Siskel and Ebert

Their television shows went through a few different names, but what remained was these two critics in the balcony, reviewing the latest in the week's films. Their approach to movie reviewing was revolutionary. Before them, you read the paper to see what someone thought about a movie. Now you saw a clip of the movie, and then not one but two people told you what they thought. Sometimes they agreed, sometimes they disagreed. When they were through, you really had an idea whether or not you wanted to see that movie.

But for dedicated viewers, that was almost beside the point. Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert had the sort of chemistry that made you want to watch them even more than the movies. When they agreed, it was something of a miracle, and when they disagreed, it was Television with a capital T. The thing was, these guys really didn't get along with each other. They respected one another, certainly, but they were not friends. They were barely business acquaintances. They were a team without any teaming, and while you sort of suspected this watching the show, they were usually civilized enough to convince you that it might just be the moment. But their not getting along wasn't an act. It was the getting along that was hard.

The Original Frenemies provides an oral history of the two:

One day, [Gene] went under the table to catch a few winks while I was typing his and Roger’s scripts for the teleprompter. Not long afterward, Roger came in the room, and without noticing Gene, he made a phone call to arrange an interview with Nastassja Kinski for a piece in the Sun-Times. When Roger left, Gene got up and hit the redial button. He proceeded to tell Nastassja Kinski’s representative that he was Roger’s assistant and that Roger had to cancel the interview. Then he looked at me and said, “Not a word!”