Washington Put up columnist, Tom Shales, pictured in 2002, died at age 79. Julia Ewan/The Washington Put up by way of Getty Photos cover caption
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Julia Ewan/The Washington Put up by way of Getty Photos
Washington Put up columnist, Tom Shales, pictured in 2002, died at age 79.
Julia Ewan/The Washington Put up by way of Getty Photos
Tom Shales, a Pulitzer-Prize successful TV critic for The Washington Put up who was nationally identified for his sharp-witted opinions of a broad vary of small-screen programming, has died. He was 79.
He died of issues from COVID and renal failure, his caretaker Victor Herfurth instructed the Put up.
Shales was employed to the Put up as a Model part author in 1972, earlier than being named the newspaper’s chief tv critic in 1977, kicking off greater than three a long time of incisive cultural commentary that coincided with early cable TV. His protection spanned genres and mediums, from late-night discuss exhibits to State of the Union speeches, from community sitcoms to nightly information applications.
In 1988, he gained the Pulitzer Prize for criticism for a group of his work from 1987. The successful portfolio included the piece “Bork and Biden,” his breezy but reducing evaluate of the Senate hearings for Supreme Court docket nominee Robert Bork — earlier than the federal choose’s affirmation was rejected — that likened the proceedings’ opening day broadcast to a “TV successor to Mork and Mindy.”
In 2006, Shales took a buyout from the Put up however stayed on contract for a further 4 years, based on the paper, “earlier than being, in his view, unceremoniously edged out due to a wage of about $400,000 per 12 months.”
Whereas at The Put up, he additionally channeled his snark on the silver display screen as a frequent movie critic at NPR, the place he was heard on Morning Version for 20 years.
On Morning Version in 1997, Shales had good issues to say concerning the re-issue of the primary Star Wars movie: “What nonetheless differentiates Star Wars from its legions of imitators within the succeeding years is that it was not pushed by its particular results, however fairly merely adorned with them. The story was the factor, it has the primal pull of historical fantasy, and the romantic charms of a fairy story.”
When American Pie 2 hit theaters in 2001, the critic panned the teenager intercourse comedy sequel for its reliance on “low cost gross-outs and smutty pranks,” telling NPR listeners, “the movie is made with what quantities to absolute cynicism and contempt for its target market.”
Jay Kernis, the founding producer of Morning Version and NPR’s former senior vp of programming, mentioned Shales’ opinions had been key to the early success of Morning Version.
“NPR listeners regarded ahead to his Friday segments, not solely as a result of they trusted his judgment, however due to the fantastic model and wit during which he wrote,” he mentioned in an e-mail.
Kernis recalled one specific week when Shales mentioned he can be too busy to jot down his weekly NPR evaluate. Foreseeing a disenchanted viewers, Kernis mentioned he went to the Put up‘s workplace, caught the mic in entrance of him and requested Shales: “What did you consider the film?”
“Spontaneously, he gave a 7-minute reply that wanted solely two pick-up edits,” Kernis mentioned. “Sounded as if he had spent days writing it.”
Shales was additionally the creator of two best-selling oral histories, Reside From New York: An Uncensored Historical past of Saturday Evening Reside (2002) and These Guys Have All of the Enjoyable: Contained in the World of ESPN (2011), each of which he co-wrote with journalist James Andrew Miller.
