Thanks Ted

If anyone ever deserved a Presidential Medal of Freedom Award, my list would include Ted Turner. Ted is of course famous for many different accomplishments, but for me his single greatest achievement was the creation of "Turner Classic Movies."

Like many of you, movies have been an important part of my life as far back as I can remember. Movies have shaped for me, and millions of others, the way we view life and ourselves.

Ted Turner had plenty of money to do whatever he wanted in life. Instead of just being rich and famous, he used his wealth to save one of our most valued assets, old movies.

I have never had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Turner. I think we must be "blood brothers" in our viewpoints regarding movies, however. In fact, I suspect we could both sit and watch one of his "classic" movies together, while sharing popcorn and trivia commentary.

My first memories of movies were with my family at the Trail Drive-In east of town. It was a wonderful time in America for movie goers. Every town had at least one indoor theater, and most had a drive-in like ours as well.

We used to get a double feature for our money back then. What a night of entertainment. We would see a great cartoon followed by a feature film. At intermission we kids got to run to the playground and ride on the equipment.

After intermission, they always had the previews of upcoming movies. Even today, I like watching the movie trailers. That is one good thing about this modern computer age. I can watch the trailers on my computer without having to see them in the theater.

The last movie of the night would usually be what was referred to as a "B" movie. It did not have big name stars, but we did not care. After all we were at the movies, so who cared if it was a classic or not.

In the winter months, the drive-in closed, and we all went to see the movies at the theater. Here again, the double feature was a standard for the weekend. We even had the added pleasure of the kids free movies one afternoon a week. Maxwell's Supermarket sponsored these movies for kids. If you had a register tape from their store you got to go in for free. Again, these were rarely what you would call great movies, but we kids could have cared less. Just being there with all our friends was the thing.

Westerns were my favorite as a kid. I guess that is still a pretty important part of the Turner Classic Movie idea. It is not at all uncommon to see legends like John Wayne, Gregory Peck, and Charlton Heston, in movies on TCM.

Ted Turner has made a lot of money in the cable television business, but he has done a lot more for anyone who loves movies. Ted found out that a lot of the old movies were already lost due to degradation of the film. He bought the rights to a lot of the movies that were still in decent shape and founded the Turner Classic Movie Network in 1986.

Ted did get some flack for one of his innovations. He took several of the old films and had some hot shot video people change them from black and white to color. A lot of film purists did not like this idea, and they put up quite a squawk. I never really liked the color change too much myself, but his saving of the films was the important thing.

They are still making good movies today, and I still enjoy going to the theater to watch them. Still, there is a part of me that yearns for the old movies. I think it is just a natural thing about getting older. We like the things from the past. It probably has something to do with remembering our youthful times.

Ted Turner is famous and deserving for other things he has done. Before he founded The Turner Classic Movie Network, he helped to start the cable television revolution.

In 1980 he founded the Cable News Network. He also founded other cable media networks such as Turner Network Television (TNT), Turner Broadcast Television (TBS), and the sports network ESPN. These networks transformed our entire television viewing outlook over the past 25 years.

Ted was always an action person in his personal life. In his younger years, he was the captain of a sailboat that won the America's Cup. Not one to worry about his behavior much, at the awards ceremony on live television, he passed out on the awards stand.

Ted loved sports, so no one was very surprised when he bought the Atlanta Braves Baseball Team. Instead of waiting for the national networks to put his teams games on their weekend specials, he had every game broadcast on the TBS Network. A lot of people thought he was crazy until they began to see the ratings. Now almost every team has network coverage contracts.

Ted had one other tough job that he faced with bravery and dignity. In 1991 he married the famous, or as some would refer to as infamous, Jane Fonda. He must have been tougher than I thought, because they lasted almost 10 years until they divorced in 2000. He should definitely get a medal for that effort.

Yes Ted, I want to thank you. Your television empire and the great movies you still show on TCM have made my life rewarding. Others may think you are something like an "odd duck," but then so are a lot of us. It is after 11 p.m. as I finish this article. In the old days that would have been past good television time. You changed all that, Ted.