Roger Ebert, one of America's best known film critics, has not been able to speak since he had emergency cancer surgery on July 1 to repair a burst blood vessel near the site of his June 16 surgery to remove a cancerous growth on his salivary gland. But he can still give a thumbs up or thumbs down as he reviews movies on his Web site.

Starting today, clips from Ebert & Roeper and Ebert's prior episodes of his movie review TV show will be posted here. It just may be the largest collection ever of video-based online movie reviews -- 5,000 movie reviews spanning the past 20 years will be featured.

Ebert is not quite sure when he might return to television as he awaits another surgery to restore his voice. In the meantime, he screens as many as three films a day. He watches DVDs at night to catch up on those he missed, and he's writing more than ever, he says.

The television industry just might owe a bit of its success to the tobacco industry. Cigarette producers were one of the earliest and most consistent advertisers on TV. Big tobacco had large pools of money and were able to take a chance on the new medium of television when it first debuted in the 1940's.

At a time when many sponsors were financially unable to buy advertising spots or unwilling to try TV ads, tobacco companies found opportunities to attach strings to their endorsements. Many shows were required to feature characters smoking during the shows. Stars were expected to use cigarettes and show their enthusiasm for the products. Popular shows such as I Love Lucy showed Lucy happily fetching a smoke for husband and exclaiming, "You see how easy it is to keep your man happy?!"

After television gained popularity and many consumers began to question the health of cigarettes, the products were banned from the air waves. For a more in depth look at this piece of television history, click here.

Ed Friendly, television producer and thoroughbred horse owner, helped create the hits Little House on the Prairie and Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In has died from cancer.

The show Laugh-In, that he co-created, won several Emmys. Ed served as an infantry captain in World War II. His jobs included advertising, radio and later television director, director of sales for ABC, contract producer at CBS and he eventually became NBC's vice president of special programs. Looks like he had all the major networks covered!

Friendly is survived by his second wife, a daughter, son, and three grandchildren.

A mother who lost her daughter to cancer had something to say on her blog about the depiction of childhood cancer and other cancers for that matter on television. I wanted to share her words.

Think about this:

I have just finished watching the new episode of "House." It was about a teenager who was facing a bone marrow transplant (his younger brother was to be the donor). So many things were unrealistic -- don't they consult with real doctors to get the facts? I think it was a couple of weeks ago that the episode of "Grey's Anatomy" also dealt with the topic of childhood cancer and a bone marrow transplant. It was even more unrealistic. One of the doctor's, "Izzy", ended up being the little girl's biological mother. The same day that she discovered that she was, they did a quick blood test and then harvested her bone marrow without any anesthesia and moments later they were infusing it into her daughter. Not quite the way it really works! It is quite frustrating to think that people are watching these shows and will get a false sense of reality -- and so many of us a working hard to get the word out about childhood cancer! Oh well, I am going to try to do my part to get the truth out. I am going to start working on a documentary that will share the reality of what so many families are living with.

Living With Cancer is an inspirational documentary that will air on the Discovery channel tonight at 8pm EDT. Hosted by Ted Koppel, it chronicles the experiences of Leroy Sievers, an executive producer at Discovery.

In 2002 Sievers was diagnosed with colorectal cancer that had metastasized to his lungs and brain. The program features a discussion with Sievers as he deals with chemotherapy, scans and cutting edge procedures.

Koppel says the program is intended to show that people can and do live successfully with cancer everyday.

Sievers says "Normalcy is the greatest gift anyone can give you, let me continue to be me, not cancer. I am not my disease, I just have a disease. That's all"

Tune in -- I know I will.

The final nine episodes of HBO's Sunday night hit The Sopranos feature the stuff of life. You know -- blood, guts, betrayal, angst, and cancer. It's not quite the stuff of my life, well, except for the cancer part.

Actor Vince Curatola, who plays Johnny "Sack" Sacramoni, powerfully weaves cancer into the end of this popular television drama. Diagnosed with lung cancer, his character is given three months to live -- in a prison hospital bed.

Johnny Sack says very little in the last episodes. He does gasp to his wife in episode two, "I'm very, very sick," but he lacks the lung capacity to muster up much more. He disease is considered stage four.

The cancer depictions -- one shows Johnny Sack shuffling down a long corridor in his hospital robe, oxygen tank dragging behind -- are right on, say those who've taken an early peek at the shows. And reportedly, the cancer scenes pretty accurately reflect the concerns of the larger culture -- where cancer has become an epidemic that sadly, won't come to end in nine episodes.

