The next several TCM Programming features to return

As I said on Wednesday, with 31 Days of Oscar over, weget back to the regular programming features on TCM. This being the first Friday of the month, we get a new Friday Night Spotlight. This month, Michael Feinstein will be presenting roadshow musicals. I mentioned a couple of months back when Feinstein was the Guest Programmer that I don't particularly care for Hollywood musicals, and those overlong roadshow musicals from the later period of the Hollywood musical are especially not my cup of tea. But Feinstein did a very good job as Guest Programmer, helped by getting to use that piano they keep on the TCM set which allowed him to play some of the themes he was talking about.

The British Carry On movies that were running in the 10:30 AM Saturday time slot return after the hiatus for 31 Days of Oscar. Now, however, they are preceded at 10:00 AM by episodes from the 1943 serial Batman, which I haven't seen before so I can't comment on. While it's nice to get another serial, it's a bit of a commitment to watch the entire thing. One of the things I've noticed about a lot of the old TV shows now that we get them again on the digital subchannels with vintage TV shows is that most of them don't have long story arcs, with the exception of those old prime time soaps. And then there were also the game shows with returning champions.

Finally, tomorrow being the first Saturday after the end of 31 Days of Oscar means that we get a new season of The Essentials. Drew Barrymore is no longer the co-host alongside Robert Osborne; now Osborne will be sitting down with former flying nun and two-time Oscar-winner Sally Field. Their first selection, at 8:00 PM tomorrow, will be Roman Holiday.