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Turner Classic Movies is an essential channel for the preservation of film culture, and frequently a necessary oasis against the noise and clutter of contemporary pop culture. But twice now it has acted as what appears to be an active participant in a bizarre battle between a Hollywood icon and lawyers looking to take away one of his favorite toys. This led to Friday night\u2019s surprising (and very meme-able) 30-minute broadcast: Tracy Zooms In.<\/em><\/p>\n In 1990, Warren Beatty<\/strong> directed himself as the tech-forward police detective Dick Tracy, alongside Al Pacino<\/strong> and Madonna<\/strong>, and a slew of phenomenal people like Dick Van Dyke<\/strong>, Mandy Patinkin<\/strong>, Catherine O\u2019Hara<\/strong>, and Mary Woronov<\/strong> in an early stab at the comic book movie<\/p>\n The studio hoped it was launching a franchise at the time, but soon after the premiere the project got tied up in a series of byzantine lawsuits. Ownership of the intellectual property has passed between Disney, Tribune Media Services (who distributed the newspaper comic strip since its debut in the Detroit Mirror<\/em> in the early 1930s), and Beatty himself. Here\u2019s where it gets fun.<\/p>\n In order to keep hold of the rights, Beatty must, periodically, get back into his yellow duster and appear somewhere as the character Dick Tracy. And Turner Classic Movies is more than eager to help him with this ruse.<\/p>\n Indeed, they\u2019ve done it before. The first time was in 2010. A California judge ruled<\/a> that \u201ccommencement of principal photography of his television special on November 8, 2008 was sufficient for him to retain the Dick Tracy<\/em> rights.\u201d That 30-minute special (which you can watch here<\/a>) has some outdoor photography and schtick, but is mostly \u201cDick Tracy\u201d chatting with film critic Leonard Maltin<\/strong>. (The project was shot by Oscar-winning cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki<\/strong>.) The show aired once and that was that, but, thankfully, made its way to YouTube, where the strangeness of it all has become something of a phenomenon to comedy podcasters<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n But for this latest escapade in legal shenanigans, Turner Classics is leaning into it a bit more. While the show is not yet streaming on its TCM Watch app, three Dick Tracy<\/em> movies from the 1940s (Dick Tracy<\/em>, Dick Tracy vs. Cueball<\/em>, and Dick Tracy’s Dillema<\/em>) were just added. And with capturing material to YouTube a little easier these days, a high resolution version is, at least for now, viewable. (And appears at the bottom of this page.)\u00a0<\/p>\n