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Every day is an award-winning dayRobert Osborne hosts TCM's '31 Days of Oscar'By Todd Leopold SPECIAL REPORT
RELATEDQUICKVOTEYOUR E-MAIL ALERTS(CNN) -- It wasn't so long ago that classic movies were something you caught on the late show and Hollywood stars -- big stars, like Bette Davis and Barbara Stanwyck -- were fairly approachable. Robert Osborne remembers. His first boss upon arriving in Los Angeles, California, in the early '60s was Lucille Ball, and through her he met a number of well-known actors and actresses who couldn't have been more thrilled to have someone who cared about their work. "I was already a movie buff," Osborne, the author of "75 Years of the Oscar" and host of Turner Classic Movies, recalls in his wonderfully mellifluous voice. "But at that point ... there was no great nostalgia about movies. Those people loved [the fact that] they didn't have to explain themselves to me. Also, they weren't working that much, so they had plenty of time to talk to me." Osborne has put those stories to good use in his wraparound segments to TCM's movie programming. They'll come in particularly handy in February, which -- as always in the month approaching the Academy Awards -- is the network's "31 Days of Oscar," which runs February 1 through March 3. The network is also throwing in a 32nd day, March 4, to be programmed by Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences president Sid Ganis. (Turner Classic Movies, like CNN, is a division of Time Warner.) Oscar comes in for plenty of criticism -- particularly this time of year, when pundits wonder why the Academy isn't more adventurous -- but Osborne defends its choices. "For me, the positive thing about the Academy Awards is that they do change with time," he says. "It's not perceived as that, but if you look at the history ... there's the [immediate] adjustment from silent to sound, and then to color from black and white," as well as, he adds, the changes in the business from a handful of independent major studios to a variety of conglomerate-owned majors, independents and pseudo-independents. "It's always been flexible," he says. The Zero is connected to the WoodyThis year's "31 Days of Oscar" schedule follows a "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon"-style pattern (called "360 Degrees of Oscar" by TCM), with one movie leading into the next based on a common star. Thus "The Producers" leads into "The Front," which is followed by "Zelig": Zero Mostel handing off to Woody Allen. Just as important to film buffs are this year's premieres, which include Robert Altman's "Nashville" (1975), Francis Ford Coppola's often-overlooked "The Conversation" (1974) and the clever "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" (1988). Osborne films 130 of his wraparounds a week, which keeps him well occupied with watching films and boning up on details. (He also manages to maintain a regular gig as a columnist for The Hollywood Reporter.) "There's always a stack of tapes I haven't seen, or need to see again," he sighs. "My curse is that I think there's value in every movie, and the more I learn, the more fascinating I find them."  Longtime Oscar watcher Robert Osborne with a friend. For example, he points out, there's a 1947 Greer Garson film called "Desire Me" which has the unique distinction of being the only major film with no director's credit at all. (Several directors worked on it, including George Cukor and Mervyn LeRoy, but nobody lent his name to the production -- not even the pseudonymous Alan Smithee.) "It's not a good movie or a bad movie, but if I know something about it, it makes it more interesting to watch," says Osborne. He's high on this year's Oscar possibilities -- this interview was conducted a few days before the nominations -- particularly the number of fine acting performances. "It's a tough year, but that means the Academy Award really means something," he says. He'll be paying attention to the Oscar telecast himself, of course -- who knows what tidbits may emerge -- but after that, it's back to the movies. "I'll be working on April and May," he says. 
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