The Extras - Celebrating TCM's 30th Anniversary and a Preview of TCM 15th Classic Film Festival

Episode Date: April 14, 2024

Scott McGee is TCM's Senior Director of Original Productions and co-programmer of the TCM Classic Film Festival.  He joins the podcast to talk about the 30th anniversary of TCM and how the network is celebrating this milestone event through short documentary videos and on-air programming.  He also previews the 15th TCM Classic Film Festival.  This year's theme is "Most Wanted: Crime and Justice in Film" and Scotthighlights some of the films and stars that will attend.  We also discuss the films that are programmed for the 100th-anniversary celebrations of both Columbia Pictures and MGM Studios.  If you plan on attending the festival, this is a great preview of what you can expect.  If you can't attend, you'll still enjoy our celebration of TCM's 30th anniversary and the network's continued mission to preserve and celebrate classic cinema.Link to video:  The Beginning of a Beautiful Friendship: 30 Years of TCMTCM Classic Film Festival website with ticket and programming informationTCM Website46s Film Making 46s: Filmmakers talk origins, challenges, budgets, and profits.Listen on: Apple Podcasts   SpotifyThe Extras Facebook pageThe Extras Twitter Warner Archive & Warner Bros Catalog GroupOtaku Media produces podcasts, behind-the-scenes extras, and media that connect creatives with their fans and businesses with their consumers. Contact us today to see how we can work together to achieve your goals. www.otakumedia.tv

Hi, Tim Allard here. For all you Looney Tunes fans out there, I'm sure you would like a chance to win a free Looney Tunes Collector's Choice Volume 3 Blu-ray. All you have to do is leave us a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast provider. Or if you've already done that, leave us a review on our Facebook page. But don't wait too long as the deadline is April 26th. To be eligible, you must have a US mailing address.

Previous winners are excluded. Good luck and thanks for listening. Hello and welcome to The Extras. I'm Tim Larder, your host. And today we're catching up with Scott McGee, senior director of original productions at Turner Classic Movies, and he is also one of the programmers for the TCM Classic Film Festival, which is coming up in mid-April. Hey, Scott, good to see you. What's up, Tim? Good to see you too, man. I'm so happy to be here back with you.

Last year was a delightful conversation, so I'm looking forward to more. I think last year was what? The first year after the pandemic or the first big year. And so when I went, it was so fun to turn around and look up and see just like a full theater, full of fans. Everybody was so excited to be back. It had such a great vibe and just a great energy to everything. And of course, the movies themselves are always fantastic. And seeing them with a group of fellow classic film fans is always a pleasure to see because some of these films, you know, you've only seen them on TV, maybe ever, except for the most well-known ones.

And it's great at the festival that you can see a lot of the ones you've never seen before. So it's exciting. And I'm assuming this year with the 15th, there's a huge amount of excitement as well. Yeah, we had the same good problem back during our 20th or 25th anniversary, I should say, where we celebrated the channel's 25th anniversary in the festival's temp. But this one is a much, I think a much bigger milestone. It comes at a time when, you know, there's a lot of uncertainty in the business, just show business in general, and to have TCM being, you know, just a steady beacon doing

our thing, the same thing that we've been doing for the past 30 years. And we don't wish to deviate from that. No one does. And we'll keep on doing that as long as we can. And there will be a big celebration yet at the festival. We have a couple of events that are in Club TCM that are specifically for acknowledging those twin anniversaries. We will have a the first official event on on Thursday the 18th will be, so you want to put on a classic film festival. That title is a play on words for the following event which is Bruce Goldstein, So You Think You Know Movies. So I intentionally made that reference. But anyway, this is a chance for the original

five people who were in the room where it happened that put together the film festival by and large. There were a lot of other people that came after the fact, but until then it was Charlie Tavish, the head of programming, Darcy Ketrich, who was our head of talent, and Gina McKenzie, who was our head of PR, and then of course Genevieve McGillicutty, our festival director, and myself. Charlie had asked me to join him in this endeavor in the summer of 2009 and it was like being called up from the minor leagues to the majors. That's what it was like for me and it pretty much changed my career path but I digress. So we'll have a chance to, during that hour, to

reminisce about how the festival came together, some of the inside stories, some of the funny anecdotes. We got a lot of those and it's going to be accompanied, our discussion is going to be accompanied by about 60 photographs that I put together that will play during the course of the hour. So really, we're very excited about that. The other panel in Club TCM that is really an acknowledgement of the 30th, and we didn't go too far out in making a big deal about the 30th because we're doing such a big deal about it on the channel, and we just didn't want to overwhelm people.

