Eugene Shalit is an American film and book critic. He filled those roles on NBC's The Today Show from January 15, 1973, after starting part-time in 1970, until his retirement on November 11, 2010. He is known for his frequent use of puns, his oversized handlebar moustache and fuzzy hair, and for wearing colorful bowties.
Shalit, according to a New York Times Magazine interview of Dick Clark, was Clark's press agent in the early 1960s. Shalit reportedly "stopped representing" Clark during a Congressional investigation of payola. Clark never spoke to Shalit again, and referred to him as a "jellyfish", an informal term for "a person without strong resolve or stamina". Shalit has been involved in reviewing the arts since 1967 and has written for such publications as Look magazine, Ladies' Home Journal, Cosmopolitan, TV Guide, Seventeen, Glamour, McCall's, and The New York Times. From 1970 to 1982 he had a daily essay on NBC Radio "Man About Anything", that was carried on more stations than any other NBC network radio feature. In 1986, Shalit hosted a videocassette and laserdisc collection from MCA Home Video, Gene Shalit's Critic's Choice Video. Four images of Shalit appeared in a filmstrip on the front of the box with his reviews on the back. Titles included Touch of Evil, Destry Rides Again, Double Indemnity and The Ipcress File. In 1987, Shalit published Laughing Matters: A Treasury of American Humor, a critically praised humor anthology. Shalit announced that he would leave The Today Show after 40 years, effective November 11, 2010. Of his decision, he was quoted as saying: "It's enough already". He has largely been reclusive since his retirement, only appearing once for Willard Scott's retirement in 2015.
''Brokeback Mountain'' review controversy
Shalit was criticized by the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation for his review of Brokeback Mountain in which he referred to Jake Gyllenhaal's character as a "sexual predator": GLAAD said Shalit's "baseless branding of Jack as a 'sexual predator' merely because he is romantically interested in someone of the same sex is defamatory, ignorant, and irresponsible" and that he "used the occasion to promote defamatory antigay prejudice to a national audience." His gay son, Peter Shalit, wrote a letter to GLAAD defending his father and said GLAAD had defamed him by "falsely accusing him of a repellent form of bigotry."
Personal life
Gene Shalit was married to Nancy Shalit. For much of his career, Shalit lived in Leonia, New Jersey. Shalit's children include the artist and entrepreneur Willa Shalit. Another child is Peter Shalit, a physician and recognized authority on gay men's health and living with HIV. His daughter Emily died of ovarian cancer in 2012.
Shalit guest-starred as the voice, and was portrayed in the form, of a fish food critic named "Gene Scallop" in the SpongeBob SquarePants episode "The Krusty Sponge". He has been parodied in several episodes of Family Guy in cutaway gags. In "Brian Sings and Swings", Shalit mugs Peter in a cutaway and makes threats using several movie title puns, which only serves to confuse Peter. In "The Book of Joe", Peter haunts Shalit and his fictional wife Joanne by pretending to be the ghost of Roger Ebert. In another episode, Peter obtains the power of transformation and while in the form of Britney Spears he kisses Justin Timberlake and then turns into Shalit, exclaiming to a horrified Timberlake, "I'm Gene Shalit now! BYE!". In "Big Man on Hippocampus", Peter reads aloud a review that was supposedly written by Shalit. Shalit also voiced his own likeness in three episodes of the animated seriesThe Critic. A Muppet character based on him appeared in . Shalit was occasionally portrayed on Saturday Night Live by Horatio Sanz in sketches and Weekend Update sequences.
