Breaking: Comcast to buy controlling stock in NBC (TWC)...

[Frank2]

As The Weather Channel's Jim Cantore mentioned last evening, October 30, 2009 was a historic day for TWC, since yesterday was the first time a full-length feature film was aired instead of their usual live or taped OCM segments or weather-related programming, and, because of that, by my own observation (with the use of closed-captioning), it was also the first time "swearing for entertainment" could be heard on TWC, since TWC first began broadcasting on May 2, 1982...

The Perfect Storm was broadcast twice last evening, from 8-10:30 ET and immediately rebroadcast from 10:30-1 ET, and was also the first time that TWC could corectly say that they were no longer a "24 hour all-weather channel", even though the film was based on a 1991 severe weather event...

Even though this film had something of a personal connection to me, since a former NWS meteorologist (and a former co-worker of mine) was the real-life person to coin the "perfect storm" phrase used in the novel and movie, I was not especially fond of this film, since, like many other films, it seems that the screenwriters have forgotten the 10 Commandments when it comes to not using God's name in vain, and even worse when God's name is written into a script for entertainment purposes and is rehearsed many times over - calling God's name in a moment of shear terror (as in a near car accident) perhaps to God is one matter, but to rehearse swearing for entertainment purposes is inexcusable, and sets a very sad precedent for TWC, since weather enthusiasts everywhere always knew TWC as the "friendly 24-hour all-weather channel" where they could go at any hour of the day or night, and just enjoy hearing someone talk about - the weather, without the usual controversy or bad manners of many other cable channels...

Sadly, it seems that this is just the beginning - similar to TBS, TVLand, VH-1 and other cable channels, TWC will now regularly air "weather-related" movies on Friday night (rebroadcast on early Saturday morning and again twice on Saturday evening), but we have to wonder how long this trend will last, and in fact, it seems that TWC has already begun to evolve into airing films just for the sake of entertainment, since next week's film is hardly weather-related, and is mostly evil (Misery)...

It was not hard to see that Jim Cantore, who has been with TWC since 1986 and has always had an obvious love for his job, seemed pained to say during his live remote that "Today is a historic day at TWC...", and I must wonder what John Coleman, and the late Frank Batten and John Hope (who worked in our office before going to TWC) would say at this very sad turn of events...

My own hope, as slim a hope as it is, is that a consortion of employees and others will band together and purchase TWC from it's parent company, and return it to it's once fine reputation as the "friendly 24-hour all-weather channel", since it's obvious that NBC is determined to change TWC into a modified version of it's former self - ironically (or not so), the transparent TWC logo seen in the corner of the screen during last night's film seemed to verify this change...

Frank2

P.S. Admin - I know your restrictions concerning religious topics, but the above post is about TWC's change in format, and it is my hope that you will understand that my comments are also in that context (even if you decide to put a lock on this thread)...

[HurricaneBill]

How sad to see how far a once spectacular channel has fallen.

Here's a clip from the Weather Channel's glory days.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0r784EAh44[/youtube]

[Cyclenall]

I don't think airing movies on The Weather Channel is a good idea but it's not a huge problem until they start showing non-weather related movies and that brings me to my next sentence. They are going to be playing Misery next week? What? I'm glad we Canadians have TWN.

In due time a severe weather event that warrants live coverage will come along and it would be sad if a movie like Fever Pitch were to be playing at the time...

[Dionne]

I had given up on the TWC long ago......for 2 reasons.....we had lost the local on the 8's with DirecTV and the numerous commercials during severe weather events.

We recently found ourselves stuck in an airport for hours.....left with nothing else to do.....I watched TWC. I was surprised at the change.....a mixture of weather and news....I liked it.

Profanity.......?? I'm immune....it's everywhere. It's the person using profanity that has a problem....not me. Let them deal with the results.

[Derek Ortt]

was it misusing God's name, or just cussing? Big difference

[Frank2]

First...

An error that was corrected today was my saying that John Coleman is "late" - he's still with us (guess I'm a little late in correcting it)...

LOL

Was it misusing God's name, or just cussing? Big difference

Well, it's the misuse of God's name, as opposed to airing four-letter words, etc., though next week's film (Misery) does have cursing and some very graphic and twisted violence, and I suppose it's appropriate that the title of the film is probably how some at TWC feel about the many changes...

One interesting thing - last evening TWC was to rebroadcast Perfect Storm, but instead ran several High Seas Rescue episodes (even though Comcast still indicated that the movie was airing from 8-1030 ET) - perhaps they ran into some contractual issues in some way or another concerning the film and had to cancel it...

I know that on Friday evening they were having problems with the live closed captioning, since the film is already captioned but for whatever reason TWC decided to use their live captioning service instead - which was running about 15 seconds behind the dialogue...

