Word: siskel
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Times and now better known simply as "the fat one," was asked if he would appear on a new movie-review program being produced by WTTW, the local PBS station. He was intrigued by the idea but not by the prospective costar: his archrival from the Chicago Tribune, Gene Siskel. "The answer," Ebert recalls, "was at the tip of my tongue: no." Nor did Siskel, now frequently referred to as "the other one," relish the thought of sharing a stage with "the most hated guy in my life...
...Siskel and Ebert still do not get along, at least in public, but they have put that antagonism to good use. Their show, originally called Opening Soon at a Theater Near You and later Sneak Previews, went national in 1978 and soon became the highest-rated series in PBS history. In 1982 they moved to commercial syndication. Today, under the title Siskel & Ebert & the Movies, they reach an audience of 8 million, ranking in the Top Ten of all once-a-week syndicated shows...
...Mutt-and-Jeff pair are certainly the most popular and conceivably the most powerful movie critics in the country. Probably no encomium is more sought after by film publicists than "Two thumbs up -- Siskel and Ebert" (reflecting their device of signaling thumbs up or thumbs down for good reviews or bad). Just how much impact they have at the box office is less certain, but some in Hollywood think it is substantial. Said Comedian Eddie Murphy at a recent press conference: "Siskel and Ebert go 'horrible picture,' and, I'm telling you, ((they)) can definitely kill a movie...
...give a capsule review. Then comes an ad-lib passage in which the other offers his comments or rebuttal. The cross talk often gets testy. After the two disagreed about Susan Seidelman's comedy Making Mr. Right, Ebert concluded defiantly, "I enjoyed myself from beginning to end." Replied Siskel: "You usually do enjoy yourself; it's the film I didn't like." Or here is Ebert trying to convince Siskel that Alan Parker's thriller Angel Heart is not too slow moving: "You want television . . . let's hurry and tell the story." Siskel: "Don't lay that...
...critics are panicked that you won't turn off the color. They propose to do it for you. "It's a decision the public shouldn't be forced to make," says Critic Gene Siskel. The Minister of Culture could hardly have said it better, though some of the subtlety might be lost in translation from the Russian...