Roger and Chaz Ebert revive AT THE MOVIES with new hosts.

http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/pages-for-twitter/roger-ebert-presents-at-the-moe.html

It's good to read that Roger Ebert has resurrected AT THE MOVIES--to air on PBS in January.  As for the on-air talent: Christy Lemire of the Associated Press is less glib than Richard Roeper, but still mainstream-movie-friendly.  Elvis Mitchell (known both for his print career and NPR hosting) is a welcome idiosyncratic choice to fill the other chair.

At the very least, it will be a vast improvement on the Ben Lyons/Ben Mankiewicz version of AT THE MOVIES.  Hoping there will also be room for A.O. (Tony) Scott and Michael Phillips to revive their recently-canceled-by-Disney double act.

AT THE MOVIES:RIP.

http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2010/03/see_you_at_the_movies.html

The above is Roger Ebert's glass-more-than-half-full eulogy for the AT THE MOVIES show--essentially the remnants of SNEAK PREVIEWS, the Siskel-and-Ebert show I first remember seeing on the Dallas, TX PBS outlet KERA-TV beginning around 1978 (when I was a college student living in Wichita Falls, TX).

Ebert and his wife Chaz are planning on a new film review show for TV--and I wish them well with their endeavor.

I'm curious as to who they can cut a deal with, given that there will be a lot of media conglomerates with we-don't-have-room-for-this-esoteric-low-dollar-generating-stuff attitude like the Walt Disney Company (which dealt the death blow to the Michael Phillips/A.O. Scott AT THE MOVIES this week).

Paula Abdul, Ben Lyons and Ben Mankiewicz now on the unemployment line.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/05/ben-lyons-ben-mankiewicz-_n_252150.html
http://www.popeater.com/2009/08/05/ryan-seacrest-paula-abdul-leaving-american-idol/
http://www.popeater.com/2009/08/05/paula-abdul-replacements/

It's safe to say that Lyons will keep his E! job and Mankiewicz may be seen again on TCM, but Abdul will face the kind of Industry sexism which hates tantrums and dysfunctionality from women, but turns a blind eye when it erupts from members of the male gender.

So I'll predict Paula's immediate future on TV will be solely as a salesperson of her jewelry line on QVC.

But here's a more positive assessment of Paula Abdul's past, present and possible future from Richard Rushfield, who used to be on the AMERICAN IDOL beat for the LOS ANGELES TIMES' Calendar section: http://gawker.com/5330632/five-reasons-paula-abdul-quit-american-idol?skyline=true&s=x

[UPDATE 8/6/09: TMZ post says that negotiations could still be going on:http://www.tmz.com/2009/08/06/paula-leaves-a-i-a-hoax/?icid=mainhtmlws-maindl3link3http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tmz.com%2F2009%2F08%2F06%2Fpaula-leaves-a-i-a-hoax%2F And perhaps it's time to bring former President and current crisis envoy Bill Clinton in as an arbitrator.]

The tabloidization of AOL continues: re Alec Baldwin.

Here's a headline on AOL's Welcome Page:
ALEC BALDWIN PICKS A FIGHT
Here's the subheading:
Testy Actor Slams TV Anchor, Calls Her Too 'Cutesy'

Reality Check: Baldwin referred to MSNBC's Rachel Maddow. And here's the quote from the article: On Rachel Maddow: "She is smart and charming but her writers are dreadful and the less cutesy she is, the better. She did an excellent interview with Colin Powell recently. The next night, I missed that tougher, less avuncular Rachel."

[The full article can be found at: http://www.popeater.com/movies/article/baldwin-peppers-msnbc-with-friendly-fire/423073?icid=mainhtmlws-maindl5link3http%3A%2F%2Fwww.popeater.com%2Fmovies%2Farticle%2Fbaldwin-peppers-msnbc-with-friendly-fire%2F423073]

Alec Baldwin does have a valid, nonarguable point: MSNBC does seem to want Ms. Maddow to fulfill the smile-every-few-words requirement now determined as appropriate for acceptable television hosting/anchoring (another example: Ben Lyons' near-constant grin--witnessed the last time I made myself sit through AT THE MOVIES).

To be fair, I haven't watched an entire episode of THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW in recent weeks. But I hope the smirky pop-culture-explanation final segment has been put in cement shoes and thrown into the East River.

Verdict: The folks at Time Warner, in order to get AOL visitors to Click The Link, are guilty--yet again--of inflating a not-that-momentous story into a Man Bites Dog extravaganza.

Critic Erik Childress on the continuing trainwreck of AT THE MOVIES.

Thanks again to Jeffrey Wells' HOLLYWOOD ELSEWHERE for providing this link to an article by Erik Childress, which, while a bit long, comments on Ben Lyons (the smarmy one) and Ben Mankiewicz's (the smarter one) sitdown with an Associated Press TV scribe to spin AT THE MOVIES as turning the corner and heading towards success: http://www.efilmcritic.com/feature.php?feature=2689

The article also reminds readers of Ben Lyons' Greatest Hits during his critical career for E! and Disney, including his "One of the Greatest Films Ever" blurb about the Will Smith remake of I AM LEGEND.

After having my head explode and my stomach turn from witnessing young Lyons' terminal glibness, I quit watching AT THE MOVIES months ago.

One final comment about the Childress article:
Apparently, Lyons father, hack critic Jeffrey Lyons (who still has a TV show carried by NBC affiliates), once called Roger Ebert a "putz."

The mind boggles when you consider what Ebert has achieved vs. what Lyons and his nonillustrious son don't even try for.

Ben Lyons--is he the superstupid future of film criticism?

Searching my distant memory, there are a couple of things I recall from Pauline Kael's "The Current Cinema" columns of THE NEW YORKER.

One--She wrote about a NY PBS station's shoddy treatment of silent films broadcast (i.e. not showing them at the proper speed). Ms. Kael talked to station management and received an answer like "So we'll do this for you and the three people that care."

Two--Ms. Kael quoted Frank Yablans (a producer who was an ace marketer of not-always-classic films like SILVER STREAK, CONGO and the legendary MOMMIE DEAREST) as saying that film critics needed to be replaced every few years. Presumably Yablans meant that critics/reviewers who stay on the job too long wouldn't be as receptive to below-average current product as the go-along/get-along types who need to write favorable copy and get those Movie Star interviews for their employers.

Yablans probably would have loved someone like Ben Lyons in the 70s/80s.

Ben Lyons, son of the famed mediocrite Jeffrey Lyons (who once co-hosted a post-Siskel/Ebert SNEAK PREVIEWS with Michael Medved), cheerfully gives Disney/ABC the kind of knowledge-challenged down-with-all-things-current-as-long-as-they're-mainstream wet kisses each week on AT THE MOVIES.

Thanks to Jeffrey Wells of HOLLYWOOD-ELSEWHERE for posting this link to a LOS ANGELES TIMES article critical of Lyons the younger: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-ca-lyons28-2008dec28,0,5374132,full.story

If one were to actually complain to a Disney exec about the hiring of woefully underqualified Ben Lyons (in terms of glib careerism, Lyons outpaces even Richard Roeper), what would the response be?

Perhaps this: "So what? You're one of the ten people who cares."