TVSquad

At the Movies, the long-running cinema review show that once starred well-respected critics Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel, is going back to the idea of employing experienced reviewers as hosts.

Disney and ABC film-canned Ben Lyons and Ben Mankiewicz this week. The show's now-dismissed young, hipster critics never really showed any particular cinema savvy besides the ability to unfurl sarcastic reviews. And their writing credentials won't be mistaken for the bylines Ebert and Siskel piled up in their careers.

To reverse course in hope of saving At the Movies, executives are turning to two guys with established chops.

If you watch ESPN's daily round table sport talk show, Around the Horn, you know that Jay Mariotti is a columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times. Or I should say, he was a columnist. Right after the Beijing Olympics, Mariotti returned to the show and all the other reporters -- and host Tony Reali -- kept zinging Jay about not being with the Chicago Sun-Times anymore. At no point did they explain that Mariotti was not fired from his post, he quit.

Then I discovered that a fellow Sun-Times employee, and former TV star himself (At the Movies with Ebert & Roeper), film critic Roger Ebert, was ticked off with Mariotti. Specifically, Ebert reviewed the way Jay chose to walk away from his job. Ebert pointed out that Mariotti had screwed his editors at the Sun-Times by signing a new contract, going to China on their dime (which was actually thousands of dollars), then left the job with a cold e-mail that said simply, "I quit."

I guess Mariotti felt like the newspaper could dump him with an equally cold, "You're fired," but common courtesy suggests that he should have given two-week notice. Or maybe that kind of courtesy is as outmoded a concept as saying thank you for service or holding the door for someone else?

I think this was a demise that you could see coming. Remember, back in April, when Chicago Sun-Times film reviewer Roger Ebert and the star of At the Movies with Ebert & Roeper announced he would never be able to return to the TV show because of his health? You knew it then. Now comes the news that the other half of the show, Chicago Sun-Times columnist Richard Roeper, is leaving the program. He's been co-host for eight years, having assumed the seat across the aisle that was originally held by the late movie critic Gene Siskel.

"Several months ago, Disney offered to extend my contract, which expires at the conclusion of the 2007-08 season," Roeper told the Associated Press.

I love movies. I'm a movie buff and always have been. I appreciate film critics, even when I don't agree with them. So, today, on the anniversary of Roger Ebert's 41st year reviewing movies for the Chicago Sun-Times, I'm glad to report that Roger Ebert will soon be back reviewing movies. Unfortunately, the same is not true of his ability to appear on his syndicated TV show, At the Movies with Ebert & Roeper.

In a letter to his fans, Roger wrote: "I am at last returning to the movie beat. After my current stay at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, I'm looking forward to opening night of my annual film festival at the University of Illinois on April 23, and I will resume writing movie reviews shortly thereafter. Are you as bored with my health as I am? I underwent a third surgery in January, this one in Houston, and once again there were complications. I am sorry to say that my ability to speak was not restored. That would require another surgery."

I love thumbs as much as the next guy. They allow me to grab things, I can use them for sucking in place of my pacifier and, most importantly, they allow me to pass pure, unadulterated judgment on everything from my mom's home-cooked meals (thumbs up) to my new neighbor Steve (sorry Stevie).

However, with the news that film critic Roger Ebert plans on withholding his famous thumb movie rating scale, I have grown tired of the thumb. I really wouldn't mind if you just lop it off (his, not mine).

Hey, Brigitte here with TV Squad Daily. I'll be covering the TV stories I find interesting each day, Monday through Friday, in this video blog.

Today on TV Squad Daily:

• The truth, according to Roger Ebert, about his thumbs and his contract dispute.
  
• The ongoing movement to remove Sheriff Lee Baca (from the Paris Hilton jail mess) is pretty much pathetic.
  
• More rumors on who we can expect to see on Dancing with the Stars this coming season.
  

The video's embedded below, or you can subscribe to this podcast via our feed. Plus, you can also download the file directly.

Movie critic Roger Ebert is still recovering from surgery he had in June to remove a cancerous growth on his salivary gland and then emergency surgery he had in July when a blood vessel burst. Ebert published a letter in Thursday's Chicago Sun-Times saying that he hopes to be back at work (at the paper and on television) in time for the Oscars and the Cannes Film Festival. He also said he plans to review The Queen, starring Helen Mirren, in this Friday's newspaper since a producer managed to get him a DVD copy of the film.

Since Ebert left his television show, Richard Roeper has hosted various guest film critics including Kevin Smith and Jay Leno. This week's co-host is A.O. Scott, a reviewer for the New York Times.

For those who have been wondering when Roger Ebert was going to come back and start arguing with Richard Roeper again, you're going to have to wait a little while. Ebert himself sent an e-mail to RogerEbert.com that discusses his longer-than-expected recovery from three recent surgeries: one to remove a cancerous salivary gland from his right jaw, one to fix a burst blood vessel that were weakened by radiation treatments he had three years ago, and another that was not specified.

So, because of all the surgery, Ebert has been in the hospital since June. "I had no idea when I went into the hospital on June 16 that I would still be here on August 16," he writes. He currently is having problems speaking and is weak from all the time in bed. But he seems to be recovering well, even watching movies on a plasma TV that his Ebert & Roeper producer brought to his hospital room. He definitely wants to watch the movie Half Nelson, which substitute critic Kevin Smith said was one of the best movies he's seen in the last ten years. It's too bad he can't speak; I'd have loved it if he and Roeper did an episode from his hospital room.

[via Romenesko]

Is this Ebert and Roeper's way of sticking it to fellow critic Joel Siegel? For next week's episode of Ebert & Roeper, director Kevin Smith will fill in (he says so on his website). Smith, you probably recall, is in a bit of a bouhaha with Siegel, who walked out of Clerks II in a big huff. He'll be filling Ebert's shoes for one week as the legendary movie critic recovers from emergency surgery. Smith and Roeper will review Miami Vice, Ant Bully, Talladega Nights, Barnyard and (maybe) World Trade Center.

I, for one, am totally interested in what Kevin Smith has to say about all of those movies. He's a huge movie fan and will probably formulate very insightful opinions. I can't decide what I want to see more: Smith bashing Roeper or Miami Vice.

[Via Lost Remote]

Film critic Roger Ebert was reported hospitalized in serious condition Sunday after emergency surgery was performed on him Saturday evening.

The operation was needed to correct damage that was caused by an earlier procedure that took place back on June 16th to remove a cancerous growth on his salivary gland. Repaired was a blood vessel that broke near the area where the June operation took place. Ebert has had a series of operations to remove cancers. Back in 2002 he underwent surgery for papillary thyroid cancer. One year later he went under the knife to remove an earlier growth on his salivary gland.

Richard Roeper, Ebert's current co-host on their nationally syndicated movie-review show, told the Chicago Sun-Times that Roger was stable after the emergency procedure and that he was expected to make a full recovery. Roeper replaced Ebert's former partner, Gene Siskel, back in 2000 after Siskel passed away a year earlier.