But there is going to be some stuff. Namely, we're going to have a panel that talks about the TCM archive project. This is an endeavor that took hold in the early days, just really soon after the channel was launched, to put on film as many interviews and as many remembrances and reminiscences and all that from as many Hollywood icons as we could. And so what we'll do is we'll have, again, Darcy Hattrich, who is responsible for corralling all of those old movie stars, and three of the producers, Alexa Forman, Gary Friedman, and Gene Franz. And I will be moderating that discussion and we'll have a selection of raw clips, raw interview clips from those, from the interviews that they shot. And at the top of that, before the panel, I think we're going to show the 12-minute interstitial, the TCM original

that I created, acknowledging and celebrating the start of the network. Stig Brodersen And just to kind of provide a little background for some of the listeners who haven't watched it, we've posted the links to that great piece on our Facebook page and different social media. But it's the 15th year of the anniversary. It's the 30th anniversary of the network. And so you created this video and that really sat down kind of like you're going to do with that panel, but for the network. Who were the early players there? Who was there at the beginning? And what was the energy and the vibe and the desire? And how did it all come together, the origins? Yeah, all of that is discussed in the original 12-minute video that I made. And we include interviews with the people that were there at the beginning of the network. We have two of our former general managers, the president.

We have the original director of studio production, the Robert Osborne unit. We have some early, early producers such as Ann Wilson. We have the key researcher. We even have the person who did the teleprompter for Robert from the very beginning. In fact, she's still there. She still works.

She still does the teleprompter for all the hosts. So it was a labor of love. I should say it was an opportunity for those who left TCM long ago to kind of have their say, they kind of have why it was special and why it was unique and why it was such a formidable part of their lives. And I think their witness and their thoughts are going to conform to what we think of TCM

today. Because TCM's mission has never changed from the beginning to now. It just has not. And as some people will argue with that, we show way too many newer films. But we showed newer films from day one. We were showing Rocky, we were showing Network, we were showing all sorts of stuff from the 70s, Fame from 1980, and many others that we licensed from other studios or from other distributors.

So we've always shown newer films. Now people may think that we show too many now, but I think that there is still a very heavy ratio on acknowledged classics to newer classics today. Yeah. And I think some people forget that it's Turner classic movies, not Turner old movies. And you can have a classic movie that's recognized pretty quickly. And what's interesting is you may not remember the Academy Award winner from two years ago, but you'll remember a movie that's an instant classic from two years ago. Like just for whatever

reason, you can kind of feel it. But a certain amount of time usually needs to go by. But, you know, to me, that's what the network is about. Acknowledged classics, which can be pretty recent, and then also a celebration of older movies that maybe don't get as much remembrance. But they definitely are classics, you know, so there's that both. We're showing one of those quote unquote new classics at the film festival. And that's 1994's The Shawshank Redemption. Nobody, nobody, this is my opinion, nobody is going to argue that movie is not a classic. It is and as is Pulp Fiction also from the same year.

So but with the Shawshank Redemption, I mean, there's just a, there's an emotion there that I think really touches people. And I just can't imagine, you know, raising the red flag about Shawshank Redemption appearing anywhere near TCM. It makes sense to me. Yeah. I, agreement with you there. I've bought that movie on every format it's come out on. But the chance to then see it again in the theater at the festival is the unique opportunity for everyone. And let's face it, I may not think I'm that old, you may not think you're that old. That film might not think it's that old, but it falls now into an older time and it happens to all of those films that,

you know, we kind of grew up with. Yeah, I was talking to somebody the other day, this guy that was a little bit younger than I, and I made a joke, I made a reference. And it was, surely you can't be serious. And then I responded, I followed that up with, I am serious and don't call me surely. And he had no idea what I was talking about, no idea. Now that was from 1980. And that's the airplane is what I'm quoting of course.

