Matinee at the Bijou

[Cartman]

Has anyone ever heard of this series? It used to air on PBS. I remember one time I turned it on, it had begun and they showed a Felix the Cat cartoon (I think the title of it was NEPTUNE NONSENSE). It's definitely off the air where I live, but it may be on wehre someof you live.

[Argus Sventon]

It aired in Atlanta in 1996. I watched it in Atlanta whenever I was over there. They showed Educational Pictures shorts, and I saw the Lantz cartoon Boy Meets Dog, with original Universal titles, not Castle Films titles!

Now they got Arthur, the crapvark. I hate Arthur!!!!!

[Bum]

Ahhh, I have fond memories of this show! It used to air on my PBS station Saturday evenings in the early '80's. The host [Scott Devenney] would give a brief description of the films we were about to see, followed by an uninterrupted program of [usually public domain] cartoons, shorts, trailers, and a B-grade feature. It was intended to represent a typical moviegoing experience from the '30's and '40's. Many of the films themselves were terrible, but this was a fun show! Several W-B cartoons were the "selected short subject", including THE DOVER BOYS, EATIN' ON THE CUFF, and I LIKE MOUNTAIN MUSIC [retitled MAGAZINE RACK]. This series made a "comeback" around '96-97; they were just reruns of the original shows with Scott Devenney's opening introductions replaced by an off-screen narrator.

[Bobby B]

That show was my first exposure to Betty Boop ("Betty Boop's Museum", which I haven't seen since then) and Bosko ("Sinking in the Bathtub") back in the mid-1980's.

[Larry T]

Yep, I remember this show also. For us, it used to air on Saturday Afternoons in the early to mid 80s. As said before, there would be a newsreel, a feature, usually a cartoon, etc. I have great memories of watching (and recording) this program solely for the cartoon- I first saw "Lady Play Your Mandolin", "Saps In Chaps", "Scrap Happy Daffy", "Betty Boop MD", "Hospitaliky", "Brotherly Love", and "Smile, Darn You, Smile".

This was also the first time I can recall I'd first seen the credits to a cartoon window-boxed.... it was also the first time I'd seen the incorrect credits intentionally slapped onto a cartoon- for "Scrap Happy Daffy", I knew this was a Looney Tune, but for some reason the cartoon opened with a B&W MM shield and frozen title card from 1939- then after the music finished, the cartoon faded to black, then the title for the actual cartoon quickly faded in. This happened for a few of them, too... plus the incorrect opening credits were also windowboxed.

I guess screwing around with the originals goes back longer than we thought.....:rolleyes:

[Sogturtle]

I always loved the program (especially as a cartoon historian). Believe I taped all of the cartoons from its run... But back in the Eighties here we had a REAL peculiarity, created by the local PBS station being owned and operated by the university. The oddity was that the university had an OVERABUNDANCE of programming. What that translated into was that "Matinee At The Bijou" (and some other shows) got bumped completely off the broadcast schedule. The university then created a cable-only channel for the overflow shows, including "Matinee...". Soooooo those of us who had cable saw the show, those who didn't, tough cookies. A real case of the haves versus the have-nots :(

[lislebartman]

God, I loved that show!! It was shown here in the Chicago area back in the 1980's and I would make an effort to watch it everytime it was on! The host would be in a different movie theater (back when movie theaters were very elegant and spatial) and the program would start off with coming attractions, a cartoon, a chapter of a movie serial and then the main feature. I saw many cartoons on that program that I had never seen before (like the Van Beuren shorts) and some that I haven't seen since (like the Van Beuren shorts). PBS should put that back on!!

[SloppyMoe]

I also used to tune in every Saturday (midday), in the early-mid 1980s. I recall they ran THE DUCTATORS once, ROOKIE REVIEW, EATIN' OFF THE CUFF, SCRAP HAPPY DAFFY, the Pvt. Snafu cartoon THE HOME FRONT (as part of the Army-Navy Screen Magazine so we actually got two cartoons that week :D), and even a Columbia Phantasy cartoon, THE CASE OF THE SCREAMING BISHOP (1944)! Unfortunately, though I taped the Columbia cartoon, I made the mistake of lending it to a (former) friend soon afterward, never to be seen again (the tape also had BETTY BOOP M.D. and my sole, taped-off-TBS copy of RUSSIAN RHAPSODY, both of which I was luckily able to get later on laserdisc, but still...)!:eek: :mad:

The one down side was when Matinee at the Bijou ran a b&w print of THE COY DECOY, with the "Black Beauty" part snipped out. the cut looked odd at the time, but I only found out later what was missing when a local channel ran a Korea-colored print uncut! :(

[Rob]

That WAS a great show. I can almost remember the theme music...

Along with the cartoons, I enjoyed the comedy shorts. I think they showed the Stooges' DISORDER IN THE COURT once, a PD two reeler.

Were these shows ever available on home video?

[Mibbitmaker]

I wish they'd bring that back, too. That was a great idea for a show!

I wonder if there'd be any movie/cartoon ownership problems that'd keep it off the air today? That's wot done in the great MST3K. %!@*$+=!!! (heh... swear words...)

[Bobby B]

Originally posted by Larry T
"
.... it was also the first time I'd seen the incorrect credits intentionally slapped onto a cartoon- for "Scrap Happy Daffy", I knew this was a Looney Tune, but for some reason the cartoon opened with a B&W MM shield and frozen title card from 1939- then after the music finished, the cartoon faded to black, then the title for the actual cartoon quickly faded in. This happened for a few of them, too... plus the incorrect opening credits were also windowboxed.

I guess screwing around with the originals goes back longer than we thought.....:rolleyes:


The print of "Sinking in the Bathtub" that they showed had a Buddy title card!

[Bum]

Originally posted by Rob
That WAS a great show. I can almost remember the theme music...

Along with the cartoons, I enjoyed the comedy shorts. I think they showed the Stooges' DISORDER IN THE COURT once, a PD two reeler.

Were these shows ever available on home video?

The theme music was sung by Rudy Vallee to the tune of "You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby" [with new lyrics]. I can only remember a few odd lines such as "America was standing in breadlines/ Dillinger was stealing all the headlines..."

As for home video, believe it or not, I DID INDEED see an episode [probably on beta] at a video store back in the late '80's! Haven't seen a single one since then, but they did definitely exist!