I Miss Siskel and Ebert

I have loved movies for most of my life. Even before I could go to movies by myself, I would read the movie pages of the newspaper with great interest – “Wow, this Rocky Horror Picture Show must really be scary, they play it every weekend!” As a child of no more than ten or so, I discovered Siskel and Ebert on PBS. Their show, “Sneak Previews” was filled with intelligent discussions about movies, and I made sure to watch it every week. They discussed movies with passion and insight, and I loved it.

I remember their commentary back then as being more in-depth than it was on later shows. Their clips would be longer and they would cover only two or three movies in an hour. The conversations were allowed to flow without the start and stop of commercials. I may be building it up into more than it was, but these are what my eight to twelve-year-old memories recalled, and clearly it was good enough to capture the hearts of America, because the two men started showing up on the Tonight Show (hosted by a really nice old man named Johnny) and the next thing you knew they had jumped to commercial television.

The style and content of the show changed a bit (for the worse), but Siskel and Ebert continued to be passionate about movies. “Thumbs up” and “Thumbs down” became synonymous with their movie reviews. I didn’t love the new show quite as much as the old one. The discussions were briefer, and they seemed intent on covering more movies per half hour, but now with time for commercials in-between. They also started reviewing videos as they came out. The commentary was less intense, but I appreciated their views. I was seeing several movies a month at this point, and found myself mainly in agreement with Siskel, except about popcorn/action movies, which Ebert had a better eye for.

When Siskel died, I was quite sad. It was hard for me to watch the show without him. I never really warmed up to the new guy, Roeper. I still watched on occasion, but the “Ebert & Roeper” never made my Tivo list. Roeper simply wasn’t the same kind of counterbalance, and he hadn’t been around when I was ten years old. He did nothing for me.

When Ebert went in for surgery, I didn’t expect it to permanently take him off the air, but after the sudden death of Siskel I did start worrying. I started watching the show again for a while, mainly to see the wonderful array of guest hosts that filled in for him those first few months. Kevin Smith and Harold Ramis were the most interesting to me. Eventually the film geeks went away and Roeper was joined by other film critics of varying quality. I lost interest again.

Now, because Ebert still cannot speak after over two years and may never be able to speak again, Ebert and Roeper have officially been replaced by a pair of slick-looking young men who are telegenic, but don’t have any real film review credibility. I have no desire to see them. Roeper will surely land somewhere, with Ebert helping out behind the scenes, but it too will be a pale imitation of the old show. The days of Siskel and Ebert sitting across the aisle from each other, trading film observations and insults, is gone. I, for one, miss it. I take some comfort in the fact that Ebert still writes reviews, and I hope that he keeps at it for a long time, but for me it will never be the same as his conversations / arguments with Siskel.

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