CRITICAL PERIOD FOR FILM BUFFS

Movie critic wars. . . .

“At the Movies” will debut on KTLA Channel 5 this fall with the same theater set and the same theme music. It will even have two hosts. Exactly like old times? No.

It won’t have Gene (the tall, thin one) Siskel and Roger (the short, round one) Ebert.

TV’s best and most entertaining movie critics are changing production companies effective Sept. 15, abandoning Tribune Entertainment for Walt Disney Domestic Television. Disney gets Siskel and Ebert; Tribune gets to keep the old title. Whoopee.

The present Siskel and Ebert show will be produced and distributed by Tribune until fall. The new show--essentially an echo of the present one with greater emphasis on videocassettes--will be known as “Siskel & Ebert & the Movies.” It still will be available here on KABC-TV Channel 7.

Siskel and Ebert are Chicago movie critics who began their national TV partnership on PBS before landing with Tribune four years ago. Most movie critics on TV have a tendency to ham it up for the camera or rely on gimmicks, with the movies they review becoming subordinate to their showboating.

Siskel and Ebert have always been refreshingly untheatrical, though, while being just competitive and testy enough with each other to keep things interesting. It remains to be seen if working for Disney affects their critiques of Disney movies.

And who is succeeding Siskel and Ebert on just plain “At the Movies”? Rex (the snide one) Reed and Bill (the saccharine one) Harris.

Reed is the caustic writer/entertainment personality best known as a critic for writing the kind of punchy superlatives that are easily excerpted for movie ads. Harris, who once worked for Rona Barrett, has been doing movie odds and ends for Showtime/The Movie Channel, his signature being, “We’ll talk again.”

Based on a terrible sample tape of the Reed/Harris show supplied to TV writers, Harris has nothing to say. Reed also has nothing to say, but says it anyway.

In fact, the relentlessly affable Harris is seldom able to penetrate Reed’s wall of words and one-liners. A line that Reed once used on Warren Beatty also applies to Reed: Getting him to talk is like asking a hemophiliac for blood.

Unlike Siskel and Ebert, Reed and Harris have no chemistry. Unlike Siskel and Ebert, Reed and Harris offer no insights. Unlike Siskel or Ebert, Reed is arrogant and gratingly pretentious. When he seems to find “Down and Out in Beverly Hills” fairly funny, but trashes it anyway because “it didn’t give me anything to think about,” you know he’s operating with half a ticket.

Movie reviews are only a portion of “At the Movies” with Reed and Harris, which also will include celebrity interviews and movie-related features and news. On the sample tape, Harris reveals that Mike the dog of “Down and Out in Beverly Hills” had a stand-in dog named Davey. Then the rumors are true?

The Reed/Harris series has been sold in 90 markets to date, according to Tribune President Sheldon Cooper’s office, well under the number for “At the Movies” with Siskel and Ebert.

Already America’s best-paid movie critics, Siskel and Ebert are leaving Tribune for an even fatter deal at Disney that includes appearances in up to six Disney-produced specials. Their new “Siskel & Ebert & the Movies” is set in more than 120 markets so far, according to Jaime Bennett, vice president of programming for Disney Domestic Television.

A full-page ad for the Reed/Harris show in a trade publication, meanwhile, is more camp than convincing. “I’m not going to tap dance, stand on my head and do movie gossip,” Reed vows. “It doesn’t matter, because we’ll simply be the best,” says Harris. Like, I’m sure, Bill.

We’ll talk again.

CHANNEL 7 IS really Looney Tunes over this Bruce Herschensohn thing.

You had to like the idea that one of the guests on Tom Snyder’s Channel 7 talk show Wednesday afternoon was Jeff Cohen, coordinator for Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), the new leftist media watchdog group protesting what it sees as a right-tilt on KABC-TV Channel 7 and KABC radio. Giving Cohen (whose group picketed Channel 7 Tuesday), time to say his piece was fair.

You had to wince, though, at the verbal mugging Cohen received from Snyder and Channel 7 commentator Bill (don’t call him too moderate) Press on Snyder’s usually friendly show.

It was classic arrogance of the air.

Snyder seemed mostly playful until the arrival of Press, who had blasted FAIR on Tuesday for reportedly saying that Press was “too moderate” to balance the right-wing commentary of the freshly returned Herschensohn. Together, though, these two fast talkers ganged up on Cohen and frequently didn’t let him even finish his sentences.

Cohen did manage to say that he thought TV news commentary should reflect many political stripes, not just one or even two. That didn’t sound too outrageous.

Yet, the way he was treated, you’d think he was advocating turning Channel 7 over to the Seven Dwarfs. Snyder didn’t get this angry in 1981 when he interviewed Charles Manson.

“Why didn’t you call Channel 7 and ask for a meeting instead of coming up with some dumb picket line?” Snyder demanded.

Why? Because peaceful demonstrations are the American way. And because FAIR was seeking publicity, a lust, I believe, that Channel 7 knows something about.