I’d give anything to go back in time to this period when I was in junior high school. I saw a lot of movies in 1978. Thanks for posting this. A great time indeed! 👍🎥🍿

Grease 2:32 Animal House 5:14 Jaws 2 6:59 Heaven Can Wait 8:57 An Unmarried Woman 13:37 Straight Time 15:55 Days Of Heaven 18:15 Autumn Sonata 21:00

I have fond memories of seeing Grease in the movie theater when it originally came out in 1978. I was 9 years old. Saw it with my then best friend, a fellow fanatic about the movies. We went to the movies together once a week for a lot of years from the 1970s-1980s. There was no particular reason we went to see Grease. We tried to see every new movie that came out regardless of plot, genre (he liked horror, I preferred comedy), the reviews, or who starred in it. So, Grease just happened to be one of the new movies that was just released. I recall falling in love with the movie right with my first viewing. It quickly became one of my all time favorite movies and remains that to this day. You wouldn't think a movie musical like Grease would appeal to a 9 year old boy, but it did. I was being raised in an abusive, dysfunctional home at the time. So I'm guessing that Grease hit me in the right places at the very right time. Afterwards, I would buy the soundtrack record album, the Grease bubble gum trading cards, and the Fotonovel (remember those?)

My friends and I were singing all the songs from Grease...smile

Interesting how civil they are to each other in these early days. Over time, though, they had their moments where some of their arguments and put-downs of each other were really quite entertaining and hilarious!

Science fiction can be "thoughtful" and "confrontational" too. Solaris, The Quiet Earth, 1984, Soilent Green, The Man Who Fell to Earth and 2001 a Space Odyssey are examples. It's not ALWAYS "escapist" in nature (like Star Wars).

In 1978 I was 17-18 years old. I saw the first four of these movies at the cinema. Lots of laughs for me, my friends and girlfriends--and a few shouts during "Jaws." They were all great movies! You may not believe this, but at the end of Jaws the audience applauded.

I loved that Jaws 2 has aged so nicely. The soundtrack alone is worth the price of admission.

In my late 40’s now(very late)..And that Sneak Previews Opening Theme will be with me till the end

Straight Time is an incredible film and one that still passes people by.

Man, I wish it really was 1978

The 70s were fascinated by the 50s. I saw grease when I was 8. I had a blast and I enjoyed watching my parents have nostalgic fun as well.

I didn't think Jaws 2 was that bad. Now, The Swarm and Here Come the Tigers, THESE should have been the worst list.

I recently saw Straight Time on TCM and I was wondering if I was living in an alternate universe where this gem of a film didn't exist.

Yeah saw a lot of decent movies in 1978 Grease and Heaven Can Wait are two of them Thank You That Old T.V.

It's nice out quiet and fun places to go as usual

Nostalgia is even stronger now after what the con trollers have put everyone through the past few years.

love the memory of that old PBS music at 28:32!

Best movies of 1978: An Unmarried Woman, The Deer Hunter, Interiors, A Simple Story, Autumn Sonata, Coming Home, Death On the Nile (my favorite FUN movie!), Stevie, The Tree of Wooden Clogs - there weren't as many great foreign films from this particular year than usual though.

Grease, Heaven Can Wait, Jaws 2, Straight Time- all good. SIskel was too harsh on JAWS 2, it's solid.

Also, I feel cheated. They could have cut down the clip time of the films instead and actually listed their ten best films. Is it too late to send a self addressed envelope to get their 10 best lists?

Best of 1978 Superman Animal House Grease Halloween The Deer Hunter Dawn of the Dead Heaven can wait Lord of the Ring The Game of Death Coming Home Worst of 1978 Moment by Moment Oliver's Story Sexette Coach The Magic of Lassie Rabbit Test The Bees Paradise Alley Jaws 2 Stunt Rock

Even “Animal House” had ties back to the “seriousness” of a few years prior: the threat of being drafted into the military at the end was still resonant with a public for which Vietnam was still palpable.

Great movie year. The 1970s was the best decade of film by far. Straight Time hard-core Dustin Hoffman is a great movie.

Ah, 1978, the year films started becoming a source of my pubescence. Take me back so I can alter my past.... or better yet, my future.

We went to see Grease when I was a kid in (then) West Germany.

