This could be interesting...

oh "underground" movies, for some reason i was ready to believe they were going to open the flood gates and throw on some sharits.

This looks promising, but how many can they show before they go off the air? They better be trying to get Eraserhead in any case.

Abso-fucking-lutely.

"Underground Movies" means Jack Smith, Andy Warhol, Ken Jacobs, Kenneth Anger, et. al.

Or is that "Midnight Movies" a la Hoberman and Rosenbaum's book?

"Midnight Movies" means Pink Flamingos, Eraserhead, El Topo and The Rocky Horror Picture Show

I know, I was just being cheeky.

If I'm not mistaken, I believe Hoberman mention Anger, Smith, et al as the forerunners to the Midnight Movie circuit...

It would be worth a whole series just to see Rob Zombie introduce Puce Moment.

Here's the line-up for the next few months:

Friday, October 13
2:00 AM Plan 9 from Outer Space ('59)
3:30 AM Bride of the Monster ('55)

Friday, October 20
2:00 AM Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! ('65)
3:30 AM Mudhoney ('65)

Friday, October 27
2:00 AM Night of the Living Dead ('68)
3:45 AM The Crazies ('73)

Friday, November 3
2:00 AM Sisters ('73)

Friday, November 10
2:00 AM Electra Glide in Blue ('73)

Friday, November 17
2:00 AM Freaks ('32)
3:15 AM Mark of the Vampire ('35)

Friday, November 24
2:00 AM The Sadist ('63)
3:45 AM Wild Guitar ('62)

Friday, December 1
2:00 AM The Conqueror Worm ('68)

Friday, December 8
2:00 AM The Honeymoon Killers ('70)

Friday, December 15
2:00 AM Deranged ('74)

Friday, December 22
2:00 AM West of Zanzibar ('28)
3:45 AM Unholy Three ('25)

Friday, December 29
2:00 AM Madhouse ('74)
3:45 AM The Last Man on Earth ('64)

That's the way I always understood it - good as the TCM programme sounds in its own right, I don't like this redefinition of such terms as 'underground', 'cult', etc. Memo to FilmFour: the Coen Brothers and Tarantino are not cult filmmakers.

Could one say that the difference between 'underground' and 'midnight' movies is that underground designates conditions of production and 'midnight movies' conditions of reception (i.e. including 'mainstream' films that have been redefined or 'detourned' for a different audience, like Rocky Horror, Showgirls etc)?

Oh man what an amazing double-feature. I wrote my thesis on The Sadist.

At least I'll get a chance to see some Russ Meyer without having to tapdance, juggle and sing The Catalina Magdalina Luptenschteiner Volunbeiner song.

Or pay $70+ a pop from his company for a sub-par transfer...

First, thats a better line-up then I expected. Although there are a few yawns there are also several films that I am really glad to see getting some air play on TCM. Also, regarding the lousy pricing on Meyers films, get the Arrow R2 boxed set, it contains 18 films and can be had directly from Arrow via Ebay for under $100 US.

If you guys want a bit of a laugh, check out TCM's own message boards. Some folks over there are apopletic over the arrival of Rob Zombie. Seems that every time TCM shows anything other than a Hollywood film c. 1930-1959, people get worried that TCM is going to go the way of AMC.

Personally, I think TCM has been the finest media outlet of its kind (i.e., entertainment rather than information) for two or three years.

But some of us liked TCM better when all they showed was nutty department store films from the '30s instead of stuff widely available on video like Jaws and The Graduate (and then the occasional department store film). And bloodline or no, Ben Mankiewicz is an insufferable tool.

Word that.

You've got a point there (or two, actually), but at the same time, TCM has become far more diverse in its showings of silents, foreign-language, and 1970s and 1980s films. For instance, next month they're showing Teshigahara's Antonio Gaudi -- something I couldn't have pictured them doing before 2004. And last week, they had a 24-hour festival of short films. My point is that they've become the most adventurous channel on television lately and should be applauded for that -- Ben Mankiewicz or no Ben Mankiewicz.

There I will agree with you. I just wish they'd avoid showing movies of the last 30 years that already get shown heavily on other channels or have been widely available on home video for years. But as long as they keep showing all the insane Ann Dvorak movies they've been showing lately, I'm a happy fella.

Which enabled me to see those two Kubrick shorts.


I agree with your assessment, and also Matt's about Mankiewicz.

TCM is the best channel right now and one of the best ever. I love their commercial on the apreciation of original aspect ratio. That should be included on all DVDs, not the stupid anti-piracy shit. They have great profiles on the classic actors like Cary Grant and Errol Flynn. My only problem with them is that they give the best programming in the early hours of the morning, where they show a lot of silent films and foreign movies. I would also like more than 30 minutes of classic cartoons and a replacement for Ben the Tool.

This could be good or bad news (probably bad): TCM has a new boss:

Turner appoints Koonin to head networks, Court TV

Turner Entertainment Group, a unit of Time Warner Inc., said on Tuesday it has appointed Steve Koonin to the newly created position of president of Turner Entertainment Networks to oversee its four entertainment cable networks.

Koonin, who currently oversees TNT and TBS, will now have the additional responsibilities of Turner Classic Movies and Court TV. In May, Time Warner bought out Liberty Media's 50 percent stake in their Court TV joint venture for $735 million.

Mark Lazarus, president of Turner Entertainment Group, told Reuters that said there would be no major changes to the operations or programming of Court TV, which he said had been profitable since the acquisition.

"To a large degree we're going to stay the course with live courtroom coverage during the day and entertainment at prime time," Lazarus said.

Turner expected to be able to market Court TV across all the businesses and get to be a Top 15 network over a short period of time, he said.

Lazarus said he and Koonin had worked very closely in the rebranding and repositioning of the TNT and TBS networks.

"As we evolved our businesses from pure linear to digital and as we worked as platformers and not just programmers that we were best suited to put our four entertainment businesses under one leader," he said.

I'm guessing they'll never show another Buñuel film again. We can look forward to TCM showing the Die Hard series and the Basic Instinct's non-stop, 24 hours a day...

Most of Koonin's attention lately has been plowed into ramping up original programming for TNT and the new on-demand DramaVision initiative. I hope he keeps his mitts off TCM, but there is reason anyway to be uneasy about the image makeover underway at the channel—one obviously designed to attract more viewers from a younger, more profitable demographic.

I think such an attempt is misguided partially because, as Matt has pointed out, programming geared to this other audience is already being broadcast elsewhere. Do we really need another Sundance Channel or IFC, especially if it means diluting the unique programming that TCM has been providing for twelve years?

But even more to the point, I don't think the hip-lame commercials, Rob Zombie guest spots or swingin' new host-personalities are going to contribute to development of a younger audience for TCM unless the actual programming changes too. Denizens of this forum aside, there is a dwindling audience for older films out there in TV land, especially among young viewers, and the cultural influences that shape those viewers' tastes are not going to be effectively overwhelmed by TCM's current hip-notizing antics. If Turner Classic Movies eventually decides that they must have those younger viewers, they'll end up having to either alter their definition of “classicâ€