ITV Scheduling and Wild Wild West

[Wet Blanket]

When TV companies buy movies they come in 'bundles' with older or less popular films. It's a way of film studios strong-arming them into buying less popular material. So ITV, for example, will buy the rights to show the new James Bond film as part of a package peppered with shite and old favourites that they'll then use as filler. This is why they're usually studio-pictures like Wild Wild West. They obviously get so many per season and then keep showing them til they acquire a new batch.

Presumably that's also how the BBC comes to show films long unavailable on DVD at frustrating times of night, like John Boorman's Point Blank this week, and how fantastic films, like Lost Highway, pop up among the camp B-movie dross on SyFy.

[Replies From View]

And you have allowed him to live?

He doesn't attach them to his childhood in the same way as me.  Born in 1969 he was already 15 before the first film was out - probably 23 or 24 by the time the trilogy was on television and he watched them for the first time with the family.  I remember going to a local cinema in 1992 on my own and watching the entire trilogy aged 12; it was a pretty defining experience, but when the family were all watching it on TV together it wasn't the same. 

You need to get them at the right time - I didn't see the Star Wars films until the late 90s, and found I couldn't be arsed with them.  Missed the boat with the Indiana Jones films too.

[Blumf]

...like John Boorman's Point Blank this week...

Of for fucks sake! I've been wanting to watch that for a while now and missed it.

[El Unicornio, mang]

He doesn't attach them to his childhood in the same way as me.  Born in 1969 he was already 15 before the first film was out - probably 23 or 24 by the time the trilogy was on television and he watched them for the first time with the family.  I remember going to a local cinema in 1992 on my own and watching the entire trilogy aged 12; it was a pretty defining experience, but when the family were all watching it on TV together it wasn't the same. 

You need to get them at the right time - I didn't see the Star Wars films until the late 90s, and found I couldn't be arsed with them.  Missed the boat with the Indiana Jones films too.

Kind of understandable, but then again I think Back to the Future is such a fantastic, tight, thrilling movie that it should appeal to anyone. Star Wars, I can understand people not of that time disliking it, as it's a bit clunky and daft.

[Replies From View]

Kind of understandable, but then again I think Back to the Future is such a fantastic, tight, thrilling movie that it should appeal to anyone. Star Wars, I can understand people not of that time disliking it, as it's a bit clunky and daft.

My brother and I have both been fairly anal about time travel logic before now; he still is while I'm more relaxed about it and can suspend disbelief more when on the ride.  Basically we both lean more towards the fixed timeline model, as per Bill and Ted, as opposed to one in which changing the past erases you limb by limb.  Even accepting Back to the Future on its own terms, it (and its sequels especially) isn't airtight in its time travel logic, but you just have to overlook it all because it's so fun.

[thecuriousorange]

Groundhog Day is on a fair bit. I'm sure there's a lazy hack joke that can be made about this fact. I'm not going to make it though because it's a great film which I am always happy to watch. Not sure if this is 110% on topic.

So yeah .... fuck you TV bastards for showing a good film quite a lot.

[Replies From View]

I reckon sequels are aired more frquently than the first one.  The Fly 2, for example, and Ghostbusters 2.  Sure of it.

[Dead kate moss]

Ok, how about some great, well known movies that never seem to be on? The Long Good Friday, The Warriors, Dog Day Afternoon, Point Blank, Cop Dog, Network... David Lynch, Nic Roeg, & Jim Jarmusch films hardly get much of a look in, or I have missed them.

Some kind of Moviedrome series, highlighting cult or not-well-known-but-great movies needs to be on. It introduced me and I'm sure others here to lots of fantastic stuff. I don't get any movie channels maybe they are all on there now, though they never were when I did have the movie channels.

Remember Hardware? Post-apocalyptic 2000ad short story-inspired/rip-off, has Lemmy and Carl McCoy out of The Fields Of The Nephilim in it? I bet that bit of fun silliness hasn't been on TV for 20 years.

[El Unicornio, mang]

My brother and I have both been fairly anal about time travel logic before now; he still is while I'm more relaxed about it and can suspend disbelief more when on the ride.  Basically we both lean more towards the fixed timeline model, as per Bill and Ted, as opposed to one in which changing the past erases you limb by limb.  Even accepting Back to the Future on its own terms, it (and its sequels especially) isn't airtight in its time travel logic, but you just have to overlook it all because it's so fun.

Well yeah, the time travel logic is full of holes, but I mean the script/direction/editing, etc. is tight.

[Blumf]

Ok, how about some great, well known movies that never seem to be on? The Long Good Friday,

That's on fairly regularly, not at saturation level mind. Due another run soon I suspect.

Some kind of Moviedrome series

Yes! So long as they keep that pointless little twat Kermode away from it.

I'd like to see runs of the old silent comedies, they used to be on daytime TV all the time in the 80s and I loved them as a kid.

When was the last time Casablanca was on terrestrial UK TV?

[Ignatius_S]

...Some kind of Moviedrome series, highlighting cult or not-well-known-but-great movies needs to be on. It introduced me and I'm sure others here to lots of fantastic stuff. I don't get any movie channels maybe they are all on there now, though they never were when I did have the movie channels. ...

Amen to that!

When Alex Cox was the presenter, he didn't have complete control over the films – I'm pretty sure that  he mentioned that the producer (Nick Jones, I think) and himself picked half each. However, Cox usually says that Jones picked the most from of the BBC archive (i.e. the BBC had them, but weren't screening them). However, Cox was manage to show versions that hadn't been seen in the UK before.

Cox wasn't always a big fan (or a small one) of every film, but still manage to do a great intro. Actually, I have a feeling that the original idea was to have a number of presenters, but they just decided to go with Cox.

One of the reasons Cox left was that the BBC was placing more restrictions – the big one was no foreign-language films to be shown. I was talking about this the other day to someone – pointing to the fact that BBC 2 used to show stuff like a season of Czech New Wave cinema...but who would be interested in things like that.

A while ago, there was a Spaghetti Western season on ITV4 (possibly when it launched) and Cox presented them – great stuff!

I've posted this before, but Moviedrome booklets can be downloaded at Cox's site - http://www.alexcox.com/freestuff.htm

...When was the last time Casablanca was on terrestrial UK TV?

I suspect Barb Wire is more likely to be shown these days.