And that to me tells you a lot, to me, tells you a lot, I mean, tells you a lot of what you need to know about the awareness of what even a classic movie is for newer audiences. Not even for newer audiences, but for people that are 10 years younger than I, in their 30s, they may not know that, they may not make the distinction, I should say,

between Casablanca and Airplane because they're both before his or her lifetime. So they probably appear to be or seem to be old to them. And so I say, why not, why not we just, we accept, I mean, we treat these movies like classic movies. We leave you to decide whether or not they're classic. Well, I think that I was hearing recently that now the millennial generation is bigger than the boomer generation.

And the boomer generation has been the biggest in history. And I think a lot of that generation were the early fans of TCM and continued to be. But what that made me think was there's a whole huge generation that needs to be educated or shown some of these films. And their idea of what a classic movie is a little bit different. But this is a huge generation of people who, when they see the films, can love the films just like everybody else does because they're the the classics. They're classics for a reason, because they cross over generations, years, and everybody can find the appeal and the themes and the stories there. Dr. Justin Marchegiani Absolutely.

Dr. Robert Pletka Well, hey, you know, we're preaching to the choir here. But one thing I did want to bring up about when I watched your short on the beginning of a beautiful friendship, 30 years of DCM, I think one of the things that kind of hit me other than the chance you gave for so many people to comment was that notion of when you began, so many of the actors and writers and directors were still live. And that kind of goes to the archive thing you were just talking about. And it's like, wow, it's so good. It's so great that you had all those and

still have those interviews with those stars. That's right. I mean, otherwise, how would some of these viewers of TCM, even the people who are fans of classic movies and of TCM in particular, they may not have ever heard Douglas Fairbanks Jr. speak. I mean, they may not, they just may not even be aware of him. So should they catch an interview or a word of mouth. That's how we still use a lot of the archive videos, the archive material that we recorded or filmed. We use them in word of mouths, which are these short segments that we have on TCM. And it, you know, usually is the subject, let's say Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and they shot his interview probably in 1994-95 and maybe they take a selection of him talking about Ganga Den. And then they cut that

interview to clips from Ganga Den and make a short little piece. And that that's just, I mean, it's so important to be to remain in the minds and at least in front of the eyeballs of not just new fans, but old fans alike. And that's, it's why it's important to never forget why we're here. Well, I'm enjoying all the stuff that's being posted on your YouTube site and also of course the TCM page website. So those are fun and I try to repost those as much as possible. I'll also give you a scoop, Tim.

I've got four other ones coming down the line that'll come out probably in the next, within this month. And there's four shorter pieces that are more focused on a single thing. And the first one that will be released, hopefully in the next week or two, is one just about Robert Osborne. So what we're doing is I talked to the creators of the network and I just, you know, asked them lots of questions, open-ended questions about Robert and many other subjects, but the ones about Robert were of course very, very meaningful for the people

involved and so it's going to be a nice little piece to remember our beloved host. Yeah. I mean, he's so associated with the network even to this day. So many people, um, just, just loved seeing him on there and his passion for TCM and the films. Well, hey, let's get back to the Film Festival for a bit because that is kind of why we're talking today. Each year you guys pick a theme. And so I thought I'd ask you what the theme is this year and kind of how that led into how you went about picking some of the films.

The theme this year is Most Wanted, Crime, Injustice, and Film. And this is a theme that Charlie Tabish and Stephanie Thames, my cohorts in programming the festival, this is something we've been wanting to do for a couple of years, even before COVID. And it was, it just never seemed like the right time. Mainly, you know, coming out of COVID, we didn't want to make it all about crime. So we decided to punt and wait for that. And so this year, it just seemed like the good time to do it. And so we had a lot of fun with it. There were lots of different directions that we could have gone in terms of supporting what the overall theme is. And I mean, in

terms of the sub themes. But we wanted to have fun with it, but we also wanted to be serious about it. We didn't want to make light of crime, of justice, and we wanted to treat it respectfully, but also lightheartedly when we could. And so that led, it actually created a good problem, and that was we had too many films early on. I mean, even when Charlie and Stephanie and I

first started talking about it, when we were coming up with so many ideas and we just had too much. And so the real struggle was cutting back this year. But I think we struck the right balance. And I think it's to be a really, really good festival. We're all looking very forward to it.

