"November 1975. This is the month when "Opening Soon at a Theater Near You" premiered on PBS in Chicago. It featured the city's two most prominent film critics, Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune and Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times, who appeared ill at ease during their first pairing on camera. Perhaps the coolness with which they treated one another stemmed from their rivalry."
"In their first television appearance, Siskel explained, "The point of our show is to sort of be a news magazine about movies. We want to show you what's playing in town, what's coming to town, and also maybe take you behind the scenes and show you a little bit about the movie business." In each of its iterations, their program would certainly check these boxes, yet it ultimately became so much more."
"As Siskel and Ebert discussed-and more often than not, argued over-the week's new theatrical releases, they could be funny, temperamental, impassioned, and never less than achingly human. Sure, their mismatched physicalities were compared to those of the classic comic duos such as Abbott & Costello and Laurel & Hardy, and they weren't above playing into their dichotomy, particularly during their appearances on late-night talk shows."
Opening Soon at a Theater Near You premiered on PBS Chicago in November 1975, pairing film critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert for the first time on camera. The initial episodes showed awkwardness and coolness between the two, possibly due to rivalry or camera unease. The program became nationally syndicated in 1977 as Sneak Previews and elevated Siskel and Ebert into a prominent television duo. The show's appeal centered on the critics' Midwestern journalist personas and evolving on-camera comfort. Their debates about new releases displayed humor, passion, temperamental exchanges, and a human, relatable quality often likened to classic comic duos.
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