New Classics?

The rural area where I grew up didn't have cable television service. We picked up three local channels and that was it. It was a miracle that I even discovered old movies since this was also pre-VCR. When I finally moved to the closest metropolitan area, I fell in love with AMC and TCM. These two channels enabled me to get my black-and-white movie and musical fix every week when I was a single gal. Once I married ABM, I phased out my viewing of old movies. Black-and-white film hurts his eyes and the songs in musicals interrupt the flow of the plot for him :-p.

My desire to watch movies has been rekindled, so I've been checking out the offerings on AMC and TCM. Those channels aren't as black and white as they used to be. Today, right after airing "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington", TCM showed "Honey I Shrunk the Kids". Huh? That movie was released in 1989. While I agree that it is a pretty good movie, I have trouble thinking of a movie that is only as old as my marriage as a classic. ACM is showing newer movies, too, and even worse: now they show commercials!

You could argue that '80s movies are classics to my kids and you probably would be right. I can't wait for M to watch "Breakfast Club" and "Pretty in Pink". However, AMC and TCM are the only two channels that focused on those old black-and-whites and I feel like they are being pushed off the prime-time schedule by the newer stuff. Why can't they branch out like radio stations? In my area, we have an oldies station that plays music from the 50s and the 60s and then another one that plays music from the 70s and 80s. On TV, we've got three Disney channels, four Nickelodeon channels, and several different HBO channels. I want AMC and TCM to start channels for new classics so that I can get my oldies back!