For the first time in the show's history, Gene Siskel reversed his "thumbs up" decision on "Broken Arrow" after conceding the criticisms Roger Ebert made. Siskel tried to get Ebert to reverse his thumbs up for "Cop and a Half" from three years prior, but Ebert refused.
Gene Siskel admitted that he walked out of "Black Sheep" before it was over. The previous times he did this were for "The Million Dollar Duck" in 1971 and "Maniac" in 1980.
The episode where the critics reviewed Broken Arrow (1996) and Black Sheep (1996) became famous for two reasons. The first was that Gene Siskel originally gave "Broken Arrow" a narrow thumbs-up, but after Roger Ebert gave it an also-narrow thumbs-down (Ebert didn't hate the film, but said it was too predictable and sometimes dumb to recommend), Siskel declared that Ebert had changed his mind and he would switch his vote from thumbs-up to thumbs-down, the first (and ultimately only) time he ever did that on the show (amusingly, Siskel then tried to get Ebert to change his positive review of the film Cop & ½ (1993), with Ebert glowering at him and refusing to discuss his thumbs-up for that movie). The other reason it was famous is that Gene Siskel said that he hated "Black Sheep" so much that he walked out of it, making the first time he had said on the show that he left a movie before it ended because it was so terrible (though fans later noted that Siskel had previously alluded to walking out on a few others film that he didn't mention here). Siskel particularly savaged Chris Farley, saying "I knew John Belushi, and he's no John Belushi" less than two years before Farley would die under similar circumstances and at the same age, 33, of his hero: John Belushi.
Gene Siskel only changed his original thumbs up/down rating on a movie once during his 13 years as a co-host. In 1996, Gene reversed his original and marginal "thumbs up" review to the John Woo-directed action film BROKEN ARROW after Roger delivered a blunt "thumbs down" for it, saying Roger's pan had convinced him the movie didn't deserve a recommendation. Roger never changed his mind on a final verdict, though he said a few times that a past review didn't entirely reflect how he felt about a movie later on. In the BROKEN ARROW episode, Gene asked Roger to officially change his legendary outlier "thumbs up" review for the 1993 Burt Reynolds comedy bomb COP AND A HALF. Roger refused to.