Dear TCM:
Congratulations on your new branding program. I’ve scheduled a review of the graphic elements next week. This letter is, instead, a suggestion that a new TCM Originals feature be devoted to film title sequences. You have broadcast so many good ones in the course of your regular cinematic offerings, but an entire special on their history, spotlighting the well-known and lesser-known designers, would fulfill your branded mission to curate, contextualize, connect and celebrate film culture. These decorative, narrative and symbolic intros—films within films—are essential, and often as memorable as the films they frame.
There should be no need to provide any further reasons—the titles speak for themselves. They are gems. Just looking at the conceptual sequences for Around the World in Eighty Days, Goldfinger, 2001, The Pink Panther, Walk on the Wild Side and Dr. Strangelove, to name but a few, should be enough to make your viewers’ mouths water to see more and listen to your knowledgeable commentaries.
So, as part of your push to project into the future with even greater relevancy, greenlight my idea and run with it, sooner rather than later.
Yours,
The Daily Heller
