• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

At the Movies cancelled

I'd agree that it just isn't the same without Ebert (and Siskel, RIP). That said, I like A.O. Scott, and it's too bad this won't continue. :(
 
I really didn't care who did the reviews. It was a good way of seeing clips for movies, especially the not-so-heavily-marketed ones.

Maybe we should start a weekly review thread here. Except the value of At the Movies is that they didn't just hit the expected mainstream stuff that I'll hear about anyway. Maybe I should do a quick poll to see if it would be worthwhile.
 
I haven't followed all the iterations very closely but it just isn't the same without Ebert.

I wonder why they didn't cancel it after Ebert left. He was the only reason most people were watching anyway.

Money.

Glad it's dead, it died when Ebert had to leave.

Pretty much. It didn't even air here, except at some ridiculous time, like 2:30am or something.

I think the two "Bens" (er....that one Ben in particular) just killed the show completely---it lost all creditability and respect, and no one even wanted to try it after it was revamped AGAIN.

Oh well. Better to put the show out of its misery.
 
I haven't followed all the iterations very closely but it just isn't the same without Ebert.

I wonder why they didn't cancel it after Ebert left. He was the only reason most people were watching anyway.

Money.

Glad it's dead, it died when Ebert had to leave.
It still had credibility while Roeper was there - he wasn't one of the original two, of course, but he'd been working that beat for a long time by then. But when he (wisely) left over the format changes, yeah, then it was over.

Scott and Phillips revived it a bit, but it wasn't the same.
 
If At the Movies is gone, does that mean that there are now no regular movie review shows? That'd be a shame. Granted, At the Movies had gotten really shitty for a while when Roeper first left & they totally changed the format. But they changed it back and Phillips & Scott made a good team. (Perhaps they weren't as contentious as some of the other pairings but at least it was nice not to have to deal with Roeper's smarm anymore.) It sucks if they only realized their mistakes too little too late.

It's also a shame that the show was on so ungodly late around here. 2am on Sunday nights, after repeats of the news, crappy entertainment magazines, & reruns of Lost. I was only able to keep watching that late because I'm unemployed.:p

Then there used to be some of the rip-offs like Hot Ticket & Reel Talk. Reel Talk sometimes seemed a bit over-rehearsed but Hot Ticket was fun. I like Leonard Maltin.
 
I don't know why they couldn't keep it on. I don't watch TV, but I saw the reviews on the site. I mean, how hard is it to keep this show running? It certaily can't be a budget buster, and the franchise is familiar.
 
Heard this a couple of days ago on NPR. The interesting thing was they said Ebert was considering coming back to TV on a new show he'd develop himself. Apparently there's some new synthetic voice tech that ca reproduce his own voice. 'Course, he's been saying he'd come back to tv for a while. Hope it all works out.

As far as At The Movies going away, I'll miss it. I liked the two new guys, and as others have pointed out, all of the copycat movie review shows of this type are long gone. Funny how one of my oldest memories of the show is Gene Siskel saying TRON was "neat." Now, there's a new TRON and his legacy show is on its way out.

Farewell.
 
Ebert on Twitter:

Ben Mankiewicz, a good guy who knew his stuff, was an innocent bystander. ATM may have been doomed the day Lyons was hired.

Ebert writing about a certain Disney executive and the Lyons/Mankiewicz show:

Our new Disney executive from Burbank had other new ideas. She looked at the balcony set at ABC/Chicago, one of the most iconic set ideas in the history of television history, which had survived for more than half of the life of the medium, and decided it needed to be replaced. Now workers tore at our set with sledge-hammers, and it collected in a dumpster in the alley. It was replaced by two sets, one resembling a demo counter at a trade show, the other two nice chairs at an Admirals' Club.

The show's reviews were not kind. Two websites opened to catalogue Lyon's lapses. I e-mailed Mankiewicz in sympathy, comparing him to the victim of a drive-by shooting. That he remained polite and supportive throughout the ordeal is the mark of a gentleman. I was nowhere near that nice to Siskel, and I loved him.
 
Disney just fed up this show and took it too far past saving. They shouldn't have strayed from the formula!
 
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top