Turner Classic Movies will mark its 30th anniversary on April 14 with on-air programming saluting TCM staffers who have been at the cable network since the beginning.

The network will also run a 24-hour marathon of films with historical introductions from TCM’s first host, Robert Osborne.

The films will include An American in Paris and Gone With the Wind.

Every Thursday in April, TCM hosts Dave Karger, Alicia Malone and Ben Mankiewicz will welcome legacy TCM employees as guest programmers. The employees range from TCM’s first president to one of its early teleprompter operators.

TCM will also air a short film featuring interviews with 15 TCM veterans who helped develop and launch the channel.

“How many other channels on television celebrate their anniversary? How many other channels’ fans know where they were the day a network launched?” TCM primetime host Ben Mankiewicz said. “I’m not sure either of those things are true without Robert Osborne. He’s the Walter Cronkite of TCM. The Johnny Carson. The Alex Trebek. With these intros of Robert's, we’re celebrating his impact and his continued influence. Plus, as we do with the movies we show, we’ll put Robert into context. Additionally, we’ll also look back to those early years and get the perspectives and experiences of the early TCM staffers who helped shaped the legacy of the channel.”

Hollywood heavyweights showed up for TCM when parent company Warner Bros. Discovery looked to take an axe to the channel last year. 

WBD released several of TCM’s main executives and two weeks later, CEO David Zaslav got a call from directors Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese and Paul Thomas Anderson urging him to preserve the channel.

Zaslav later put creative programming and development control for TCM under Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group executives Michael de Luca and Pam Abdy.

TCM, whose staff was largely thrown overboard amid cost cutting by parent company Warner Bros. Discovery, announced that its 2023 TCM Classic Cruise for movie fans, will welcome aboard actors including Kim Novak, Elliott Gould and George Chakiris.

The six-day cruise sets sail on Nov. 6 from San Diego aboard the Disney Magic.

In June, there were deep staff cuts at TCM, including the networks head and programming chief. Hollywood heavyweights including Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese objected, forcing WBD CEO to soothe the ruffled feathers and reinstate TCM VP of programming and content strategy Charles Tabesh.

Meanwhile, the cruise goes on. Also attending are filmmaker Ernest Dickerson, actress and singer Lorna Luft, production designer Wynn Thomas and Andy Marx, who is Groucho’s grandson.

TCM’s Ben Mankiewicz, Alicia Malone, Dave Karger, Eddie Muller and Jacqueline Stewart will host screenings and interviews.

According to the TCM website, the cruise is sold out with a waiting list. Prices range from $1,900 to $13,090 per person for a double occupancy stateroom.

TCM will celebrate the career of legendary film director William Friedkin with a two-night airing of the director’s most popular and successful films.

TCM will dedicate its September 14 and November 26 primetime lineups to movies directed by Friedkin, who died August 7 from heart failure and pneumonia at the age of 87. Friedkin won an Academy Award for best director for his 1971 film The French Connection and is also known for directing the iconic 1973 horror film The Exorcist.

TCM’s September 14 lineup will feature The French Connection, as well as Friedkin’s 1985 film To Live and Die in L.A. and his 1970’s feature The Boys in the Band.

On November 26, TCM will air its documentary Friedkin Uncut featuring an interview with the director, followed by The Exorcist, according to the network. 

As Turner Classic Movies (TCM) prepares to offer a July 4 lineup of patriotic classic movies including 1776, The Declaration of Independence and Take Me Out to the Ball Game, industry observers still remain concerned about the future of the Warner Bros. Discovery-owned service.

Two weeks after releasing several of TCM’s main executives as part of a recent run of WBD layoffs and fielding a call from Hollywood heavyweights Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese and Paul Thomas Anderson about the direction of the service, WBD CEO David Zaslav has recently looked to quell concerns in the entertainment industry and among the network’s passionate fans about its future.

Late last month, Zaslav handed creative programming and development control of TCM to Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group executives Michael de Luca and Pam Abdy. according to published reports. Also, TCM VP of programming and content strategy Charles Tabesh will remain with the network.

TCM will be led on the business side by Adult Swim, Cartoon Network, Discovery Family and Boomerang president Michael Ouweleen, who took over for departed TCM general manager Pola Changnon.

Still, industry observers will continue to watch closely what transpires around TCM in the near future. Succession star Brian Cox was recently quoted in a recent Above The Line article called TCM “one of the most vital resources” in the industry and was “horrified” after reading about the executive layoffs at the network.

“For me, the history of cinema, the watching of it, and the way that TCM presents it are incredible resources because they really make me understand how far we’ve traveled,” he added. “But also how far we haven’t traveled.”

The Turner Classic Movies brand remains in flux after a busy week that saw a rare statement from three of Hollywood's top filmmakers in support of the Warner Bros. Discovery channel after the departure of network general manager Pola Changnon as well as the reported departures of several network executives, due in part to Warner Bros. Discovery layoffs. 

News of the executive departures led to a rare union of film icons Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese and Paul Thomas Anderson, who said in a joint statement that they had recently spoken to WBD CEO David Zaslav about their concerns revolving around the network’s future.   

TCM, which has offered top vintage Hollywood films commercial-free since its inception in 1994, took a major executive hit this week as Changnon left the company, while recent WBD executive layoffs played a part in the departure of other senior executives including senior VP of programming and content strategy Charlie Tabesh, VP of marketing and creative Dexter Fedor, TCM Enterprises VP Genevieve McGillicuddy and VP of studio production executive Anne Wilson, according to published reports. 

“Turner Classic Movies has always been more than just a channel … it is truly a precious resource of cinema, open 24 hours a day seven days a week,” Anderson, Scorcese and Spielberg said in the statement. ”We have each spent time talking to David, separately and together, and it’s clear that TCM and classic cinema are very important to him. Our primary aim is to ensure that TCM’s programming is untouched and protected.”

Changnon was immediately replaced by former TCM head Michael Ouweleen. WBD chairman and chief content officer U.S. Networks Group Kathleen Finch said in a statement Tuesday that Ouweleen, who also runs Adult Swim, Cartoon Network, Discovery Family and Boomerang, would oversee a “seamless transition” at TCM and “shares our passion for classic films, and believes strongly in TCM’s essential role in preserving and spotlighting iconic movies.” 

