TNT (the old TNT) and me

[bradleyem]

This week marks the 30th anniversary of the debut of Turner Network Television (TNT), which exposed millions of film watchers to hundreds of out-of-the-vault rarities. Remember? I've written a personal account at earlysoundguy.com.
https://earlysoundguy.com/2018/10/01/tnt-and-me/

[Dean Thompson]

Lovely and nostalgic personal account, Bradley, especially your thoughts as you rocked your first son. Though it cost me many hours of sleep, I'll always be grateful to TNT for introducing me to Public Enemy and Grand Hotel, still two of my favorite guilty pleasures.

[wich2]

I recall it well...

I believe one of the first films run was ARSENE LUPIN? (And I think I rushed home from doing extra work on GHOSTBUSTERS II to record it.)

Having to pause out the commercials was annoying; but the great prints made it very worthwhile!

- Craig

[radiotelefonia]

I remember its Latin American version, before it switched into a mediocre and unremarkable channel. I saw many MGM and Warners classics there in better presentations than in the Argentine broadcast stations.

[silentfilm]

Ted Turner has recently been diagnosed with Lew body dementia.

https://variety.com/2018/tv/news/ted-tu ... 202961296/

[radiotelefonia]

A Latin American TNT commercial break with internal promos only recorded in Argentina. Since this was a panregional signal, titles constantly switch from Spanish to Portuguese for Brazilian audiences (the signal offered three soundtrack options). This was at the time of Mother's Day. I don't know if there was an English language counterpart.

[radiotelefonia]

Another old TNT Latin America commercial brake featuring internal promos only, from 1993.

[bradleyem]

I recall it well...

I believe one of the first films run was ARSENE LUPIN? (And I think I rushed home from doing extra work on GHOSTBUSTERS II to record it.)

Having to pause out the commercials was annoying; but the great prints made it very worthwhile!

- Craig

You had to develop a certain knack to edit out the commercials well; it mainly had to do with knowing how quickly your pause and play buttons on your VCR remote worked after you made contact with them. Oh, for the old days!

[Jim Roots]

Someone famous died recently from Lew body dementia. Does anyone remember who it was? I've been racking my brains trying to remember.

(Insert appropriate joke here.)

Seriously ... was it an athlete, or a performer?

Apparently poor Tim Conway is totally incapacitated by Alzheimer's, too. Messy court battle over his care between his family and his last wife/companion.

Jim

[wich2]

Having to pause out the commercials was annoying; but the great prints made it very worthwhile!

- Craig

You had to develop a certain knack to edit out the commercials well; it mainly had to do with knowing how quickly your pause and play buttons on your VCR remote worked after you made contact with them. Oh, for the old days!

Yep. And each machine was different... Lots of frustrating trial-and-error.

It got a little easlier, when I got an S-VHS machine with jog-and-shuttle.

[radiotelefonia]

Commercial brakes from October 1994, recorded in Chile, during a presentation of PSYCHO. The channel only had internal promos, many of which feature clips computer colorized versions.

[radiotelefonia]

Commercial brakes from August, 1994, recorded in Chile. It is interesting to actually see one commercial from before they changed by country.

[Dean Thompson]

Someone famous died recently from Lew body dementia. Does anyone remember who it was? I've been racking my brains trying to remember.

Seriously ... was it an athlete, or a performer?

Jim

Jim, you may be thinking of Dina Merrill, who died in May of 2017 after suffering from LBD for many years.

[Mike Gebert]

Robin Williams.

[Scott Eckhardt]

Having to pause out the commercials was annoying; but the great prints made it very worthwhile!

- Craig

You had to develop a certain knack to edit out the commercials well; it mainly had to do with knowing how quickly your pause and play buttons on your VCR remote worked after you made contact with them. Oh, for the old days!

Yep. And each machine was different... Lots of frustrating trial-and-error.

It got a little easlier, when I got an S-VHS machine with jog-and-shuttle.

I got to be pretty good at editing commercials when recording on my Sanyo Betacord, which was my second beta machine. I finally bought a vhs machine at Zayre's. This was a GoldStar machine which carried Zayre's house brand name Randix. This machine had "backspace editing." That is, when you hit the key, it would back up a few fractions to compensate for hitting the key late. I tested the machine by editing an episode of DYNASTY. When I played it back, the opening credits and the end of every scene was cut off. I had to learn to wait about 2 seconds before hitting the pause.

[s.w.a.c.]

What a difference it made getting a hi-fi VCR with a flying erase head. Much cleaner edits at commercial breaks!

[dr.giraud]

The old TNT was great. All those movies I'd had to stay up half the night to see, broadcast during daylight hours--I took a day off work to watch a Busby Berkeley marathon, for example. Then I'd stay up half the night anyway to watch obscure early talkies that hadn't been in circulation for years.

When Turner Classic Movies came along, it was annoying because there was a gap of a few years between TNT no longer showing the classics and my cable system adding TCM.

[earlytalkiebuffRob]

My first encounter to TNT was in the 1990s when my then wife and I had cable TV. There was an excellent selection of long-unseen films from the Warner and MGM vaults until they started having adverts, fewer rarities, and endless repeats of more familiar items. At that point I quit, it not being worth the money...

[brendangcarroll]

I loved TNT - and miss it still.

Who remembers "Trailer Time" - when between films, they would show about 4 or 5 old trailers, many never seen before...or since!

In the UK it was replaced by the wretched watered down version of TCM.

No more rare early pre-code talkies, no rare WB and MGM titles.

I recorded a number of films then that I had never seen before, including MANDALAY (1934) THE WHITE SISTER (1936) TWO SECONDS (1932) HEARTS DIVIDED (1936)...so many more.

Happy days!