And you mentioned it earlier, but I think you have Pulp Fiction. Is that your kickoff kind of Thursday night? That is the opening night film. Pulp Fiction was an early favorite for opening night. There were a few others in contention, but Pulp Fiction, an early favorite for opening night. There were a few others in contention. But Pulp Fiction, when everything fell into place, it was like, of course, it's got to be Pulp Fiction. So it was a fortuitous turn of events that we were able to get all the people there,

all the talent that had been confirmed, and the film itself. And I should also note that, you know, just for the for the cinephiles out there, when Pulp Fiction was first being mentioned as being possibly an opening night film, Charlie and Stephanie and I knew that Quentin Tarantino was very particular about his films being shown on 35 millimeter and not digital. And the reason why that was an issue or could have been an issue is because previously we'd use the Chinese, the TCL Chinese for our opening night film and pretty, unless I'm forgetting one, I think all of them have been digital, have been DCPs. And so to show Pulp Fiction on 35 inside the TCL was going to be, I mean, it was not a

question that we could answer. And so we got a hold of Chapin Cutler of Boston Light and Sound, who is our lead in terms of projection, the most vitally important part of the film festival experience. And we asked him, what would this take for us to show 35 millimeter in the TCL? And he crunched some numbers, looked at some specs and says, I think we can make it happen.

So that's how we're showing 35 millimeter of Pulp Fiction inside the TCL this year. That's fantastic. I mean, that's a whole're showing 35 millimeter of Pulp Fiction inside the TCL this year. That's fantastic. I mean, that's a whole nother kind of layer on why fans may want to go to that opening night to see it in 35 millimeter. Stay with us. We'll be right back.

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If they can get in, because spotlight passes, spotlight passes sold out months ago and unless you're the belle of the ball, I'm not sure unless you already have one. And I think essential pass holders, they get opening night too. But anyway, yeah, it's a hot ticket to be sure. I'll have links to the website where people can get their tickets if they haven't already and read through some of that if they haven't already and read through some of that if they haven't already. But just to make it easy, what are some of the other kind of highlights or special guests that people should know about? Oh golly. Well, first of all, let me talk about our tributes. So we've got two tributes this year,

plus the recipient of the Robert Osborne Award. The first recipient is Billy Dee Williams. We will be showing Bingo Long traveling all-stars and motor kings, as well as Lady Sings the Blues, both of which Billy Dee will be in attendance. And our other tribute is for Lois Burwell, who is an Academy Award-winning makeup artist. And she's going to be here for two films that she worked on, Almost Famous and Lincoln, the Spielberg film from 2012. And then the recipient of our Robert Osborne Award is Janine Basinger, who is so, so worthy of this award.

It was a no brainer when we thought about offering it to her. And it was also important because Janine is our first woman to receive this award, and we thought this is very important that we get this right. And so we not only chose, not only do we have some balance in terms of who we awarded this recognition to, but we also gave it to somebody who has given her life in service of movies, in service of the film art. And for that, we will have a presentation of the Robert Osborn Award. Alexander Payne will be presenting the award to her.

And as part of the part of the ceremony, we'll be showing the 1951 film Westward, Westward, the women. Westward, the women was a film that she she herself chose. So Janine is going to she's going to be a rock star there. People know for, of course, for the Osbo Award and for the two tributes we'll also have an accompany video that my team produced that will be shown prior to the films that they'll be a part of. In terms of the other stuff, I'm really excited about the two midnight movies, Heavenly Bodies from 1984 and the world premiere restoration of an exploitation film from 1934

called The Road to Ruin. The films are really, I mean, they're going to be something to see, especially for the midnight crowd. But I also want to note that Heavenly Bodies was picked by Milly DeCherico, who is the former TCM staffer, who is the beloved face of TCM Underground. We were all crushed when Millie left in December of 2022, but she has agreed to not only program or recommend this film,

but she's also gonna introduce it for us. So she's gonna be at the film festival for this midnight screening of Heavenly Bodies to introduce it. I should also add that The Road to Ruin will be introduced by Katoia Murray. Katoia is the co-author of the book on TCM Underground along with Millie. Millie and Katoia wrote the book on TCM Underground along with Millie. Millie and Katoya wrote the book on TCM

