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Roger Ebert Not Coming Back to "Movies"

R

RALfan

If anyone has been wondering about Roger Ebert, wonder no more because it looks as if Michael Phillips could probably be in his chair opposite Richard Roeper permanently according to this piece in the New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/13/movies/13scot.html

I don't know about y'all, but this is arguably the end of an era. Back in the day, Roger and the late Gene Siskel made movie reviewing an entertaing art form on television on their three shows spanning almost a quarter of a century. I'm sure Roeper and Phillips will do fine in the future, Disney willing. But although Roger will still write reviews, he will sorely be miss on the small screen.
 
This news is old news, several week old, to be exact (April 13).
Also, they don't have the actual letter, so I fail to see where it was a "farewell to TV."

If it is, that show is over, since it is essentially Ebert's show. Roper will have to get a separate deal on his own, and no more "thumbs," since that trademark is registered to Ebert.

So yeah, suffice it to say, it is the end of an era, but I would argue that era ended long ago.
 
Garrett said:
So yeah, suffice it to say, it is the end of an era, but I would argue that era ended long ago.
Click to expand...
Definitely. It ended when Gene Siskel passed away.

Or maybe even slightly before. I've seen too many "two thumbs up" movies to care.
 
...I used to be a weekly viewer of Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert on their three different programs -- "Sneak Previews" for WTTW/11 Chicago and PBS, "At the Movies" for Tribune, and "Siskel & Ebert" for Buena Vista/Disney. In each instance, when they left the previous series, they were replaced by vastly inferior "critics," in two cases -- Jeffrey Lyons and Rex Reed -- formerly good critics whose egos had outgrown their capabilities, and in another two -- Michael Medved and Richard Roeper-- individuals who are clearly without qualification to be called film critics. Roeper is an insufferable @$$ and I have only been able to stomach five broadcasts since Ebert chose him as the counterpart (I will never even suggest in the least that Roeper is qualified to be any sort of replacement for Gene Siskel), and four of those five times were because I had tuned in to watch a rerun of either "Branded" or "SheSpies" and the station's schedule was running late. Ebert merely chose Roeper to turn the show into a glorified infomercial for the Chicago Sun-Times...
 
A few months ago, I saw Ebert "interviewed," though he was unable to speak as a result of his thyroid cancer surgery. His wife spoke for him. It seemed unlikely to me that he would ever speak again. Though he can continue to have an active life and write movie reviews, I don't see how he could do television.
 
To keep a little cashflow going, I am sure he will license out the 'thumbs up or down'.

that is how many people consider movies. Thumbs up or thumbs down.
 
"that is how many people consider movies. Thumbs up or thumbs down."


In the 80s, I owned a video rental store. This was before the "Thumbs Up/Down" thing became famous. There was a great English film called Wish You Were Here. Unfortunately, the "Two Thumbs Up" review snippet on the VHS display box was larger than the film title, so customers would always come up to the counter to ask for "Two Thumbs Up." Used to drive me crazy.

Just to prove you can find anything on the internet, here's what the box looked like:
http://www.imdb.com/media/rm565549312/tt0094331
 
I agree that it pretty much was over when Siskel died. Part of the fun was watching the two interact. Those two were the last of a generation of professional newspaper critics (be it movie or Chicago's own Gary Deeb for TV).

With the Internet now everyone's a critic and it becomes less vital to have these people.
 
Mark said:
I agree that it pretty much was over when Siskel died. Part of the fun was watching the two interact. Those two were the last of a generation of professional newspaper critics (be it movie or Chicago's own Gary Deeb for TV).
Click to expand...

...Gary Dweeb was a world-class jerk. "Chicago's Own"??!? Funny how he slithered off to Buffalo when Chicago got tired of him...

...there are only two TV critics I've ever found to be worth a damn -- Harlan Ellison (who collected his "Glass Teat" columns for the Los Angeles Free Press and Rolling Stone into the books THE GLASS TEAT and THE OTHER GLASS TEAT) and Cleveland Amory. Maybe Tom Shales on one of his best days...
 
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