Two guys in a balcony. That’s it. No fancy CGI, no influencers screaming for likes, and zero clickbait. Just two middle-aged Chicagoans in sweaters, arguing until they turned red in the face.
Honestly, it’s a miracle Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert didn't kill each other in the 70s. Before they were a global brand, they were blood rivals. Real enemies. We’re talking about two journalists from competing papers—the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times—who literally couldn't be in the same elevator without staring at the floor numbers in dead silence.
They hated the way the other breathed. They hated each other's prose. But mostly, they hated the idea that the other guy might get a "scoop" first.
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The Secret Origin of the Thumb
It started in 1975. A local PBS producer at WTTW named Thea Flaum had a crazy idea: put these two enemies on a set and let them fight. The first pilots were, frankly, terrible. They were stiff. They were bored. It was called Opening Soon… at a Theater Near You, which is a title only a bureaucrat could love.
But then something shifted.
They realized that the audience didn't just want to know if a movie was "good." They wanted to see the process of two smart people disagreeing. By the time the show became Sneak Previews and then later At the Movies, they had introduced the world to the "Thumbs Up" and "Thumbs Down."
It seems simple now. It’s basically the ancestor of the Rotten Tomatoes score. But back then? It was revolutionary. It democratized the arts. You didn't need a PhD in film theory to have an opinion. You just needed a thumb.
Why Their Rivalry Was 100% Real
People often ask if the bickering was an act for the cameras. It wasn't.
Roger Ebert was the more emotional, "populist" critic. He’d give a thumbs up to a movie because of the way it made him feel. Gene Siskel? He was the logic guy. A Yale philosophy major who would tear a movie apart if it didn't meet his specific, often rigid, intellectual standards.
They fought over everything.
- The Cop and a Half Incident: Roger liked this silly kids' movie. Gene was so offended by this that he spent the rest of the segment treating Roger like a crazy person. He later mailed Roger a signed photo of the kid in the movie just to troll him.
- Full Metal Jacket: They famously screamed at each other over Kubrick’s masterpiece. Gene thought the second half was a mess; Roger thought Gene was missing the entire point of the film.
- The Credits: They even fought over whose name came first in the title. They eventually had to flip a coin.
Gene used to call Roger "Tubby" behind his back when he’d beat him to a story. Roger would mock Gene’s vanity, especially about his hair. They were like a married couple that stayed together solely for the sake of the kids—except the "kids" were millions of Americans tuning in every weekend to see who would win the argument.
The Bond Most People Missed
Despite the venom, something happened over those 24 years. They became "best enemies."
When Gene was secretly dying of a brain tumor in 1999, he didn't tell the public. He didn't even tell Roger for a long time. He just kept working, calling into the show from his hospital bed to record his segments because he didn't want the show to stop.
When Gene died, Roger was devastated. He realized that his "adversary" was actually his North Star. Without Siskel to push against, Ebert’s reviews changed. He became more of a philosopher, more of a mentor to the world. He eventually faced his own brutal battle with cancer, losing his jaw and his voice, but he never stopped writing.
How to Watch Movies Like Siskel and Ebert
If you want to actually use their legacy to enjoy movies more today, stop looking at "average scores."
A 75% on a review site means the movie is safe. Siskel and Ebert hated "safe." They’d rather watch a glorious failure than a boring success. They taught us that you can love a movie that your best friend hates, and that disagreement is actually where the fun begins.
Next Steps for the Modern Cinephile:
- Find your "Gene": Find a friend whose taste is the opposite of yours. Go see a movie together and force yourselves to debate it for 20 minutes afterward. No "it was okay" allowed.
- Watch the Outtakes: Go to YouTube and search for "Siskel and Ebert outtakes." You’ll see them swearing, mocking each other's makeup, and genuinely laughing. It’s the most human television ever recorded.
- Read the Old Reviews: Don't just look at the thumb. Go to RogerEbert.com and read the actual essays. They are masterclasses in how to think, not just what to think.
Their balcony is empty now, but the conversation they started is still going. Every time you argue with a friend about whether a sequel was "actually good," you're sitting in those seats.