They were born about a month apart in the spring of 1926, and yet one wouldn’t immediately think of them as classmates.
The loud puckish one whose unruly trademark hair
remains suspiciously dark said this week he is stepping off the media
platform that amplified his views for 40 years. The stoic one who, with
all proper deference to
Shalit on Thursday plans to kiss “Today” goodbye, if
not forget about tomorrow. His presence already had been reduced of
late to two “Critics Corner” segments a month on the long-dominant
network morning show that introduced the genre in 1952, around three
weeks before the queen’s reign began more than 3,000 miles east of
“Gene is not just a ‘Today’ show treasure but a television legend and an American icon,”
executive producer of “Today,” said through a spokeswoman. “We salute
him for his unprecedented 40-year run on a single television program, a
feat unlikely to ever be matched.”
The world is increasingly splintered, making it tough for anyone to be heard above the din very well or for very long.
The British Monarchy Facebook page is a marriage of
a great colonial power from one era with one of the colonial powers of
today. Once, the sun never set on the British Empire. Today, it seems,
if you’re not part of the conversation on Facebook, you’re virtually
nowhere, and those entrusted with maintaining and enhancing the queen’s
image obviously recognize that.
For what it’s worth, there are quite a few Facebook
pages dedicated to Shalit, but there is nothing to indicate that he or
anyone associated with him has any connection to them. Shalit’s
announcement said he plans to “embrace publishing, radio, the Internet
and commercials,” although he has wrapped his arms around publishing,
radio and commercials before.
Shalit’s announcement Tuesday said the one-time senior film critic for
was not leaving “Today” in order “to ‘spend more time with his family’
or to ‘pursue other opportunities,'” then quoted him: “It’s enough
already. But I just changed my mind, I will pursue other opportunities.”
Of course, this is the same man — a longtime
essayist for the NBC Radio network when there was an NBC Radio network
— whose official bio notes that Shalit “plans soon to begin starting to
work on his next book, ‘Procrastination is a Full Time Job.'” Any day
now, no doubt.
Shalit, a “Today” contributor since 1970, always has
had his fans. For some, however, his penchant for puns in movie reviews
began to undercut his critical authority as
But, by then, those plays on words were as much a
part of Shalit’s public persona as the mustache, the glasses and the
hair that comedian John Belushi once compared to an “ant farm on fire”
in a vintage early-1980s Shalit segment with him and
Shalit’s celebrity interviews back in the day, like
those of soon-to-depart-CNN Larry King, benefited from the fact that
there were a lot fewer celebrity interviews 30 years ago, and
Lately, perhaps, Shalit’s greatest contribution to “Today” has been as a nostalgic link to the days of
It’s been more than 21 years since
then a co-host of “Today,” observed that Shalit’s reviews “are often
late and his interviews aren’t very good.” The critique came in what
was supposed to be a confidential memo to
Gumbel wasn’t necessarily wrong, but he’s been gone
from “Today” for 13 years and Shalit only now is getting his sendoff.
He’s a survivor. Literally. A car ran over Shalit when he was on
assignment in
The British monarchy has been resilient, too, with
The new Facebook page already boasts a following of
more than 185,000 subjects. Photos reveal various people holding up
medals, and some, including the queen, in interesting hats. No
embarrassing evidence of
The 19th century essayist Walter Bagehot wrote that
royalty is government “in which the attention of the nation is
concentrated on one person doing interesting actions.”
The pressure to be interesting, however, isn’t limited to kings and queens.
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