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Post by yanceycravat on Jan 4, 2023 3:54:40 GMT
Tonight on TCM (2023-01-03) they reran the What A Character segment highlighting William Frawley.
I thought it looked a little different than the one they've been airing. I checked it against the one I've saved and sure enough it's been updated. They used some stills, some in color.
Same voice over by James Cromwell.
Wonder if they updated the others as well.
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Post by topbilled on Jan 4, 2023 7:01:32 GMT
Tonight on TCM (2023-01-03) they reran the What A Character segment highlighting William Frawley.
I thought it looked a little different than the one they've been airing. I checked it against the one I've saved and sure enough it's been updated. They used some stills, some in color.
Same voice over by James Cromwell.
Wonder if they updated the others as well.
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Post by cmovieviewer on Jan 4, 2023 7:27:50 GMT
I've noticed in the past they will update some of their shorts to include widescreen material when before it was cropped for 4x3 "full screen".
(I haven't compared old vs new William Frawley to know if this is part of the new changes.)
- I wish they would somehow give credit to the voice actors doing the narration.
- It would be nice if they would include these on the TCM YouTube channel but I'm not sure of the rights situation.
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Post by yanceycravat on Jan 4, 2023 12:50:04 GMT
Did they replace some images that might have been deemed politically incorrect? |
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Post by Swithin on Jan 4, 2023 14:18:55 GMT
Speaking of William Frawley and politically incorrect, I'm sorry I missed the segment but wonder whether it included a clip of Frawley in blackface in Harmony Lane (1935), an underrated biopic about Stephen Foster, in which Frawley plays Ed Christy, founder of the Christy Minstrels. I like the film, but there is that issue.  Douglass Montgomery as Stephen Foster and William Frawley as Edwin P. Christy  |
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Post by yanceycravat on Jan 4, 2023 15:19:20 GMT
There was no clip or still of Frawley in blackface.
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Post by sepiatone on Jan 4, 2023 17:49:42 GMT
That makes no adult level of sense. Portray Ed Christy without a shot of the actor in blackface? Might as well do a Lincoln Biopic without the beard. For those who dislike men with facial hair they wish not to offend.  SepiTONE |
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Post by jamesjazzguitar on Jan 4, 2023 20:18:35 GMT
That makes no adult level of sense. Portray Ed Christy without a shot of the actor in blackface? Might as well do a Lincoln Biopic without the beard. For those who dislike men with facial hair they wish not to offend. SepiTONE My understanding is that the Ed Christy character wasn't portrayed, period, in Frawley's What A Character segment. I believe a point was the question of: did TCM update What A Character segments by removing what could be viewed as offensive content. |
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Post by Swithin on Jan 4, 2023 21:57:37 GMT
That makes no adult level of sense. Portray Ed Christy without a shot of the actor in blackface? Might as well do a Lincoln Biopic without the beard. For those who dislike men with facial hair they wish not to offend. SepiTONE My understanding is that the Ed Christy character wasn't portrayed, period, in Frawley's What A Character segment. I believe a point was the question of: did TCM update What A Character segments by removing what could be viewed as offensive content. I'm not surprised they didn't include a clip, partly because the movie is hardly known: Harmony Lane is a very low-budget film made by Mascot Pictures. I think Douglass Montgomery and Evelyn Venable give fine performances, and, although it may not be a great film overall, it has lovely moments. The ending, when Christy (not in blackface) announces Foster's death, is quite touching. It's on YouTube. |
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Post by sepiatone on Jan 5, 2023 16:58:55 GMT
My understanding is that the Ed Christy character wasn't portrayed, period, in Frawley's What A Character segment. Cripes yeah, of course. But the quickly shown IMAGE is from a movie in which Frawley portrayed Mr. Christy. Damn. This site needs a "rolleyes" emoticon. Whitefang |
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Post by yanceycravat on Jan 7, 2023 15:36:39 GMT
Well asked and answered...
This morning (2023-01-07) TCM ran the Eve Arden installment of What a Character and it was different than the one that previously used to air. It had different clips and stills.
Not that it's a big issue but I am curious as to why they did this.
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Post by sepiatone on Jan 7, 2023 18:06:44 GMT
Well, not all people with computers go online and join message boards. Many probably do write letters and maybe TCM got enough of them complaining about a clip form this movie or TV show not being in the "What A Character" segment. Or maybe that's their way of "keeping it fresh".
Just guessing....
Sepiatone
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Post by jamesjazzguitar on Jan 7, 2023 18:41:01 GMT
Well asked and answered...
This morning (2023-01-07) TCM ran the Eve Arden installment of What a Character and it was different than the one that previously used to air. It had different clips and stills.
Not that it's a big issue but I am curious as to why they did this.
Interesting! Yea, why would TCM go to the expense to change\update any What A Character segment? As for the Arden one; was there a clip of Arden as Sgt. Natalia Moskoroff, from The Doughgirls? The best part of the film is Arden as a Russian solider. Would current events make someone at TCM say "we better remove that clip from What A Character"? I would hope NOT. (as you might know the film is from 1944 and therefore the Arden character is an ally and not the enemy). |
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Post by Fading Fast on Jan 7, 2023 19:18:56 GMT
I'm stunned TCM is updating the "What a Character" segments (which are great fun) as, as James Jazz Guitar notes, that's no small expense.
I hope it's to keep them fresh and not for some stupid reason.
If it is to keep them fresh, that's a good sign that TCM isn't turning over the seat cushions looking for spare change.
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Post by cmovieviewer on Jan 7, 2023 20:01:34 GMT
I'm stunned TCM is updating the "What a Character" segments (which are great fun) as, as James Jazz Guitar notes, that's no small expense.
I hope it's to keep them fresh and not for some stupid reason.
If it is to keep them fresh, that's a good sign that TCM isn't turning over the seat cushions looking for spare change. I agree with your point but it is also possible that the updates were in the pipeline before the recent Warner-Discovery merger was finalized. There's probably a long lead time for doing this work, and if the money was already spent the fact that it is now showing up for broadcast may not reflect the situation going forward. Repeating myself a bit, but I think there has been on ongoing process of converting shorts from the old 4x3 to widescreen format for quite some time. It may take a while before the previously scheduled/completed work has all been shown.
Sorry to be a rain cloud.
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