But, I'd really like to think that someone at TWC read my post and realized that perhaps the entire thing is a bad idea, but that's my wishful thinking mode in action once again...

Frank

[MGC]

IMO, TWC died long ago when storm stories hit the air. TWC has only gone backwards with Waking up with Al. Sad, sad.....I use to go there for the weather but not so much any more.......MGC

[HURAKAN]

I only watch TWC to see their coverage of landfalling storms. Period.

[Derek Ortt]

I only watch TWC to see their coverage of landfalling storms. Period.

CNN with Anderson Cooper is much better during landfalls than TWC, in my opinion. I usually have them on if I am taking care of a landfall form home and not at the office

[Dionne]

IMO, TWC died long ago when storm stories hit the air. TWC has only gone backwards with Waking up with Al. Sad, sad.....I use to go there for the weather but not so much any more.......MGC

Oh come on......Al is cooler now than before. Have you been watching? It's like weather, news and comedy......we listen while preparing dinner...did you miss the Bazookas comment? Or was that CNN? Hhahahaha!

[HEY_NICE_PANTS]

I only watch TWC to see their coverage of landfalling storms. Period.

CNN with Anderson Cooper is much better during landfalls than TWC, in my opinion. I usually have them on if I am taking care of a landfall form home and not at the office

Seems like TWC is never at the best spot during a landfall and the quality during reporting is usually horrible. Agreed, seen some really good coverage from Cooper.

As for the topic, I really wish they would just have all cable providers give us the 24hr radar/7-day forecast channel. TWC has gone to garbage and it will probably cost people's lives unfortunately.

[Dionne]

Oh my.....love Bouillabaisse.....!

[Stephanie]

IMO, TWC died long ago when storm stories hit the air. TWC has only gone backwards with Waking up with Al. Sad, sad.....I use to go there for the weather but not so much any more.......MGC

Oh come on......Al is cooler now than before. Have you been watching? It's like weather, news and comedy......we listen while preparing dinner...did you miss the Bazookas comment? Or was that CNN? Hhahahaha!

It's like the Today show.

Fortunately I have an all weather channel supplied by TWC that gives me the local weather and radar 24/7 without having to tune into TWC itself. It's a shame. I used to have it on for hours at a time because of the meterologists themselves.

[jasons2k]

It's just not the same. Kinda reminds me of what happened to MTV a long time ago.

I agree with MGC - "Storm Stories" is about the time TWC as a network "Jumped the Shark".

[HURAKAN]

On Friday they're going to show "March of the Penguins"

[MGC]

Yup Jason just like MTV. I use to have MTV or TWC on all the time back in the early 80's. Both shows changed and I quit watching.....MGC

[Ptarmigan]

The end of the world has come when The Weather Channel airs movies. Whole they are at it, The Weather Channel can have their weekly movie specials they air. One could be about a hurricane that is used as a weapon.

[Frank2]

I agree folks, and it's the downfall of media as a whole that has now caught up TWC as well...

It used to be that the news meant someone reading the news ("In today's news, overnight heavy rains caused flooding in several communities..."), and that sort of thing, but now it's the "news" of CNN, HLN, MSNBC and FOX - which often means some "blondie" (pardon the expression) giving her opinion of the news...

Before this style of "reporting" became common, news programs already often featured an "opinion" segment (Andy Rooney, etc.) which usually came at the end of the broadcast, but now it's just the opposite, with the news portion being the first few minutes of the program - with the rest being noisy pundit nonsense...

The other night I tuned into to TWC - just in time to see an animal trainer place a python around Jim Cantore's shoulders (similar to the stunts during Johnny Carson's late night show) - and it reminded me of what televison journalists used to refer to as "riding the elephant" - which meant the stunt had nothing to do with journalism, but had everything to do with keeping their job...

And, though Wikipedia had Misery listed as this Friday's TWC "Movie of the Week", thankfully the movie has since been changed, perhaps because the folks at TWC did not like the viewer response to The Perfect Storm and decided to take air a film (March of the Penguins) that is at least something the entire family can watch...

But beware of films like Misery also appearing on the TWC program schedule...

Frank

[lurkey]

passing along this news from the "what are you watching. . ." thread: Comcast may buy NBC|Universal from GE. They are said to more interested in the cable portion of the company than the network. I have no idea where that leaves The Weather Channel.

[Frank2]

Wow - that can leave TWC, pardon the pun, "out in the cold", since in their present state they are neither fish nor foul (network nor cable), but a little of both...

By my own experience with Comcast (as a customer), they are aggressive when it comes to how they operate their business, and I'd be worried that they might decide that TWC is no longer needed, since they (TWC) began years before the Internet became useful, and similar to PBS's AM Weather (which preceeded TWC), they might find that cost-wise it has outlived it's usefulness...

Frank