Despite the outreach from Spielberg, Scorsese and Anderson, industry observers are not convinced that TCM will not change under the new regime. 

“I’m not sure that the comments from Spielberg, Scorsese and Anderson are as comforting as many are making it out to be,” Robert Thompson, professor of television and popular culture at Syracuse University’s S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, said. “From the news that we’ve gotten so far with all the major executive departures, it’s hard to have confidence because I’m not sure who's going to be left to do the important things that the network does well.” 

WBD’s TCM layoffs and the effects on the network’s brand drew social media backlash as entertainers and film executives rallied to its support. 

Thompson added that the TCM brand has a loyal and vocal fan base that will remain engaged in its future. “In many ways people are most worried about losing this channel because it’s a remnant from the early days of cable,” he said. “TCM as a cable service seems as old school as the old movies that they’re playing … it reminds us of when cable was the new technology.”

Turner Classic Movies general manager Pola Changnon is leaving the network amid a round of impending  Warner Bros. Discovery layoffs across its television networks, including TCM.

Changnon, a 25-year veteran of TCM, was named general manager of the network in 2020. WBD chairman and chief content officer, U.S. Networks Group Kathleen Finch has appointed former TCM head and Adult Swim, Cartoon Network Discovery Family and Boomerang president Michael Ouweleen to oversee the network, according to published reports.

[Ouweleen] has full support across WBD, and we look forward to welcoming Michael back to the TCM team,” Finch said in a WBD memo. 

Changnon’s departure comes as Warner Bros. Discovery this week reportedly begins a round of layoffs within its television networks division, which could affect executives from such high-profile networks as TNT, TBS, truTV, TLC and Discovery, according to sources. Fans of TCM on Twitter are fearing the worst might happen to the commercial-free movie network, which recently had a big part in celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Warner Bros. studio. 

TCM will honor the life and legacy of actor, singer and activist Harry Belafonte with the airing of several of his biggest films.

TCM will honor Belafonte, who died Monday from congestive heart failure at the age of 96, by airing two of the actor's films from the late 1950s on July 22. The network will air the 1955 film Carmen Jones, based on the Broadway musical of the same name and featuring an all-Black cast, as well as the 1959 drama The World, the Flesh and the Devil, according to TCM.

On July 10 Belafonte’s daughter Shari will introduce the 1959 film Odds Against Tomorrow on the network. TCM will also air Belafonte’s 1953 film Bright Road as part of the network’s Disability in the Movies spotlight, said network officials.

Celebrating “the stuff that dreams are made of,” Warner Bros. Discovery’s TCM cable network will mark the 100th anniversary of the Warner Bros. studio with 30 days of special programming.

Beginning April 1, the channel will screen legendary films from every decade of the studio’s existence, including 10 films being shown for the first time since being restored. (Some of the films will also be available on the Classics Curated by TCM Hub on HBO Max.)

Also: Angie Dickinson, Restored 'Rio Bravo' To Open TCM Classic Film Festival 

In addition to the films, the anniversary celebration will feature interstitials, documentaries, shorts and Looney Tunes cartoons.

“Warner Bros.’ history is TCM history. Where would this network be without films like Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon or A Star is Born? We are thrilled to be honoring the studio that has given us so many iconic films since 1923,” TCM general manager Pola Changnon said. “In addition to this wide swath of films, we are programming a tapestry of trailers, archival interviews and more that will further highlight the studio’s legacy, so much of which can’t be found anywhere but on TCM.”

Some of the restored and remastered films will be introduced by legendary filmmakers including Martin Scorsese, Wes Anderson, Alexander Payne and Ethan Hawke. Titles include East of Eden, Rio Bravo, Land of the Pharaohs and The Strawberry Blonde. ■

TCM said the 14th annual TCM Classic Film Festival, in Hollywood, will open on April 13 by screening a newly restored Rio Bravo at TCL Chinese Theatre with co-star Angie Dickinson in attendance for a chat with Ben Mankiewicz. 

The four-day festival, which went virtual in 2020 and 2021 but returned to in-person attendance last year, will premiere a 4k restoration of the film, in partnership with The Film Foundation, all tied in with the celebration of Warner Bros. studio’s 100th anniversary. Turner Classic Movies or TCM, the commercial-free cable network, is owned by Warner Bros. Discovery.

Also: Wonder Women of N.Y. 2023: Pola Changnon 

“Any movie with Angie Dickinson is made better by the fact that Angie Dickinson is in it," Mankiewicz, the TCM primetime anchor and official host of the festival, said in a release. “Certainly, Rio Bravo is no exception. As an added bonus, it also has a couple of guys named John Wayne and Dean Martin. Moreover, to have Paul Thomas Anderson and Steven Spielberg back for a second year in a row is such an honor, as well as an indication of the vital role TCM plays among the filmmaking community.” 

“This restoration is important not just for the film or for the 100th anniversary of Warner Bros., but for the film-loving community at large,” Mankiewicz said.

Rio Bravo, directed by Howard Hawks and filmed in Technicolor, also stars Ricky Nelson as part of "an unlikely group of allies" that helps "defend against a gang of armed attackers intent on breaking out a prisoner," TCM noted, adding that in 2014, Rio Bravo was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.

More information about the festival is available at https://filmfestival.tcm.com/. ■

For people who want a piece of Hollywood history instead of merely watching it on screen, Turner Classic Movies and Julien’s Auctions will be presenting their latest Icons & Idols sale.

With E.T. marking its 40th anniversary, TCM and Julien’s are auction off the mechanical actor who played the extraterrestrial in the 1982 film. The gadget, built before movies could depend on CGI, is considered an engineering marvel and is expected to fetch between $2 million and $3 million at the auction.

“We are thrilled to continue the 40th anniversary party for E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, and the genius of Steven Spielberg can never be celebrated enough,” TCM general manager Pola Changnon said. “This auction truly runs the spectrum of film history, from the classics to the modern era, and Julien’s is yet again making these unbelievably rare items accessible to film lovers everywhere.”

