MOVIES - Feb. 19, 1987

Without a new funding source, “Sneak Previews,” the Public Broadcasting Service show that pioneered the television movie review format, may pan its last film after nine years on the air. The program currently hosted by Jeffrey Lyons and Michael Medved fell short of the minimum 40% of station orders that qualify shows for renewed funding from PBS stations, said John Lorenz, director of the PBS’ Station Program Cooperative. Officials at station WTTW in Chicago, which produces the program that launched the TV reviewing careers of Chicago journalists Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, hope to find another underwriter.