Obsessed with Movies – Talking with TCM's Dave Karger

"I was always obsessed with music and movies as a kid." Turner Classic Movies host Dave Karger told EDGE recently. It turned out that movies won out. Just out of college Karger went to work as an intern at Entertainment Weekly, working his way up to senior editor over his 17 years there. Over his career there he became a leading celebrity interviewer and counts amongst those he spoke with George Clooney, Angelina Jolie, Elton John, Taylor Swift, Johnny Depp, Denzel Washington and Carrie Underwood.

Concurrent to that job, Karger began working in broadcast journalism, first with a gig on the Today Show that continues through this day. In 2012 he left print journalism for to be an entertainment broadcaster. About five years ago he began guest hosting at TCM, and is now one of the permanent hosts on the network dedicated to film.

In 2015, his TCM bio reads, Dave received the Publicists Guild Press Award honoring the year's outstanding entertainment journalist. In 2014, he was named one of OUT Magazine's "OUT 100," acknowledging the most influential people in the LGBT community.

EDGE spoke to Karger about his love of the movies and of the Oscars; finding himself on TCM and how the network is looking at classic films through a contemporary prism.

Asked how he found himself an entertainment journalist, Karger said:

Dave Karger: I was always obsessed with music and movies as a kid, and right out of college I began working for Entertainment Weekly magazine. I worked there for 17 years. I worked my way up from intern to senior writer and ended up writing over 50 cover stories for the magazine during my time there, mostly on actors but also on some singers. Fairly soon after I started working at EW, I also started doing occasional appearances on TV and radio as an 'entertainment expert.' In 2000 I was given the opportunity to go on the Today Show and do a movie box office segment with Katie Couric, and I have been doing that show on a regular basis for 20 years.

After 17 years at EW, I decided in 2012 to shift from print journalism to broadcast journalism. First I worked for the website Fandango and I created video content for them and then starting about five years ago I began guest hosting on TCM because Robert Osbourne, who has since past away, was too ill at the time to film for TCM, so he gave the blessing for me to fill in for him co-host for him. I had co-hosted with him in 2008 on TCM and had a great experience doing that, so I was made an official TCM host three years ago in 2018.

EDGE: How is that transition for you going for you from entertainment writer to host?

Dave Karger: For me, it happened very organically because for so long I was doing both at the same time... So it felt natural. After 17 years at the magazine, I felt like, first of all, print journalism was unfortunately waning in general; and also I felt that I needed a change. I loved working at EW. It was a perfect place to start my career. But I just knew I was ready to tackle a different challenge and I really love working for TCM... And now it has gotten to the point that some of the movies I covered as a writer years and years ago I am now covering on TCM. I just got off the Zoom with the Antwone Fisher, who wrote the movie "Antwone Fisher" with Denzel Washington and that's a movie I wrote about in 2002 for EW and now I am talking about it with TCM. So I am expecting as I get older that I get into that more and more...

EDGE: It seems that it all streaming services this award season, and I get it because of the pandemic. What do you think of this award season?

Dave Karger: Well, 2020 was the year we all sat home and watched movies on Netflix and Amazon, so it only makes sense that the Oscars will largely be about movies that we watched on Netflix and Amazon. Even though the movie industry was turned upside down in 2020, I think it is really heartening that there are a lot of really high quality films this year in the award season. I definitely do not feel that these awards groups are scrapping any barrels to come up with their nominees. The movies that will likely be nominated for the Oscars next month are terrific, whether they are Netflix and Amazon movies or theatrical releases, it is a great crop of movies this year.

EDGE: Speaking of Robert Osborne, I feel that he was a man of persistent elegance. I also feel you have a lot of the same qualities that he had when you are hosting. You make it seem so effortless. How do you connect?

Dave Karger: I really do feel like I am just being myself. I don't have a tv personality and a non-tv personality. I just feel like, what you see is what you get, at least that is what I try to do. I genuinely love this stuff and I love that I get to talk about these films. As a kid, my obsession was Casey Kasem and I would wake up every Sunday morning at 6 and listen to the "American Top 40." In a way I feel that I am kind of doing a similar function but instead of introducing a song I am introducing a movie, and I think I am so lucky to be working for this channel. I think it is the gold standard and to follow in the footsteps of someone like Robert Osborne, because our careers were very similar. He was also a print journalist first and a tv host second. In many ways I do feel like we are kindred spirits. It certainly felt that way when I cohosted in 2008. We had a great time. We got along so well and it was a complete honor to work with him. And I think back to that experience very often when I am in the studio in Atlanta shooting for TCM, even though I haven't been in that studio since last March.

EDGE: I always find it interesting how all the folks on the show pack a lot of information in your introductions, but I always find it relevant information. How do you choose what information you share? And is it information you want to share or is it information that you think the viewer wants to hear?

