The Essentials (TV program)

*The Essentials*
The Essentials
Presented by	See Hosts
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	17
Original release
Network	Turner Classic Movies
Release	2001 –; 2020

The Essentials is an American weekly film-focused television program broadcast on Turner Classic Movies, with TCM hosts and special guests introducing and discussing some of the best movies ever made.

Overview

For a sixteen-year period from 2001 to 2017 excepting 2016, the program aired each Saturday night at 8:00 PM Eastern Time from March to January of the following year. For the first five seasons, a single individual hosted the program; for the remaining seasons, a main host would be paired with a guest.

For the balance of the program's broadcast, a full decade from 2006 to 2015, a guest host was paired with the principal host of TCM, Robert Osborne. The program was suspended in 2016 due to the poor health of Osborne, and continued following the death of Osborne in 2017, having Alec Baldwin paired with a sequence of guests.

The program was not programmed by the network after the sixteenth season ended in January 2018. It was revived in May 2019 with new host Ben Mankiewicz.

Hosts

For the program's first five seasons, a single individual hosted the program. From 2006 to 2015, a guest host was paired with the principal host of TCM, Robert Osborne.

Rob Reiner (2001−2003)
Sydney Pollack (2004)
Peter Bogdanovich (2005)
Robert Osborne (2006−2015)
Molly Haskell (2006)
Carrie Fisher (2007)
Rose McGowan (2008)
Alec Baldwin (2009−2011; 2017)
Drew Barrymore (2012−2014)
Sally Field (2015)
David Letterman (2017)
Tina Fey (2017)
William Friedkin (2017)
Ben Mankiewicz (2019–present)
Ava DuVernay (2019)
Brad Bird (2020)

Films featured on The Essentials

2001 season

Citizen Kane (1941)
The Producers (1968)
North by Northwest (1959)
In the Heat of the Night (1967)
Giant (1956)
The Maltese Falcon (1941)
A Night at the Opera (1935)
Gaslight (1944)
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
Elmer Gantry (1960)
Witness for the Prosecution (1957)
From Here to Eternity (1953)
Casablanca (1942)
To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
Dr. Strangelove (1964)
White Heat (1949)
Singin' in the Rain (1952)
Inherit the Wind (1960)
Birdman of Alcatraz (1962)
Dial M for Murder (1954)
The Bank Dick (1940)
Paths of Glory (1957)
Top Hat (1935)
Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)
Some Like It Hot (1959)

2002 season

High Noon (1952)
West Side Story (1961)
Sweet Smell of Success (1957)
Annie Hall (1977)
Spartacus (1960)
Fail Safe (1964)
American Graffiti (1973)
To Be or Not to Be (1942)
The Night of the Hunter (1955)
The Caine Mutiny (1954)
Ninotchka (1939)
The Defiant Ones (1958)
The Lost Weekend (1945)
Paper Moon (1973)
Duck Soup (1933)
Jaws (1975)
Sullivan's Travels (1941)
The Asphalt Jungle (1950)
A Face in the Crowd (1957)
The Searchers (1956)
I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932)
Mildred Pierce (1945)
Double Indemnity (1944)
Rocky (1976)

2003 season

2004 season

Rebel Without a Cause (1955)
An American in Paris (1951)
Rear Window (1954)
Annie Hall (1977)
Singin' in the Rain (1952)
The Day of the Jackal (1973)
The Red Badge of Courage (1951)
Spellbound (1945)
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
Doctor Zhivago (1965)
Citizen Kane (1941)
Casablanca (1942)
Bringing Up Baby (1938)
On the Waterfront (1954)
High Noon (1952)
Dr. Strangelove (1964)
Random Harvest (1942)
Tootsie (1982)
Papillon (1973)
The Quiet Man (1952)
To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
Some Like It Hot (1959)
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)

2005 season

2010 season

2011 season

Cool Hand Luke (1967)
Love Me Tonight (1932)
Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)
Mildred Pierce (1945)
The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962)
Splendor in the Grass (1961)
Ball of Fire (1941)
Gunga Din (1939)
An American in Paris (1951)
Bicycle Thieves (1948)
Cat People (1942)
East of Eden (1955)
Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944)
Dodsworth (1936)
The Caine Mutiny (1954)
Bringing Up Baby (1938)
Out of the Past (1947)
City Lights (1931)
Fail Safe (1964)
The Misfits (1961)
Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985)
All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
Stage Door (1937)
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
A Place in the Sun (1951)
A Letter to Three Wives (1949)
Sunset Boulevard (1950)
Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
The Bank Dick (1940)

