Not without a fight!

I should be happy. I'm getting along well with my oldest friend and my buddy, John. I got new glasses with oh-so pretty Marc Jacobs frames. My favorite-most ball player, Anthony Rizzo, is getting his swing back. My Cubs are playing their first-ever games in London this weekend!

So what's that big dark cloud marring my blue sky?

On Tuesday, there was a blood bath at Turner Classic Movies! The top executives -- the world-class film nerds who curate the TCM collection, put on the annual Film Festival, promote the books for sale in the TCM Library, and are part of the classic film preservation movement -- were all axed.

The parent company, Warner Brothers Discovery+, is carrying $45.434B in debt (yes, that's billions). The studio has a new chairman, David Zaslav, and he's been in the political, financial and entertainment headlines because of his problems with CNN (the Trump Townhall and the firing of Chris Licht), skyrocketing debt (it's 3x higher today than in 2020), and the failure of The Flash at the box office. Zaslav, who appears to be a highly reactive chairman, responded with staff cuts at TCM.

This is not good news. This is terrible news. This could mean no more festivals, and worse, no more TCM. The news was so bad and so shocking Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese and Paul Thomas Anderson got together and very publicly lobbied Zaslav to protect the integrity of TCM. Then we fans got involved. Emails to david.zaslav@wbd.com. Tweets with hashtag #SaveTCM. All this activity got the attention of the Hollywood trade papers, as well as CNBC and the NY and LA Times. This is not the kind of attention stockholders like, and the WBD stock dropped another 30¢/share. This afternoon we learned that there may be light at the end of the tunnel. Zaslav hired two new and trusted executives to handle "oversight of TCM."

There's something very satisfying about being active, doing something beyond complaining, and then getting some semblance of results.

I love my TCM community. We're genuinely connected by our love of classic film. There's also much to teach and learn from this uniquely American artform. I'm not letting it go without a fight!

PS If you want to join the fight, let David Zaslav and the board of WBD+ know you're a consumer and you love TCM.

Email: david.zaslav@wbd.com

Mail: Office of the Corporate Secretary, Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc.   230 Park Avenue South.   New York, NY. 10003

Twitter: #SaveTCM