TomWeaver999 wrote:
Without wanting to seem to be the CHFB Grinch, I am "so over" Osbourne. I like the new hosts a lot. Osbourne can't do it well any more IMHO; go smell the roses, Bob!
As a nice avuncular type, Osborne is fine. But I'd rather have a variety of hosts who have some familiarity with the films presented if I'm going to have a host at all.

The whole thing with Osborne's absence is that TCM is still trying to have it seem that the host is sitting and watching the film with us. The whole thing about "Bob's on vacation, but he'll still be here to host the Essentials and he'll be here with John Carpenter to discuss his picks..."

So, tonight there's Bob with his guest Carpenter and when they get to IT! THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE, Osborne says "This is a new one on me."

Hey Bob, you introduced this one back in 2007 and back then you sure acted as if you were familiar with the film and its influence on a certain Ridley Scott film. But over on the TCM boards, the apologizers will excuse anything, cite an error in research, and you'll get ten people that will bend over backwards, excusing him for his age, his inability to know every film ever made, and they'll tell you that the mistakes don't matter since it's trivial stuff...

So, why have a host then if it's so trivial? I find it annoying when I'm told that Marjorie Main got to slap Bogart in the face every night when they were in the play DEAD END as Bogart wasn't in the play. When I mentioned that as a goof, you would have thought that I was correcting God.

I'm always careful to blame the staff as I don't expect him to know it all, but from what I see there, as long as he gets in front of the camera, they're happy because they're used to him. My kick comes from the films presented, not the host.