Tom Shales, Pulitzer-winning TV critic of fine-tuned wit, dies at 79

He spent nearly 40 years writing for The Washington Post and was known for his incisive and barbed commentary

By Adam Bernstein and Brian Murphy
Updated January 13, 2024 at 11:46 a.m. EST | Published January 13, 2024 at 11:06 a.m. EST



Tom Shales at The Washington Post in 1997. (The Washington Post)

Tom Shales, a Pulitzer Prize-winning television critic for The Washington Post who brought incisive and barbed wit to coverage of the small screen and chronicled the medium as an increasingly powerful cultural force, for better and worse, died Jan. 13 at a hospital in Fairfax County, Va. He was 79. … The cause was complications from covid and renal failure, said his caretaker, Victor Herfurth.

TV critics in New York and Los Angeles traditionally had greater show business clout than one in the entertainment backwater of Washington, but Mr. Shales proved a formidable exception for more than three decades. ... As The Post’s chief TV critic starting in 1977, he worked at a newspaper still basking in the cachet of its Watergate glory, his column was widely syndicated, and his stiletto-sharp commentary on TV stars, trends and network executives brought him national attention and influence.

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Tom Shales, left, with Post TV columnist John Carmody. (The Washington Post)

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A recurring target for Mr. Shales was Kathie Lee Gifford, the perma-smile co-host with Regis Philbin on the syndicated morning show “Live With Regis and Kathie Lee.” He regarded her as like a pebble in his shoe, annoyed by relentless peppiness, boundless self-adoration and cloying sentimentality. Mr. Shales took particular glee in bashing Gifford’s Christmas specials during the 1990s.

“That ghastly Gifford grin, ear to ear and back again, seems steeped in self-esteem and almost blinding in its showbiz phoniness,” he wrote in a review of “Kathie Lee: Home for Christmas,” which included her two “mercilessly exploited” children and her husband, retired football great Frank Gifford. He compared the special to Soviet torture techniques and directed his sympathy toward her offspring. ... “Imagine the therapists’ bills those kids will tally up in the years ahead,” he wrote.

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By Adam Bernstein
Adam Bernstein has spent his career putting the "post" in The Washington Post, first as an obituary writer and then as editor. The American Society of Newspaper Editors recognized Bernstein’s ability to exhume “the small details and anecdotes that get at the essence of the person.” He joined The Post in 1999. Twitter https://twitter.com/bernsteinobits

By Brian Murphy
Brian Murphy joined The Washington Post after more than 20 years as a foreign correspondent and bureau chief for the Associated Press in Europe and the Middle East. Murphy has reported from more than 50 countries and has written four books. Twitter https://twitter.com/BrianFMurphy