News From the Lake for May 26th, 2016

News in a nutshell: TCM announces a new on-air correspondent, getTV has you covered for June, and what’s new on DVD and Blu-ray.

https://vimeo.com/167778436/931aa41986

TCM announced this week that Tiffany Vazquez will be the network’s new Saturday anchor in the morning and afternoon. You may remember Vazquez as the winner of TCM’s Superfan contest in 2014, and since then she’s covered the TCM Film Festival, as well as the network’s tribute to movie girlfriends. Vazquez’s announcement and placement marks her as the first female to secure a regular position introducing films. (Though other women have introduced during specific themes, Vazquez is placed alongside Robert Osborne and Ben Mankiewicz as a regular, full-time host.) Criticism came through on Facebook and Twitter with many citing Vazquez’s young age, with many going so far as throw out personal attacks, irrelevant to her position; many of these criticisms were brought up when Mankiewicz was hired, as well. As someone who’s interacted with Vazquez online and in-person, it’s great to see a woman of color make her mark on the network enough to be a host, and I have no doubts she’ll prove the naysayers wrong. There’s no word on when Vazquez will make her formal debut.

getTV pays tribute to Robert F. Kennedy on June 6th with an airing of his appearance on The Merv Griffith Show. Also on tap for the month, birthday tributes to Rosalind Russell, Dean Martin and Judy Holliday, as well as more crime shows. You can find the full schedule at getTV.

New on DVD and Blu-ray

Kino: Kino revealed eight movies coming to DVD and Blu-ray in August. August 2nd will see the release of The Mark of Zorro (1940) and Rawhide (1951); Canadian Pacific (1949) and The Cariboo Trail (1950) on August 9th; 3 Bad Men (1926), Chandu the Magician (1932) and The Spiders (1919) on August 23rd; and Destiny (1921) on August 30th.

Warner Archive: Some great Warner Archive items arriving throughout the month of June. They Were Expendable (1945) and She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949) will both make their debuts on Blu-ray. Jackie Cooper gets a trio of releases: Dinky (1935), O’Shaughnessy’s Boy (1935) and Tough Guy (1936), while Mickey Rooney’s titles, Lord Jeff and Stablemates (both 1938) are seeing DVDs. Warner also has plans to put out a three film set of Charlie Chan movies and a four-film Lee Tracy set. Count the Hours (1953), The Great Jewel Robber (1950), No Questions Asked (1951), Stakeout on Dope Street (1958) and Tarzan the Ape Man (1959) also round out June. You can order all these on-demand at Warner Archive.