I was a big fan of the show Sneak Previews growing up … who wasn’t in the 70’s and 80’s? Watching Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert review the latest movies of the day was as natural as grilled cheese sandwiches on a Summer day. They started out akin to national public radio here in the states and quickly rose to the level of high ranked network television. They achieved all this with the trademarked rating symbol of “two thumbs up.” Everything from Star Wars to Children of a Lesser God would get talked up on the show and after a few arguments between the two mercurial critics, they’d get their score.

Now that blogging has become so huge, I see a lot of people who believe themselves to be movie critics, including myself. I write reviews at Blogcritics as well as on my own blog and I enjoy the process very much. I even find it fun when people disagree with my point of view because my heroes on Sneak Previews would always do that. Gene Siskel died a few years back of a brain tumor and Roger Ebert has continued on doing much in his rite. Unfortunately, he too was plagued with cancer and in recent years lost his lower jaw and his ability to eat or drink. Has this stopped Ebert from getting his opinions out to the world? No way.

Roger has seized the opportunity to blog and use Twitter to keep his voice alive. I follow him on Twitter and find his updates fascinating. He links to movie reviews, yes he still does those, along with his opinions on BP and other world events. He is a voracious reader and his comments are just as engaging as anything I saw on Sneak Previews growing up. Roger Ebert is not concerned who he “follows,” he doesn’t have to due to his celebrity status. I have found more than a few people he does follow to be amazing writers. Unfortunately, many of my “uncelebrity” friends don’t screen who they follow very closely. Result? A bunch of junk I have to sort through. I think we can learn from Ebert to be choosy about who we follow. While we may never get the amount of followers a celebrity gets, we can still control who we endorse. I stand behind every person I follow on Twitter. In theory, I’d hope that would be valuable to someone. In my opinion, too many people do obligatory reciprocal following on Twitter.

Roger Ebert is a role model for myself and many others. He has turned lemons into lemonade and is continuing to record a legacy through written media. His words are as engaging than ever. Check him out, you’ll be entertained and educated by the experience. You can see what he’s up to at his Twitter or his blog. I can honestly say that following him on Twitter has changed the way I look at blogging.