The acclaimed Washington Post television critic Tom Shales has died, his frequent collaborator James Andrew Miller shared Saturday on social media. Shales was 79 years old.
Shales died following complications from COVID-19 and renal failure, according to his caretaker Victor Herfurth, the Washington Post reports.
Known for his incisive, often barbed criticism, Shales worked as a critic for the Post from 1977 until 2010, winning the Pulitzer Prize for criticism in 1988. He was just the fourth TV reviewer to earn the top journalism honor.
He took a buyout from the Post in 2006, staying on as a contract employee. But he left the institution in 2010 when the outlet told him it could no longer afford his contract. At one time, his importance to the Post meant he drew a $400,000 salary.
Shales cowrote iconic oral histories of “Saturday Night Live” and the behind-the-scenes world of ESPN alongside fellow Washington Post journalist Miller. Miller described Shales as “one of the country’s most brilliant writers” and added, “I loved him like a brother.”
Shales received an outpouring of love on social media from TV critics, writers and fans.
The Wall Street Journal’s Jason Gay described the critic’s power, writing, “It’s hard to overstate Tom Shales’s impact; no television critic had the same influence and wicked talent, and no one will ever again. A titan.”
Shales “earned his spot on the Mt. Rushmore of TV critics,” Vulture’s Josef Adalian wrote.
“Reading Tom Shales’ columns in the Post, I learned so much about television, criticism and the art of writing,” media critic Brian Stelter shared.
Miller shared a school paper Shales wrote when he was 14 describing how he would reach his goal of becoming a syndicated columnist.
Shales’ pans of shows “The O.C.” and “The District” led to him getting referenced in an unflattering way in later episodes of each. “The O.C.” named an incontinent hospital patient after Shales, while on “The District,” a dog pees on one of Shales’ reviews.
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