the best-captioned cable channel

turner classic movies has done a herculean job in captioning a large part of its enormous library of films from mgm studios and its pre-1948 library from warner bros. studios.

tcm seems to be the only cable network which is actually following the stipulations of the Telecommunication Act of 1996. An informal estimate (I watch the channel almost daily) is that more than 75% of their programming is closed captioned. There seems to be no criteria for which programming has been captioned. The most obscure one-reel short is as likely to have been captioned as a 1939 blockbuster film.

It seems mean to criticize the captioning of films on tcm because they have worked very hard to make their programming accessible. however, this website is here to note mistakes, and we will.

these programs are in no particular order, the notes i made on errors in captioning are incomplete, but in an effort to 'encourage' better closed captioning, the mistakes and possible corrections are listed here. i understand the difficulties in stenocaptioning. i know why certain errors happened. but that doesn't mean these captions shouldn't be proofread. most errors I cite could easily have been found by proofing--the original program audio or video was not even needed.

program: The Miniver Story
broadcast by: turner classic movies
comments: this 1950 film has not yet been captioned.

program: The Murder Man
broadcast by: turner classic movies
produced by: metro-goldwyn-mayer
captioned by: national captioning institute
comments: ncicap is known for its excellent work, but this 1935 film starring spencer tracy as the man who covers sensational murders for his newspaper has some lapses in captioning.

there are a number of mis-heard lines of dialogue, which are captioned incorrectly. the captioner and/or proofreader obviously had no background in print media as many mistakes have to do with newspaper terminology or conventions. the captioner did not know that walter winchell was a famous columnist and tried to turn the word 'winchell' into an adjective, garbling the meaning of a line. most 1930s slang in the film is wrongly captioned.

program: Random Harvest
broadcast by: turner classic movies
produced by: metro-goldwyn-mayer
captioned by: national captioning institute
comments: captions for this 1942 classic are not verbatim, and there doesn't seem to be any reason for this. there are few scenes with multiple speakers and the pace of the film is quite slow enough to allow for verbatim captions. it's another example of a classic film with famous lines, altered by the captioner. i don't know when films were captioned in the mistaken belief that shortening each line by one word made them easier to read. It doesn't, and all current programming has verbatim captioning.

random harvest is the story of charles rainier (ronald colman), who is injured in war and has amnesia for three years. during this time, he uses the name 'john smith,' marries a performer using the stage name 'paula ridgeway' (greer garson). they have a child. one day, he is hit by a taxi and recovers his memory--except for those three years.

charles resumes his life as a wealthy nobleman, and after the death of their child and a long illness, paula finds him and becomes his secretary under her real name, margaret hansen. he marries her eventually, but it is a marriage of convenience. he has no memory of his deep love for her.

in a pivotal scene, charles gives margaret a fabulous diamond bracelet. all she can think of is another moment when 'smithy' gave her a worthless necklace of glass beads that matched her eyes.

margaret leaves the room and says, 'thank you for the wonderful present.' the line is captioned 'thank you for the present,' completely destroying the irony and poignancy of the scene.


program: When in Rome
broadcast by: turner classic movies
produced by: metro-goldwyn-mayer
captioned by: national captioning institute
comments: another film that does not have verbatim captioning. the dialogue of this 1952 movie starring van johnson and paul douglas is hardly classic. oddly, not only is the dialogue summarized and shortened, a direct quote from The Book of Common Prayer is bowdlerized! considering this is a film about a priest (johnson) making a pilgrimage to rome during the holy year, i imagine any catholic viewer would shudder at this botched captioning.


program: The Valley of Decision
broadcast by: turner classic movies
produced by: metro-goldwyn-mayer/united artists
captioned by: national captioning institute
comments: this 1945 film stars gregory peck as the son of a steel mill owner and greer garson as the daughter of a steel worker. their romance blossoms, but is doomed.

about 30 minutes into the film, there are 4-6 scenes which contain captioning that has absolutely nothing to do with this film! in fact, the captions are from a movie about baseball. this really should be corrected.

otherwise, the captions are verbatim, well-placed to signify the person speaking, and contain very few errors.

program: The Bridge on the River Kwai
broadcast by: turner classic movies
produced by: columbia pictures
captioned by:
comments: this classic, oscar-winning 1957 film has not been captioned.

program: The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming!
broadcast by: turner classic movies
captioned by: no captions
comments: this award-winning film is running in full letterbox format with no closed captioning.