At The Movies Closes Its Balcony

AT THE MOVIES, the long-running television series which offers critical reviews of films opening in theaters and on DVD will go on hiatus. The series, which has been on the air either on public television or in syndication since the 1970s, when it was famously launched by the “dueling Chicago film critics” Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel, was recently re-booted with fresh-faced co-hosts Christy Lemire of the Associated Press and Ignatiy Vishevestsky of mubi.com. Roger Ebert, who has been too ill in the past decade to appear on camera, has played mainly an administrative role with the series along with his wife and partner Chaz. On his Chicago Tribune blog, the veteran film critic announced that he could no longer afford to pay for the series, having largely financed it out of his own pocket without drawing any salary. The Eberts are currently speaking to sponsors about bringing the series back by 2013, but it definitely be off the air next year, the first time since the mid-1970s.

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