Sorry, Shawshank, but Road House and Jumanji were the most-played movies on basic cable this year
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“R.I.P. Cable TV” reads the splashy headline of an in-depth new Variety story detailing the slow collapse of broadcast TV in the streaming age. Though some sources defend the medium’s staying power—dads never miss a Yellowstone—there’s ample evidence, such as the fact that MTV has resigned itself to just playing Ridiculousness on a loop, that cable is becoming a minor factor in the future of media. People rarely tune in to live TV these days; rather, they flip until they see something familiar that stops them, be it for 10 minutes or two hours.
The easiest way to do that? Movies. Beloved ones that remind people of simpler times. “With movies, it’s like flypaper. You can get people to join you at any time through the movie and they tend to stay longer than they think they’re going to,” Chuck Saftler, president and COO of FX Networks, told Variety. “When you have a two-hour strip of flypaper where viewers just land and stick, it’s a great way to program a large chunk of time and to promote other shows. Because people are watching live and not DVR-ing, they’re actually seeing the promos.”
This isn’t a new tactic, of course, but it’s perhaps become a more vital one in age where Netflix is only a click away. So, as an accompaniment to the aforementioned piece, Variety also dug up the data on which old standards cable networks have been trotting out during the 2019-20 season. And while you’ll see plenty of familiar flicks on there, you might also find some surprises. These days, for example, you’re less likely to stumble upon The Shawshank Redemption, long considered the crown jewel of basic cable, than you are 2004's Walking Tall remake or 50 First Dates.
The most-replayed movies on basic cable, however, were Road House, because some things never change, and 1995's Jumanji, which likely saw a boost following the success of Sony’s recent reboots. The former has played 83 times across 10 different networks since last September, while the latter has played 77 times across 11 networks.
Other films you’re likely to find at any given time:
- Gladiator, which played 74 times across five networks
- Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, which played 74 times across nine networks
- Ghostbusters, which played 69 times across nine networks
- A Few Good Men, which played 66 times across five networks
- Top Gun, which played 66 times across five networks
But where, you ask, are Goodfellas and Jurassic Park? They’re there, friend, just airing fewer times on fewer networks than Coyote Ugly. It also aired only a few times more than Deep Impact, which people seem to love watching despite it being so goddamned depressing.
Another neat takeaway: IFC tends to run its movies into the ground, having shown 2002's We Were Soldiers 38 times and Tropic Thunder a whopping 49 times—the most single-network showings of any film on the list—in the past year. Walking Tall and Speed, meanwhile, played on 12 networks apiece, making them the most widespread movies on the list, if not the most played. Not far behind were Ocean’s Eleven and Grease, whose ongoing ubiquity bodes well for its upcoming prequel.
Have a look at the full tally over at Variety and let us know in the comments what movies are your own personal flypaper.
43 Comments
Watching movies on basic cable is terrible. Usually the networks will show the first 20 or so minutes without commercials, but it takes forever to get through to the end since it seems like it’s 5 minutes of movie and then another five minutes of commercials at the end.
So it’s like the end of a basketball game?
Yes! A 2 hour movie will run for 3 hours or more. Who wants to waste that much time watching commercials? That said if I’m bored enough I may just watch and waste time on my phone during the commercials, which I imagine most people do, thus defeating the purpose of said commercials.
No way in hell am I watching Road House without all the tittays.
IFC shows movies uncut, but with commercials. It’s a little weird.
Yet thinking about all those commercial breaks makes me happy because it evokes fun solo trips and staying in motels and watching movies (that I would never otherwise watch) on basic cable …
Why would We are Soldiers be on IFC? That war movie from 2002 ish with Mel Gibson.
IFC airs whatever now. They showed Old School about a month ago.
Well, at least it’s just substandard programming compared to it’s former self. Still better than when Bravo decided to sell its soul and switch to reality shows.
TLC used to be The Learning Channel. I remember when they rebroadcast One Day of War from BBC’s This World program. I didn’t get to watch the whole thing, so I tried to find it elsewhere and it seemed like the only option was to mail some pounds to the BBC so they’d mail you back a VHS, which I never did.
Freeform used to be ABC Family which used to be Fox Family which used to be The Family Channel which used to be Christian Broadcasting Network. They went from the 700 Club to gay witches; some things to improve with age.
They still air the 700 Club out of contractual obligation.
I saw We’re The Millers on it a while back, and as mentioned, yes commercials, but fully unedited.
Because racism and sexual assault are less important than celebrity, I would guess.
Pain don’t hurt.
Road House is so freaking good. Last time I watched it I was struck by just how tightly structured it is. From a storytelling perspective, the thing just moves; it’s a sneakily efficient series of setups and payoffs that doesn’t waste a lot of time moving from beat to beat.
It moves right along because it “doesn’t waste a lot of time” on logic. Don’t get me wrong, I loved it as a teenage boy, but it’s one of those movies that I watch as an adult (and there’s still some fondness there) and the plot holes are gaping… or maybe not so much plot holes as just the absurdity… Dalton is a nationally famous bouncer? Also, why is there no law enforcement presence in this town? But I do concede that it gets in and gets out quickly, as an action movie should… in that sense it’s a good companion piece to “Point Break.”
