Saturday Night at the Movies
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- This article is about the TV series. There is also a 1964 song of the same name by The Drifters.
Saturday Night at the Movies is a weekly television series on TVOntario, the public educational television network in Ontario, Canada. The series presents classic movies, followed by interview and feature segments with directors, actors and other people involved in making the films presented.
First aired on March 30, 1974, the program was originally hosted by Elwy Yost. The first film shown was Ingmar Bergman's Through a Glass Darkly. The series has since presented almost 1,500 films and over 1,000 interviews.
In the late 1990s, the Progressive Conservative government of Mike Harris appointed Isabel Bassett as chair of TVOntario, with a mandate to refocus the network's broadcast schedule more clearly on education. Although there was some concern that the network would lose Saturday Night at the Movies, its highest-rated program, Bassett instead negotiated an agreement with York University to include the series in its film studies curriculum.
Yost retired as host of the series in 1999, and was replaced for one season by Shelagh Rogers. When Rogers moved to the CBC the following year to host This Morning, Saturday Night at the Movies briefly changed to a hostless format. More recently, the program has been hosted by Johanna Schneller.
Saturday Night at the Movies is the longest-running series still seen on Canadian television, apart from network newscasts and sports broadcasting.
Recently, it was announced that Saturday Night at the Movies would be airing three movies in one night instead of two (until recently, the third movie was a repeat of the night's first movie).
In June 2006, it was announced that TVOntario would be receiving $25 million (Cdn) in new government funding, compelling the public broadcaster to renew its focus on education and learning. As part of that renewed focus, it has been suggested, although not yet confirmed, that Saturday Night at the Movies may be dropped from the network's programming. However, in August 2006, TVOntario introduced some of its fall primetime lineup, which included the news that Saturday Night at the Movies would return for its 33rd season.
There was also a long-running U.S. television program entitled NBC Saturday Night at the Movies.
