Turner Classic Movies

Turner Classic Movies formerly published Now Playing, a monthly program guide, originally available through a standalone subscription, which provided daily listings and descriptions for films scheduled to air on Turner Classic Movies in the coming month. The digest-size magazine highlighted a featured actor on the cover, and featured essays about the "guest programmer" as well as a movie-and-actor themed crossword puzzle. The May 2017 issue, following the death in March 2017 of host Robert Osborne, contained "Remembering Robert Osborne" by Ben Mankiewicz.[2]

Turner Classic Movies ceased print publication of Now Playing (which had been one of the few channel-specific program guides that remained in print circulation for most of the 2000s and 2010s) with the August 2017 issue, moving it to an electronic format available via email free of charge.[3]

Turner Classic Movies's library of films spans several decades of cinema and includes thousands of film titles, including Warner Bros. Pictures. Besides broadcasting films owned or licensed by Warner Bros., Turner Classic Movies also licenses films from Universal Pictures, Paramount Pictures,[4] Walt Disney Studios (including film content from 20th Century Studios, Buena Vista Distribution[5] as well as most of the Selznick International Pictures library[6]), Sony Pictures Entertainment (primarily film content from Columbia Pictures and TriStar Pictures), StudioCanal, and Janus Films.

Turner Classic Movies includes movies in the public domain, mostly from the 1900s to 1920s. Although most movies shown on Turner Classic Movies are releases from the 1930s through the 1970s, some are more contemporary – Turner Classic Movies sometimes shows movies from the 1980s to the present.

TCM prime time host Robert Osborne at the 73rd Annual Peabody Awards (May 2014)

Most feature movies shown during the prime time and early overnight hours (8:00 p.m. to 2:30 a.m. Eastern Time) were presented by film historian Robert Osborne (who had been with the network since its 1994 launch until 2016, except for a five-month medical leave from July to December 2011, when guest hosts presented each night's films),[7] Ben Mankiewicz presenting primetime films on Wednesday through Sunday evenings, Jacqueline Stewart presenting "Silent Sunday Nights" on Sundays, Tiffany Vasquez presented the films on Saturday afternoons from 2016 to 2018 when Dave Karger began presenting Saturday afternoons and the primetime films on Mondays, and Alicia Malone presenting the films on Sunday afternoons, the primetime films on Tuesdays and "TCM Imports" on Sundays. During the 31 Days of Oscar film festival in 2021, which aired from April 1 to May 1 to coincide with the 93rd Academy Awards – which were pushed back to April 25 due to the COVID-19 pandemic – Stewart and Muller alternated hosting duties on Wednesday nights, as the respective programming blocks they hosted in any other month, Silent Sunday Nights and Noir Alley, were pre-empted by the month-long Oscar showcase. A similar occurrence took place in August for the Summer Under the Stars festival.

Turner Classic Movies regularly airs a "Star of the Month" throughout the year in which most, if not all, feature films from a film star are shown during that night's schedule. August is the only month to not have a "Star of the Month" due to "Summer Under the Stars". The network also marks the occurrence of a film actor's birthday (either antemortem or posthumously) or recent death with day- or evening-long festivals showcasing several of that artist's best, earliest or least-known pictures; by effect, marathons scheduled in honor of an actor's passing (which are scheduled within a month after their death) pre-empt films originally scheduled to air on that date. Turner Classic Movies also features a monthly program block called the "TCM Guest Programmer", in which the host is joined by celebrity guests responsible for choosing that evening's films (examples of such programmers during 2012 include Jules Feiffer, Anthony Bourdain, Debra Winger, Ellen Barkin, Spike Lee, Regis Philbin and Jim Lehrer);[8] an offshoot of this block featuring Turner Classic Movies employees aired during February 2011.

The Essentials, with various hosts since 2001, is a weekly film showcase airing on Saturday evenings at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time which spotlights a culturally significant movie and contains a special introduction and post-movie discussion.

One of the weekly blocks is "Noir Alley", featuring film noir movies. It broadcasts on Saturday evenings and repeats on Sunday mornings at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time and is hosted by Eddie Muller. The channel also broadcasts two movie blocks during the late evening hours each Sunday: "Silent Sunday Nights", which features silent films from the United States and abroad, usually in the latest restored version and often with new musical scores, and hosted by Jacqueline Stewart; and "TCM Imports" (which previously ran on Saturdays until the early 2000s), a weekly presentation of films originally released in foreign countries and hosted by Alicia Malone.

Turner Classic Movies suspends its regular schedule twice each year for a special month of film marathons. 31 Days of Oscar is a programming block aired each Oscar season by the U.S. and Asian Turner Classic Movies cable networks during the month of the Academy Awards.[9] Each feature that TCM airs in this block can be either an Oscar winner or nominee.

Another is called "Summer Under the Stars", aired during August which features entire daily schedules devoted to the work of a particular actor, with movies and specials that pertain to the star of the day. In the summer of 2007, the channel debuted "Funday Night at the Movies", a block hosted by actor Tom Kenny (best known as the voice of SpongeBob SquarePants). This summer block featured classic feature films (such as The Wizard of Oz, Sounder, Bringing Up Baby, Singin' in the Rain, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, The Adventures of Robin Hood, and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea) aimed at introducing these movies to new generations of children, and their families.

Each February, Turner Classic Movies airs films and programs honoring Black History Month.