Other items going on the block include:

• A Marilyn Monroe black wool cocktail dress, expected to sell for $40,000 to $60,000.
• An original hero prop Nimbus 2000 broom belonging to Harry Potter (played by Daniel Radcliffe) from the production of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Bids are expected to reach $80,000 to $100,000. 
• Charlton Heston’s original Moses’ Holy Staff from the 1956 epic The Ten Commandments. Estimated sale value $40,000-$60,000.
• Mitchell MK II 35-millimeter motion picture camera used to film the King of the World scene in James Cameron’s 1997 blockbuster Titanic, expected to sell for $30,000 to $50,000.
• A pair of Everlast boxing gloves and shorts worn by Robert DeNiro in Martin Scorsese’s Raging Bull, expected to fetch $30,000-$50,000 at auction.
• A brown terrycloth robe with “Italian Stallion” embroidered in white stitching on the back, screen-worn by Sylvester Stallone as Rocky Balboa in the opening scene of the 1976 film Rocky, expected to bring $80,0000-$100,000.
• A 1943 Academy Award presented to W. Howard Green for his work in color cinematography for the film Phantom of the Opera, which is expected to sell for $80,000 to $100,000. ■

Instead of just letting fans watch film legends, Turner Classic Movies is collaborating on an auction that will let people buy pieces of Hollywood history.

TCM is working with Julien’s Auctions on a sale that will showcase 1,400 iconic items such as the costumes Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell wore in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (expected to fetch $80,000 to $100,000), an original stormtrooper helmet from Star Wars: A New Hope ($200,000-$300,000), Captain America’s shield from Captain America: The First Avenger ($60,000-$80,000), Thor’s Hammer from Thor: The Dark World ($20,000-$30,000) and the motor yacht from Frank Sinatra’s Pal Joey ($1.5 million to $2 million).

Also on the block are items from the collection of Joe Eszterhas, jewelry pieces from Elizabeth Taylor, props from Harry Potter movies, and items from the estates of James Garner and Robert Stack.

“We are so impressed with Julien’s Auctions and their ability to bring the past to life, making one-of-a-kind items accessible to film lovers everywhere,” said Pola Changnon, general manager of TCM. “Our fans crave a tangible connection to their passion and now they can satisfy that desire with these iconic costumes and unique memorabilia from the movies we air on TCM.”

Julien’s Auctions and TCM Present: Hollywood Legends will take place over three days on July 15, 16 and 17. The event will be promoted in on-air and online programming.

TCM has been in the auction business for almost 10 years, helping to sell items from The Maltese Falcon, Casablanca and the Wizard of Oz.

“Today marks an exciting milestone for Julien’s Auctions as our new collaboration with TCM will bring our world class collection of important Hollywood artifacts and our premium auctions to new heights and build on our reputation as the leading auction house to the stars,” said Martin Nolan, executive director of Julien’s Auctions.

“TCM’s esteemed programming, passionate fans and marquee events such as the TCM Film Festival makes them the perfect brand to align with.” Nolan said. “As a lifetime classic movie fan and collector, as well as a longtime admirer and viewer of TCM, this is a great honor in my professional career in the auction industry. We’re looking forward to achieving some exciting record-breaking sales and events and jointly offering classic movie fans and collectors a truly unique way to experience the world of Hollywood memorabilia auctions." ■

AT&T’s Turner Classic Movies said its TCM Classic Film Festival will be held virtually this year, May 6 through May 9.

The films and other content will appear on TCM’s cable channel and stream via the TCM Hub on HBO Max.

The 12th annual festival will kick off with a 60th anniversary screening of West Side Story. It will be accompanied by interviews with the film’s stars Rita Moreno, George Chakiris and Russ Tamblyn. 

“We’re thrilled to expand this year’s virtual festival across two platforms – linear and streaming. Our approach gives fans even more movies, stars and unique presentations to choose from,” said Pola Changnon, head of TCM. “The breadth of this festival will offer interest for every kind of classic movie fan – whether they’re new to this world or card-carrying cinephiles!”

The festival will have other features including directors Rob Reiner and Mira Nair introducing one of their films and sharing recollections about the production; tributes to Danny Glover and Ali MacGraw; and a look at overlooked films including Antwone Fisher and They Won’t Believe Me.

Turner Classic Movies on July 28 will devote an evening of programming in tribute to director, actor and author Carl Reiner, who died at home on June 29 at age 98.

TCM's on-air tribute will feature such Reiner films as Oh God!, Where's Poppa? and All of Me, said the network. 

The following is the complete schedule for TCM's on-air tribute to Carl Reiner:

8:00 p.m. Enter Laughing (1966) – An aspiring actor gets a job with a broken-down theatre company.
10:00 p.m. All of Me (1984) – A lawyer’s body is invaded by the soul of a recently deceased female client, starring Steve Martin and Lily Tomlin.
12:00 a.m. The Comic (1969) – A silent comic’s rampant ego ruins the lives of those around him, with Dick Van Dyke.
2:00 a.m. Where’s Poppa? (1970) – A New York lawyer (George Segal) deals with an unhinged mother, a peculiar love life and other big city troubles.
3:30 a.m. Oh, God! (1977) – A grocer (John Denver) is selected by God (George Burns) to help spread a message.

TCM Sept. 9 named film professor Jacqueline Stewart as host of its Silent Sunday Nights franchise, making her the first African-American host in the 25-year history of the network.

Beginning Sept. 15, Stewart, a professor in the Department of Cinema and Media Studies at the University of Chicago, will introduce films as well as provide historical context for the franchise, which celebrates the best of classic movies from the silent era, according to TCM.

“Jacqueline is sharp, lively, and has an illuminating depth of information. We felt we could really elevate Silent Sunday Nights into a larger franchise for TCM – with the right person on board – and she was the perfect fit,” said Pola Changnon, senior vice president of marketing, studio production and talent for TCM, in a statement. “Her knowledge of the silent era and the way she weaves a beautiful narrative about this genre of film will surely entertain viewers while also allowing them a front seat to their own personal film class with her as their teacher.”

I recently spoke to Stewart about her new and historic role at TCM, as well as her thoughts on the current state of diversity in cinema. An edited version of the interview appears below.

You are the first African-American to serve as a regular host on TCM. What's the significance of that fact at this point in time?

I've been reflecting on that a lot, and I know the people at TCM have as well, especially when we look at what has been going on in our media culture over the last few years -- and I'm thinking especially about the ways in which the [Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences] has opened up in response to the lack of diverse nominees within the acting categories. The Academy's response was to really make a concerted effort to have a more diverse membership and to figure out ways to look beyond the usual suspects to find all of these important, and I think overlooked, groups that have expertise when it comes to our film history and our contemporary world. So I think that coming on board at TCM makes sense in light of what I hope will be an ongoing effort to try to reflect the true diversity of our culture in the ways that we make media and talk about our media landscape.

