Early writings While at New York University, Maltin became film critic and associate editor for the university's
Washington Square Journal, as well as continuing to edit
Film Fan Monthly. An English teacher at Teaneck High School suggested that Maltin meet a friend of hers at publisher
New American Library who was looking for someone to edit a film guide and in September 1969, at age 18, Maltin edited his first book,
TV Movies, a compendium of synopses and reviews, with the subtitle, "Everything You Want To Know About More than 8,000 Movies Now Being Shown on TV". In subsequent years, the book was regularly updated and then annually updated from October 1987 until September 2014, each edition having the following year's date. The book was later known as ''Leonard Maltin's TV Movies and Video Guide
and eventually Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide
. In 2005, many films released no later than 1960 were moved into a spin-off volume, Leonard Maltin's Classic Movie Guide'', to allow the regular book to cover a larger number of more recent titles. In 1970, his second book,
Movie Comedy Teams, was published featuring teams such as
Laurel and Hardy, the
Marx Brothers and
Abbott and Costello. Maltin wrote program guides for the newly created
Showtime network and went on to publish articles in a variety of film journals, newspapers, and magazines, including
Variety and
TV Guide. He also wrote
Behind the Camera, a study of cinematography published in 1971.
1982–2012: Entertainment Tonight Starting on May 29, 1982, Maltin was the film reviewer on the syndicated television series
Entertainment Tonight for 30 years. He praised the
Tournee of Animation (alongside the Los Angeles International Animation Celebration) on the show at one point or another. He also appeared on the
Starz cable network, and hosted his own syndicated radio program,
Leonard Maltin on Video, as well as the syndicated TV show
Hot Ticket with Boston film critic
Joyce Kulhawik (originally
E! personality and game show host
Todd Newton). Maltin also hosted a television show called ''Secret's Out
on ReelzChannel network. He also spearheaded the creation of the Walt Disney Treasures'' collectible DVD line in 2001, and continued to provide creative input and host the various sets. During the 1980s and 1990s, Maltin served on the advisory board of the
National Student Film Institute. In the mid-1990s, Maltin became the president of the
Los Angeles Film Critics Association and is on the advisory board of the Hollywood Entertainment Museum. For nearly a decade, Maltin was also on the faculty of the
New School for Social Research in
New York City. As of 2018, Maltin teaches in the
School of Cinematic Arts at the
University of Southern California. In 1990, he took a look at the
MGM years of
The Three Stooges in a film called
The Lost Stooges, available on a made-to-order DVD through the
Warner Archive Collection. Maltin left
Entertainment Tonight in 2010. His final appearance on the show as a regular correspondent was on July 19, 2010. However he appeared on
Entertainment Tonight having lunch with the Oscar nominees in 2012. He also wrote the introduction for
The Complete Peanuts: 1983–1984. In 1985, he delivered a three-word movie review on
Entertainment Tonight for that year's horror film spoof,
Transylvania 6-5000. The review begins with a silent Maltin swaying to a recording of the
Glenn Miller Orchestra playing "Pennsylvania 6-5000", the instrumental melody interrupted by the sound of a telephone ringing (part of the original recording), after which the band chants the title of the song. In his review, Maltin timed it so that his review began with the phone ringing: "
Transylvania 6-5000 ... stinks!"
Independent Spirit Awards Maltin appeared on a week of episodes of
The $25,000 Pyramid (1987) as a celebrity contestant alongside
Abby Dalton. Additionally, Maltin also appeared in
Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990), playing a film critic who blasts the first
Gremlins film, but is attacked by the Gremlins. This scene echoed real life, as Maltin gave the first film a bad review, finding it mean-spirited, which affected his friendship with director
Joe Dante. The scene was spoofed in the
Mad magazine parody of
Gremlins 2, in which he protests being eaten as
Roger Ebert gives a worse review of the film, only for the Gremlins to remark they are waiting until Thanksgiving to find Ebert, as "he will feed a family of 15!". Maltin was parodied in the
South Park episode "
Mecha-Streisand" (1998) where he,
Sidney Poitier, and
Robert Smith fight a
Godzilla-like robot version of
Barbra Streisand. Maltin voiced himself in the
Freakazoid! episode "Island of Dr. Mystico", in which the titular villain, Dr. Mystico, abducted him to make use of his film knowledge. Maltin was one of the few people to appear as a "guest star" on
Mystery Science Theater 3000 during its original run; during a Season Nine episode, he joins Pearl Forrester in torturing Mike Nelson and the bots with the film
Gorgo. He was also mocked on the show for giving the film
Laserblast a rating of 2.5 stars. After Mike and the Bots finish watching the movie, they express amazement at the rating while Mike reads off a list of well-known films that Maltin gave similar ratings to. Maltin hosted a compilation of
National Film Board of Canada animated shorts, ''Leonard Maltin's Animation Favorites from the National Film Board of Canada''.
2011–present Comedian
Doug Benson's
podcast Doug Loves Movies features a segment called the Leonard Maltin Game, in which the guest must guess the name of a film based on a subset of the cast list in reverse order and a few intentionally vague clues from the capsule review of the film from ''Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide
. Maltin appeared on the podcast in February 2010 and played the game himself. He appeared on the show again in August 2010. In November 2010, Benson and Maltin played the game on Kevin Pollak's Chat Show. Maltin repeated his appearances on Doug Loves Movies'' in September 2011 with
Jimmy Pardo and
Samm Levine, in September 2012 with
Chris Evans and
Adam Scott and in November 2013 with
Peter Segal, "
Werner Herzog" and
Clare Kramer. Beginning in November 2014, Maltin has hosted the podcast
Maltin on Movies. It began on
Paul Scheer's now-defunct Wolfpop network, with comedian and actor
Baron Vaughn as a co-host. The two picked a topic generally based on what was currently in theaters and discussed three other movies within that topic: one that the two both liked, one that the two disliked and one they thought was a great lesser-known film, or "
sleeper", within the category. Topics included biopics, breakthrough performances and sequels. Maltin currently co-hosts with his daughter Jessie Maltin. From 2014 to 2019, Maltin hosted the quarterly
Treasures From the Disney Vault on
Turner Classic Movies. The last scheduled "Treasures from the Disney Vault" aired on September 2, 2019. Beginning in 2016, Maltin has served as the Honorary Head Juror of the
Coronado Island Film Festival. In 2020, the festival named their top award
The Leonard Maltin Tribute Award. In 2019, Maltin along with his daughter Jessie Maltin created a film festival called MaltinFest at
the Egyptian Theater that spanned three days. Special guests included
Laura Dern and
Alexander Payne. Since 2018, Maltin has served on the advisory board for
Legion M. In 2022, he was invited to join the
Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences as part of the Member at Large branch. ==In popular culture==