I sense that like Dick Clark before him, Ebert is in a baton-passing mood. And if he's thinking of the forseeable future of his brand, he's going to want to leave it to someone who has the fire and passion for movies that his late partner Gene Siskel had. For in all its incarnations, the At The Movies franchise was about two professional colleagues who engaged in lively discussion aimed at people who only wanted to know what movies to spend their hard-earned money on.
I know that Mr. Mitchell is also a professional, as evidenced by his TCM show Under The Influence and a KCRW podcast The Treatment. He has written for The New York Times, and has authored several books. But I have a strong feeling that his idea of a good time is to get together with a bunch of pipe-smoking academics and discuss subtext, mise-en-scene, and artistic influences. Not the stuff At The Movies is made of, I'm afraid.
I also seem to remember that on the one time I saw Mitchell during Ebert's Year of Rotating Cohosts prior to the selection of Richard Roeper, Elvis and Roger not only didn't have unanimous thumbs for anything, but Mitchell's only defenses were in the esoteric terms described above.
And call me crazy, but Elvis, whose home base these days is in sunny Los Angeles, didn't look all that thrilled to be in windy, snowy Chicago, where Ebert has written and broadcast from his entire 43-year career. It would be at least a four-day-six-movie-a-week commute for Elvis. And I don't think he'd be up to it.
Best of luck to Ignatiy and Christy on January 21 (Check PBS listings for times). And do check out Elvis Mitchell's shows. They are good if you like movers and shakers, influences, and occasional anecdotes.
Have a great night!
MTMG
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