Underground and so they will both be introducing one of the midnight films at the festival. So it's going to be a homecoming for both of them and we're just so so very excited to see them. Craig Barron and Ben Burt are returning for the film festival as they've been for most of the festival's lifespan. And they will be presenting a presentation on them, the Giant Ant Moves. And they've honored some really, really cool stuff. So we're very excited for that. Last year, for those of you who were lucky enough to see Craig and Ben present

When Worlds Collide at the Legion Theater, they literally blew the doors open with during a point in the film where the sound effect made the walls shake so much so that the doors literally flew open. And that was amazing. I don't know if there's going to be any giant ants. I hope not. But you never know. You never know. So aside from Craig and Ben's presentation, we'll also have an event called That's Vitaphone, The Return of Sound on Disc. What this is is an event that has not been experienced in 90 years. This is the original Vitaphone

discs that were created by Warner Brothers Vitaphone Company in the 1920s. These sound on discs were created to play in synchronized fashion with the film itself. So this is before sound on film was developed, right? And so after the heyday of VitaFone and as the sound era truly began, VitaFone was irrelevant. And so a lot of these discs just scattered to the wind. Some of them ended up in the hands of collectors, a lot of them ended up in the hands of the late great Ron Hutchinson, who was the man behind the Vitaphone project. And what happened was there were two engineers at Warner Brothers

who have created a turntable that will play the actual Vitaphone discs synchronized to the film. This hasn't been done in 90 years. And now we have shown Vitaphone shorts, but they have been digital. The sound has been married to the film itself. So it's not been true Vitaphone. This is true Vitaphone. Very cool. This is going to be a hot ticket.

So well, not only will have the two guys who created this turntable and who are actually doing the show, but we'll also have Bruce Goldstein, a film forum, who will be the moderator, and he will give a short presentation at the beginning of the film, along with a short chat with the two engineers, plus another Vitaphone expert, a fellow named Shane Fleming, who will be on stage.

So we'll have six actual sound on disc Vitaphone shorts shown in 35 millimeter. In between those shorts, there's got to be a lot of downtime for the projection and for the Vitaphone turntable to be ready for the next film. So to fill that gap, what we're going to do is have some other Vitaphone excerpts shown digitally. So those Vitaphone excerpts will have the sound married to them. It won't be a Vitaphone experience. We'll fill up the empty space while we get ready for the next film. That's awesome. Love it.

So that's going to be, that's going to be huge. Um, then we also have twin anniversaries to celebrate for Columbia and for MGM, both sent to the centennial's for both of those storied studios. And we have a selection of films that are indicative of their of the power and of the the just the longevity and the quality of those two studios during the during the course of their heyday in the in the Hollywood studio era. So for MGM will have an American in Paris, Grand Hotel, a world premiere restoration of North by Northwest and a handful of others.

And for Columbia, we're showing all the King's Men, we're showing the King Mutiny, Closed Encounters of the Third Kind, the director's cut, which the director will be there. And as well as it happened one night in several other films as well. So it's going to be a robust celebration for both Columbia and in GM. And that's really important for us to do at the film festival, because this is not just TCM. This is not just Warner Brothers. This is all the studios that we are celebrating.

This is all the studios work that we're projecting and that we are showing and we're acknowledging as part of this film festival. So, they're our partners and to be able to recognize them and celebrate them for these pivotal anniversaries is really special for all of us here at TCM. Yeah, and I thought that was great because of the MGM library is really been a huge focus of TCM, has it not? I mean, we're talking so many of those that are under now, the Warner Brothers, of course, ownership through Turner's purchase of those libraries.

