Jimmy O'Hair

At the Movies the Ebert Way

Today’s Jimmy O’Hair comic strip pays tribute to Roger Ebert, who passed away at 70 last week. It has Zeppa as a movie critic co-host to Roger Ebert. Of course, the chair next to Roger Ebert was occupied for many years on TV by the late Gene Siskel, as “Siskel and Ebert” became part of the lexicon and brought an appreciation of movies of all shapes and sizes to mass audiences. After Gene’s death, the spot was filled on a rotating basis by guest co-hosts and finally Richard Roeper before Roger Ebert’s health issues caused him to step down permanently. Still, Ebert continued to be an inspiration to those battling illness and staying productive, as he continued to post movie reviews in his Pulitzer-prize winning writing style for the Sun-Times and be an active Twitter presence up until the day he died. In the Jimmy O’Hair comic strip, Zeppa is a cinephile and that passion for cinema has carried over into movie reviews. This dream scenario has Zeppa paired with Ebert, the most well-known movie critic in the world.  While the humor in this strip pokes fun at the typical critical reviews of mindless blockbuster films and little seen art-house films, Roger Ebert loved all different types of movies, whether a Hollywood blockbuster or an indie movie made on a shoestring budget in a foreign country. A movie was simply judged on its own merits, whether good or bad. Or as Roger Ebert was famous for saying, “No good film is too long, and no bad film is short enough.” The balcony is closed, but the love of movies will live on forever …