How important is this opportunity personally to you?

It is like a dream come true. I am a huge fan of TCM and as a scholar we speak to a really specific audience and our scholarly work and my teaching, so this is just an incredible opportunity for me to share my knowledge with a much larger public. TCM is like an archive; I'm a film historian so the range of work that TCM shows is just remarkable and has always been that way. Of course one of the things that has always made TCM stand out is the fact that it shows its [movies] uninterrupted. As somebody who studies film history and film style, to be able to appreciate films in that way on TCM is really beautiful to me. I'm absolutely thrilled.

What’s behind your affinity for silent films?

Silent film has been central in my research. My first book is called Migrating to the Movies, and it looks at the earliest days of African-American filmmaking. I looked at how going to the movies was such an important part of the lives of African-American people, especially as they were moving from the South to the North during the great migration in the [1910s] and 1920s. It's an era of filmmaking that's always been really important in my scholarship, and I've been intrigued to learn more about silent films especially because they have so many of the ingredients that become so important in the classic films that are made in later years.

Given what you have seen in recent years, are you confident that the movie industry is on the right track in terms of recognizing and honoring diverse content?

I think they are on the right track. I mean you could see that in the last run of [Academy Awards] Best Picture nominees. It was just astounding to see the recognition of so many, very impressive and talented people of color who have been working in the industry and are making contributions that might not have caught the eye of conventional voters for Oscars. What's also so important is that the Oscars represent a really important, visible platform that so many other people see and think about that it activates change on multiple fights. So hopefully it's not just about getting more people of color to win Academy Awards and to be nominated, but ultimately it will have a ripple effect across the industry and among audiences across the country and around the world.

What else are you watching other than silent movies?

Oh wow. I love the stuff that [producer/director] Ava DuVernay is doing, whether it's her [Netflix] film about the Central Park Five or OWN’s Queen Sugar. I've been following her career carefully because of the way that she crosses media platforms to open up spaces for more women and people of color in this industry. She's someone that I follow a lot.

If you could create and host a TCM segment or special outside of Silent Sunday Nights, what would it be?

I'm always looking for places to highlight the contributions of women and people of color to film history. I've been very fortunate to be invited to the last two classic TCM Film Festivals in L.A. where I was part of a panel discussion about African-American images. I was also on a panel last year that looked at the complicated legacy of Gone With The Wind, which was screened at the festival. It was the very first film shown on TCM, so that's another area that I would love to talk about. Here we have some of our classic films that contain elements that are really difficult to talk about. We're not always proud of the politics of these films because they reflect what was going on during the era in which they were made. That could be another really interesting thing to discuss. It sort of sparks deeper conversation about the cultural politics of a classic film. 

TCM will celebrate the life and career of actress Doris Day with a full day marathon of her most iconic on screen performances.

TCM on June 9 will offer a 24-hour, 13-film tribute to the actress and singer who died today (May 13) of pneumonia at the age of 97. Movies starring Day that are part of the marathon include Romance on the High Seas, Tea For Two, Love Me Or Leave Me, Please Don’t Eat The Daisies, Pillow Talk and Move Over Darling, according to the network.

Day, who starred in 39 feature films and earned an Academy Award nomination for her work in Pillow Talk, had a lifelong love of pets and founded the Doris Day Animal Foundation in 1978, according to TCM. 

Weigel Broadcasting's Decades TV also plans a Doris Day salute. Starting Saturday, May 25, at 1 p.m. ET, Decades will air 68 episodes of her 1960s sitcom The Doris Day Show, showing them back to back through Monday, May 27 at 7 a.m.

Also, Decades TV Network will honor the life and career of Day with a weekend binge of 68 episodes of The Doris Day Show beginning May 25, according to the digital broadcast network. 

Turner’s first-ever digital streaming service, FilmStruck, will debut Oct. 19, offering more than 900 classic, independent and foreign films to consumers on a subscription video-on-demand basis. A major component of the service will be exclusive access to the Criterion Collection studio library, which will launch on the service sometime in November.

UPDATE, 10-18-2016:Turner Delays Launch of FilmStruck

FilmStruck and Turner Classic Movies (TCM) general manager Jennifer Dorian recently spoke with Multichannel News programming editor R. Thomas Umstead about the appeal of the service as well as FilmStruck’s potential subscriber base. Here’s an edited excerpt of their conversation.

NTV:What was the thinking behind creating the FilmStruck brand?

Jennifer Dorian: We have researched that a lot of fans are having a hard time with critically acclaimed, hard-to-find films and they are looking for them in multiple places, whether its streaming, on cable or on DVD and Blu-ray collections. We felt like this was the promise of the Internet: to put everything together in one place and really curate to a niche audience.

The economics work for streaming to niche audiences, so we were thinking that art house, independent cinema is a niche that’s underserved and we could be the home for it.

NTV:Why not launch the service in the linear cable space, similar to TCM?

JD: TCM is doing well and thriving in its environment on linear cable and with its TV everywhere authenticated app, so let that service do its thing. This is a new way for us to experiment and maybe take some risks that I wouldn’t want to take with a gem of a treasured brand such as TCM.

NTV:Will most of the content for FilmStruck come from the TCM library?

JD: We’ve worked with 30 distributors — mostly independent distributors and some major studios, like Miramax and Sony Pictures Classics — and we’ve cultivated a new library that is different than TCM. This is a departure from classic Hollywood. There are major film industries in Japan, Sweden, France, Italy, Mexico and Bollywood, so we’re going to have some fun with different storytellers from around the world. The first release of the service [includes] 23 movies from 23 countries and 15 languages. It’s a very different library than TCM.

NTV:How important is the Criterion Collection library acquisition for the service?

JD: It’s really huge that we are the exclusive streaming home for the Criterion library because they are a very respected and acclaimed name, they are a great brand and they have supplemental materials that are incredible for over 1,200 titles.

NTV:What specific audience demo do you expect to sign up for FilmStruck?

