At last, at last, at last...
Every year, I wonder why the TV rights-holders don't broadcast the movie "Groundhog Day" on Groundhog Day. In keeping with the story, I really think they should broadcast it continuously for 24 hours, as they do with that Christmas movie from the early '80s showing that little blond kid... but any showing would be fine.

Today they did it. TBS showed "Groundhog Day" late last night, a second airing is about finished now, and I think it's on again in a few hours. They classify it as a "Romance," which seems like an almost-complete miscategorization: "Groundhog Day" is a bloodless horror film and the pitch-blackest of comedies.

Of course it's also a self-improvement fable, and as such has been embraced by some relatively relaxed religious leaders. I guess that's nice, even though my personal identification with the movie tends to end around when Bill Murray reluctantly accepts that he can neither kill himself nor otherwise "escape" from the repeating day. "Heartwarming" generally gets dull after around the eighth viewing; the darker stuff (and the comedy--Murray punching out, then later coming on to, Stephen Tobolowsky is an indelible classic) stays fresh for me, for whatever reason.