Matinee at the Bijou

[1] It recreated the American moviegoing experiences of the 1930s and the 1940s, with trailers, a cartoon, one or more selected short subjects, a cliffhanger serial chapter "to be continued," and a tightly edited feature presentation.

Each episode of Matinee at the Bijou had only 90 minutes to replicate an authentic theater program, so the weekly serial chapter was usually shortened to about half its length and the feature attraction was always edited down to about an hour.

With Matinee at the Bijou, PBS, known for presenting highbrow, how-to and educational content, gave America a weekly dose of cinematic entertainment for eight years, and the series went on to become a pop-culture phenomenon on television and college campuses.

The theme music played during the opening credits was titled "At the Bijou," and was performed (in a new recording) by crooner Rudy Vallee and composed by Rich Mendoza.

[citation needed] National Nielsen ratings for the first-run episodes were mostly in the 4.0 to 5-7 ranges, reported as unprecedented for a non-prime time PBS fringe-time series.

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.