The Turner Classic Movies brand remains in flux after a busy week that saw a rare statement from three of Hollywood's top filmmakers in support of the Warner Bros. Discovery channel after the departure of network general manager Pola Changnon as well as the reported departures of several network executives, due in part to Warner Bros. Discovery layoffs.
News of the executive departures led to a rare union of film icons Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese and Paul Thomas Anderson, who said in a joint statement that they had recently spoken to WBD CEO David Zaslav about their concerns revolving around the network’s future.
TCM, which has offered top vintage Hollywood films commercial-free since its inception in 1994, took a major executive hit this week as Changnon left the company, while recent WBD executive layoffs played a part in the departure of other senior executives including senior VP of programming and content strategy Charlie Tabesh, VP of marketing and creative Dexter Fedor, TCM Enterprises VP Genevieve McGillicuddy and VP of studio production executive Anne Wilson, according to published reports.
“Turner Classic Movies has always been more than just a channel … it is truly a precious resource of cinema, open 24 hours a day seven days a week,” Anderson, Scorcese and Spielberg said in the statement. ”We have each spent time talking to David, separately and together, and it’s clear that TCM and classic cinema are very important to him. Our primary aim is to ensure that TCM’s programming is untouched and protected.”
Changnon was immediately replaced by former TCM head Michael Ouweleen. WBD chairman and chief content officer U.S. Networks Group Kathleen Finch said in a statement Tuesday that Ouweleen, who also runs Adult Swim, Cartoon Network, Discovery Family and Boomerang, would oversee a “seamless transition” at TCM and “shares our passion for classic films, and believes strongly in TCM’s essential role in preserving and spotlighting iconic movies.”
Despite the outreach from Spielberg, Scorsese and Anderson, industry observers are not convinced that TCM will not change under the new regime.
“I’m not sure that the comments from Spielberg, Scorsese and Anderson are as comforting as many are making it out to be,” Robert Thompson, professor of television and popular culture at Syracuse University’s S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, said. “From the news that we’ve gotten so far with all the major executive departures, it’s hard to have confidence because I’m not sure who's going to be left to do the important things that the network does well.”
WBD’s TCM layoffs and the effects on the network’s brand drew social media backlash as entertainers and film executives rallied to its support.
As a general rule, I'm trying to live my professional career so that I don't get an emergency phone call from Spielberg, Scorsese, and Paul Thomas Anderson telling me I fucked up. https://t.co/axyDoMDDsxJune 21, 2023
Thompson added that the TCM brand has a loyal and vocal fan base that will remain engaged in its future. “In many ways people are most worried about losing this channel because it’s a remnant from the early days of cable,” he said. “TCM as a cable service seems as old school as the old movies that they’re playing … it reminds us of when cable was the new technology.”