Dave Karger: What I love about the way TCM works is that the programming department is brilliant. They are the ones who come up with all of the themes and special features we that we feature on the channel. So by and large I try to cater the scripts to whatever the theme is and lean into whether it is a specific actor we are talking about or a specific plot line or genre or the Academy Awards. Of course if there is Oscar history to be talked about, I am going to talk about that because I love that. If there is someone in the movie who relates to a movie from my childhood, being a child of the 1980s, I mention that. I find it hilarious, for instance, both of Molly Ringwald's grandfathers from"16 Candles" were in the movie "Elmer Gantry," so I had to mention that when I was talking about "Elmer Gantry."

But one thing we are doing more of on TCM, and I think the viewers will notice, is we are trying to remain culturally relevant today even though we are talking about movies from the past. And you will see that we often try to put these movies into a context and try to help people understand the times in which they were made. And if there is some subject matter or a scene or a moment that is potentially problematic or offensive we are going to point that out, not to shame the movie or to censor it or say you shouldn't enjoy it, but to point it out and make you know why this potentially offensive moment made it past the powers that be back then.

EDGE: For me movies today lack that consistent quality and glamour than those movies from the Golden Age of Hollywood. What are your thoughts on this?

Dave Karger: This sounds like a cop-out but I honestly appreciate both eras of film. I can go back and watch a delightful Cary Grant – Cary Grant's my favorite – and just be swept up in the moment. But then after a while I do long for more LGBT characters, more characters of color, more interesting female characters, and when I need that fix I go to a more contemporary film. I love the fact that I work in both eras. I'm interviewing George Clooney and Kate Winslet, but am also talking about older films for TCM. So, again, I really do love both and I think a well-rounded movie diet should consist of both.

EDGE: Speaking of LGBT characters, I think that Netflix's series "Hollywood" brought to life the subculture of gays in Hollywood from the Golden Age. And I get excited when there is a movie on TCM where I know the actor or actresses were really gay in real life. The other day "Rope" which has a homosexual subtext between the characters of Brandon and Philip (played by John Dall and Farley Granger) that I always find intriguing. And I get excited when watching a movie from the '40s and '50s and know the actor was probably gay in real life, as they were in this film. How do you feel about that?

Dave Karger: I love that too and am particularly excited when see I am introducing a movie with Rock Hudson or Montgomery Clift or John Gielgud or directed by George Cukor. I love that. I just introduced "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" and of course made direct mention that the movie could not be as overt as the stage production was. I loved pointing that out. I love trying to speak specifically to the gay TCM audiences because I know they are out there. I have met many people. They stop me and I love that. I also know there is also a large conservative audiences of TCM, so I am mindful of that. But I also want to be enlightening and educational for them. That is very important to me. But it is hard also not get frustrated especially when I am introducing a movie that was smack in the middle of the Hays Code, it is hard not get frustrated and think about this movie could have been so different and so much more up front and frank about the sexuality of a certain character if hadn't been made under the constraints of the production code.

EDGE: Who for you is a really underrated actor from the Hollywood Golden Age that doesn't get the credit or the limelight they deserve?

Dave Karger: I would say Dana Andrews. I love him in "Laura." "Laura" is one of my all-time favorite movies and he is so great in that. And he was also in "The Best Years of Our Lives," which was a Best Picture winner from the mid-1940s. But by and large people don't know his name and because he was so good looking I think they don't take him seriously as a great actor, but I think he's a fantastic actor. So he's someone when I come across a movie he's that he is in that's not one of the two I mentioned I sit up and take notice because I am always impressed with what he does.

EDGE: What movie has changed your life?

Dave Karger: That is a great question. A movie that has changed my life. Well, the first thing that is coming in mind is not a movie. The thing that really changed my life was the theatrical production of "Angels in America" that I saw as a closeted college student. Even though I knew I was gay at the time, it still opened my mind to a completely different world. I would say "Broadcast News" was a movie that had a huge impact on me because it was about journalists and the characters spoke in a way that I would soon encounter in real life when I started working at EW in the mid-1990s, eight or so years after the movie came out. So that was a movie that had a huge impact on me.

EDGE: I love TCM's annual 31 Days of Oscar. What is your favorite part of the month of February when you have to do that?

Dave Karger: Well, this year it's April. So 31 Days of Oscar runs this year from April 1 to May 1, in case you are wondering when it is. When they moved the Oscars to April, we moved 31 Days of Oscar to April. But my favorite thing about Oscar Month – well I have actually got to co-host the red carpet show on ABC a couple of times – so for me my favorite thing is being there when it is an actual event. A couple of years ago I got interview Allison Janney and Gary Oldman on the red carpet right before they won their Oscars and that was a thrill that I will never forget. There is an electricity on that red carpet because it is still biggest show of the year.