Pennsylvania has a very special celebration today. With Groundhog Day, we not only find out when spring is coming, we also get a chance to have a little party. Well, at least in places like Punxsutawney.
Not all of us can get up to Gobbler’s Knob and see the world’s most famous groundhog weatherman – you know, Phil – give us his prediction so we have to find other ways to mark the occasion.
We like to take some time today to watch “Groundhog Day,” one of our favorite movies. Sounds like a natural thing to do on this day, right?
Apparently someone has forgotten to tell that to the television networks.
I don’t think anyone will broadcast the Bill Murray comedy today. I have a couple of hundred channels. One network showed it last weekend. Another will show it next weekend. But no one will actually show it on Groundhog Day. That’s just plain wrong.
I should expect as much by now from entertainment companies. I mean, one of the networks showing the movie on the weekend is running a marathon of a show called “Millionaire Matchmaker.”
Do we really need a show like that in the first place, much less two repeats to set the stage for tonight’s new episode? Can’t we as a country join together to send a message that we don’t really care about televising the courting process? Especially for people who can afford to meet people in whatever fashion they choose?
That might be too much to ask when we haven’t risen together as one to show our outrage about the upcoming re-make of “The Karate Kid.” The stinking thing now takes place in China where they don’t even use karate, yet someone green-lighted the project.
I don’t ask for a lot. I just want original projects like “Groundhog Day” to get their just due for one day.
First off, Groundhog Day is not like President’s Day or Memorial Day where the original holiday has moved closer to a weekend for the sake of convenience. Groundhog Day is on Feb. 2, end of story.
That means you show the movie on Feb. 2. You don’t show “The Goonies” or “The Blues Brothers” like some channels will tonight. You need to respect the holiday.
Second of all, networks miss a golden opportunity to draw attention to themselves and this classic movie.
One network shows “A Christmas Story” for 24 straight hours on Christmas. They don’t wait until the weekend or squeeze it in between some of their bad original program. Christmas deserves a Christmas movie so they oblige.
I don’t think every holiday deserves the same treatment, but the unique nature of Groundhog Day combined with the timeless comedy in the movie should convince some network – and we know there are enough out there for one of them to give it a shot – to appease people like me.
The only solution to this great American problem is for one brave network to step up and show the movie non-stop on Groundhog Day.
Then they can do the same thing the next day for good measure. It’s the only way to help us survive a long and lustrous winter.
Of course, after I go through all this, Bravo has added a 6 p.m. showing tonight with a repeat at 1 a.m. Still, not prime time and not uncut so it’s not good enough.
That is unbelieveable. How nobody is doing 24-hour marathon of this movie is mind-boggling.