I was 21 in 1978, and grudgingly agreed to go see Grease with friends. It wasn’t a bad movie, I just didn’t like it. Made me squirm in my seat-especially Travolta. Animal House was funny at the time, but it doesn’t hold up. Saw Heaven Can Wait three times and although I enjoyed it, the goofy aspects of the script came through more and more.

Grease 2:35 AH 5:15 Jaws 2 7:00 HCW 8:58 UMW 13:35 ST 15:55 Days / Heaven 18:15 AS 21:00

Siskel and Ebert were throwing concern about big budget, risk adverse, blockbuster movies overtaking the smaller movies in 1979 (The year I was born); they proved to be more right than they could ever imagine. Now, it's all big budget action movies that were created by our love for nostalgic movies like some of the ones they talked about in this episode. Independent movies and movies with ideas just get small-y releases or are just put on a random streaming service. Movie philosophy of today drives me absolutely insane! Not enough original ideas! Yes, there are still great movies coming out, but the list seems shorter than ever, or at the very least, they get buried by 10 million pounds of garbage movies and shows on Netflix or whatever service. Give us variety in theaters again! We don't all care about high-end visuals, and constant assaults on our eyes; some of us want ideas and to use our imagination with characters we could believe live in our world, or live in another world we could believe really exists. We don't want to just see Spider-Man web swinging for the 8,522nd time!

Coma with Michael Douglas was also excellent.

Interesting that they never talk about "Superman", one of the biggest hits and most critically-acclaimed movies of the year. (They also don't mention eventual Best Picture winner "The Deer Hunter", but that film didn't come out until December 1978, and only in Los Angeles; it didn't get a general release until the following February.)

Grease was not just lighthearted, it actually dealt with a lot of adult issues and kinda raunchy.

Jaws 2 was a reasonable sequel to a perfect film

Magic was a great movie with a brilliant intense performance from Anthony Hopkins.

Autumn Sonata is one of the most powerful and harshest dramas of the History of cinema

This was the first episode of the show I ever watched when it was new! It really didn't take off until it left PBS and went into syndication in 1980-81 ish (?)

In the Mayor's defense in Jaws 2 he was willing to learn from his mistakes and listen to Brody this time. It was the other guy who fired him.

Autumn Sonata and Animal House, two of the very greatest movies ever!!

They talked about Animal House like they didn't know it's set in 1962

What, no mention of _The Swarm?_

Blast from the past, sending a pre adressed envelope with a stamp so they can send you their list of best pictures 😜😂😂😂

Michael Murphy’s crying when admitting his affair to Jill Clayburgh in “An Unmarried Woman” - cringe worthy. Why did Mazursky allow it? BUT Clayburgh deserved Oscar over Fonda.

I miss the days when you could send a self addressed, stamped envelope (SASE) to someone, and in a couple of weeks you'd get something in your mail box.

It WOULD be Ingrid's last film. Cancer would claim her 4 years later. RIP INGRID

I've never liked "Grease," but to each their own. They left out one of 1978's best movies: "Up in Smoke." I agree that "Days of Heaven" is a good movie. I've never heard of "An Unmarried Woman," will check that out, even with the terribly acted crying by the husband character in the clip they showed.

How did they not talk about either The Deer Hunter or Midnight Express?

They were both so great but Gene could be kinda arrogant. I’m surprised Roger didn’t roll his eyes more in all their years together. Or smack him. “Grease” was fun - I like it despite its flaws and its ridiculous miscasting a entire high school filled with “kids” in their late twenties…and in Rizzo’s case a 35 year old. Just stupid.

Clearly the best of 1978 consist of John Carpenter’s Halloween, Invasion Of The Body Snatchers, and Animal House. Sorry Siskel and Ebert but you missed two hit films that are easily considered among the year’s best in all of cinema.

I never understood the hype of john bulushi?

Can't believe I was 6 years old when came out the flies

I’ve tried to figure out y this channel highlights certain movies & in what order. It’s not by box office; my theory: he chooses the movies HE loves! (Not how I would do it)

Ha, "Animal House" was indeed a phenomenon in '78! And man, "Jaws 2" really did suck! Yeah, we all went to see it, but no one thought it was any good. Didn't matter, Hollywood laughed all the way to the bank! (Just as well, they needed that money to fund "Heaven's Gate", "Apocalypse Now", "New York, New York" and other out of control, over-budget productions of the period! :P)

Grease Jaws An Unmarried Woman Straight Time Days of Heaven Autumn Sonata

Don't agree at all with the very negative comments about JAWS 2. It's a solid, exciting thriller that ticks all the right boxes.