JD: Our research and our gut are both matching — we think it’s younger, 25-to-44-year-olds who are already streaming on Netflix, Hulu and Amazon. They also all have pay TV cable as well; it’s not about cord-cutting, but rather loving entertainment so much that that’s where you spend a lot of your money. We’re also going after art-house film lovers who are streamers, and presumably they are easy to target and find through digital advertising as well as through community events and gatherings.

NTV:What platforms will FilmStruck be available on?

JD: We will initially launch on the Web via desktop, iOS and mobile devices and Android mobile devices. We’ll be exclusive on Amazon Fire TV for 30 days and then in late November we’ll be added to Apple TV OS fourth-generation generation [player]. December through March [2017] we’ll be adding Chromecast, Roku and PlayStation 4.

NTV:What makes you so confident that people will want to purchase a subscription to watch classic and art-house films in an ultra-crowded digital content environment?

JD: I think that the big players in the U.S. have already taken over the role of being all things to everybody, which leaves room for the independent niche services that appeal to fandoms and hobbyists, and I think the film community and film culture is a great community that needs to be served.

It’s less about streaming movies and more about celebrating film culture and film as art. Yes, we’re streaming movies, but we’re also streaming thematic curation and supplements that make you have a deeper, more immersive experience.

SAN FRANCISCO — With topics spanning over-the-top video, virtual and augmented reality, next-generation interfaces and emerging business models that tie into all of them, this week’s Next TV Summit here will offer an informed view of what’s on the horizon for video and pay TV.

A keynote discussion with Ben Smith will get the conference underway on Wednesday (June 15). The head of experience at Hulu will discuss adoption trends and the OTT provider’s journey into a more personalized experience, and offer some fresh insight into the early results of Hulu’s new VR application.

Also on tap is a keynote with Matthew Anderson, chief marketing officer of Roku, which is also making hay with advanced advertising models that use agile streaming platforms.

Bookmark This:MCN's complete coverage of the Next TV Summit & Expo San Francisco

Offering a view of how traditional programmers are shifting their strategies to take advantage of online viewership trends will be Nick Grad and Eric Schrier, presidents of original programming at FX Networks and FX Productions.

Individual panels will focus on new OTT business models, including the unique approaches being taken by a new class of “virtual” MVPDs, AR/ VR, and how to seek out and keep top talent in the digital age. They include the following:

• The Winning OTT Models, with Celiena Adcock of Facebook, Jennifer Dorian of TCM, Ed Lee of Roku, Michael Tribolet of YipTV and Martijn van Horssen of 24i Media;

• Essentials to Launching an OTT Service, with Dallas Middaugh of Crunchyroll, Stefan Van Engen of Xumo, Christopher Ruddy of Newsmax Media and Ted Malone of Ericsson;

• Transforming TV: Reshaping Business Models, with Rob Gabel of Tubular Labs, Ann Sarnoff of BBC Worldwide North America and Brent Smith of Evolution Digital;

• Transforming TV: The New Viewing Experience, with Matthew Chiavelli of Syfy Digital, Howard Cooperstein of Ericsson, Joshua Danovitz of TiVo, Jenny Ramaswamy of Vrse and Steve Reynolds of Imagine Communications; and

• Talent and Content in the Digital Age, with Bill Bost of Skydance Media, Michael Gaston of Cut.com, Bonnie Pan of Endemol Shine Beyond USA and Daniel Tibbets of El Rey Network.

The day will wrap with an editor’s roundtable on the State of Streaming Video, led by Mark Robichaux, editorial director of Multichannel News and Broadcasting & Cable, with Jeff Baumgartner, editor of Next TV, and Chris Tribbey, contributing editor, technology, B&C.

Watch for coverage from the event online at multichannel.com/nextTVsummitSFand broadcastingcable.com, and in the June 20 issues of Multichannel News and B&C.

Turner Classic Movies (TCM) will salute The Godfather trilogy filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola during a handprint-footprint ceremony at the TCL Chinese Theatre IMAX on Friday, April 29, as part of the 2016 TCM Classic Film Festival. Coppola has been a Hollywood icon for more than 50 years having also directed Apocalypse Now (1979) and The Conversation (1974) and winning Oscar, Golden Globe and BAFTA awards. He's also championed the work of directors George Lucas, John Milius and Sofia Coppola and actors Al Pacino, Robert DeNiro, Harrison Ford, James Caan and Diane Lane, TCM said.

This marks the sixth consecutive year TCM has featured a hand and footprint ceremony at the TCL Chinese Theatre IMAX. Earlier honorees were Peter O'Toole (2011), Kim Novak (2012), Jane Fonda (2013), Jerry Lewis (2014) and Christopher Plummer (2015).  

Turner Classic Movies (TCM) will present in March a month-long programming event focusing on films found objectionable by the Catholic Legion of Decency.

The event, Condemned, will air consecutive Thursdays beginning in March and will focus on 27 films that the Catholic Legion of Decency said had inappropriate content, mostly of a sexual nature, as perceived by the Catholic Church, according to TCM.

The series will include primetime screenings hosted by Sister Rose Pacatte, member of The Daughters of St. Paul, founding director of the Pauline Center for Media Studies and celebrated film reviewer.

Key films featured as part of Condemned include Baby Face (1933), And God Created Woman (1956), Kiss Me, Stupid (1964), and The Carey Treatment (1972), said the network.

"We’re always looking for creative ways to explore film history through various viewpoints and this month-long programming slate provides fans with a different perspective in order to view these films through a new lens," said Charles Tabesh, senior vice president of programming for TCM.

Turner Classic Movies (TCM) said it will broaden its TV Everywhere horizons this fall with the expected launch of an app for the Amazon  Fire TV, making it the first network in the Turner Broadcasting group to be offered on the streaming platform.

The programmer said the Watch TCM App for Amazon Fire TV will provide on demand access to TCM’s curated content, presented uncut and commercial-free, including introductions by hosts Robert Osborne and Ben Mankiewicz.

Watch TCM is currently supported on Web browsers, iOS and Android mobile devices, and Amazon Kindle Fire tablets. MVPDs with TV Everywhere rights with TCM include AT&T U-verse, DirecTV, Charter Communications, DirecTV, Dish Network, Cablevision Systems, Suddenlink, Verizon FiOS, Comcast, Atlantic Broadband, Cable ONE, Cincinnati Bell, GCI and Vyve Broadband, among others.

