Warner Brothers History on PBS

[John in Covina]

If you are lucky, your local PBS station will be showing a new American Masters Program entitled "Warner Brothers: You Must Remember This" a history of the Warner Brothers studios. Tuesday evening sometime 9/23/08.

I just caught a bit of the "commercial" on KCET channel 28 in the Los Angeles area.

 

[The Wolf]

I have a DVD called "Here's Looking at You, Warner Bros." that is the history of the studios. It's funny that both documentary titles are a reference to "Casablanca".

Sincerely,
The Wolf

 

[John in Covina]

That is wild.

 

[Solid Citizen]

SHOCKING simply SHOCKING

Considering that "Casablanca", is often
rated in the top 3 BEST movies ever made
not surprsing either of those WB docu's
using lines reff.'s

Solid Citizen

 

[Flivver]

I heard an interview with the producer of the PBS documentary yesterday on the radio. Sounds *really* interesting! I've marked my calendar.

 

[John in Covina]

The people that put together the American Masters, American Experience, and American Presidents have done some awesome work. They tend to be well made, and heavy with film and photos of the era in discussion.

 

[Tomasso]

Thank's for the heads-up, John.

BTW, there are several clips from the doc on the AM website.

 

[John in Covina]

Watched it, episode one was 2 hours of great stuff. I did not realize there is more, I think they said 2 more episodes! Tomorrow night is the next one if i heard right.

 

[Doctor Strange]

There's two more hours tonight, and then the final hour on Thursday night.

Like everything by Richard Schickel, it's very well done, though I think it's going a little too fast and skipping some important things (the golden age of Warner Bros cartoons in the 30s/40s, anybody?!?) But this is a minor complaint: it's an excellent overview, and bound to generate interest in some sadly neglected films/actors.

What I am very pleased to see is the high quality of critics and film historians among the talking heads. I kept going, "Hey, I've read his books. I've read one of her books. I used to read his reviews in the Village Voice. I've read ALL of her books. I always agree with him..."

(The only one I don't like is Neil Gabler, who has always struck me as a self-impressed blowhard who just points out the obvious. I had to throw down his insanely overpraised recent biography of Walt Disney in disgust after dragging myself most of the way through. Though it's being accepted as "definitive", it shows no understanding of the man, just a boatload of factoids. I am currently reading the other recent Disney bio - the much shorter but vastly better one by Mike Barrier.)

Oh, and all those great hats in the thirties films!

 

[scotrace]

It was well done and I'm glad I watched, but they could have easily done two more nights covering the same time period. I thought that all the clips were the usual suspects: you see that footage in every documentary that crops up. The exceptions were some of the lesser-known Cagney stuff, like the the Yiddish bit in the cab, and Ronald Reagan got a fair shake for a change as an actor.

 

[Fletch]

I quite enjoyed it, especially the review of the 30s "topicals" that are too creaky and difficult to turn up very often on TCM.

For some reason, Maltin, Haskell et al passed commenting on these, leaving most of it to some guy with a squint and a floppy, protruding lower lip. Anybody recognize him? B@st@rd son of Joe Franklin perhaps?

I agree with Doc's assessment of Neal Gabler, btw. Even speaking solo, the guy talks like he's afraid someone else will get a word in edgewise.