TCM Guest Programmer Month

[Damien]

Wow, I am impressed by Alton Brown's choices -- he always seemed very nicer and rather cool on the Food Network.

But never mind these guest programmers -- what has me so excited avbut TCM this month is its highlighting of series films. As a lover of these B movies, I'm thrilled to be able to record all The Whistler movies, every Dr. Kildare and each Saint. There's even such rarely-seen items as the I Love A Msytery films, and I never even knew there was a Five Little Peppers series. My only problem is that I'm off to Paris for a week starting Friday right in the midst of all this glory, but I guess that's why we have TIVO.

[FilmFan720]

I sent a video in this year, but did not get into the final five where the general public voted for the winner. And after seeing the chosen entries, I was offended...they were horrible.

[Big Magilla]

One of the guest programmers won a contest to be the guest programmer, and made some strange choices: The Greatest Show on Earth, The Happy Time, The Crowd, and Westward The Women.

The Happy Time is a film I've always to see, but miss whenever it's on. It's on Thanksgiving Day at 10:45 A.M. so who knows if I'll even be able to record it.

The film was a 1952 Golden Globe nominee for Best Picture - Drama, Actor (Charles Boyer), Supporting Actor (Kurt Kasznar) and Director (Richard Fleischer). The original play was turned into the Broadway musical of the same name by Kander & Ebb starring Robert Goulet and David Wayne.

[Penelope]

And the original 1935 version of Enchanted April, with Ann Harding, is part of Martha Stewart's line-up on 11/30.

[Penelope]

A Best Actress nomination that I've never had a chance to see is part of the line-up: Renee Fleming hosts Interrupted Melody with Eleanor Parker's Oscar nominated performance 11/19.

[dws1982]

I guess remembering that Alton Brown was a cinematographer (his most high profile credit was REM's "The One I Love" video, and he was a stedicam operator on School Daze) before he went to culinary school and became a Food Network host would probably go some distance towards explaining some of his choices, but still, I never would've expected the most impressive lineup of the month to come from him.

[Eric]

Alton Brown's one smart cookie.

[dws1982]

Could someone with the capabilities please edit this thread title, and take off the last word?

[dws1982]

All month, TCM will bring in various guest programmers to select some of their favorites for the TCM primetime lineup.

Guest Programmers range from Donald Trump to Kermit the Frog to Gore Vidal to Martha Stewart.

Some people picked obvious films: Trump chose The African Queen, Gone With The Wind and Citizen Kane,and of course in his Kane discussion, perpetuated the idea that Welles spent the entire remainder of his career just trying to live up to Kane and never coming close.

Jack Klugman chose one film he acted in--12 Angry Men.

Danny DeVito's films go in several different directions: It starts with The Battle of Algiers, then is followed by Bridge on the River Kwai, then The Devil Doll, and then Shampoo.

Alton Brown (of the Food Network) came up with a lineup that I never would've expected from him: What's Up, Tiger Lily?, Closely Watched Trains, Point Blank, and Blowup. I'll probably watch that night just to see some of his comments on those movies.

The rest of his selections are fairly standard, but Joe Pantoliano picked the single best movie of the whole Guest Programming lineup: The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.

One of the guest programmers won a contest of some type to be the guest programmer, and made some strange choices: The Greatest Show on Earth, The Happy Time, The Crowd, and Westward The Women.

Some of us from this board need to try to win this next year (if they do it), and maybe we can get Make Way For Tomorrow on TCM.