Grief stricken Roger Ebert to continue rating movies
A grief-stricken Roger Ebert vowed yesterday that the show will go on - with guest hosts for the time being - in the wake of Gene Siskel's untimely death. "It's never going to be the same without him," Ebert told The Post.
"We're going to continue with rotating guest critics. It's kind of his legacy in a way, and I don't think he'd want it to go off the air."
Ebert, who was expected to join hundreds of other mourners at his longtime partner's funeral at Beth El Synagogue in Chicago this afternoon, said, "It won't be easy doing the show without [Gene].
"It's like playing tennis without a partner. He was so quick and so smart and funny."
Ebert sat across the aisle from Siskel for 24 years, debating - sometimes bickering over - the latest movies to hit the silver screen.
Siskel, 53, died Saturday from complications from brain surgery.
Now the future of the show with the trademark "thumbs up/thumbs down" ratings is somewhat of a mystery without the skinny guy who frequently argued the merits of movies with his rival critic.
Siskel wrote for the Chicago Tribune; Ebert writes for the Chicago Sun-Times.
Ebert said the show is special because it is the only serious film criticism on national TV.
"Everything else is celebrity news and gossip," he said. Next week, he will host - alone - a special tribute to Siskel.
"We were people who came together one day a week to work, and the other six days of the week we were competitors. There was a lot of competition and a lot of disagreement."
-- Ikimulisa Sockwell - 2/21/99