TCM said it is also preparing to add enhancements to the Watch TCM app that include a new emoji keyboard app, improved clip quality, and an updated watch list and search result layout.  The network is also hosting a dedicated “download week” from Sept. 14-19, which will lead into TCM’s social media-supported “Let’s Movie” holiday on Sept. 19. Let’s Movie is also the tagline for TCM’s new branding campaign.

“With TCM being available soon on Amazon Fire TV, we’re able to make the network available to more viewers than ever before and on new platforms that reach a broader audience,” said Richard Steiner, vice president of digital activation for TCM, in a statement. “Our goal has always been to give consumers access to our content whenever and wherever they want and the Watch TCM App allows consumers to experience and discover the same great films found on TCM anytime, anywhere.”

Turner Classic Movies is going after younger viewers who like to socialize around movies with a new branding campaign — above the tagline “Let’s Movie” — the first such outreach in about a decade for the Turner Broadcasting System-owned channel.

New on-air and online spots show groups gathering to watch, for example, The Wizard of Oz projected onto the side of a Kansas barn, John Wayne in The Searchers played off a butte in Monument Valley and Ben Hur on the outside walls of The Colosseum in Rome. (Click to view a :30 spot and a :60 spot.)

“We want to appeal to broader movie lovers, not just classic movie lovers,” Jennifer Dorian, TCM’s general manager, told The Wire.

The message: "These iconic films should be enjoyed by everyone and they’re timeless, so if you love movies, check them out. It’s about getting people together and everybody making an event out of seeing an iconic film.”

Here’s where the clever spots will be seen, starting Sept. 1: on TCM’s air; on TCM.com; cross-promoted on CNN.com; on TBS, TNT and CNN Airport Network and on electronic billboards in New York and Atlanta and on-screen ads in some 750 movie theatres across the country.

There also will be a social-media campaign — #LetsMovie — building toward a “Let's Movie” holiday on Sept. 19, when TCM will encourage fans to watch films with family and friends and share their experiences socially.

Dorian also hopes to stage live events in iconic locations, possibly including a Rocky screening on the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

“We feel like we’re the movie place, so let’s movie,” she said.

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — The Television Critics Association tour is known for its unusual and often memorable moments as network executives and talent face the firing line of questions from often-cranky critics. While the cable portion of the TCA was relatively tame with regards to a war of words between critics and on-stage personnel, a few notable exchanges occured over the four-day period.

• Starz CEO Chris Albrecht during his July 31 session took writers to task for perpetuating a perceived war of words between his network and HBO regarding their respective sports-related series, Survivor’s Remorse and Ballers. The day before, HBO president of programming Michael Lombardo had said he wasn’t familiar with Survivor’s Remorse when a writer asked him about a Starz press release that claimed TV critics were more enamored with the basketball-themed series than HBO’s football-focused comedy Ballers, starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.

After being asked if he had heard of Ballers, Albrecht quickly shot down any beef between the two networks and chided the writer who initially framed the question to HBO. While admitting that “one of our people was out there pitching shows maybe a little bit too ardently” he warned writers to “behave themselves” when asking questions to the stars of Survivor’s Remorse when then came to the stage later that morning, a request that writers honored.

• During network sessions, series producers, directors and stars often look to the press to help promote their projects. But during Discovery Channel’s session on Racing Extinction, a critic asked the documentary’s showrunners what journalists could do to further get out the show’s message that without a serious focus on conservation, the world faces the potential global extinction of numerous species of animals over the next few decades.

Director Louie Psihoyos (The Cove) wasted no time in urging writers to “join the team” by signing up at racingextinction.com for alerts regarding the film, which will air in December.

“Everybody in this room can reach tens of millions of people. That’s huge. That’s a big advantage,” Psihoyos said. “You can magnify [the message] by getting journalists to write about it, getting it on Discovery. It’s all about scaling up.”

• Most cable and broadcast network series showrunners who address the TCA are excited about their projects and openly thank the networks for supporting them. But some critics were taken aback about the almost giddy enthusiasm several producers and showrunners had about working for over-the-top service Netflix, saying that its liberating to have creative freedom and to not to have to worry about ratings or advertiser and network concerns about content.

Reacting to a question about whether it would be hard to go back to working with a network after her Netflix experience, Grace & Frankie showrunner Marta Kauffman said it would be “difficult” working under the more restrictive parameters of traditional television — parameters that the co-creator of NBC’s 1990s mega-hit Friends is familiar with.

“There is this thing about not having to structure a half an hour in six parts … you can’t tell a story in 21 minutes,” Kauffman said. “So I think going back to that kind of difficult, shortened storytelling would be impossible now that I’ve gotten the opportunity to have almost 10 minutes more and let the story tell us how long it should be.”

— R. Thomas Umstead

TCM: Passionate Film-Noir Fans Won’t Cut Class

Zombie shows draw fans in bunches, but film-noir aficionados have more stamina.

That’s one conclusion The Wire drew after hearing the results from a Turner Classic Movies stunt this summer that invited viewers to take an eight-week online course pegged to the channel’s “Summer of Darkness” programming event.

It was the first online course tie-in TCM had tried, general manager Jennifer Dorian explained, and it was a natural one because it fit with an existing Ball State University free course called “Into the Darkness: Investigating Film Noir.” Enrollees on a weekly basis would watch 45-minute videos and educational lectures, read long articles and take quizzes in order to ace the course, administered by Canvas Network. That’s a fair amount of work to obtain a certificate.

The norm for completing what are called massive online open courses is a rate of around 4% or 5%, Dorian said. The “Summer of Darkness” completion rate stands at 14.4% with results still being tallied.

As for zombies: The biggest- ever MOOC was tied in with The Walking Dead, and drew 65,000 enrollees — but only 3% completed it, according to statistics provided by TCM.

Dorian, over iced teas in New York City last week, said she wasn’t very surprised that a relatively high percentage completed the June and July program. “Our fans go deep; they’re committed to their passion for classic cinema,” she said, adding, “I liked the 20,000 people — that impressed me.” Dorian said the TCM programming formula — uncut, commercial-free movies, primarily from the 1900s to 1979, with some “peppering” of more recent films — still worked and won’t be tinkered with or massively modernized. She does want to do more interactive projects like this online course and create “on-ramps” to draw in younger viewers and more casual movie fans.

