanuck. Zanuck was a producer at Fox at the start of his career, before becoming head of the company, getting pushed out for not exactly being successful, and then going on a more successful career as a quasi-independent producer. It's the movie's producer who wins the Best Picture Oscar, and Zanuck won one, for Driving Miss Daisy. He was also nominated two other times, for Jaws and The Verdict.

The documentary is airing twice tonight, as is normally the case for new-to-TCM documentaries: first at 8:00 PM, followed by one movie, Driving Miss Daisy at 9:45 PM, and then the second airing of the documentary at 11:30 PM. The rest of the night's lineup is two more movies that Richard Zaunck produced: Cocoon at 1:15 AM, and Compulsion at 3:30 AM.

And as an update, TCM did indeed run a TCM Remembers tribute to Ray Harryhausen after The Asphalt Jungle last night, just before 10:00 PM. It's one of the better tributes, because instead of being just clips from the deceased person's movies, as most of the acting tributes are, it had some relatively recent shots of Harryhausen recreating his craft intercut with the scenes from the movies.