Roger Ebert reboots 'At the Movies' TV series on PBS

Roger Ebert is not always a fan of movie remakes and reboots, but he's restarting the program that made him famous. On Saturday, the veteran film critic announced that his half-hour movie review show, At the Movies, will make a comeback on PBS. The new program will be titled Roger Ebert Presents At the Movies and hosted by Christy Lemire, a film critic at The Associated Press, and Elvis Mitchell of NPR.

In a blog post, Ebert spoke about the new show.

"This is the rebirth of a dream," said Ebert, who partnered in recent years with Richard Roeper before cancer robbed him of the ability to speak. He said he will act as co-producer and employ a computer voice to appear on every episode with segments titled Roger's Office devoted to classic, overlooked and new films. He will not debate with the two co-hosts, he said: "They'll be awarding the Thumbs, and you can't have three Thumbs." 

..."In addition to reviews of new movies, debated by Christy and Elvis," Ebert said, "the pilot included a segment with Kim discussing a classic film noir, Omar discussing the growing role of the internet in the success of indie films, a segment with Christy and Kim discussing new women directors, and a segment where I review a new indie documentary." A sampler from the pilot is linked below.

Here's a promotional video for the new series.

Looks good to me. Growing up, watching "Siskel & Ebert" and then "Ebert & Roeper" was always fun, but difficult to find. Most stations would air the program at midnight in my area. Hopefully the new deal will keep the new team in a respectable timeslot as well. Ebert is the critic I read more than any other, so it's great to see him back in the saddle. Hopefully he'll do a guest spot every now and then.

The new series will premiere in January 2011 and air on most PBS stations across the country. Chaz Ebert, Roger's wife, will produce the show.