The “Summer of Darkness” stunt also struck a social-media chord as TCM sent fans a daily dose of two-minute film noir clips and sought their responses on Twitter (#noirsummer). The clips drew TCM’s highest-ever activity Twitter rate, Dorian said, even surpassing the awards-season staple “31 Days of Oscar.”
— Kent Gibbons

As festival-goers gather, Turner Classic Movies has a new mobile app to serve as a digital companion for attendees of its vintage film event in Tinseltown.

Supporting the 2015 TCM Classic Film Festival in Hollywood from March 26 through March 29, the new mobile app is available for IOS and Android devices and can be downloaded free from the Apple App Store and Google Play.

The TCM Classic Film Festival app sports a new platform and enhanced features. Among the elements: dynamic, in-depth film guide and screening schedule;  Festival 101, news, and up-to-date announcements;  alerts and reminders to screening times,special events and TBAs; a customizable My Schedule feature; profiles of special guest attendees; photo galleries from the event; venue maps and Club TCM schedules.

There are also daily video recaps and the ability to follow TCM’s Facebook and Twitter posts and festival events.

The app can also be synched across multiple iOS devices, enabling users to move between their iPhone and see same information on their iPad.

“At TCM, it’s our mission to share and celebrate the entire spectrum of film history with an engaged and growing community of movie lovers,” said network general manager Jennifer Dorian.  “New technologies like our brand new festival app make it easier than ever for TCM to rally movie lovers, share films and context, socialize around movies and customize our offerings.”

While app users can enjoy the festival vicariously, those attending the event in Hollywood have other things to enjoy beyond the various screens, panels and parties.  

Throughout the weekend, TCM invites guests to visit the #HeartMovies video booth in the lobby of the Chinese Multiplex. There, they can create a personal “video memoir” discussing the moment that inspired their lifelong love of movies. After recording their special two-minute movie memory, they receive a link to the video to share with TCM and friends on social media. 

For the first time, TCM is inviting more than 20 digital and social influencers to execute self-selected  social assignments—from live tweets of red carpet happenings to "man on the street" interviews and produced "notable quotable" gifs highlighting the most interesting comments made by Festival special guests.   

These efforts are designed to capture the general festival atmosphere and specific highlights from nearly all screenings and events, and will include links to the Festival website for those who want more information on the films themselves.  

TCM is also using its sixth annual event in Tinseltown to demonstrate its robust TV Everywhere offering.

Watch TCM ambassadors will be at the Chinese Multiplex to demo the WatchTCM app—its various viewing features, deep editorial content, video and image galleries—for festival attendees waiting in queues for screenings.  

After demonstrating the app, the ambassadors will distribute beautifully collectible cards (pictured), showcasing special key art on the front and useful data and user tips for the WatchTCM app on the rear.

For those who aren’t making the trek to Tinseltown for the TCM Classic Film Festival, the network is providing vintage film fans with ways to be part of the fun via a multiplatform on-demand promotion.

Staring March 25 and running through the end of April, TCM is making a host of films and related content available via TV Everywhere platforms, the Watch TCM app and through set-top boxes. The robust content promotion offering is available to all of TCM's TV Everywhere distribution partners.

The 2015 festival, TCM's sixth annual, is set to take place Thursday, March 26 through Sunday, March 29 in Hollywood.

In addition to running banner ads touting the promotion on TVE sites, TCM has also created a social media toolkit for affiliate partners to help trumpet the on-demand offering, with copy for Facebook and Twitter, plus artwork from select films.

“While we celebrate classic film, we achieve that mission though using the newest platforms and technology,” said TCM general manager Jennifer Dorian. “Our very popular TV Everywhere app Watch TCM and VOD are leading examples of how a media brand can forge deeper engagement with passionate fans and grow reach via new platforms.”

Authenticated TCM viewers will be able to check out “Live From the TCM Film Festival” specials, featuring tributes to Alan Arkin, Eva Marie Saint and Luise Rainer, as well as Robert Osborne’s 20th Anniversary Tribute that was filmed during last year’s festival.

Among the films screening at the 2015 event that will be available on demand: The Apartment, Lawrence of Arabia, Marriage Italian Style and The Miracle Worker. 

Other classics that have run at festivals past and will be available include Le Mans and A Hard Day’s Night.

Those traipsing in Tinseltown and new to the Watch TCM app can find out how to utilize it at the Chinese Multiplex, where on-site ambassadors will demonstrate its viewing features, video and image galleries and flanking editorial content.

After exhibiting the app,  the ambassadors will distribute collectible cards featuring special key art on the front and useful data and user tips for the WatchTCM app on the back

TCM, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment and Fathom Events are celebrating the 75th anniversary of The Wizard of Oz by bringing it to the big screen on Jan. 11 and the 14th, at 2 and 7 p.m., the network announced today.

TCM host Robert Osborne is set to air a specially produced introduction as well.

Tickets are on sale now. 

Turner Classic Movies (TCM) has scheduled a three-film tribute to filmmaker Mike Nichols on Saturday, Dec. 6. Nichols, who died on Nov. 19 at age 83, is one of about a dozen artists to have received Oscar, Tony, Emmy and Grammy awards.

TCM's tribute will include his Oscar-nominated work on Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (1966) and his Oscar-winning work on The Graduate (1967), TCM said. The network also will screen Carnal Knowledge, which Nichols directed from a script by Jules Feiffer.

Here is what's on tap for TCM's Mike Nichols tribute on Saturday, Dec. 6:

8 p.m. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, starring Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Sandy Dennis and George Segal (pictured).

10:30 p.m. The Graduate, starring Dustin Hoffman, Anne Bancroft, Katharine Ross, Murray Hamilton, William Daniels and Elizabeth Wilson.

12:30 a.m. Carnal Knowledge, starring Jack Nicholson, Candice Bergen, Art Garfunkel, Ann-Margret, Rita Moreno and Carol Kane.

Turner Classic Movies (TCM) will team with Macy's to run the classic holiday movie Miracle On 34th Street all day Nov. 20 outside of Macy's famed Herald Square New York City store, the network said Thursday.

The movie, which helped launch the Macy's Thaksgiving Day parade into a national event, will be screened for fans outside Macy's Herald Square next Thursday beginning at 8:15 a.m., with the final presentation scheduled for 8 p.m. During the 6:15 screening, TCM host Robert Osborne and Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade executive producer Amy Kule will be on hand to deliver a special holiday greeting on behalf of TCM and Macy's, said the network..