Such a key part to TCM. And it's great that you guys were able to highlight that this year. Absolutely. Also saw you have Lawrence of Arabia here for Columbia. I mean, it's always great to see these films that really are meant to be seen on the big screen, but, and then like you said, you just mentioned, it happened one night, which should be a lot of fun to see on the big screen. But then like you said, you just mentioned it happened one night, which should be a lot of fun to see on the big screen.

Lawrence of Arabia in 70 million. Really? Okay. Oh, and you're going to be at the Egyptian, which has just been reopened. We are at the Egyptian. We are so excited to be there. Netflix and the American Son of a Tech have been, I mean, they're just, they're just really golden partners in this endeavor. And we are so thankful for them,

especially for Netflix, for opening up their story theater for us to use for this weekend. It's so very important for the fans to experiencing these motion pictures in the palaces in which they were originally shown. And it just hits different. It just hits different. I mean, I saw an American in Paris when I was a kid, but I didn't see it in a theater until I was a young newlywed. And I remember still being in the theater by myself watching the end of the ballet sequence from American in Paris, and there's this Zoom dolly shot, I should say dolly shot, into the single red rose that Gene Kelly holds at the end of that celebrated sequence and the colors and

Being able to see the reflection of light off of the drops of water on the rose petals That's the kind of thing that you go to the movies for go there to see detail and you go there to be drawn in and sucked in into the film, into the story. And that is best, that is an experience inside of a movie theater unlike any other. Well there are also some special guests in terms of actors and directors and I think one I wanted to be sure we mentioned was

Jodie Foster is doing a hand and footprint ceremony, right? Yeah, that's right. So that's pretty cool that that's happening during one of the days there at the festival. That is very cool. Fans of the festival may remember that we did not do a handprint ceremony last year. There were a couple of reasons why we didn't end up doing it, but we are so happy to have

it back. And to be able to honor a figure like Jodie Foster is really, really, really cool. And so we're really excited to have her there and for us to show the silence of the lambs for a second Academy Award winning performance. Yeah. Love that film. Love Jodie Foster. A few others that I just kind of cherry pick a little bit are Carl Franklin, director,

filmmaker Morgan Freeman. David Fincher is going to be there for Seven. Seven. Of course. There's a restoration of Seven that David Fincher is presenting. And it is something that I'm not going to miss. Seven was a watershed moment for me. Seven was a watershed moment for me. When I saw it in 1995, I walked out of the theater literally dazed. I just didn't know what I saw. It just blew my little noggin, frankly.

I've watched it many times since. People may think, what the hell is wrong with you watching seven multiple times? And I would agree with you, but I would also say in graduate school, I also wrote a 40-page paper on the film set. So I might be a little obsessed with it. But just seeing a restoration of it at the festival is really going to be special. Along with The Searchers, a new 70 millimeter restoration of that presented by the Film Foundation, The Searchers is my favorite movie. And so I will be there with Belzon to see that.

Yeah, I mean, there's quite a list. Alexander Payne, we've got John Travolta. Alexander Payne will be introducing the searchers. Okay. Yeah, fantastic. Tim Robbins. I mean, there's a whole list we won't go through them all, but I did want to mention one others that I,

for the animation fans out there, Seth MacFarlane is gonna be there for some animation, right? That's right. This was a project that he brought to us. He and his people brought to us and we were... And this was actually something that got confirmed pretty early in the process. And so this is just an opportunity for us to give a little dimension and diversity to the programming, not just feature films but also shorts and cartoons. And this is

going to be a really interesting presentation, I think, from, I mean, arguably one of the great artists working in animation today or any day, and that is Seth MacClarlin. So having him there is really going to be... It's really going to be fun. Yeah. And I think he's... Was he teamed up with Scorsese or on some of that, their foundations in terms of doing the restoration? You know, I don't recall off the top of my head, but you might be right. I wasn't as

involved with Back from the Ink, other than giving it the title. I wasn't really involved in that project as much as I have been in others, such as Craig Barron and Ben Burtz, them and the Vitafilm project and the TCM panel. And we already mentioned Morgan Freeman who was in Seven and Shawshank. So it'll be great to see him there. It would be awesome to have him there for Seven too. Samuel L. Jackson. I mean, oh, here's a name that Rian Johnson, filmmaker, who is a little bit younger. It's great to see him. Diane Lane, John Landis. So many. Leonard Malton, of course, who we all know.

