It’s August, which means it’s time for TCM’s annual Summer Under the Stars marathon, where the channel invites us to spend 24 hours in the company of a different star every day of the month. This year’s line up is a cheerfully eclectic mix, with stalwarts like Barbara Stanwyck and Humphrey Bogart rubbing shoulders with first-timers like Anthony Perkins and (to my especial delight) the Nicholas Brothers.
It all feels bittersweet though. TCM is endangered.
In June, five of the network’s most senior staff members were abruptly let go as TCM became the latest casualty of Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav, whose baffling leadership has also included the decisions to strip the ‘HBO’ from ‘HBO Max’ and hurl Batgirl into an oubliette for tax purposes. In TCM’s case the backlash was immediate and pronounced: fans voiced their displeasure on social media and in the press, while Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg and Paul Thomas Anderson released a statement in defence of the network. (For more on Zaslav’s tenure, I refer you to this piece by critic Jason Bailey in GQ, which was removed from the magazine’s website but survives in archive form.)
Two of the executives—senior vice president of programming and content strategy Charles Tabesh, and Genevieve McGillicuddy, TCM Enterprises vice president and the driving force behind the channel’s film festival—have since been rehired. But the future feels far from secure.
Sometime in June, amidst the frustration and melancholy swirling on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, I came across one fan’s comment advising us all to enjoy this year’s Summer Under the Stars (programmed pre-layoff) because it might be our last. I thought about that post again today. Summer Under the Stars is emblematic of TCM’s programming in that it encourages you to spend time with old favourites, even as it introduces you to new ones. It’s curated by and for film fans, who want nothing more than to share what they love with the widest audience possible.
There’s usually a pattern to each schedule, with at least one silent star, one performer celebrated for their Pre-Code work, one star whose films are primarily not in the English language and one star who is still with us (this year there are two: Geraldine Chaplin and Sophia Loren, with the latter doing double duty as the ‘foreign’ language star as well). In 2014, the Pre-Code star was Lee Tracy, who I knew nothing about. I took a chance on Blessed Event (1932) and—watching Tracy’s motor-mouthed gossip columnist run rings around the opposition—was rewarded with the thrill of finding both a film and an actor I wondered how I could have gone so many years without.
TCM exists for serendipitous sparks like this. It is, to paraphrase Lina Lamont, a shimmering, glowing star in the cinema firmament. And one I couldn’t bear to lose.
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