If eating junk food and watching television lead to obesity, a sedentary lifestyle, and a road marked by diminished health and increased illness, then kids living in Britain are about to get a whole lot healthier.

Think about this:

According to the March 19, 2007 issue of TIME magazine, British broadcasting regulator Ofcom will phase out all commercials on children's programming that promote junk food containing high fat, sugar, and salt.

The ban will begin at the end of the year.

White House press secretary and colon cancer survivor Tony Snow asks the public to refrain from jumping to conclusions regarding the surgery he will have on Monday to remove a growth from his lower abdomen.

Blood tests and a CAT scan of the growth show no presence of cancer, he reports. But still, he and doctors are proceeding cautiously due to his history.

Snow, a former Fox News radio and television talk show host, was diagnosed with cancer two years ago, when he was a commentator at Fox. Two months after surgery, he returned to the air and then became White House press secretary in April 2006.

Snow's plan is to be back behind the podium a few weeks after surgery, when he has a better idea of what it is he's dealing with.

Elizabeth Edwards' breast cancer recurrence has the disease once again dominating newspapers, magazines, television programs, and conversations.

Just two days ago, I heard a run-down of facts about breast cancer. They were shared to raise awareness, and while I was already aware of most of them, it's still quite sobering to hear some of the statistics that surround a disease that lands in the laps of more than 200,000 American women every year.

Think about these -- three powerful truths that happen to stick in my mind at this very moment:

The highest risk of breast cancer belongs to those older than 60.

Nearly 85 percent of women diagnosed with breast cancer have no family history of the disease.

And tragically, every three minutes, a woman is diagnosed with breast cancer.

Of 1,500 foods tested in a University of Oslo study, blackberries were identified as nature's top cancer fighter.

Blackberries apparently have the highest antioxidant content per serving of any food tested. And a compound found in fresh blackberries appears to stop the development of skin tumors and lung cancer cells.

Think about this:

This sweet and juicy fruit, available year-round but plentiful and perfectly potent in April and May, was promoted in a television commercial that aired during the recent Michigan-Ohio State football game.

Ohio State University is a recipient of federal grants to study the health effects of blackberries, and the student who appeared in the TV ad plugged the school's research into the cancer fighting effects of blackberries. Now that's some good press.

Someone asked me the other day how I continue to come up with topics for my posts. I wish I could say it was a chore to find material on cancer, but it isn't. There is always something to write about -- so much to write about, in fact, that if I had the time and energy, I could write volumes each day.

I find my topics in newspapers, in magazines, and in books. I spot them on television, on the radio, on the internet. I draw from personal experience and from others' experiences. I write and write and write because cancer just keeps on appearing in my life. I wish it didn't.

Cancer is everywhere. And it offers me an endless reserve of material that just keeps stacking up. So how do I come up with topics for my posts? I don't. The topics come to me.

Patrick Dempsey may play a doctor on television's Grey's Anatomy but in real life, he is much like all of us -- especially when it comes to caring for a loved one with cancer.

Dempsey's mother had cancer, received treatment for the disease, and has been surviving for nine years. Yet memories of the journey, and the overwhelming process of it all, are fresh in his mind.

"It's overwhelming because it's like, there's too many options sometimes," Dempsey said. "It's like, well, why should I believe the doctors? Shouldn't I get a second opinion? Shouldn't I find a specialist?"

Dempsey recalls feeling naive and childlike and powerless in many ways. And now, partnering with Breakaway from Cancer -- a support initiative founded in 2005 -- he is helping others take control of life with cancer.

"You need a support system in to encourage you, to get you up and out of bed in the morning," Dempsey said.

NASCAR is in the news -- because of the cancer battles of two of its favorites.

On Sunday, longtime NASCAR driver Bobby Hamilton died after a battle with head and neck cancer. His cancer was diagnosed in February 2006. He was 49.

It has also been reported that former NASCAR champion Benny Parsons has been in intensive care for two weeks at Carolinas Medical Center due to complications arising from lung cancer.

Parsons, 65 and a non-smoker since 1978, was diagnosed with cancer in his left lung in July 2006. Following treatment, he announced in October he had beaten the disease. But he was unable to attend a November ceremony in New York to accept the Myers Brothers Award for contributions to his sport. And on December 26, he entered the hospital.

"Parsons' family has been overwhelmed by the outpouring of support from fans and the NASCAR community, and they encourage everyone to keep Benny in their thoughts and prayers," according to a statement issued on Parsons' behalf.

Parsons, a NASCAR television commentator with a weekly show on the radio network, was selected one of NASCAR's 50 greatest drivers in 1998 -- 10 years after his retirement -- in honor of his 21 wins in 526 starts.

