Matinee at the Bijou
Matinee at the Bijou is a television series that premiered nationally on
Overview
Going to the movies prior to 1960, and especially prior to the advent of television, could last for several hours, and include many short films along with a single- or
With Matinee at the Bijou,
Key in producing the show was the creative use of public-domain content, as the cost of licensing content from the major studios was prohibitive. All of the short subjects and serials, as well as the feature films, were in the public domain except one: a single, first-season broadcast of Bulldog Drummond's Bride (1939). The Bijou producers and the film supplier presumed the film to be out of copyright, only to find later that the literary rights to the Drummond character were still protected. The Drummond film was withdrawn from the series and replaced with a Pinky Tomlin musical.
The theme music played during the opening credits was titled "At the Bijou," and was performed (in a new recording) by crooner
In 1995, an international television distributor, TV Matters, Inc., bought the broadcast rights to the series, and with the help of the series’ producers undertook a makeover updating the opening sequences and retaining only the best film elements from the original 80 episodes. A total of 52 remastered episodes were re-released to many
Scheduling
Matinee at the Bijou was considered a "fringe-time" series, and episodes were fed to
Hosts and producers
For the first three seasons, Matinee at the Bijou was hosted by actor Scott DeVenney. In 1983 the opening format was changed, the host was dropped, and a Sneak Previews-style opening was used, in order to reduce the amount of editing required to fit the content into the 90-minute slot.
Bob Campbell and John Galbraith, series co-creators and producers, presented their concept to PBS in 1979, were given a green light, and Matinee at the Bijou had its national premiere the following year. Galbraith left the series, along with host Scott DeVenney, in 1982, and producer Campbell continued on as executive producer and producer of the following two seasons and the re-release ten years later.
Funders
In 1980, when Matinee at the Bijou was first licensed by PBS, national programs were voted on and chosen by program managers of member stations, rather than national program chiefs. The stations effectively voted their available program dollars in a series of voting "preference rounds." The Matinee series made the cut for five consecutive seasons, but was not picked up in 1985 due to diminishing programming dollars and the need to spend what was available on core series like