Tribune Blogs -- The Movie Cricket: The movies with Sean P. Means

Monday, July 21, 2008

'Ebert & Roeper': End of the line

Wave your thumbs goodbye to "Ebert & Roeper," the syndicated TV show that featured dueling movie critics Roger Ebert and Richard Roeper.

Ebert, in a statement posted today on his web site, said that Disney - which produces "Ebert & Roeper" and "Siskel & Ebert" before it (when Ebert partnered with Gene Siskel, who died in 1999) - "has decided to take the program ... in a new direction. I will no longer be associated with it."

Ebert hasn't been on the air in two years, as he has recovered from mouth surgery in June 2006 that robbed him of his speech, and Roeper has soldiered on with guest critics in the other balcony seat - notably the Chicago Tribune's Michael Phillips. (The show airs in Utah on KSL, Ch. 5, Saturdays at 6:30 p.m.)

Ebert's statement follows Roeper's announcement that he is leaving the show after eight years. "Several months ago, Disney offered to extend my contract, which expires at the conclusion of the 2007-08 season. I opted to wait. Much transpired after that behind the scenes, but an agreement was never reached, and we are all moving on," Roeper said in a statement.

Roeper's last show for Disney will air in mid-August. He hints at launching a new show, and promises more details later.

But what of those famous thumbs? The trademark for the "Two Thumbs Up" phrase is held by Ebert and by Siskel's widow, Marlene Iglitzen, and Ebert vows the thumbs will return. "We are discussing possibilities, and plan to continue the show's tradition."

1 Comments:

At 4:30 PM, Noodles Blunderson said...: I've already missed the thumbs on the show. I've never been excited by the "seeit/skip it" recommendations, although I'm not sure why having someone tell me that they give a thumbs up to a movie as opposed to telling me to see is really all that different... other than the iconic nature of those thumbs. I've watched those thumbs for almost 30 years.

I'm sorry to see Roger severing the last of his ties with the show. In the back of my mind as long as his name was on the show, I could always imagine that someday he would make a spectacular return...

I suppose the reality of that is setting in.