Today marks the 30th anniversary of the Turner Classic Movies signing on; technically it's not a broadcast since it's cable. A lot has changed in the last 30 years, and as we've seen there's been turmoil even in the little world that is TCM. Unsurprisingly, TCM itself is marking the occasion. They've actually been doing so all this month, with various staff members, current and former, sitting down with Ben Mankiewicz on Thursday nights. I have to admit I haven't been watching live, so I haven't seen whether all of the Thursday selections are also airing with old introductions from Robert Osborne.
With today being the actual anniversary, it's not a surprise that TCM is doing stuff today as well even though it's a Sunday. Back in 2014, Robert Osborne sat down with Alec Baldwin for another installment of the irregular Private Screenings that is sadly one of the casualties of all the budget cuts. The interviews from the TCM Classic Film Festival being edited into program-length shows is a nice thing, but I think not quite as good as the old Private Screenings. In any case, the Robert Osborne interview airs at 6:30 PM.
That will be followed at 8:00 PM by Gone With the Wind, which was the first feature film shown on TCM all the way back in April 1994. (As I understand it, it was preceded by the "100 Years of Film" piece that used to air quite a bit on TCM but not in recent years. Of course, one of the changes since 1994 is the political attitudes around movies like Gone With the Wind, and I'm sure that Ben Mankiewicz or whoever presents it will insist on showing how much more socially conscious they are now.
In 2015, Robert Osborne was honored at the TCM Classic Film Festival, in a show reminiscent of the old This is Your Life, hosted by Alex Trebek, another of the many Friends of TCM who is no longer with us. That show will also be showing on TCM, overnight at 1:30 AM, so still Sunday out in the Pacific.
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