Random Cable TV Observations

So I was watching Comic Book Men the other day and during the commercial AMC is advertising its Thanksgiving Week lineup. First on Turkey Day itself Gone With the Wind. OK so far. Then on Fri., The Godfather Saga. Even better. The next day--a Hitchcock marathon. There were clips of Vertigo and Rear Window. Fantastic, maybe AMC will be returning to its original mission and live up to its initials (American Movie Classics) instead of just showing zombies and mad men. But then we got to the final day of the Thanksgiving weekend and how do they cap off this cinemaphile's feast? A Steve Segal marathon!!?? NOOOOO!!!!

Robert Osborne and Mark Cousins introducing
The Story of Film on TCM
Credit: David S. Holloway, TCM 

Speaking of classic movies, I've been faithfully DVRing TCM's showing of the British documentary series The Story of Film: An Odyssey on Monday nights. I've been DVRing because lately they show it at 2 in the morning. When the series first started, the doc would air at 10PM and movies referenced in that week's episode would be screening around it. Maybe the ratings for the Story have fallen off and the programmers are placing it in a slot it can't do too much damage. I'm really enjoying learning about all these obscure Russian, African, and Asian films and listening to narrator-historian Mark Cousins' lilting Irish accent. But he really needs to dress a bit better during the intros with Robert Osborne.

In the mornings, I tend to channel surf while slurping my instant oatmeal. The Hallmark Channel is currently going through its endless rotation of Christmas movies, so they're not showing Golden Girls reruns. That leaves me at a loss. The political news is too depressing to watch Morning Joe (thanks a lot, Obama). So this morning I found Jeff and Cole Casserole, a really weird, low-budget comedy show on Logo, featuring two kooky gay guys talking about Jessica Lange and Joyce DeWitt. My kind of show.