"Funday Night at the Movies" was replaced in 2008 by "Essentials Jr.", a youth-oriented version of its weekly series, The Essentials (originally hosted by actors Abigail Breslin, and Chris O'Donnell, then by John Lithgow from 2009 to 2011, and then by Bill Hader, starting with the 2011 season), which included such family-themed films as National Velvet, Captains Courageous, and Yours, Mine and Ours, as well as more eclectic selections, such as Sherlock Jr., The Music Box, Harvey, Mutiny on the Bounty, and The Man Who Knew Too Much.

In 2014, the channel debuted "Treasures from the Disney Vault", hosted by Leonard Maltin. This block showcased a compilation of vintage Disney feature films, cartoons, documentaries, episodes of Disney's anthology television series, and episodes of The Mickey Mouse Club. The last scheduled "Treasures from the Disney Vault" aired on September 2, 2019 due to the launch of Disney+ in November of that year.[10][11][12][13]

TCM Underground debuted in October 2006 as a Saturday late night block which focused on cult film. The block was originally hosted by rocker/filmmaker Rob Zombie until December 2006; as of 2014, it was the only regular film presentation block on the channel that did not have a host. TCM Underground was discontinued in February 2023 after its programmer, Millie De Chirico, was laid off from TCM.[14]

In March 2023, it was announced that TCM would air special programming in April to mark the centennial of Warner Bros., in conjunction with The Film Foundation and the TCM Classic Film Festival. This included special airings of newly-restored Warner Bros. films: Rio Bravo (introduced by Martin Scorsese), and East of Eden (introduced by Wes Anderson and Joanna Hogg).[15]

In addition to films, Turner Classic Movies also airs original content, mostly documentaries about classic movie personalities, the world of filmmaking and particularly notable films. An occasional month-long series, Race and Hollywood, showcases films by and about people of non-white races, featuring discussions of how these pictures influenced white people's image of said races, as well as how people of those races viewed themselves. Previous installments have included "Asian Images on Film" in 2008,[16] "Native American Images on Film" in 2010,[17] "Black Images on Film" in 2006[18] "Latino Images on Film" in 2009[19] and "Arab Images on Film" in 2011.[20] The network aired the film series Screened Out (which explored the history and depiction of homosexuality in film) in 2007 and Religion on Film (focusing on the role of religion in cinematic works) in 2005. In 2011, TCM debuted a new series entitled AFI's Master Class: The Art of Collaboration.[21][22]

Many films shown on Turner Classic Movies were made during the Golden Age of Hollywood, an era with few survivors. In December 1994, Turner Classic Movies debuted "TCM Remembers", a tribute to recently deceased film personalities (including actors, producers, composers, directors, writers, and cinematographers) which occasionally airs during promotional breaks between films. The segments appear in two forms: individual tributes and a longer end-of-year compilation. Following the recent death of an especially famous film personality (usually an actor or filmmaker), the segment will feature a montage of select shots of the deceased's work.

Every December, a longer, more inclusive "TCM Remembers" interstitial is produced, featuring a selection of audio and video clips interspersed with scenes from settings such as an abandoned drive-in (2012) or a theatre which is closing down (2013). Since 2001, most of the soundtracks for these have been introspective melodies by indie artists such as Badly Drawn Boy (2007) or Steve Earle (2009).[23] 2015's song, "Quickly Now", was written especially for TCM Remembers by Chuck Moore and Reid Hall, and sung by Eryn McHugh.[24]

The TCM Vault Collection consists of several different DVD collections of rare classic films that have been licensed, remastered and released by Turner Classic Movies (through corporate sister Warner Bros. Home Entertainment). These boxed set releases are of films by notable actors, directors or studios that were previously unreleased on DVD or VHS. The sets often include bonus discs including documentaries and shorts from the Turner Classic Movies library. The initial batch of DVDs are printed in limited quantities and subsequent batches are made-on-demand (MOD).

• Universal Collection – Featuring films licensed by Turner Classic Movies from the Universal Pictures vault.
• The Lost RKO Collection – Featuring RKO films from the 1930s.
• TCM Spotlight – A series of DVD boxsets released by Warner Home Video featuring Charlie Chan and stars such as Esther Williams, Errol Flynn, Jean Arthur, Deanna Durbin, and Doris Day.

In October 2015, Turner Classic Movies announced the launch of the TCM Wine Club, in which they teamed up with Laithwaite to provide a line of mail-order wines from famous vineyards such as famed writer-director-producer Francis Ford Coppola's winery. Wines are available in 3-month subscriptions and can be selected as reds, whites, or a mixture of both. From the wines chosen, Turner Classic Movies also includes recommended movies to watch with each, such as a "True Grit" wine, to be paired with the John Wayne film of the same name.[28]

In 2000, Turner Classic Movies started the annual Young Composers Film Competition, inviting aspiring composers to participate in a judged competition that offers the winner of each year's competition the opportunity to score a restored, feature-length silent film as a grand prize, mentored by a well-known composer, with the new work subsequently premiering on the network. As of 2006, films that have been rescored include the 1921 Rudolph Valentino film Camille, two Lon Chaney films: 1921's The Ace of Hearts and 1928's Laugh, Clown, Laugh, and Greta Garbo's 1926 film The Temptress.

In April 2010, Turner Classic Movies held the first TCM Classic Film Festival, an event—now held annually—at the Grauman's Chinese Theater and the Grauman's Egyptian Theater in Hollywood. Initially hosted by Robert Osborne, the four-day long annual festival celebrates Hollywood and its movies and features celebrity appearances, special events, and screenings of around 50 classic movies including several newly restored by The Film Foundation, an organization devoted to preserving Hollywood's classic film legacy.[29] The festival was cancelled in 2020 and moved to a virtual setting in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[30]