I knew I wasn't imagining things, but I'd have been like seven or eight when they started having commercial. Damn, my memory is pretty good! My dad would always watch the western marathons on there that they seemed to do pretty much every weekend and I remember they used to play Three Stooges shorts as well, hosted by Leslie Nielsen.
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Yes… AMC was commercial-free, back in its early days. They had a movie host by the name of Bob Dorian who was a real charmer - made for some very entertaining as well as informative classic movie viewing experiences. Really helped solidify my interest in classic film, which has lasted to this day.
For most of its first 18 years in existence, AMC provided uncut and uncolorized films without commercial interruption. Its revenue came from carriage fees provided by the cable providers that maintained carriage agreements with the channel. However, in 1998, AMC began accepting traditional advertising…

Same, but both were great. AMC too, back when they played mostly classic movies. I can't remember if they were ever commercial free, though, and I'm definitely glad that the Breaking Bad universe, Mad Men and Halt and Catch Fire exist. But TCM was definitely the best.
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TCM was good too, and I came to like it a little later, but it didn't act as a gateway like IFC did for me.

I was more into TCM than IFC.

I feel lucky that I am a New Yorker who has actually gone to the IFC in person to see a film probably 3000 times
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