TCM Tally by Decade – 2014

June 2014

If you’re wondering what and why the TCM Tally is, skip down to January’s introduction, which includes all of the details.

Following are the decade by decade count of movies playing on Turner Classic Movies throughout June –

First, a special tally for TCM’s June Star of the Month, Rock Hudson:

Rock Hudson TCM Tally

1950s – 11 movies
1960s – 8
1940s – 1
1970s – 1

Following is the entire month of June on TCM:

June 2014 TCM Tally

1950s – 108 movies
1940s – 106
1960s – 84
1930s – 57
1970s – 17
1920s – 8
1980s – 6
1990s – 3

The ’30s took a major hit this month with over 20 fewer titles playing in June than had in May. (We’re going to get a big boost come September though!) Here’s the complete tally from January 1-June 30, 2014:

2014 Cumulative Tally

1940s – 566 movies
1950s – 542
1930s – 482
1960s – 405
1970s – 125
1920s – 76
1980s – 49
1990s – 23
1910s – 12
2000s – 2

The 1950s really stretched its grasp on second place over the ’30s (which you know makes me grumble) but, as usual, TCM generally sticks to its specialty throughout June: The 1930s-1960s. Later decades suffered as well in a month that was very heavy on the ’40s and ’50s.

May 2014

Look for my general preview of May on TCM, a deceptively decent month, within about 24 hours time. I won’t have a general preview of May on TCM this month (my apologies, ran a little too late with it), but I spent a little time with my Now Playing guide earlier tonight and decided to count off the May tally while I was at it.

If you’re just joining in and wondering what and why the TCM Tally is, skip down to January’s introduction to the feature for all of the details. For those in the know, here we go:

TCM’s Star of the Month for May, June Allyson, breaks down pretty simply:

June Allyson TCM Tally

1940s – 18 movies
1950s – 10
1970s – 1

Following is the entire month of May on TCM:

May 2014 TCM Tally

1940s – 103 movies
1950s – 94
1930s – 78
1960s – 52
1970s – 30
1980s – 19
1920s – 12
1990s – 4

Seems like a bit of the ’60s were sacrificed for all those ’70s and ’80s (Australian) movies. Here’s the complete tally from January 1-May 31, 2014:

2014 Cumulative Tally

1940s – 460 movies
1950s – 434
1930s – 425
1960s – 321
1970s – 108
1920s – 68
1980s – 43
1990s – 20
1910s – 12
2000s – 2

Other than the nearly regular ’50s/’30s flip-flop in the standings, everything seems status quo.

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April 2014

Within the next 24 hours I hope to post my general preview of Turner Classic Movies for April, but wanted to spend some time with the schedule and update the tally before I did so.

If you’re just joining in and wondering what and why the TCM Tally is, just skip down to January’s introduction to the feature for all of the details. For those in the know, here we go:

First up, here’s how TCM’s Star of the Month John Wayne breaks down:

John Wayne TCM Tally

1940s – 17 movies
1930s – 16
1950s – 12
1960s – 8
1970s – 2

And following is the entire month of April on TCM:

April 2014 TCM Tally

1950s – 110 movies
1940s – 78
1930s – 76
1960s – 70
1970s – 20
1920s – 13
1980s – 2
1990s – 2

April definitely helps the ’50s on its cumulative climb. Here’s the tally from January 1-April 30, 2014:

2014 Cumulative Tally

1940s – 357 movies
1930s – 347
1950s – 340
1960s – 269
1970s – 78
1920s – 56
1980s – 24
1990s – 16
1910s – 12
2000s – 2

Surprised to see the ’30s suffer in April, despite the Duke’s strong (numerical) addition to the decade.

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March 2014

There’s a few ways to count them up in March.

Count the movies playing on Turner Classic Movies, that is. If you’re not familiar with my monthly tally of TCM’s programming by decade you might want to jump down the page to January’s introduction to the feature. If you’re looking for the March tally then just keep reading.

I run two tallies for March below, but a third way would replace what is scheduled for March 9 with the Shirley Temple tribute TCM has rescheduled for that day. But I’ve decided that the tally works best on TCM’s intent and not what they actually play. The reason is simple: What if they make a schedule change after I’ve already tallied the month? (And let’s hope they don’t have to because that would imply a major death.) So I stick with what’s published in Now Playing.