Capricorn One was a superb conspiracy thriller.

I love Spot the Wonder Dog 🐕

Gene Siskel was 32 when this aired. 4:40 talking about the 'kids' LOL

EVERYTIME I see that scene from Animal House, I laugh my ass off.

Best film of 1978: Hal Ashby’s “Coming Home,” followed by “Days of Heaven.”

Funny to hear them talk around the 12 minute mark. How true it is even 45 years later. See you guys at Thor: for love and thunder 🙄

R.I.P Olivie Neutron Bomb.

I like to disagree on one point I've seen the wild geese not boring

Weird that they think that awful scene in “Straight Time” sells that movie. Looks horrible.

" Sorry"...lmbo, smile, lol, yada yada yada...

It's 2023 and I'm STILL very bored with the ordinary world and it's endless drama. I'm not saying they shouldn't make the drama Siskel and Ebert wanted to see, I'm just saying my money and time goes to escapism. I get enough 'real world' from 9-5...

Feels like cabin fever worlds

Where is Superman? That was 2nd the highest grossing film of 1978

Oar

Jaws 2 missed the point of the first movie. The original was more a retelling of Moby dick. It was more about Quint. The second movie was really just a feeding frenzie.

Just to spare folks a google, Whilst Jilly Clayburgh was nominated for best actress, she lost out to Jane Fonda for Coming Home.

I rented STRAIGHT TIME on VHS and didn't like it at all.

Before I receive scores of verbal abuse, let me preface by saying there are several funny scenes in Animal House. Having clarified that, I always have thought it is extremely, profoundly, incredibly overrated. Per AFI’s “100 Laughs” list, honestly, the 36 best comedy ever made???

That clip from "An Unmarried Woman" was one of the cringiest things I've ever seen and the acting on both ends were on par with a rushed made for TV project.

Before I receive scores of verbal abuse, let me preface by saying there are several funny scenes in Animal House. Having clarified that, I always have thought it is extremely, profoundly, incredibly overrated. Per AFI’s “100 Laughs” list, honestly, the 36 best comedy ever made??????

Before I receive scores of verbal abuse, let me preface by saying there are several funny scenes in Animal House. Having clarified that, I always have thought it is extremely, profoundly, incredibly overrated.

Whatever alleged Richard Burton talent possessed was upstaged by his awful film choices later in his career and his off screen antics with his equally boring and selfish Taylor. An actor with that many flops by then shouldn’t have been in as many studio produced films as he was. Wouldn’t happen today.

Jaws 2 does not have the same script as Jaws. Sometimes these guys were really dumb!

These guys think too much.

I wouldn't watch Grease to save my life.

Who remembers when movies were fun and not lectures? I do, and I miss those days. Grease was light and funny (today its PROBLEMATIC because Danny made the first move and there was not a lot of conversation before he went in for a kiss), Jaw 2 was a satisfying sequel to a film that had scared people senseless. Animals House was funny and raunchy and light hearted (today that film is just too outlandish. People in the film were not bogged down with thoughts of Social Justice, and thus today the film is maligned because it points out the difference between having men on college campuses and having too many women replacing them.) Heaven Can Wait was a great remake (and showed Hollyweird how it should be done) where a man is looking for love, and trying to convince a woman that he loves her. (Today the film is problematic because Warren is too aggressive in trying to convince Betty that love might be a real thing, Today's women don't want people reminded of what A) how good a woman can look, B) and that true love can be real if the women in search of love is willing to surrender herself to it.)

I will never watch "Grease" all the way through, the main male characters reminded me of the "greaser" bullies that used to pick on me. "Animal House" really sucked (still sucks). I don't care to see it again ever. I was acquainted with some of its actors and I still don't like it. Mostly it's too loud. I guess, if loud is funny then this bit of trash is funny.

Send a self-addressed stamp envelopes, how quaint.

Before I receive scores of verbal abuse, let me preface by saying there are several funny scenes in Animal House. Having clarified that, I always have thought it is extremely, profoundly, incredibly overrated. Per AFI’s “100 Laughs” list, honestly, the 36 best comedy ever made??????