Roger Ebert

I paid no attention to movie critic's until Roger Ebert & Gene Siskel's At the Movies came on PBS.  I was in my early 20's, and until then barely paid attention to movie reviews, even the ones in my newspaper.  But Ebert & Siskel opened my eyes to movies beyond the blockbusters.  And their show coincided with the advent of VHS Rentals, and so when they would recommend an Indie film, I was always thrilled to find it at the Video Store.

Later their recommendations would show up on Cable, as it broadened its channel output.  Outside of Ebert & Siskel the only other critic from that era that I read the most was the New Yorker's Pauline Kael.
The thing is that I didn't always agree with all 3 but was always interested in what they wrote.

It's the same with music critic's.  The ones whose work shaped Rock criticism like Marsh, Christgau, Marcus, Bangs and others from that first wave had tastes that ran opposite of mine, yet I always found something in there positive reviews that I wanted to check out.

The death of Roger Ebert closes the chapter on the generation of Movie Critic as Celebrity.  Siskel died in 1999, Kael in 2001.

Among the ones active today I still like Peter Travers the most, but rarely check the byline on whose reviewing what in Newspapers, Magazines or online.

Yep, major thumbs up for Ebert & Siskel.  They helped shape our views of movies, movie stars and the whole movie-making machinery.