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From: chuqui@nsc.UUCP (Chuq Von Rospach)
Newsgroups: net.tv
Subject: Re: HBO vs. Showtime
Message-ID: <578@nsc.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 26-Jan-84 12:58:47 EST
Article-I.D.: nsc.578
Posted: Thu Jan 26 12:58:47 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 28-Jan-84 03:19:23 EST
References: <798@sdcrdcf.UUCP>
Organization: National Semiconductor, Sunnyvale
Lines: 51

One thing that has not been pointed out about HBO is that they show a fair
number of stage shows, both on and off Broadway. I subscribed to it for
about a year, and during that time I was able to see the following shows:

    Table Manners (off broadway with Robert Klein and Mindy Cohn)
    Camelot (on Broadway with Richard Harris)
    Sherlock Holmes (Frank Langella)
    FDR (one man show with Robert Vaughn as Franklin Roosevelt)

Those are simply the ones that stuck in my mind off-hand, they picked up a
new show every month to 6 weeks. All of them are quite well staged and if
you like going to the theater and can't afford plane fare to NY all of the
time, this is a great substitute. 

I should also point out that HBO does a lot more sports than Boxing. In the
year I watched it they also showed a fair amount of gymnastics and ice
skating (two favorite spectator sports of mine). They show at least one
match a day (plus highlights) of Wimbledon up to the place where the
networks move in. If you haven't watched two weeks of Wimbledon tennis, you
don't really understand what it means to win that tournament!

If you like comedy, HBO is a must, because they do a LOT of comedy oriented
material. I have seen GOOD shows by Robin Williams, George Carlin, and
Robert Klein on HBO, and there have been a lot more since I stopped
subscribing (because I moved to an area that didn't have it yet. That is
about to change... I can't stand the networks anymore!)

Their movie mix is a little on the mild side, but I never subscribed to HBO
for the movies alone (which is why I would never subscribe to TMC, since
there tends to be such a small selections in movies). What I found, though,
was that there were a large number of 'marginal' movies that I never would
have bothered to go and see, but because they were 'free' (the theater on
HBO pays for itself in my opinion) I didn't mind watching them, and many
times I was very suprised. In fact, I never would have watched one of my
favorite movies (Continental Divide, which proved that John Belushi did
have talent in there somewhere) if it hadn't been on HBO against Three's
Company. Now, I wouldn't miss it.

In this HBO/Showtime feud, it should be pointed out that people who like
older films, classics, and are looking for films they missed the first time
around should look into Cinemax. This baby brother of HBO is programmed to
be non-competitive with HBO (very different film mix, thank Ghod) and does
a large number of retrospectives and classics as part of its programming.


-- 
From the house at Pooh Corner:	Chuq (a Silly Old Bear)
				{fortune,menlo70}!nsc!chuqui
				have you hugged your Pooh today?

The difficult we gave up on yesterday, the impossible we are giving up on now.