Looking Out My Back Door

The Oscars, In A Word: Bor-ing

I did everything I could to make sure I'd make it through the entire award ceremony. Slept late, took a nap, coordinated dinner with the start of the show at 8 pm, and still...around 10:30, I was in dreamland. Appropriate, since I'd just had a nightmare that Eddie Murphy lost the Best Supporting Actor award to Alan Arkin. Unfortunately, the tape I had running as a backup proved that nightmare true. Then I viewed part two of my nightmare, which was that "Dreamgirls" did not win the Best Song category.

Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against either Alan Arkin or Melissa Etheridge. I saw "Little Miss Sunshine" the day before the Oscars and was underwhelmed by everything except Arkin's all-too-brief performance (his character died about 30 minutes into the movie). I admire Etheridge both as a talented singer/songwriter and as a strong, smart woman. HOWEVER. Has anyone heard her song from the documentary "An Inconvenient Truth?" Okay, it's Melissa Etheridge, it has to be good, if not excellent. HOWEVER. "Dreamgirls" is now one of my favorite movies of all time. I saw it on Broadway after it opened 26 years ago, with the original cast, and wore out my vinyl record of its cast recording. Loved it. I went to see the movie a few days after it opened, and I loved it, too. I have never, ever been to a movie that was given three rounds of applause. The first, after Jennifer Hudson's unforgettable performance of "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going." The second came at the end. And then the audience actually waited for the credits to roll so they could applaud Hudson once more. (This phenomena was not limited to the theater I was in, it was reported all across the country.)

Because of Oscar rules, only songs written for a movie may be nominated for an award, which left out the original Broadway tunes. However, there were plenty of good new ones in the movie, evidenced by the fact that it got three of the five nominations (Randy Newman's song from "Cars" was also nominated). Director Bill Condon staged a special arrangement of the three nominated songs, performed beautifully by Hudson, Beyonce, Aniki Noni Rose, and Keith Washington.

Fortunately, I was able to see that when I woke up the next day. Then, to my horror, I saw the award go to someone else.

Of course I was thrilled when Jennifer Hudson received her richly-deserved Best Supporting Actress Oscar, and happy that Helen Mirren, Forrest Whitaker and Martin Scorsese won, too (kudos to Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg for presenting the Best Director Oscar to Scorsese). Ellen was no Billy Crystal, but she was okay. She pulled it off far better than most, that's for sure (with the exception of Crystal). I agreed with Regis Philbin, who said the show needed MORE Ellen! But it was long, which translated to dull. Way too long.

A solution? Televise only the acting, directing, song and picture awards (including Foreign Film and Documentary). Have a separate show, perhaps on the AMC cable channel, that includes everything else. Then you can insert your tributes to those who have passed away, and another one or two about the movies, even a humanitarian and/or legendary award, and you'll have an Oscar telecast that is half the length and much more entertaining. Here's another thought: The Grammys have worked without a main host for the last two telecasts, and all seemed fine. Maybe that's too radical for the Oscars, but it's clear that radical changes must be made.

posted by Hopster @ 9:56 AM