TCM's Dave Karger Brings Musical Love to 2023 TCM Classic Film Festival (Exclusive)

Journalist Dave Karger has been a member of the TCM family since 2016 and became an official host in 2018. His knowledge and love for musicals made him the perfect choice for TCM's Musical Matinee Saturday afternoon programming. He's also introducing several musicals during the 2023 TCM Classic Film Festival, which starts on Thursday. In an exclusive interview with PopCulture.com, Karger talked about some of the films he's most excited about introducing, as well as some of the younger films on the schedule.

The festival starts on Thursday, April 13 with a special screening of Warner Bros.' new restoration of Rio Bravo, and ends on Sunday, April 16. The theme, "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet: Celebrating Film Legacies," allows for plenty of musicals to join the schedule, including Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Bye Bye Birdie, The Music Man, and Beach Party. Karger, who also serves as Entertainment Weekly's awards correspondent, will introduce all these and more. We talked about these movies, as well as what recent movies could someday find themselves at the TCM Classic Film Festival.

Which movies are you most excited about presenting this year?

Dave Karger: Well, as I think you may know, I'm a big musical fan, so anything that kind of dovetails movies and music, I get particularly excited about. So I'm going to be interviewing Ann-Margret before our screening of Bye Bye Birdie as well as Shirley Jones after we screen The Music Man. And I'm extremely excited because I get to interview Frankie Avalon before our pool-side screening of Beach Party. And his performance as the Teen Angel in Grease was very big for five-year-old me when I saw Grease when it came out. So that's going to be very exciting, and I'm going to try hard not to completely lose my shit when I'm standing with Frankie Avalon.

Did you lose out on interviewing Russ Tamblyn for Seven Brides?

Dave Karger: No, I'm doing that too, and he's great. And I met him once years ago at a movie premiere for a film his daughter directed, Amber, and chatted with him briefly. He was so nice. So he won't remember that, but I'm excited to see him.

This year there are also a few really recent movies, just showing how the definition of "classic movie" has changed, and they just added There's Something About Mary and...

Dave Karger: How do you feel about that?

I was thinking that's probably going to be a tough sell for some fans, especially where it's in that big IMAX slot, but do you have any insight on how that decision came about picking that particular film? 

Dave Karger: You know what? I don't. I really don't have any. I know they like to do the 20th, 25th, 30th, 35th, and 40th-anniversary films, and that is our one 25th anniversary film...

I mean, for me, I think more like 35, 40 years old is classic. 25 is kind of on that cusp for me. But if people want a complete change of pace, then they should go see that. By the way, Lynn Shea, who's going to be there, is just a delight. So that'll be an added bonus. But I'm actually doing the Risky Business intro with Rebecca De Mornay and I'm totally on board with that one being considered a classic because it's a classic, albeit a modern one.

Do you think it's kind of part of the idea that the term "classic" doesn't necessarily have to mean old? There are some movies that are made within maybe even the past 10 years that you can instantly tell, "This is a great movie. This is a classic of the form."

Dave Karger: Of course. Yes. I would definitely agree with your assessment that there are instant classics like The Power of the Dog or There Will Be Blood or something like that. At the same time, I have always equated it to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, where every year there's a new eligible class of possible inductees. And I really belong to the same ... I subscribe to the same way of thinking when it comes to classic films. As I said, once something is 35, or 40 years old and it's stood the test of time, it's fair game in my opinion.

A few years ago, The Big Lebowski played, and that's already considered a cult classic, and that's not even 30 years old yet.

Dave Karger: It's true. And also, it goes without saying that by including films from the '80s and '90s, we vastly increased our chances of having people from those films actually at the festival. And a true highlight for me in all the years I've been going to the TCM Film Festival was interviewing the cast of Diner last year at the 40th-anniversary screening of that. And so to have Steve Gutenberg, Paul Reiser, Timothy Daly, and Kevin Bacon on one stage... the audience was just loving it, and so was I. So I think that's yet another reason why it's really important to broaden the scope a little bit and not only consider movies from the Golden Age to be classics.

Speaking of cast reunions, this year, you've got Crossing Delancey with Amy Irving and Peter Riegert are going to both be there. That's exciting...  it's such a great movie and it really fits in with the style, I guess, of a lot of the classic romantic comedies that we love.

Dave Karger: I agree. Amy Irving got a Golden Globe nomination for it. So it wasn't an Oscar nominee, but it's still a movie that was beloved by critics and audiences. Amy Irving does not make that many public appearances, so it's particularly exciting for us to have her.

And just as a very minor aside. When I was working in Entertainment Weekly, the very first phone interview that I ever did with a movie star was Peter Riegert for a movie that he had in 1995. I think the movie was called Coldblooded, and it was a movie that he did. Now I need to look it up because it was a movie that he did with Jason Priestley in 1995. And it was like a hitman... black comedy... I was a nervous wreck as a 22-year-old to be doing a phone interview with him. And he could not have been nicer. So he holds a special place in my heart, even though I never met him.

Earlier we were talking about the Warner Bros. focus and the hundredth anniversary of the studio. What's one aspect of that studio's history that you hope fans come away with after this festival and watch all their movies on TCM this month?

Dave Karger: As a musical person, I'm always very intrigued by what each studio kind of contributed to the musical genre. And when I think Warner Bros., I think Busby Berkeley and all kinds of the early days of the movie musical, the 1930s, the Gold Diggers films, all the great Busby Berkeley numbers. I know that part of the Warner Bros. tribute that we're doing this month is a whole Busby Berkeley night or a whole Busby Berkeley day. I'm not sure when in the calendar it falls, but that's one thing that I think is really great to acknowledge.

Doris Day is well a huge musical star for Warner Bros, and she's one of my absolute favorites. But yeah, it's just kind of like 100 years of great quality over so many different genres. That is truly remarkable. And it's very cool for us at TCM that we're siblings with this legendary studio. It's a great partnership.

 
The reach of the studio is so much that The Masked Singer did a tribute to Warner Bros. this week. And you guys are part of that. Risky Business was even referenced on it, so you got to see someone dressed up praying mantis do "Old Time Rock and Roll."

Dave Karger: That's when you know you've truly permeated the culture when you can be big part of the TCM Film Festival and The Masked Singer in the same month.

Do you think there's any, within the past year or so, that will ... I mean, can you predict that something like, I don't know, Tar or Everything Everywhere All At Once can really permeate the culture to become the classic ... to get that classic status?

Dave Karger: Well, [it's] interesting you mention Tar because Tar was my favorite of all of the movies last year. It definitely proved to be, I believe, almost too cerebral for the Academy and that's why it went home empty-handed, which is criminal in my opinion. But I do think that that is a film, particularly amongst true film lovers, that is going to stand the test of time, more than any other film from 2022. I would also even add The Banshees of Inisherin to that because I think that was just absolutely perfect, I would call, a relationship film. So those two. And I think Everything Everywhere All at Once will also stand the test of time, but not to the extent that Tar or The Banshees of Inisherin might.