Some fifteen years ago, when I was but a freshly minted college graduate, I interned at Turner Classic Movies in Atlanta. It was the dream for an avid Old Hollywood fan. Even at 21, I could throw down facts about Bette Davis and Humphrey Bogart like someone 70 years my senior. I once had a conversation with TCM patron saint Robert Osborne about Myrna Loy — whom most of you should Google because she was simply sublime. But that’s beside the point.
One of my tasks was to help reorganize their vast library of informational packets on various movies, ready to pull anytime they needed research for the intros/outros on the primetime lineup. Every manilla envelope, stuffed to the brim with photo copies, was meticulously alphabetized. When I got to the “S” section, however, I noticed a curious omission: “The Sound of Music.” I was perplexed. Not only was it a personal fave, but it was perhaps one of the four or five most cited personal faves of many a movie buffs. Then I was told: “The Sound of Music” had never aired on TCM.
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For years, as perhaps 20th Century Fox’s most beloved film property, the seminal musical was only aired occasionally on television, typically on an annual basis on one of the major networks. For the last couple decades, ABC has shown it every Christmas. It eventually aired around Easter on Freeform. But in these showings, it has always been paired with commercials — not in its complete, widescreen, uninterrupted glory. After Fox was bought by Disney, however, the possibility of the broadcast scope of “The Sound of Music” expanding quickly became a reality. It quickly ended up, after all, on Disney+ and Hulu, the first time it had been streamed.
Back to TCM — which did showcase the movie, along with a Q&A with none other than stars Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer, for its 50th anniversary at the TCM Classic Film Festival in 2015. I happened to work that fest, and it was a big, big deal. That opening shot projected on the giant TCL Chinese IMAX screen? Chills.
But it had still not aired on TCM, the ultimate home for all things classic. I mean, it’s in the acronym. And it didn’t air on the channel in the years after that buzz-worthy screening.
That changes now. Tonight, actually, if you’re reading this on August 2, actually.
For TCM’s annual Summer Under the Stars today, Christopher Plummer is the main attraction and at 8 p.m. ET, “The Sound of Music” will finally make its debut on the channel — some 60 years after its release and 31 years after TCM launched.
Sure, there are now a myriad of ways to watch the movie — but who can resist an introduction from host Ben Mankiewicz, full of facts and his unique brand of humor? I would almost surely bet he’ll hit on Plummer’s personal disdain for the project — he once called it “The Sound of Mucus” — though that did eventually warm over into something more resembling affection.
“As cynical as I always was about The Sound of Music. I do respect that it is a bit of relief from all the gunfire and car chases you see these days,” Plummer told Vanity Fair in 2015. “It’s sort of wonderfully, old-fashionedly universal. It’s got the bad guys and the Alps; it’s got Julie and sentiment in bucketloads. Our director, dear old Bob Wise, did keep it from falling over the edge into a sea of treacle. Nice man. God, what a gent. There are very few of those around anymore in our business.”
“The Sound of Music” will also be re-released in theaters on September 13, 14, and 17 by Fathom Events. But watch it tonight, August 2, uncut and commercial free, on TCM at 8 p.m. ET.