TCM returns to their more typical programming after “31 Days of Oscar” wraps up on March 3. The “Star of the Month” for March will be Mary Astor, a choice that I’m quite excited about. Before we get to the main tally, I thought it would be interesting just to count off the Mary Astor movies airing throughout March in order to see how the “Star of the Month” weights the tally, if at all.

Mary Astor TCM Tally

1930s – 31 movies
1940s – 15
1920s – 4
1950s – 2
1960s – 1

Now that’s my kind of star!

On to the main tallies for March. We have two, plus the 2014 cumulative, and I’ll explain why in just a moment. First the TCM Tally for March 1-31:

March 1-31 2014 Tally:

1930s – 98 movies
1940s – 92
1950s – 92
1960s – 72
1920s – 21
1970s – 17
1980s – 9
1990s – 5
2000s – 1

But March 1-3 skew our tally some because those dates are part of TCM’s “31 Days of Oscar” event. It turns out those three days are especially heavy on 1930s and 1960s movies.

Since I had already counted March 1-3 in the February tally (and 2014 cumulative through February) I had to do a recount eliminating March 1-3 in order to bring the Yearly Tally correctly up to date. Those results may actually make for a more accurate portrayal of the month anyway, and so here they are:

March 4-31 2014 Tally:

1940s – 92 movies
1950s – 87
1930s – 85
1960s – 61
1920s – 21
1970s – 17
1980s – 8
1990s – 5
2000s – 1

Major difference as the 1930s drop from first to third, even with all of those Mary Astor movies playing. The Year-to-Date count:

2014 Cumulative Tally

1940s – 279 movies
1930s – 271
1950s – 230
1960s – 199
1970s – 58
1920s – 43
1980s – 22
1990s – 14
1910s – 12
2000s – 2

Previous months follow below with a more complete explanation of the tally in the rather lengthy January section.

I’ll be back in a day or two with my March 2014 TCM Preview Post.

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February 2014

Originally posted February 12, 2014.
I counted off the February 2014 TCM Tally on Wednesday afternoon. If you’re wondering just what that means, see the long (re)introduction below for January’s tally.

February is one of those months that potentially skews our count, but as you’ll see in a moment even Oscar month doesn’t shake TCM from its big four decades, the 1930s through the 1960s.

By the very nature of TCM’s “31 Days of Oscar” programming the 1920s are underrepresented, scoring lower than even the 1980s this February. Earlier decades do not register at all since the first Academy Awards were not presented until 1929.

One quick note that I’ll have to take care to remember myself when I do the count for next month: “31 Days of Oscar” extends through March 3 and so both the February monthly tally and the 2014 cumulative tally now extend through that date.

February 2014 Tally:

1940s – 84 movies
1930s – 80
1950s – 73
1960s – 68
1970s – 16
1980s – 8
1920s – 6
1990s – 4

2014 Cumulative Tally

1940s – 187 movies
1930s – 186
1950s – 143
1960s – 138
1970s – 41
1920s – 22
1980s – 14
1910s – 12
1990s – 9
2000s – 1

Again, the full explanation follows below as originally posted January 4. This post will be updated with the latest count sometime in March.

If you’re interested in better detail of TCM’s February programming please see my preview posted earlier this month.

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January Tally and Introduction to Feature

Originally posted January 4, 2014.
If you’ve been following the site for awhile you may recall the tally of films by decade that I used to include at the bottom of my monthly previews of Turner Classic Movies programming. I last ran a TCM tally in September 2012, so I want to offer a brief explanation up top for anybody who has begun reading since after that time. Here’s the old monthly intro:

For those unfamiliar with this feature, this is the part of the entry where I open up my TCM Now Playing Guide to tally off every movie TCM shows during the month of January and record the results by decade. You’ll find me rooting hard for the 1930’s and 40’s and holding my nose to big gains from the 1960’s and later. I could go either way on the 50’s.

I killed off the tally for two reasons: 1) It became repetitive, at least outside of February’s “31 Days of Oscar” programming on TCM. The count otherwise seemed similar month to month. 2) The preview itself is a time consuming post and the tally became just one more thing to do on top of everything else.

I’m bringing it back for almost the exact opposite reason as to why I started it. I’m generally happy with TCM’s monthly schedule these days, whereas I had my doubts a couple of years ago. The channel seemed to be trending towards newer movies and Oscar month in 2012 had inspired me to count them. Completing several tallies throughout 2012 actually served to allay those fears. Today I’m counting them off to show that TCM hasn’t strayed too far from the old movies we expect out of them.

