- Get The Big Picture

A television and film institution is shutting its doors. Richard Roeper - admittedly the lesser part of the equation - has announced that At the Movies with Ebert and Roeper is dunzo.

"Several months ago, Disney offered to extend my contract, which expires at the conclusion of the 2007-08 season," said Roeper, who joined the show in 2000, a year after the death of Gene Siskel. "I opted to wait. Much transpired after that behind the scenes, but an agreement was never reached, and we are all moving on."

By "we are all moving on," Roeper means himself, Disney, and Roger Ebert. According to the world's best movie critic (not Roeper), The House of Mouse is moving the show in a different direction and neither Ebert or his colleague will by a part of it.

Have heart, though: "The thumbs will return," said Ebert in a statement. "We are discussing possibilities, and plan to continue the show's tradition." While Ebert has been sidelined for the past two years with medical issues that have robbed him of his speaking voice, Roeper has brought in a series of guest hosts and critics. Without Ebert, of course, the show would obviously suffer. There's not a smarter or more experienced writer about this subject than Ebert, and he's one of the very few critics who can love popcorn movies as much as art flicks and tell you why each one is superior to its competition in enlightening, direct, and entertaining ways. Roeper...not so much.

I would like to see Roeper go his own way, and hopefully, if Ebert can one day return to the on-air balcony, he can do so in a way that embraces the legacy of the original program and find a way to keep it moving forward. The show, which began as At the Movies and later became Siskel & Ebert & the Movies, debuted in 1982 after Siskel and Ebert had paired up on the PBS show Sneak Previews.