I think there are a few lines that the Sheriff is on Wesley’s payroll. I can’t think of a specific plot hole, all movies are going to have a few, but Road House is very simple plot that I don’t think it really affects it. I look at it this way. There’s real world logic, movie logic and Road House logic.
Be logical, until it’s time not to be logical
Having just seen it for the first time (Showtime!) the only serious plot thing that got me was that, in one scene, Wesley’s guys set fire to Red’s store, and there’s a whole thing about “can you prove it? who would testify”, which, ok, but the very next scene is Wesley’s guy getting into a monster truck and, in front of the entire town, destroying the car dealership, which would seem to moot the questions just raised about “proof”.Wow, run-on sentence. Not sorry.
As it happens, some channel (TNT maybe?) just aired this and Point Break back to back. I recorded both but only watched Road House so far. It was either the first time I’ve seen it or the first time I’ve seen it for a long time so I didn’t really know the beats (I’ve been well aware of many of the overall aspects of it though forever). And yeah, there’s a lot of incredibly dumb stuff— the nationally famous bouncer, as you say; the monster truck; the boot toe blade; any number of other things— but you forgive it because it’s so enjoyably dumb.Also— the 80s were a great time to be a fat slob character actor.
It’s a western. Stranger rides into lawless town, starts cleaning up the place, the entrenched, corrupt power structure pushes back, resulting in a climactic showdown.See also: Rustler’s Rhapsody.
Those aren’t “plot holes” in the traditional sense, they’re just the buy-in. In the bartending community, Dalton’s a legend. Wesley somehow has this nothing Missouri podunk under his thumb, to the point where he’s obscenely wealthy. It’s like a superhero movie crossed with an Elmore Leonard story; you just have to accept that we’re in a heightened reality where there’s a nationwide network of scumbags who know and respect one another.
I’ve never actually seen Roadhouse (not a huge Swayze fan, he was always a bit too wooden for me), but my favorite bit of trivia about the movie is that apparantly whenever any of the Murray brothers (Bill, Brian-Doyle etc.) sees it on TV, they immediately call Mitch Glazer and tell him in Spackler voice that Patrick Swayze is having sex with Mitch’s wife.
Besides, it teaches us the inner life of bouncers. Who knows, maybe the seemingly Neanderthal heavy who is the bouncer of your favorite bar or club has a philosophy degree from NYU!
Sean T Collins spent an entire year writing about Road House:http://seantcollins.com/category/roadhouse/
Road House is the story of one bouncer’s quest to free a small
town from the iron fist of the guy who is on the verge of opening the
area’s first JC Penney. Over half a dozen men will die for this.
Spot-on. The movie rules.
And rightly so.
Who “flips” through tv channels these days? You either look at the guide and pick something and go to that channel, or you go straight to on-demand and pick something.
Looking at that list: What the Hell is going on with CMT? I think it’s the channel mentioned the most in that rundown, and it’s airing just about everything. Ten showings of Twister, I get, but…seventeen airings of Legally Blonde?
Shawshank is an amazing movie, but it’s too depressing these days. Corrupt authority, senseless death, injustice, etc., we have enough of that in real life. Sure it ends on a good note but you have to get through all that first.
All that AND rooftop tax advice.
I don’t know if it’s nostalgia or that I just like surprises, but the thing cable has over streaming is you can just scroll through programming to see what you want to watch/record without a preconceived idea of what you’re in the mood for.And wait a minute, is MTV trying to lure back Gen X?”Die Hard” (1988)El Rey (8), Paramount Network (8), Pop (5), WGN America (5), AMC (3), MTV (2)”Face/Off”(1997)IFC (22), SundanceTV (14), BBC America (5), AMC (2), MTV2 (1)
They can’t show Ridiculousness 24/7 though it does feel like it.
I feel like I was awkwardly late to the MTV thing as I’m 36, so by the time I cared enough about music it was already slowly shifting to TRL and into reality TV. But I remember MTV2 being my mainstay through HS then Fuse for a number of years into college because they basically took over the Alt Rock status. Now I pretty much live on YT Music and get all the same effect. Seriously, why does MTV even exist anymore and why haven’t they bought out VEVO/BlankTV/anybody who does music video networking to brand on YT? You would think the metrics would make spamming the occasional video in between their crappy shows would actually help them.
this is the kind of data i crave
I have noticed Jumanji on tv quite a bit in the past year. It’s always been a fun movie for me since I was a kid.
Basic cable is a waste land. Sure you get the occasional Mad Men or Breaking Bad, but it’s mostly 30 year old movies and Law & Order: SVU repeats.
I admittedly didn’t spend that large a chunk of my life with basic cable, but I don’t think I ever came across Road House on tv. I’ve still never seen it.
Road House…
My cold heart is warmed to know that Road House will play on TV until the heat death of the universe. It really is such a spectacularly bad film:
You’re saying Star Wars and Harry Potter aren’t on top? Shit, I see marathons of those like every weekendalso Ocean’s 11/12/13 pop up a ton.
Ace Ventura: Pet Detective
Ah yes, because transphobia is evergreen.