At the Movies (1982–1990 TV series)

Not to be confused with the 1986-2010 American movie review series, At the Movies or the currently-running Australian movie review series, At the Movies.

At the Movies
Genre	Film reviews (1982 - 1990) Entertainment news (1986 - 1990)
Presented by	Gene Siskel & Roger Ebert (1982 - 1986) Rex Reed & Bill Harris (1986 - 1988) Rex Reed & Dixie Whatley (1988 - 1990)
Country of origin	United States
Language(s)	English
No. of seasons	8
Production
Location(s)	Chicago, Illinois
Running time	30 minutes
Production company(s)	Tribune Entertainment
Broadcast
Original run	September 26, 1982 – 1990
Chronology
Preceded by	Sneak Previews
Followed by	At the Movies

At the Movies was a movie review television program that aired from 1982 to 1990. It was produced by Tribune Entertainment and created by Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, who had left Sneak Previews the previous year.

Siskel and Ebert left in 1986 in a dispute with Tribune Entertainment; they went on to create Siskel & Ebert (which later adopted the At the Movies title in 2008) with Buena Vista Television. They were replaced by film critic Rex Reed and Bill Harris, a gossip correspondent for Entertainment Tonight (ET). Under Reed and Harris, the show expanded beyond movie reviews, adding show business news. Harris left in 1988 and was replaced by former ET host Dixie Whatley.

During the Siskel and Ebert run, the two adopted the same format they had used in their previous series "Opening Soon at a Theater Near You" which ran on PBS. Two critics from opposing newspapers looking at clips from the week's new movies and then discussing them. During this run they would adopt several elements that would make the show lively. For example, they would bring on Spot the Wonder Dog to help the critics lead into "The Dog of the Week", the week's worst movie. Later, they used another animal Aroma the Educated Skunk. Plus, the critics would also occasionally featured an "X-Ray segment" in which they discussed current trends happening in the movies. None of these extra elements were carried over when the show moved to Buena Vista and the show became Siskel & Ebert.

External links

• At the Movies at the Internet Movie Database