The Decline of AMC

I’m the last one to stick up for American Movie Classics and its perfidious descent into advertiser-supported unwatchability (“No Looking at You, Kid,” by Susan King, July 21). Last year, I sent the network several blistering e-mails regarding the changed policy; so much for AMC President Kate McEnroe’s claim that audiences haven’t noticed. But I must point out that that service’s economics are somewhat different from those at Turner Classic Movies.

Turner is a division of a vastly larger company and has far greater resources. As King pointed out, TCM owns its immense film library (though she neglected to mention that in addition to Warner Bros. and pre-1986 MGM films, the classic RKO titles are also part of the Turner/AOL Time Warner holdings), while AMC must obtain the films it shows from outside distributors (which are not bought but leased for a limited period of time; moreover, the leases, for the most part, merely grant AMC nonexclusive rights to air the movies). During the past year or so, TCM has also leased titles from Universal and Paramount that had previously been aired by AMC.

While I certainly hope my cable system will soon carry AMC’s new Hollywood Classics channel, I can remember clearly the long wait we subscribers suffered while waiting for it to carry TCM and, later, the Fox Movie Channel. The unfortunate reality of the cable business is that operators, squeezed for channel space, are generally resistant to customer entreaties for new services.

More important, AMC’s actions are an ominous symptom of a retrenchment in the way corporate America does business and treats its customers.

A.L. HERN

Los Angeles

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The article on the creeping commercialization of AMC by parent Rainbow Media struck a nerve. As an AMC devotee from Day One of its existence, I was disturbed by the increased interruptions and by plot-revealing “Back Stories” that should have been aired after the movies.

Rainbow Media’s Bravo channel was another favorite. Then, with an ironic insensitivity to its “art house” programming, it now commercials these marvelous films to death. After one or two tries, I gave up watching movies on the company’s third channel, not willing to endure a giant, heavy-handed “WE” in the corner of the screen. I propose a special Golden Sledgehammer award to Rainbow in this year’s Emmys.

Ted Turner, wherever you are, my eternal thanks for TCM.

RONALD J. LEVIN

Pacific Palisades

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Susan King is dead-on. For the past couple of years, AMC has bounced from one terrible idea to another in its effort to “broaden” its viewership.

With an ugly lime-green logo and anti-charismatic host offering edited, pan-and-scan versions of newer films with commercials, AMC seems to be operating from a manual on how to actively drive away an audience.

Perhaps President Kate McEnroe will succeed in transforming AMC into a basic cable network interchangeable with a dozen others--about all she is missing now is the wrestling.

RANDY HENDERSON

West Hollywood

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American Movie Classics has become unwatchable. The commercial breaks, the edits for content and running time, and the skew toward contemporary movies make a mockery of the network’s claim to “film preservation.” But Susan King didn’t mention an additional insult: the network’s broadcasting of “pan-and-scan” prints of classic films. I’ve sent the network e-mails about this, but it hasn’t responded. Clearly, it doesn’t care.

Thank goodness for Turner Classic Movies; TCM is the cable network truly dedicated to the history of film. It shows films from the 1920s to the present, uncut and in their proper wide-screen format when appropriate. TCM also produces great original programming.

JOSEPH PUTERBAUGH

Santa Monica

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I like to think I’m worth retaining as a viewer, so why can’t AMC spend the extra 10 cents to attach closed captions to the films it shows? I refer to more recent films that I know have captioning available, but AMC doesn’t attach them.

Maybe the 12-year-olds it’s trying to attract don’t care, but I need the captions. My hearing isn’t as good as it was, and the captions give me the ability to enjoy the films as much as I did earlier. I can live with the commercials, but if AMC doesn’t attach the captions, I won’t watch its movies. Plenty of broadcasts do have captions, and AMC used to, until recently.

If AMC thinks it can disregard its older audience and still prosper, I’d say it’s mistaken. Only time will tell, of course, but it’s not showing films that attract only younger demographic audiences, so if it loses me and my aging friends, I’d guess it’s the next to follow in the business bust-out derby.

HARVEY FEDER

Tarzana

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Thank you so much for your column on the dumbing down of AMC. You expressed my own dismay at what has happened to what used to be my favorite cable channel. Like you, I rarely watch it anymore, and when I do, it’s usually for one of its original programs.

A few years ago, I sent an e-mail to AMC complaining about the addition of commercials but never received a response. This was when it was running commercials only between programs and before the infestation of movies from the ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s. I wonder what Bob Dorian thinks of the changes that have been made.

About a year ago, I switched to digital cable and have been enjoying immensely the Turner Classic Movies channel. Its weekend pairing of “Sleepless in Seattle” with the 1939 “Love Affair” was truly inspired programming. This is the kind of thing AMC used to do. I only hope that my cable provider will offer the Hollywood Classics spinoff of AMC when it starts up--I want my old AMC back.

MARCIA SIMONSON

Fremont