View From the Phlipside - Roger Ebert

My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media.  TV, radio, the movies and more.  I love them, and I hate them and I always have an opinion.  Call this the View from the Phlipside.
This past week saw the debut of a new television program that isn't going to change the world, it's not particularly ground breaking or innovative.  But it's still important enough in both human terms and personal terms that I want to spend this roughly two and a half minutes of our lives talking about it.

Last Friday saw the return of movie critic Roger Ebert to the TV airwaves.  His new show is "Ebert Presents At The Movies".  The show airs on PBS and is the standard two critics reviewing movies format.  Roger's contribution is in a short segment called "Roger's Office" where he weighs in with his own particular brand of commentary on some current movie.  Pretty ho hum.  Until you remember all of Roger Ebert's story.

The quick version says Ebert was the long time movie critic at the Chicago Sun-Times and with Chicago Tribune critic Gene Siskel he hosted several movie review shows for 23 years.  They perfected the format actually discussing and often disagreeing on the movies before delivering their thumbs up or down.  When Siskel died in 1999 Ebert continued on with another critic for almost 7 more years.  Then thyroid cancer robbed him of his voice and his lower jawbone.  In the new show his Roger's Office pieces will be delivered by either a Stephen Hawking style computer voice or be read by guests from the industry.

That's a great story in and of itself but I also mentioned there was a personal angle to the story.  That's easy.  Siskel and Ebert were the folks who took me from just being a movie fan to being a student of the movies.  Here were two guys, neither of them with the usual TV looks, actually caring enough about the movies to argue about them.  They talked about history and technique and made me understand how much more there could be to the movies.  My love affair with the movies has its roots in those Siskel and Ebert programs, first Sneak Previews and then At the Movies.  They dealt with the movies as stories, as a unique entertainment medium and paid no particular attention to the star power of the cast.  It was a revelation for a young acting student.

So it feels really good to know that Roger is back at what he loves so much.  And I offer this note of appreciation for leading me into that same love affair.  I give the new show two thumbs up.

Call that the View From the Phlipside.

"The View From the Phlipside" airs on WRFA-LP Jamestown NY.  You can listen to WRFA online HERE
Copyright - Jay Phillippi 2010