TNT began like Ted Turner's personal screening room. Twenty years ago this month, Turner launched the cable channel to unreel every old movie, series and cartoon he owned — and he owned plenty, paying $1.2 billion for the MGM movie library alone.
Sprinkled in the mix: original programming to compete with broadcast TV. Turner even declared TNT would produce 48 movies a year.
"I loved the audacity of it," said Phil Kent, chairman and CEO of Turner Broadcasting System, who listened to Turner's original pitch when he was a talent agency executive in Los Angeles. "It was unachievable, but I loved the audacity."
TNT never produced 48 movies a year. But it did become a ratings leader on basic cable, as well as Turner Broadcasting's plumpest cash cow, generating about 35 percent of company revenue.
TNT's contribution to the cultural memory bank is less clear, ranging from the sublime (films based on scripts by major American playwrights) to the ridiculous (live coverage of the first Elvis Presley stamp's sale).
For years, it mostly delivered a Middle American, mixed-bag lineup of reruns ("In the Heat of the Night"), Civil War movies ("Gettysburg"), Emmy-winning movies ("Door to Door" with William H. Macy) and gawd-awful movies (Arnold Schwarzenegger directing "Christmas in Connecticut") — with the NBA, pro wrestling and other sports tossed in.
People could watch it without knowing they'd watched it. It was a hit with an identity problem. An in-house survey asked viewers to draw a picture of what TNT represented to them. The most common depiction: a question mark.
Then "We Know Drama" was born. By 2005, the slogan — conjured by former Coke marketing hotshot Steve Koonin, now head of Turner Entertainment Networks — became a self-fulfilling prophecy that propelled a drama-only strategy.
"The Closer," starring Kyra Sedgwick, became the highest-rated basic cable series ever. "Saving Grace" with Holly Hunter and Steven Bochco's "Raising the Bar" have followed.
When TNT previewed its shows in May in New York, it promised three nights of original programs by 2010. High-profile names involved with shows in development: Ray Romano as a divorced father who dreamed of a golf career in "Men of a Certain Age"; Jada Pinkett Smith as a director of nursing at a Charlotte hospital in "Time Heals"; and Robert Redford executive producing "Generations," a drama about three generations of family members who have lived in the same house.
Turner's original vision of a broadcast competitor suddenly didn't sound so audacious.
"It's taken us 20 years to take it from an aspiration to a reality," Koonin said. "We're poised at the door."
TNT TIMELINE:
Oct. 3, 1988: TNT debuts with Ted Turner's favorite movie: "Gone With the Wind."
Oct. 5, 1988: First original special event: "The Making of a Legend: Gone With the Wind."
Oct. 18, 1989: "Cold Sassy Tree," starring Faye Dunaway, becomes highest-rated movie ever made for basic cable.
1990: NFL begins seven-year run on TNT, which shows games during first half of the season.
Sept. 15, 1991: Wins first prime-time Emmy with James Earl Jones as Best Supporting Actor in "Heat Wave," about the 1965 Watts riots.
Feb. 10-21, 1992: Telecasts Winter Olympics from Albertville, France, as supplement to CBS.
April 13, 1992: Debuts first feature film directed by Arnold Schwarzenegger, a remake of 1945's "Christmas in Connecticut." One critic allows: "It's not totally unwatchable. ..."
Jan. 7, 1993: First live, exclusive coverage of a nonsporting event: sale of the first Elvis Presley stamp.
Dec. 5, 1993: "Geronimo" kicks off TNT's Native American film initiative.
June 26-27, 1994: Two-part "Gettysburg" debut on TNT. Turner has cameo as an anonymous Reb with a single line, "Let's go!" which precedes his dropping dead during Pickett's doomed charge. ("Took about four takes," Turner said. "When I fell, I just didn't want to drop my sword on someone.")
Sept. 4, 1995: Debut of "WCW Monday Nitro Live" ignites five-year wrestling war with USA's "WWF Monday Night Raw." Impresario and executive producer Eric Bischoff leaks results of competitor's taped matches during his shows.
Jan. 18, 1998: Angelina Jolie wins Golden Globe for "Wallace," in which she played Cornelia Wallace, wife of longtime Alabama Gov. George Wallace.
Feb. 15, 1999: Marv Albert — whose sex scandal included reports that he wore women's underwear — returns to national TV on network's NBA coverage.
June 5, 2001: "Law & Order" premieres. Just try to find a time when it's not running.
Jan. 27, 2002: James Franco wins Golden Globe for best actor in TNT movie "James Dean."
Nov. 21, 2002: Viewers of "Inside the NBA," hosted by Ernie Johnson Jr., watched as Charles Barkley paid off a bet with fellow in-studio analyst Kenny Smith by kissing a live donkey's behind.
Sept. 21, 2003: "Door to Door," original movie starring William H. Macy, wins six Emmys, most ever for a TNT show.
June 13, 2005: "The Closer," with Kyra Sedgwick, the highest-rated original series on basic cable ever, debuts. Steve Koonin, head of Turner Entertainment Networks, calls it "seminal moment" in TNT history and impetus for network's plan to fill three nights a week with original programming.
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