''USA Up All Night'' (also known as ''Up All Night'' and ''Up All Night with Rhonda Shear'') was an American

cable television Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with broa ...

series that aired weekly on Friday and Saturday nights on the

USA Network USA Network (simply USA) is an American basic cable television channel owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming division of Comcast's NBCUniversal through NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment. It was originally launched in 1977 as Madison ...

. The show aired from 1989 to 1998.

Synopsis

The program consisted primarily of low-budget films, bookended by in-studio or on-location comedy skits featuring the show's hosts. In addition to skits, the hosts would also provide sardonic comments about the featured film(s), and observations on various

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood, ...

- and/or New York City-area clubs and attractions (when the series was shooting out of studio). Including commercials, the program typically ran from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. The films aired ranged from

cult classic A cult following refers to a group of fans who are highly dedicated to some person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some medium. The lattermost is often called a cult classic. ...

s, to

B movie A B movie or B film is a low-budget commercial motion picture. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified films intended for distribution as the less-publicized bottom half of a double feature ...

s, to other fare not appearing on television frequently. ''Up All Night'' would regularly show

sexploitation A sexploitation film (or sex-exploitation film) is a class of independently produced, low-budget feature film that is generally associated with the 1960s and early 1970s, and that serves largely as a vehicle for the exhibition of non-explicit s ...

films, with the explicit content edited out.

Hosts

The series began on January 7, 1989, with comic

Gilbert Gottfried Gilbert Jeremy Gottfried (February 28, 1955 – April 12, 2022) was an American stand-up comedian and actor, known for his exaggerated shrill voice, strong New York accent, and his edgy, often controversial, sense of humor. His numerous ro ...

hosting on Saturdays from

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. In that first show, Gottfried was seen in an empty office building in Manhattan. The first two films that night were Cheerleaders Beach Party and

Stuck on You! ''Stuck on You!'' is a 1982 American comedy film directed by Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz of Troma Entertainment and starring Irwin Corey, Virginia Penta, Mark Mikulski, Albert Pia, and Norma Pratt. ''Stuck on You!'' was the third in a serie ...

. Halfway through the first season, a Friday night show broadcast from

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

hosted by actress/comedian Caroline Schlitt (fresh off of the short-lived ''

Camp Midnite ''Camp Midnite'' is a Friday late night, ninety-minute variety/talk show on the USA Network in 1989. Its twenty-six episodes were hosted by Dick Wilson, a radio personality from Kansas City, Missouri (not to be confused with Dick Wilson, the act ...

'') was added. When Schlitt left the program in December 1990,

comedian A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing Amusement is the state of experiencing humorous and entertaining events or situations while the person or a ...

/B-movie actress

Rhonda Shear Rhonda Honey Shear (born November 12, 1954) is an American television personality, comedian, actress, and entrepreneur. She is known for her role as a host in the 1990s USA Network's weekend B-movie show, ''USA Up All Night''. In 2001, she start ...

replaced her on Fridays, beginning on January 4, 1991. In 1995, the Shear edition moved to New York City (home of the Gottfried edition), and stayed there for the remainder of the run.We Miss USA Network's Up All Night with Rhonda Shear! Rhonda talks with TV STORE ONLINE about the show
tvstoreonline.com. July 25, 2013.

Format

Originally, the show aired at 11 p.m. on Saturdays, and featured two movies (with in-studio or on-location comedy skits in between), which were then followed by a repeat of the first movie. When the Friday night edition was added in mid-1989, the format now consisted of three different movies, with the third one being unhosted (the bumpers for the third movie were simply narrated by the host, depending on the edition). Some episodes did not have a "third" movie. The Friday show originally began at midnight and ran until 6 a.m.; in July 1991, it was changed to the same time as the Saturday edition. In December 1994, the format was changed slightly to incorporate ''

Duckman ''Duckman: Private Dick/Family Man'' is an American adult animated sitcom that aired on the USA Network from March 5, 1994, through September 6, 1997. It was created and developed by Everett Peck, and is based on characters he created in his 1 ...

'' into the 11:00 p.m. timeslot, prior to the first movie. This trend of incorporating ''Duckman'' into the show continued on occasion until ''Duckman'' ended in September 1997. In April 1996, the Saturday edition was moved to 12 a.m.; July 1996 had it move back to 11 p.m., and August 1996 had the Friday show move to 12 a.m. In January 1997, the Saturday show moved to 12 a.m., with the Friday show moving back to 11 p.m. a month later in February. For a short time in 1997, there was no third movie.

Specials

Occasionally, the show did special episodes which were often hosted by Shear and Gottfried together. They included Grad Night specials at Universal Studios Florida during 1992 and 1993, a mock B-Movie Awards special during 1993, and New Year's Eve specials during 1991, 1992, and 1993.

Cancellation

In 1998, USA came under the new management of

Barry Diller Barry Charles Diller (born February 2, 1942) is an American businessman. He is Chairman and Senior Executive of IAC and Expedia Group and founded the Fox Broadcasting Company and USA Broadcasting. Diller was inducted into the Television Hall of ...

, and decided to go for a more general and upscale viewership. This meant many of USA's long-running series were either overhauled or canceled – ''Up All Night'' ended up among the latter. The network relieved Shear and Gottfried of their hosting duties (while still showing the ''Up All Night'' imagery before/after commercial breaks), and began airing re-runs of mainstream films that appealed to a broader audience. By 2002, the ''Up All Night'' name, music, and graphics were completely removed from the films. From December 1988 to February 1998, a grand total of over 900 episodes of ''USA Up All Night'' were shot.

International version

In 1993, for about a year, Rhonda Shear hosted a Spanish version of ''USA Up All Night'' for the Latin market.

References

External links

* * * *
More Complete List of Movies Appearing on Up All NightCaroline Schlitt website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Usa Up All Night 1989 American television series debuts 1998 American television series endings 1980s American sketch comedy television series 1990s American sketch comedy television series 1980s American variety television series 1990s American variety television series English-language television shows Midnight movie television series American motion picture television series USA Network original programming