However unintentional she says it has all been when it comes to the sultry and seductive persona that oozes sexuality through the television screen during her cooking shows, How to be a Domestic Goddess author Nigella Lawson has made a career out of making food sexy and the act of food consumption sensual. It is part of her not-always-so-subtle coy kitchen charm.

But if we believe her life to be as silky smooth and decadent as warm cream flowing over a morning bowl of juicy plump strawberries, and equally as charmed as she is charming, we would be mistaken. Yes, she is remarried to multi-millionaire, ad man and art dealer Charles Saatchi, but she is also the widow of journalist and writer John Diamond, who died of tongue cancer five years ago, leaving her suddenly mother and father to their two children, Cosima and Bruno.

A decade earlier, Lawson's mother had died of liver cancer. Her sister Thomasina died in her 30s of breast cancer. Cancer changes people. It is unavoidable, and the change can take many forms. For Nigella, who in the public eye has taken criticism for her ample figure and lack of concern for the fat content of food, has an almost unreasonable fear about thinness. After watching three family members waste away and die from cancer, she sees thin as a sign of illness.

"So even though I mind it when I put on weight I have a visual memory of seeing those people become skin and bone, and that gives me a slight reality check," explains Lawson. In watching her cooking show Nigella Bites, she came through as warm, down-to-earth, without a care for pretentious protocol or rules for the sake of rules. It is the way she cooks, and I get the feeling it is the way she lives. Cancer changes every person it touches and shapes perspectives about what is truly important in life. Being comfortable and enjoying yourself, including the food you eat, is a good recipe for life. A recipe Nigella seems to dish up with ease.

Nigella Lawson is Food Network's newest host in Nigella Feasts. On January 7, the theme of the show will be Feel Good Food featuring Smoked Salmon, Avocado and Pumpkin Seed Salad, a Vietnamese Prawn and Glass Noodle Salad, a colorful Antioxidant Fruit Salad, and a Syllabubbed Yogurt. Yum.

Jack Osbourne, son of rock legend Ozzy and colon cancer survivor Sharon Osbourne, recently stated that he blames his alcohol and drug addiction on his father. During his mother Sharon's diagnosis and treatment for colon cancer, the young Jack used alcohol and the powerfully addictive prescription painkiller OxyContin as a way to cope.

Jack is quoted as saying, "My problems peaked when mom was sick and dad was dealing with his problems the same way as I was, by drinking, so I had no one to turn to. I was just hanging out with my crowd drinking and doing drugs." Jack ended up in an addiction rehab clinic to get clean and sober.

This is no way excuses the badly-decided choices that Jack made when he turned to alcohol and drugs as a way to cope with his feelings, but there is a sharp focus and more than a bit of snarkiness to the news reports concerning Jack's blaming comment that misses a great opportunity in regard to discussing the impact a parent's cancer diagnosis has on children.

As the American Cancer Society (ACS) states, "Families face many complex issues when one of their members has cancer. There will probably be a time during a family's experience with cancer when psychosocial support services will be helpful in meeting the emotional needs of the family. There are teams of experts, each with a different focus, who offer support and are trained in how cancer affects a family." ACS offers a terrific resource for the family with the online publication of Helping Children When A Family Member Has Cancer.

The Family Doctor states, "Every person has a different way of handling news that a loved one has cancer. Many people react with shock, disbelief and even anger when they're first given the news." The Family Doctor's Cancer: Helping Your Family Help You offers advice on different questions a parent might have, such as:

• How will my family react to the news that I have cancer?
• Should I tell my children that I have cancer?
• How do I tell my children that I have cancer?
• How can I help my children cope with their feelings?
  

In 2002, when I drove home after being told I had cancer, I wondered and worried about how I was going to tell my children, how I could avoid the unavoidable shattering of innocence in their world, how to protect them from their own fear and pain? I sat outside in the car, trying to stare through the walls of our home, knowing that in the next five minutes I would be changing our lives forever with the news of my cancer diagnosis. I wanted to freeze time, to save the innocence, to keep the awful news from being true.

In the ACS online resource for families, it states, "Parents can have a powerful effect on how their children react to a crisis in the family. In the beginning this responsibility can feel like a huge weight, but it is possible for family members to learn how to deal with and even grow through the experience of having cancer in the family."

Support services can include individual counseling, family counseling, and support groups. If you do not know where to start, ask your physician or call the local hospital or local ACS office. Someone will be able to help you help your children, and all family members, navigate through the crisis of cancer, so that everyone becomes a survivor of cancer in the best way possible.