Saturday, October 31, 2020

The annual "TCM gains an hour it doesn't know what to to with" post

Tomorrow is already November 1. And it's a sunday, which means the first Sunday in November. And that's the end of Daylight Savings Time in the US. As 2:00 AM, the time officially goes back to 1:00 AM, so we get two 1:00 hours.

This always seems to cause problems for TV schedulers and listings services. And for TCM this year, it's worse I think because of the new schedule format. With it being Halloween, we get a bunch of horror movies, which is in and of itself no big deal either way. But the lineup, starting with a more horror-themed version of Noir Alley at midnight, is:

The Seventh Victim at midnight;
I Walked With a Zombie at 1:30 AM;
The Body Snatcher at 3:00 AM; and
The Leopard Man at 4:30 AM.

You'll notice a problem with I Walked With a Zombie. It's a 69-minute movie in what would normally be a 90-minute slot, which would mean there's more than enough time for a short. The fact that the short isn't listed on the schedule is annoying, but not a huge deal; TCM has had periods where the shorts don't get listed before.

But, of course, with the end of Daylight Savings Time, we get an extra hour, so I Walked With a Zombie is in a 150-minute slot. And it's that way on my box guide as well. The on-line listings service I checked (TitanTV) lists a second 2AM, but has I Walked With a Zombie in the entire time slot. So I have no idea what's filling out the schedule this year.

Happy Halloween, and remember to change your clocks!

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