It WOULD BE FAIR to say that I'm not an objective observer when it comes to the news that Roger Ebert and Richard Roeper have quit their longtime gig as hosts of "At the Movies," Disney/ABC's weekly TV review show.
When I was a young pup in film school in Chicago, Roger Ebert was already a prince in the critical pantheon, first from his perch as critic at the Chicago Sun-Times, then as a TV reviewer (with Gene Siskel) on their original PBS movie review show. Roger's writing -- crisp, spare, seemingly effortless, opinionated but never mean-spirited -- was a huge inspiration to all of us young writers. He was also generous with his time.
When the college arts series I ran was losing money, bankrupted by a series of hapless, hopelessly pretentious theater productions, we staged a Russ Meyer Film Festival, with Roger generously agreeing to take the stage and introduce the first night's proceedings. The sex films played to a packed house, teaching us a valuable lesson about showbiz success -- you can never aim too low.
More recently, Roger came to my defense when I got into a spitting match with comedy second-banana Rob Schneider, who took out a series of full-page ads in the trades deriding me after I made a sarcastic quip about his film, "Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo," saying it was "sadly overlooked at Oscar time because apparently nobody had the foresight to invent a category for Best Running Penis Joke Delivered by a Third-Rate Comic."
Schneider blasted me in his ads, saying I'd never won a Pulitzer Prize. This inspired Ebert to end his review of its sequel, "Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo," by saying: "As chance would have it, I have won the Pulitzer Prize, and so I am qualified. Speaking in my official capacity as a Pulitzer Prize winner, Mr. Schneider, your movie sucks."
The news that Ebert and Roeper are quitting the TV series is being played as yet another instance of the dumbing down of media culture, which is no doubt a fair explanation. They are being replaced by younger talent with considerably less stature: Ben Lyons, who's been reviewing films for "E! News," and Ben Mankiewicz, who's been a talking head on Turner Classic Movies and hosts a pop culture show for Sirius Satellite Radio.
Frankly, it's understandable that ABC would seek a younger generation of critics in its effort to liven up an aging show, especially in an era when critics are embattled and far less influential than ever before. It's also hardly a news flash that Ebert would have to step down. Having battled health problems over the last few years, including a bout with throat cancer, he is unable to speak, making it impossible to handle a TV gig.
