Many moviegoers look to well-known film critics to give them the thumbs up or the thumbs down on a new blockbuster release. Roger Ebert is one of these iconic critics, whose opinions have been aired on television and in print.
On this day, August 2nd, in 1982, the film critic and screenwriter Roger Ebert moved his movie review show, “At the Movies,” to a syndicated commercial show on ABC.
Ebert began pursuing journalism in high school, where he became a writer for science fiction fanzines. In his parody Mad About the Movies, Ebert claims that his influence for film critiquing came from reading Mad magazine. This inspiration apparently paid off, as Roger Ebert became the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.