There are other reasons as well.

Two of my most respected blogging friends, Will of Cinematically Insane and Laura of Laura’s Miscellaneous Musings, have missed the tally and let me know every so often. If they found value in it, it must be worthwhile!

Finally, it’s no longer part of my monthly preview.

That last point takes a bit of the pressure off me. I can now update the tally whenever I find a free moment throughout the month, as opposed to needing to get it done in order to get my preview out on time.

Returning to my first point, I do want to make clear that the tally was never inspired by any dislike of more recent movies. It was originally inspired by my dislike of more recent movies on TCM. This seems less true just a couple of years later, but I get the newer stuff on other channels. No one else gives me uncut old movies. I’ll always lobby for a ’30s flop over a ’70s masterpiece when it comes to TCM simply because that is what I enjoy most (Yes, me, me, me, but this argument always comes down to “me,” doesn’t it?).

Earlier today Lara at Backlots posted an excellent piece about the definition of classic film. She was inspired to do so because TCM is played a movie released in 2001 on Friday night–and we’ll see below that A Beautiful Mind doesn’t skew the tally very far off course. My opinion about the movie and its status isn’t relevant to the tally. What bugs me is that I can see Russell Crowe on other channels almost any other day. I can only see Gable or Harlow or, jeeze, Richard Barthelmess or ZaSu Pitts on TCM.

I don’t want TCM to turn into the new AMC, but I don’t want them to turn into the old IFC either.

While the original tally began backed by such worries I no longer expect our TCM to change very much any time soon. Perhaps a little in the margins. The tally takes a look at those margins, but after having done it previously for so many months the main purpose of the tally today is to calm those fears when we wonder if TCM has suddenly stopped playing our oldies. Probably not. It’s just a bad day or a bad week. Bad months are rare.

This will be a cumulative post that I re-post each month throughout 2014 with the updated count. Come February, I’ll just post the count up above this intro so you don’t have to scroll through all of this same text to get to the numbers.

The numbers? Following is the January 2014 TCM Tally:

1930s – 106
1940s – 103
1950s – 70
1960s – 70
1970s – 25
1920s – 16
1910s – 12
1980s – 6
1990s – 5
2000s – 1

This is far from the most effective way to measure what TCM is playing, but it is the most expedient. You could say that decades provide a somewhat arbitrary form of measurement and I’d actually agree with you, but the tally does nicely illustrate the TCM niche. Simply compare the count from the 1930s to that of the 1990s and then find the reverse with most other movie networks. Though the most interesting part of the count usually turns out to be in the meaty 1930s-1960s range.

There are other problems as well. The 12 movies from the 1910s, for example, are all shorts with a total running time that adds up to just that of just a movie or two from later decades. A more perfect tally would total the running times of every feature as opposed to simply treating them all as even. Now that would be a bit of a job to compile every month!

I do leave out things like documentaries and other special programming (Not counted: Carson on TCM; MGM Parade Show; Now Playing January; Live from the TCM Classic Film Festival; Jimmy Fund–At Home with Joan Crawford). I will count a movie twice if it is airing twice (such as It Happened One Night or Reunion in France in January). Each of those decisions makes the most sense to me.

This is the schedule as published in the January 2014 edition of Now Playing magazine and does not account for any potential programming changes (such as those in December after the deaths of Eleanor Parker, Joan Fontaine and Peter O’Toole led to tribute marathons for each).

No, it’s not perfect, but it is what they have planned and it at least gives an idea of where TCM’s programming leans each month. In this case Star of the Month Joan Crawford gives my 1930s a nice bump.

To give an idea of what to expect, following is the cumulative tally I took from January through September 2012:

905 – 1950s
888 – 1940s
716 – 1930s
681 – 1960s
167 – 1970s
100 – 1920s
79 – 1980s
61 – 1910s
11 – 1990s
1 – 2000s
1 – 1890s
1 – 1900s

That already makes this interesting as the 2012 tally points to this year’s hot start for the ’30s as a likely anomaly. (More than likely, you can bet it is.)

For the total obsessive, I’ll add that the 1930s only scored fourth in January 2012 with a measly 56 movies compared to the winner that month, the ’50s, with 128. Maybe this is our year!

Beginning next month I’ll place the February 2014 tally side-by-side with a cumulative tally for the year as well. And I’ll do my best to keep this going through at least December 2014.

And why do I call it the tally? Well, it all begins here: