When Turner Classic Movies first opened for business 15 years ago, I was heartbroken. My cable provider, a wretched outfit called Cencom Cable, didn't carry the channel.

By definition, TCM was a movie lovers' celluloid dream -- a commercial-free outlet with unfettered access to the pre-1948 MGM and Warner Bros. film libraries and the RKO library. TCM was the reason that Ted Turner went into hock up to his eyeballs to buy the MGM library in the mid-1980s.

Not only would it showcase classics from the Golden Age but as my husband was quick to point out, there would be skads of '30s and '40s films that we'd never had the chance to see -- never even heard of before. The cabler launched on April 14, 1994 (hard to believe what a different era for media that was) with an epic that we've all heard of, "Gone With the Wind."

We weren't deprived for long. Our cable provider, which by this time I believe had changed, offered us a movie-channel upgrade that included TCM. When we finally flipped the switch,TCM was better than we'd ever imagined. A classy presentation, knowledgeable host in veteran Hollywood Reporter columnist Robert Osborne (he put AMC's Bob Dorian to shame -- and out to pasture) and best of all, the programmers clearly had an appreciation for the treasure trove at their disposal.

Pictured above, Turner Classic Movies' launch event in Times Square, April 14, 1994. From left, Arthur Hiller, Arlene Dahl, Jane Powell, Celeste Holm, Ted Turner, Van Johnson and Robert Osborne.

Can't get enough Alec Baldwin?

The "30 Rock" star has signed on to serve as co-host alongside Robert Osborne of TCM's Saturday night showcase slot "The Essentials." Baldwin's a movie buff who will undoubtedly have a lot to say -- in typically animated fashion -- about the featured pics. Upcoming titles getting the "Essentials" treatment include "Rocky" (March 14); "Cat Ballou" (March 21); "Ben Hur" (March 28); and "Take the Money and Run" (April 4). Also, John Lithgow has been tapped to host TCM's "The Essentials Jr." family film showcase, to run June-August.

A John Ford film marathon is always cause for celebration.

Turner Classic Movies is obliging on Dec. 10-11 with a sked of nine Ford pics -- some well-known, some less so -- to coincide Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment's Dec. 4 release of nirvana in a box for Ford fanatics with $300 to spare. The "Ford at Fox" DVD box set encompasses 24 pics the helmer did during his days on the Century City lot, plus the docu "Becoming John Ford" from Nick Redman and all kinds of other trimmings: a photo book, lobby card reproductions, etc. etc.

The TCM marathon unfolds over two nights, starting Dec. 10 at 8 p.m. with a little-seen 1931 comedy "Up the River" starring Spencer Tracy, Humphrey Bogart and Claire Luce. The next night opens with the 1941's breathtaking "How Green Was My Valley." If you're not bawling by the end of this Oscar-winner about the struggles of Welsh coal miners, you ain't human.

So if you're not schooled in the Ford milieu, drink some coffee (or something stronger as Ford was wont to sip) and stay up all night, or set the TiVo, or go buy the DVD box set and take your own John Ford seminar this winter. The genius of his spare, un-showy, story-driven cinematic style is hard to describe in words (goodness knows he didn't care for hifalutin' film commentary stuff). You've just gotta have the experience of being sucked in within the first 30 seconds of one of his master works to understand why the eye-patch sporting, pipe-chomping Irishman (by way of Maine) and his pics rank so high on the list of Hollywood's all-time greats.

The TCM sked is posted below: