True story: A decade ago, I was in Diana Rigg's New York hotel room, concluding an interview with her regarding her hosting and acting chores on the PBS
Mystery!series, when she said she wanted to show me something, and ushered me into her bedroom. (Sigh...)
What she wanted to show me, it turned out, was her TV set. (Double sigh...)
It was tuned to a particular channel she'd been watching, she said, since she checked in, and to which she quickly had become addicted. "What is this?" she demanded, with a tone that was equal parts enthusiasm and incredulity.
It was Turner Classic Movies, which had launched five years earlier, in 1994. She'd never seen it, and was simply amazed by its nonstop lineup of vintage dramas, classic musicals and other Hollywood fare.
I explained to Miss Rigg (now Dame Diana), who had simply amazed me when I watched The Avengers as an impressionable teenager (for proof, see the TV WORTH WATCHING FEEDBACK page), that TCM was another brainchild of maverick moneyed TV executive Ted Turner, who also gave us 24-hour cable news with CNN.
For any reporter on the TV beat then, Turner was an absolute pleasure to cover. Not only was he bold and outspoken, he was intuitive and smart. The same year Diana Rigg discovered TCM, Turner was presenting a news special about abortion on another of his cable networks, TBS. Turner was openly liberal, and was asked -- at a press conference, not privately -- whether anti-abortion forces would be given air time to respond to the essentially pro-choice special.
"I'll tell you what," Turner replied. "We'll give the other bozos a chance to talk back, but they'll look like idiots anyway."
You couldn't be more politically incorrect, or more quotable, than Ted Turner.
But what Turner said when he launched TCM is equally true today. No matter what the delivery system, he said, the people who release and distribute Hollywood entertainment and the audiences who watch it are in need of the same thing: product. It doesn't matter what the delivery system or the hardware is, Turner insisted. The software -- the movies and TV shows themselves -- will always be in demand.
Almost 15 years later, TCM remains true to Turner's original vision. Robert Osborne dispenses nuggets of interesting information while introducing each film, and invites guests to display their own affection for the classic films TCM calls "The Essentials." (Note to TCM: Dame Diana Rigg probably would love to co-host if asked.) Well-made specials celebrate the work of memorable actors, writers, directors and producers. Unlike, say, AMC and A&E, which are almost unrecognizable from their original popular-arts roots, TCM, in tone and content, has stayed the same. It wasn't broke, so no one fixed it.
Tonight at 8 ET, TCM presents its newest series: Elvis Mitchell: Under the Influence, in which the former New York Times film critic conducts half-hour chats, in front of an unseen audience, with various Hollywood luminaries. Tonight's opener, taped shortly before his death, is with the late Sydney Pollack, whose insight into acting includes a simple yet valuable secret: "relax."
The director of Tootsie, The Way We Were, Jeremiah Johnson and Three Days of the Condor also explains why An American in Paris is one of his favorite movies of all time. And tonight, after Mitchell's conversation with Pollack, TCM presents both Tootsie (8:30 p.m. ET) and An American in Paris (11 p.m. ET), letting viewers enjoy anew, or for the first time, some of the key movies the two menelvis were discussing.
Great idea. Great night of TV. Great cable network. Thanks, Ted.