Diane Lane, I should mention, is she is the star of a film called A Little Romance, star of a film called A Little Romance, I think from 1979. And this is a film that Charlie Tavish, the head of programming, my boss, he's been wanting to show this film probably since the beginning of the festival and he's now getting his chance. He loves that movie. We tried to get the actor who starred opposite of Diane Lane, but we couldn't find him. At least that's the last I heard. I heard that the talent team has not been able to locate him. But Diane Lane, how did Diane Lane there? That's going to be great too. Sure. Yeah. Well, another great year. I mean, we're the list people can see online. And of course, that's all tentative, of course, of making sure hopefully everybody can make it. But what a great lineup this year. It's great to see kind of a rough year for the industry.

And it's great to see that we're back for a 15th year of the festival. It's great to celebrate the 30 years of TCM. And they know that coincides with last year, the 100th for Warner Brothers, this year, 100th for Columbia and MGM. So there's been a kind of a lineup of things that just point to the fact that we need to preserve these films and this history. And that falls not only to TCM, but TCM has been a big

carrier of the banner for film preservation, showing history and all of these things. It reminds me of another original project that I worked on late last year. It was it was featuring Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese. It was about Their first time going to the movies. This is an idea that they presented to Charlie Tavish who then gave it to me and What I did was I turned it into a celebration of going to the movies period It was called out there in the dark still airing on TCM. It's an evergreen, so it'll air forever. You can also see it on YouTube. But the point of this project was to celebrate the act of going to the movies. This is something that 80 million people used to do, or however many, back during the 30s. And, you know, it's not something that every American

or really every American does. And so just to just to remind people that go into the movies is a it's a special thing. And seeing films, as I said earlier, in a theater, particularly something like the TCL or the Egyptian, that's an experience unlike any other. And it's important to go back and make it a habit. This is something that's kind of occurred to me over the years is just in talking with film fans such as yourself and so many others. We, you and me and all of the other classic movie fans, we're going to be the vessels for spreading the word to

see these films. It's going to be up to us to bring our family, our friends to these stories. We're emissaries. We're all emissaries of classic movies. That is a responsibility I don't take lightly. And I know the people out there who would, you know, give blood for Frederick March. Exactly. For example. Yes, I'm thinking of you, Jill Blake, if you're listening.

It's something that we, that we're all a part of. So, yeah, I'm thrilled to take some part of it, part of it in the endeavor. Tanner Iskra Well, you're doing the good work there, Scott. And I'm looking forward to seeing more of the short features that you're going to be putting out over the next month. So, just a great month of celebrating the 30th anniversary there on your website. Thank you, Chow. So good stuff. Thank you.

Well, I'm looking forward to it. I'll see you there before too long. And thanks for coming on and sharing all this great information. For those who can come, they can kind of, this is a kind of what's their whistle, so to speak, for what they're going to be able to see and they're going to have to choose where to go. That's always the big dilemma, of course, what you're not going to be able to go to, but it's a good problem to have.

The full schedule is now online and you can go to filmfestival.tcm.com and find the full festival as well as all the confirmed guests that we'll be having. So yeah, very exciting stuff. Well, Scott, as always, thanks for coming on. Thank you, Tim. For those of you interested in learning more about the 15th TCM Classic Film Festival or

the 30th Anniversary Celebration on TCM, there will be links in the podcast show notes, so be sure and check those out. If you're on social media, be sure to follow the show on Facebook or Twitter at The Extras TV or Instagram at TheExtras.tv to stay up to date on our upcoming guests and be a part of our community. And you're invited to our Facebook group for fans of Warner Bros. films called The Warner Archive and Warner Bros. Catalog Group. So look for that link on the Facebook page or in the podcast show notes.

Until next time, you've been listening to The Extras with Tim Millar. Stay slightly obsessed. success.