2012 season

Some Like It Hot (1959)
This Is Spinal Tap (1984)
The Razor's Edge (1946)
Alice Adams (1935)
The Goodbye Girl (1977)
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927)
Gilda (1946)
The Fallen Idol (1948)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
The Third Man (1949)
Camille (1936)
Les Diaboliques (1955)
Wuthering Heights (1939)
Dinner at Eight (1933)
Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974)
Jezebel (1938)
The Way We Were (1973)
Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)
Rebel Without a Cause (1955)
Sullivan's Travels (1941)
Summertime (1955)
The Band Wagon (1953)
To Have and Have Not (1944)
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)
Lolita (1962)
Captains Courageous (1937)
The Wild Bunch (1969)
Lost in America (1985)

2013 season

2014 season

Marty (1955)
The Sugarland Express (1974)
The Pink Panther (1963)
His Girl Friday (1940)
Field of Dreams (1989)
How to Marry a Millionaire (1953)
Laura (1944)
Beauty and the Beast (1946)
In the Heat of the Night (1967)
Stella Dallas (1937)
The Haunting (1963)
The Dirty Dozen (1967)
My Fair Lady (1964)
On the Waterfront (1954)
To Be or Not to Be (1942)
I Love You, Alice B. Toklas (1968)
Blowup (1966)
The Champ (1931)
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
Bus Stop (1956)
Metropolis (1927)
The Thin Man (1934)
Foreign Correspondent (1940)
Coal Miner's Daughter (1980)
Belle de Jour (1967)
Network (1976)
Twentieth Century (1934)
The Black Stallion (1979)

2015 season

Roman Holiday (1953)
The More the Merrier (1943)
Now, Voyager (1942)
The Prisoner of Zenda (1937)
Witness for the Prosecution (1957)
Klute (1971)
Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974)
The Hustler (1961)
The Wind (1928)
Friendly Persuasion (1956)
I Remember Mama (1948)
The Red Shoes (1948)
Ninotchka (1939)
To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
The Man Who Would Be King (1975)
Bullitt (1968)
Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941)
The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945)
Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)
The Shop Around the Corner (1940)
The Candidate (1972)
Swing Time (1936)
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947)
East of Eden (1955)
The Nun's Story (1959)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
Norma Rae (1979)
Sunset Boulevard (1950)

2017 season

The Bad and the Beautiful (1952)
East of Eden (1955)
Gilda (1946)
No Time for Sergeants (1958)
Brief Encounter (1945)
The Lost Weekend (1945)
The Big Sleep (1946)
Rear Window (1954)
The Lady Eve (1941)
Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
Woman of the Year (1942)
All About Eve (1950)
Some Like It Hot (1959)
Singin' in the Rain (1952)
The Quiet Man (1952)
The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
White Heat (1949)
Bullitt (1968)
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
The Band Wagon (1953)
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)

2019 season

2020 season

Essentials, Jr.

A spin-off showcase, Essentials, Jr., aired in the summer months of 2007 through 2014, on Sunday nights at 8:00 PM Eastern Time. The featured films were chosen for their appeal to families with young children. The original host was Tom Kenny; he was replaced for the second season by co-hosts Abigail Breslin and Chris O'Donnell. John Lithgow hosted the 2009 and 2010 seasons. The program was hosted from 2011 through 2014 by Bill Hader of Saturday Night Live fame.^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]

References

^ Bill Hader Joins Turner Classic Movies This Summer as Host of TCM ESSENTIALS JR. Turner Classic Movies press release (May 4, 2011). Retrieved on May 21, 2011.
^ "'SNL' funnyman Bill Hader returns as host of TCM movie series". LA Times. June 1, 2012. Retrieved 28 November 2013.
^ Gray, Ellen (June 1, 2011). "SNL funnyman makes some serious picks for TCM". Philly.com. Archived from the original on December 4, 2013. Retrieved 28 November 2013.
^ "Meet the Hosts". TCM The Essentials Jr. Retrieved 16 March 2015.

External links

Official website

[1] Bill Hader Joins Turner Classic Movies This Summer as Host of TCM ESSENTIALS JR. Turner Classic Movies press release (May 4, 2011). Retrieved on May 21, 2011.

[2] "'SNL' funnyman Bill Hader returns as host of TCM movie series". LA Times. June 1, 2012. Retrieved 28 November 2013.

[3] Gray, Ellen (June 1, 2011). "SNL funnyman makes some serious picks for TCM". Philly.com. Archived from the original on December 4, 2013. Retrieved 28 November 2013.

[4] "Meet the Hosts". TCM The Essentials Jr. Retrieved 16 March 2015.

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