Disney, apparently stuck with 2 years to go on syndication contracts and dreaming the dream that their systematic destruction of The Ebert Show - starting with the choice of Roeper, but getting much much worse with the dumbing down of the show with less actual discussion of the films and narrowing of its core idea into a gimmick - is not really their fault, but the fault of an antiquated idea or the hosts.
The thing you learn in this business is that no ideas - like Batman movies - are antiquated, just the execution of them. But as someone who does a lot of TV feeds into programs with a voice in my ear ad a 1/2 second time delay, I can promise you that doing "roundtables" via satellite is not going to improve anything. It will continue to muddy the waters and miss the point. If you want to engage people who love movies enough to watch a show like this, you need people on the show who REALLY care.
We all remember the fighting between Roger & Gene. But in retrospect, it was more than fighting... it was real arguing over different ideas of what made a good or bad movie. And we, as an audience, were invited to take sides.
But now the geniuses at Buena Vista will offer what is sure to be a hyped up imitation of the NBC O&O flailer, Lyons & Bailes, starring Ben's once-worthwhile now complete hack father, Jeffrey and a very attractive host with an accent and little to say, Alison Bailes. The show is so successful that Anne Thompson didn't even know it existed, apparently.
Moreover, what "respected critic" would ever show such disrespect to Ebert and such a desperate need for airtime as to participate in a show with one of our great emerging quote whores and movie ignoramuses (anyone who has seen him live on E! knows that he has as much movie knowledge as most other Taco Bell employees), Ben Lyons? (I have never once seen the other guy, but TCM is legitimately interested in movies, so I will assume, for now, that he is going to be the smart one on this set.) That is so what I want to watch… commercials for the industry from idiots who want to be quoted. 9021-DOH!
Anyway…
It isn’t really worth getting too worked up about… it will be gone in two years and forgotten by October. Just more hack grist for the mill.
So I actually think Roeper and Phillips will get a pick-up elsewhere? Like I wrote yesterday, if someone needs a way of getting attention, these guys have the highest profile in that game right now. But truth be told, it’s not a very good show anymore and even with Richard, who I have a low opinion of, if someone moves forward, I would suggest simplifying the whole thing back down to what it once was… a conversation about movies. If people want to want Richard and Michael have that conversation, it will have a following. If not, not. And if, someday, the Ebert & Siskel chemistry is found again, it will be a real pleasure.
In the meanwhile, may Lyons & Other & Buena Vista have all the success they deserve.
Read the complete post at http://www.mcnblogs.com/thehotblog/archives/2008/07/insult_to_injur.html