There is also a 1964 song of the same name by The Drifters

The Drifters

The Drifters are a long-lived American doo-wop and R&B/soul vocal group with a peak in popularity from 1953 to 1963, though several splinter Drifters continue to perform today. They were originally formed to serve as Clyde McPhatter's backing group in 1953...

.

Saturday Night at the Movies is a weekly television

Television

Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

 series on TVOntario

TVOntario

TVOntario, often referred to only as TVO , is a publicly funded, educational English-language television station and media organization in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is operated by the Ontario Educational Communications Authority, a Crown corporation owned by the Government of Ontario...

, the public educational television network in Ontario

Ontario

Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. The series presents classic movies

Film

A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

, followed by interview and feature segments with directors

Film director

A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...

, actor

Actor

An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...

s and other people involved in making the films presented. The show was formatted in this way due to previous requirements that all programming shown on TVO (including dramatic programming) must contain educational elements in them, usually accomplished by interviews and analysis of the programming. Even after the requirement was dropped, the format was maintained.

First aired on March 30, 1974, the program was originally hosted by Elwy Yost

Elwy Yost

Elwy McMurran Yost, CM was a television host, best known for hosting CBC Television's weekday Passport to Adventure series from 1965–67, and TVOntario's weekday Magic Shadows, from 1974 until the mid-1980s, and Saturday Night at the Movies from 1974–99.-Early life:Born in Weston, Ontario, the son...

. The first film shown was Ingmar Bergman

Ingmar Bergman

Ernst Ingmar Bergman was a Swedish director, writer and producer for film, stage and television. Described by Woody Allen as "probably the greatest film artist, all things considered, since the invention of the motion picture camera", he is recognized as one of the most accomplished and...

's Through a Glass Darkly

Through a Glass Darkly (film)

Through a Glass Darkly is a 1961 Swedish film written and directed by Ingmar Bergman, and produced by Allan Ekelund. The film is a three-act "chamber film", in which four family members act as mirrors for each other. It is the first of many Bergman films to be shot on the island of Fårö...

. The series has since presented almost 1,500 films and over 1,000 interviews.

In the late 1990s, the Progressive Conservative

Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario

The Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario , is a right-of-centre political party in Ontario, Canada. The party was known for many years as "Ontario's natural governing party." It has ruled the province for 80 of the years since Confederation, including an uninterrupted run from 1943 to 1985...

 government of Mike Harris

Mike Harris

Michael Deane "Mike" Harris was the 22nd Premier of Ontario from June 26, 1995 to April 15, 2002. He is most noted for the "Common Sense Revolution", his Progressive Conservative government's program of deficit reduction in combination with lower taxes and cuts to government...

 appointed Isabel Bassett

Isabel Bassett

Isabel Bassett is a Canadian broadcaster and former politician. From 1999 until 2005 she was the chair and CEO of TVOntario/TFO, Ontario's provincial public television network. She has been a controversial figure at times, but is also a highly regarded pioneer in Canadian...

 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

York University

York University is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's third-largest university, Ontario's second-largest graduate school, and Canada's leading interdisciplinary university....

 to include the series in its film studies

Film studies

Film studies is an academic discipline that deals with various theoretical, historical, and critical approaches to films. It is sometimes subsumed within media studies and is often compared to television studies...

 curriculum.

Yost retired as host of the series in 1999, and was replaced for one season by Shelagh Rogers

Shelagh Rogers

Shelagh Rogers, OC is a Canadian radio broadcaster. She is currently the host of CBC Radio One's The Next Chapter.Rogers grew up in Ottawa, Ontario. She was the "Head Girl" at her high school, Lisgar Collegiate Institute. She played in the Ottawa Youth Orchestra and was a spare on the Reach for...

. When Rogers moved to the CBC

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...

 the following year to host This Morning

This Morning (radio program)

This Morning was a Canadian radio program which aired from 1997 to 2002 on CBC Radio One. It was not always successful with CBC audiences, and underwent several format and hosting changes during its lifetime....

, Saturday Night at the Movies briefly changed to a hostless format. More recently, the program has been hosted by Johanna Schneller

Johanna Schneller

Johanna Schneller is an American-born Canadian film journalist and television personality.A freelance celebrity interviewer for such publications as Vanity Fair, GQ, Chatelaine and Toronto Life, she is also the film columnist for The Globe and Mail, and hosted TVOntario's weekly Saturday Night at...

and the current host is Thom Ernst.

Saturday Night at the Movies is the longest-running series still seen on Canadian television, apart from network newscasts and sports broadcasting.

External links

• Saturday Night at the Movies official site