Okay, with not much on new or interesting either tonight or tomorrow night (besides the usual season finales), I went tripping through my local listings and found that there’s a nice little treasure airing on TCM (aka Turner Classic Movies). But before we get there, I was also maundering on, okay, trying to find something to write about and came across an interesting tidbit.
First off, we’ve been in upfront season for over a month now. For us lay folk, the upfronts are when the broadcast networks announce their new fall season schedules. But the reason they do that is to sell the advertisers commercial time in advance of the fall and lock in some money. This season has been a tad drawn out, since all the cable networks have been announcing their new shows since April.
Traditionally, the broadcast nets announce their seasons the third week in May (which is next week), but NBC did jump the gun last week with their big presentation. The catch? NBC did not announce how it was going to schedule the shows they have picked up, and they left several shows, including the under-rated but much beloved in this household Chuck, hanging in limbo until May 19. Eyes are rolling everywhere.
But since ABC, Fox, CBS and The CW are waiting until next week to make their announcements, there is still a chance that you can petition the nets to save your favorite show, such as Everybody Hates Chris or Terminator, the Sarah Conner Chronicles or whatever. Hate to say it, but Pushing Daisies and Eli Stone are already gone. Sigh. There are several campaigns out there on the Internet, including some for Chuck. Do a Google on save whatever and you should be able to come up with your preferred campaign. I got a whole page of Save Chuck entries when I did it just now.
But the film treasure. Usually I don’t mention airings of theatrical films in this space because there is one big problem with most of them – commercials. What’s the point? With Netflix and Blockbuster and a host of other video services, why would anyone watch a broadcast version of their fave flick with commercial interruptions? Even video recorders have pause buttons, in case you or the junior member needs to stop the movie to go to the potty. Puh-leeze.
However, TCM airs movies you aren’t as likely to find in your local video rental shop and they do it (if I recall correctly) without commercial interruption. Tonight (check your local listings for the time) they are airing one of the sweetest films ever made, The Milagro Beanfield War.
I know. How can a film with War in its title be a sweet little film? We-e-e-ell, the war is not one of weapons, but it is about the fight for justice, nonetheless. A dirt-poor farmer in New Mexico accidently diverts water set aside for other, richer, folk into his beanfield and sets off a small cataclysm of events in the tiny, ancient (by American standards) town in which he lives.
The film moves somewhat slowly and is imbued with supernatural elements. Safety-wise, there are some language issues and some implied sexual behavior. That’s if I and my husband remember it right. It’s been a while since either of us saw the flick and the fact that we really had to think it over is a pretty good clue that whatever those elements were, they weren’t that integral to the story-telling.
So there you have it. Not sure what I’m going to do tomorrow, since the same state of affairs as today exists. But what the heck.
Anne Louise Bannon
Your Family Viewer
