Rob Zombie on TCM

Cafe Society
1

So TCM is angling for a younger audience.

Is this a good thing or a bad thing?

They’re even using “younger” imagery in their regular promo spots, intercutting scenes of great romances with shots of a hot young blonde chick with high heels and a full-back tattoo. Me, I think this is a bad thing. Old movies are old movies, and they have an inherent value; this approach feels like it’s disrespecting that somehow. People who like old movies already know they’re old. There’s some value to nostalgia. Pretending they’re young and hip is just gonna be sending mixed messages to your potential audience.

Wouldn’t it make more sense to try to reach the younger people who already like old movies, as a starter, than to try to “trick” people into thinking that old movies aren’t really so old after all?

I’m of mixed opinions on this, at this point.

Rob Zombie is hosting a series of movies next month (the theme music for the promo spots is all Zombie), but I can’t find a link to a listing of what those movies will be. I suspect it will become available at the changing of the month.

I hope this isn’t the beginning of a watering down of what makes TCM a valuable resource. We can turn to IFC for John Waters and Russ Meyers; TCM doesn’t need to cover that waterfront. As it is there are plenty of old masterpieces that they’ve never gotten around to showing, and every week there’s a “TCM Premiere” of a classic film they have no excuse for never having aired before. This new initiative will just make such classics harder to see.

Thoughts?

2

Ahh, found a link to the TCM article on Mr. Zombie’s guest gig. Looks like it’s not just a month’s feature, but will be a weekly feature through December. Kinda like their “Essentials” feature.

Some interesting titles scheduled:**
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)**

I’ve seen quite a few of these–I own Night of the Living Dead, Freaks, and The Honeymoon Killers–and it will be interesting to see the rest of them. Specially in the context of TCM. Hosted by Rob Zombie. Still getting my brain around that one.

3

I think it’s a great thing to have Zombie hosting a selection of these movies. He probably knows as much about them as anyone else as he’s a huge fan of classic horror and exploitation films and his name is a bigger draw to the general public than the titles of these films might be.

4

:confused:

How can he not play White Zombie (1932)?

5

Also note that, except for the penultimate week, all the movies are being shown in chronological order. Guess they didn’t have the nerve to start such a series with a couple of silents. I’da thunk it’d’a added to his credibility with the TCM crowd to start with the Chaney, rather than the Ed Wood.

6

Also, can I share a paranoid moment?

TCM is one of the only cable channels that does not solicit advertisers. No commercials, except TCM-specific promos. Advertisers don’t care about the older demographic that TCM currently plays too; advertisers like a younger demographic.

There’s only one practical reason to court a younger demographic.

Could this be the beginning of the end?

7

Hey Lissener, I hate to bother you, but could you e-mail me at saxman2@hotmail.com? Your profile doesn’t display your e-mail address.

8

That’s what I was wondering!

9

I’m hoping it just means they want to expand their viewership. I presume that the rates paid by cable companies for a given channel are determined by ratings.

10

I’m hoping too. But I’m also a cynic. I don’t spose such an altruistic institution can last forever; it’s gotta be nothing but a tax write-off for Ted. (Does he even still own it?)

11

Many, if not most, of those films are already in rotation on TCM. So I’m not too worried about it at this point. This doesn’t strike me as any worse an incursion than the Elvis marathon a few months back.

12

As long as his choices weren’t Porky’s 2 or Halloween 4, then I’m OK with it. He is supposedly a big classic horror movie buff (IIRC his house has a lot of classic props and whatnot) and as said previously, most if not all of these have been shown on TCM before, so no big deal.

13

They’ve had Penn & Teller do an essentials, and they I imagine appeal to a ‘younger’ audience, andthen there was the whole series of anime they played in January (each movie twice, once subtitled, once dubbed). I would imagine that this is just another aspect of film favorites, and particularly appropriate for Halloween month.

14

I know you’re being hyperbolic, but for the type of film that it is, Porky’s 2 is actually a pretty good film. It treats some pretty serious subject matter (censorship, religious bigotry, racism, political hypocrisy) pretty effectively and is funny. I’d still be pretty shocked to see it turn up on TCM but it’s not like it’s a horrible movie.

Halloween 4, though, I can’t recommend.

15

Otto, yes I just picked two movie names out of the air- I have never seen Porky’s 2 nor heard anything about it, I just assumed it had gratuitous nudity and whatnot and wasn’t a “TCM” type movie :slight_smile:

16

I can’t stand Rob Zombie, but he is hosting a couple movies I wouldn’t mind seeing. I’ll just hit the mute button during his air-time.

17

FWIW, Penn and Teller did not do an “essentials.” TCM has a celebrity guest programmer one night a month, and that’s when P&T appeared. And the “anime” series was actually a monthlong director’s feature on Hayao Miyazaki.

18

I would have to disagree that old movies have any “inherent” value at all. Art only has value so long as there are people around who appreciate it. A lot of people don’t want to watch older movies because they feel they’re not relevant at all to their ultra modern lives. Those sexy TCM promos just show me that sex wasn’t invented in 1982, like many young whippersnappers seem to think, and maybe those actesses in those movies are pretty hot.

Either you get more people to watch the old movies or they will fade away into obscurity.

Marc

19

I didn’t mean to suggest that all old movies are inherently good movies. Only nostalgia is real, and history is real, and standing on the shoulders of giants is real, and all of these things add value to those old movies that *are *good.

Historical context is also valid. You don’t watch a Howard Hawks film from the 1930s with the same eye with you’d watch a Brett Rattner film from the 2000s. So you adjust your expectations; you watch in a different way. If you don’t understand that–if you watch a movie that’s 70 years old with exactly the same expectations that you bring to the Googleplex, you *will *be disappointed; you may even feel bait-and-switched by the new TCM campaign. My only point.

20

I understood that you didn’t mean all old movies were good. I just don’t think any art has value unless it is being appreciated by someone. I agree that nostalgia is real, history is real, and that standing on the shoulder of giants thing, and those are usually the reasons why I enjoy watching older movies. I think I appreciate those movies for many of the same reasons you do though not quite to the same degree.

Again, I agree, which is why I’m not so hard on the older movies for racist or sexist potrayals of characters. It isn’t that I approve of these things or excuse them I just recognize the reality of the era. I see your point about some viewers feeling as though they’ve been given the old bait and switch by TCM. I’m not really all that sure that’s what’s going to happen but I admit to finding the sexy ads to be a bit odd at the very least.

I just know that unless you attract a younger audience at some point TCM will wither and die on the vine. Nobody wants that.

Marc