Disney-ABC cancels At the Movies after 35 years

The film-review series, once known as Siskel & Ebert after the show’s first and longtime hosts, will air its final original program on the weekend of Aug. 14.

“This was a very difficult decision, especially considering the program’s rich history and iconic status within the entertainment industry, but from a business perspective it became clear this weekly, half-hour, broadcast syndication series was no longer sustainable,” the show’s distributor, Disney-ABC Domestic TV, said in a statement obtained by THR.

Phil Rosenthal at The Chicago Tribune has the most comprehensive coverage of the sad news, including Ebert’s own reaction:

On Twitter, Ebert said Phillips and Scott “can be very proud of their work on ‘At the Movies.’ If it had to die, it’s going out with class.” Ebert praised current producer David Plummer, a holdover from the “Siskel & Ebert” and “Ebert & Roeper” days.

Ebert wrote in an early Thursday blog post that Roeper “didn’t fancy following the show in a ‘new direction” and called Lyons “the victim of a mistaken hiring decision.” Mankiewicz, Ebert Tweeted, was “a good guy who knew his stuff … an innocent bystander in the ‘At the Movies’ situation.”

The show’s demise, Ebert noted, was tied to the changes in the TV industry since the show’s heyday.

“Blame the fact that five-day-a-week syndicated shows like ‘Wheel of Fortune’ went to six days,” Ebert wrote. “Blame the fact that cable TV and the internet have fragmented the audience so much that stations are losing market share no matter what they do. Blame the economy, because many stations would rather sell a crappy half-hour infomercial than program a show they respect.”

…TV critic Tom Shales of the Washington Post, in 1983, called the duo “the two best-known movie critics in the country, and, now that Archie and Edith (Bunker of ‘All in the Family’) have left us, probably the country’s most celebrated squabblers as well”

Despite his on-air absence, Ebert’s name and imprimatur remained with the program until the formal split with Disney in the summer of 2008. A hint of the trouble to come had surfaced a few months before, however, when the show dropped its use of “thumbs up” and “thumbs down” as shorthand for a recommendation or rejection of a film. Ebert and Siskel’s estate own the trademark on the thumbs.

The parting with Disney was not pretty, and to some the program linked to Siskel and Ebert died then and there.

Ebert later wrote that the executive who brought in Lyons and Mankiewicz decided that the show’s balcony set from both the Siskel-Ebert era and Ebert-Roeper days was passe. So “one of the most iconic set ideas in … television history, which had survived for more than half of the life of the medium” and once seemingly destined for the Smithsonian Institution instead was leveled by workers with sledge-hammers and tossed “in a dumpster in the alley” outside ABC-owned WLS-Ch. 7, where the show was produced.

But there’s some good news too:

Ebert, who continues to review films for the Sun-Times, indicated on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” recently he his wife, Chaz, may help produce a new show of some sort and reiterated that plan in his Thursday blog post.

“We believe a market still exists for a weekly show where a couple of critics review new movie,” Ebert wrote.

Ebert declined to “reveal details about the talks we’re deeply involved in” but said they looked to wrest back control of the name, “At the Movies,” as in “Roger Ebert presents At the Movies,” noting he and Siskel first used that title in the 1980s when they left PBS for Tribune.

(thanks to Dave Mar)