"We can't wait to celebrate our second year of Miracle on 34th Street screenings with Macy's in Herald Square," said Jennifer Dorian, general manager of Turner Classic Movies in a statement. "This very special event combines one of the most cherished Christmas movies of all time with the magic of New York City during the holidays. At TCM, it's our mission to share the greatest movies of all time with new audiences, and this is a treat for the whole family.”

Turner Classic Movies (TCM) will celebrate movies focusing on Jewish history throughout the month of September, the network said Thursday.

TCM’s The Projected Image: The Jewish Experience on Film, will air Tuesdays during September will feature more than 20 films including The Jazz Singer, Judgment at Nuremberg, Hill 24 Doesn’t Answer, The House of Rothschild, The Young Lions and The Way We Were, said network officials.

Each Tuesday will feature a different theme, including The Evolving Jew and The immigrant Experience (Sept. 2); The Holocaust (Sept. 9); Israeli Classics and The Jewish Homeland (Sept. 16); Tackling Prejudice (Sept. 23) and Coming Of Age (Sept. 30), said the network.

Encore Westerns and TCM have detailed marathon programming events featuring the film and TV work of actor James Garner. 

Encore Westerns will air its tribute to Garner, who died on July 19, this Saturday, July 26. The network will honor the actor by airing 12 episodes of Maverick, his series that was originally broadcast on ABC. The episodes will begin airing at 8 a.m. and will continue until the 8 p.m. telecast of the 1971 film Skin Game. The network will air two more Garner films — Support Your Local Gunfighter and A Man Called Sledge — to wrap-up the marathon. 

TCM has scheduled its homage for Monday, June 28. The network will air 12 of Garner’s films throughout the marathon, beginning with Toward the Unknown at 6 a.m. on June 28 and culminating with Marlowe at 4:30 a.m. the following day. Other films to be shown by the network include The Thrill of It All and The Americanization of Emily. 

It was 20 years ago today, that Ted Turner threw the switch in Time Square on vintage film’ aficionados’ dream.

Turner Classic Movies, bowed in 5 million homes on April 14, 1994, five months after announcing its first affiliate pact with Adelphia Cable. Today, the service counts some 83 million subcribers and features a sophisticated TV Everywhere companion in the form of Watch TCM, where authenticated subscribers can not only live stream the service, but tap VOD functionality and engage with complementary curated content around its library of memorable movies.

TCM has steeled its position as a leading authority in classic film with a number acclaimed original documentaries and specials via film series and franchises like The Essentials, hosted by Robert Osborne and Drew Barrymore, and Friday Night Spotlight, and annual programming events like 31 Days of Oscar® in February, Summer Under the Stars in August and TCM Essentials Jr. TCM also connects with movie fans through its annual TCM Classic Film Festival in Hollywood, the TCM Classic Cruise and TCM Classic Film Tour in New York City.

To celebrates its 20th anniversary, TCM will air 11 of the top films ever produced, including the first film it ever screened, appropriately enough Gone With The Wind,and premiere the retrospective special, TCM: Twenty Classic Moments at 7 p.m.

In addition, TCM will present an encore of its enormously popular and widely requested special, Private Screenings: Robert Osborne, an in-depth interview with the TCM host, who has been with the network since its inception.

"For nearly two decades, TCM has evolved far beyond a network that presents classic films," said Jeff Gregor, general manager of Turner Classic Movies and chief marketing officer of TCM, TNT and TBS. "We've become a lifestyle brand for movie lovers everywhere, who come to TCM not only for the great movies, but also for the curated, contextual environment in which they get to enjoy those films. Like our community of fans, we at TCM share a true passion for the movies, and that passion is on full display in our April 14 schedule and especially in our new special, TCM: Twenty Classic Moments."

Ben Mankiewicz will host the network’s revisit with its own past. In addition to the media mogul turning the network on at the Crossroads of the World, here are some of the TCM toppers over the years:

• Mickey Rooney transfixes Osborne while telling the story about a fight he once had on the set of a movie. (1997)
• An incredibly nervous Betty Hutton joins Osborne for her first on-camera interview in decades. (2000)
• TCM teams up with the Library of Congress and the Brigham Young University Motion Picture Archive to preserve and present six RKO classics that had been lost for years. This marked one of many film preservation initiatives in which TCM has participated. (2006)
• Osborne just can't stop laughing during an interview with Kermit the Frog, one of TCM's many memorable celebrity Guest Programmers. (2007)
• Osborne receives a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. (2008)
• TCM wins the George Foster Peabody Award, one of the highest honors in television. (2008)
• Fans from around the country help introduce some of their favorite movies on TCM as Fan Guest Programmers. (2009)
• Osborne interviews two-time Oscar winner Luise Rainer, who had just turned 100, at the first-ever TCM Classic Film Festival in Hollywood. Even a volcano in Iceland and a broken hearing aid couldn't keep Rainer from what was one of the most remarkable interviews in TCM history. (2010)
• Ben Mankiewicz sits down with his own father, Frank Mankiewicz, to introduce four of Frank's films during a special Father's Day marathon. Frank subsequently becomes a fan favorite and is later featured as a special guest on the TCM Classic Cruise. (2013)

The following is the complete schedule for TCM's 20th Anniversary (all times Eastern):

• Monday April 14
• 5 a.m. – Mildred Pierce (1945)
• 7 a.m. – The Maltese Falcon (1941)
• 9 a.m. – The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
• 11 a.m. – Gaslight (1944)
• 1 p.m. – Citizen Kane (1941)
• 3 p.m. – Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)
• 5 p.m. – Casablanca (1942)
• 7 p.m. – TCM: Twenty Classic Moments – Premiere
• 8 p.m. – Gone With the Wind (1939) – First film ever presented by TCM
• Midnight – Private Screenings: Robert Osborne (2014) – Interview special hosted by Alec Baldwin
• 1:30 a.m. – Singin’ in the Rain (1952) – Second film ever presented by TCM
• 3:30 a.m. – It Happened One Night (1934) – One of the films that aired in primetime on TCM's first night
• 5:30 a.m. – The Petrified Forest (1936) – One of the films that aired in primetime on TCM's first night