Roger Ebert Home

Siskel & Ebert's 1980s Holiday Gift Guides

smallgift_gene_roger.jpg

For four years, Gene Siskel and I produced an annual Video Gift Guide. These taping sessions were endless, chaotic and exhausting. Our poor producer, Larry Dieckhaus, said he would have rather negotiated the Cuban Missile Crisis. Gene and I fought over everything. It was all the more hilarious because of our forced jollity.

I think you can see some cracks in the ho, ho, ho spirit here. We almost drew blood in a disagreement over a toy train. We each made our own film with a toy PixelVision camera. We slugged it out with an early video game.

These precious videos recently surfaced after years of being thought lost. I watched them. I laughed, I cried, and during the video boxing match I kissed my ass goodbye.

A note of thanks to TheAisleSeatCom, the user on You Tube who uploaded all these videos.

Siskel & Ebert Holiday Gift Guide 1988 (1/4)

Siskel & Ebert Holiday Gift Guide 1988 (2/4)

Siskel & Ebert Holiday Gift Guide 1988 (3/4) - Roger's Laserdisc & Picture Phone

Siskel & Ebert Holiday Gift Guide 1988 (4/4)

Siskel & Ebert Holiday Gift Guide 1989 (1/4) - Nintendo TECMO BOWL Battle!

Siskel & Ebert Holiday Gift Guide 1989 (2/4) - Laserdisc Demo & HDTV Preview

Siskel & Ebert Holiday Gift Guide 1989 (3/4) - Recommended Tapes & Discs

Siskel & Ebert Holiday Gift Guide 1989 (4/4) - Gene & Roger Karaoke!

Siskel & Ebert Holiday Gift Guide 1991 (1/5)

Siskel & Ebert Holiday Gift Guide 1991 (2/5)

Siskel & Ebert Holiday Gift Guide 1991 (3/5) - Danny DeVito on LaserDiscs

Siskel & Ebert Holiday Gift Guide 1991 (4/5)

Siskel & Ebert Holiday Gift Guide 1991 (5/5) - Super Nintendo Battle!

Siskel & Ebert Holiday Gift Guide 1992 (1/4)

Siskel & Ebert Holiday Gift Guide 1992 (2/4) - Photos on Compact Discs!

Siskel & Ebert Holiday Gift Guide 1992 (3/4) - "VCR Voice Program"

Siskel & Ebert Holiday Gift Guide 1992 (4/4) - Home Theater Palaces

Siskel & Ebert Holiday Gift Guide 1993 (1/3)

Siskel & Ebert Holiday Gift Guide 1993 (2/3)

Siskel & Ebert Holiday Gift Guide 1993 (3/3) - Sega Boxing Battle!

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

Latest blog posts

Latest reviews

Comments

comments powered by Disqus