May 27- It’s All There-in Black and White
Back to work! You’ve had too many days off, already! Don’t you MISS work? (Okay, I’m shutting up…) It was nice to have a three-day weekend, though…when’s the next one? NOT ‘TIL JULY?! Awww…
I’ve been getting a lot of feedback on our final showings of many of the Universal classics we’ve been lucky to obtain for you guys…there seems to be a real appreciation for these later entries in the Frankenstein series. I will certainly miss having them- but am very happy that we’ve not only renewed their stories with people who’ve missed seeing them on free TV, but also the ones who have gotten their first look at them with our showings.
Roger Ebert recently had one of his “Movie Answer Man” columns in the Sun Times (and, Roger, we’ve all been thinking of you during your recent bout with medical problems- a big “thumbs up” to your fighting spirit and recovery!) and wrote about something that I’ve run into, showing many of the Universal classics- people who “don’t like” black and white films, and, when they see a movie is black and white- decide on that basis-and ONLY that basis –that they don’t want to watch it.
I’ve gotten e-mails and letters from people who are complaining because all we’re showing are black and white movies. Most of them really don’t say WHY they don’t want to see them. I know there’s a younger faction, who’ve never known a time when TV shows were mostly (if not all) black and white- and every movie they went to see in the theater was color- and seem to feel that anything black and white is too old to be worth bothering with!
I remember at program director at a station I was previously with (boy, won’t THIS take a lot of detective work for you to figure out which one that was) who would offer me a choice of movies to run on my show- and when I’d balk at showing an excruciatingly crappy (not fun crappy) film, he’d actually say- “but it’s in color!” One of his theories of programming was always that people are more likely to watch a movie or show that’s in color. I’m guessing he’d never have let “Stooge-a-palooza” off the ground…
I think real fans of the horror genre know that these old classics didn’t need color to get their stories across, to bring to life amazing characters, and to create an atmosphere of foreboding evil. No, there was no bright red blood- heck, most of the time, there was no blood at all, of any color-but they helped form the horror legends that everybody knows today.
I’ve been getting a lot of feedback on our final showings of many of the Universal classics we’ve been lucky to obtain for you guys…there seems to be a real appreciation for these later entries in the Frankenstein series. I will certainly miss having them- but am very happy that we’ve not only renewed their stories with people who’ve missed seeing them on free TV, but also the ones who have gotten their first look at them with our showings.
Roger Ebert recently had one of his “Movie Answer Man” columns in the Sun Times (and, Roger, we’ve all been thinking of you during your recent bout with medical problems- a big “thumbs up” to your fighting spirit and recovery!) and wrote about something that I’ve run into, showing many of the Universal classics- people who “don’t like” black and white films, and, when they see a movie is black and white- decide on that basis-and ONLY that basis –that they don’t want to watch it.
I’ve gotten e-mails and letters from people who are complaining because all we’re showing are black and white movies. Most of them really don’t say WHY they don’t want to see them. I know there’s a younger faction, who’ve never known a time when TV shows were mostly (if not all) black and white- and every movie they went to see in the theater was color- and seem to feel that anything black and white is too old to be worth bothering with!
I remember at program director at a station I was previously with (boy, won’t THIS take a lot of detective work for you to figure out which one that was) who would offer me a choice of movies to run on my show- and when I’d balk at showing an excruciatingly crappy (not fun crappy) film, he’d actually say- “but it’s in color!” One of his theories of programming was always that people are more likely to watch a movie or show that’s in color. I’m guessing he’d never have let “Stooge-a-palooza” off the ground…
I think real fans of the horror genre know that these old classics didn’t need color to get their stories across, to bring to life amazing characters, and to create an atmosphere of foreboding evil. No, there was no bright red blood- heck, most of the time, there was no blood at all, of any color-but they helped form the horror legends that everybody knows today.
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Gotta love the old B & W classics. An old castle or graveyard on a foggy moonlit night just looks spookier in black & white. Here's something to try for the fun of it, I've done it a few times. When watching a new movie adjust the color to turn it B&W and see it a whole new way. I tried this with "Bram Stoker's Dracula" the one with Keanu Reeves & Gary Oldman. "Van Helsing" is another good one to watch in B&W.