The Oscars were incredibly boring last night. To be fair, they seem to know that the show is incredibly boring, and made some big changes to try and combat the interminableness of the four-hour broadcast.
It didn't help.
That's not to say the changes were all terrible. Quite the contrary: The smaller stage, the more theatrical host, and the attempt to focus more on the actual nominees were all good. It's just the execution that was bungled.
After 81 years, this show's gotten a little musty. It's time for some radical changes to make it as entertaining as the premiere entertainment showcase of the year should be.
Here are five suggestions:
1. Cut the number of televised awards from 24 to 12.The show should present the Big Six along with Song, Score, Adapted Screenplay, Original Screenplay, Documentary, and Cinematography. The rest get shuttled off to the "No-TV-But-At-Least-The-Host-Is-Hot" technical awards night. The broadcast can show some of the winners' work and acceptance speeches in a segment, but that segment can't be longer than two minutes. If you want this to be a good show, you have to get the time down to two hours, three tops. And to do that effectively, you have to lop off the minor categories. The winners still have the honor of an Academy Award, and the viewer has the honor of you not wasting their time anymore.
Still feel like you're giving the sound editors short shrift? Put samples of their work, their acceptance speeches, and even a small documentary about what they do on the Oscars Web page. That's more attention than they've ever gotten inside the Kodak theater.
That buys you time to try your Superfriends approach of having five actors give the award, but also show a clip of the actual work that was so good, it deserved to be nominated. Shocking, I know, but not everyone has seen the nominated pictures. Us normal folk don't have screeners sent to the house. Best of both worlds.
2. No more thanking everyone in the phone book. Instead, all nominees must give a list of acknowledgments to the Broadcast beforehand. If they win, those Thanks Yous will run below their smiling faces while they deliver a real acceptance speech. Use Michael Caine's speech from 2000 as an example of how to say thank you with class:
EXCEPTION: Please do thank your wife, kids, and dogs. Everyone else, to the crawl!
3. Here's an idea: Don't upstage the dead with a live musical performance. Have Queen Latifa sing live so the cameras focus on her and not the two seconds of screen time for Ricardo Montalban?You stay classy, Oscars! I give you credit for trying to shake things up, but no one ever had a problem with the In memoriam montage. In fact, it's one of the few things people stayed up to watch. Don't sully that. C'mon now.
4. Show the backstage press gaggles after commercial breaks. Kate Winslet won last night, and she gave a nice speech. In this scenario, go to commercial, and come back with her talking with the press, a little less guarded, saying something more frank and honest. It's great television! Why squirrel it away and give those nuggets to bottom-feeder shows like Inside Edition?
5. Play up the club vibe. Hugh Jackman's intoductory skit was funny and showy and set the right tone for the show:
The smaller set design made the program feel more intimate. If the oscars feel like a fun night at a club, all the better. Play the entirety of the best song nominees. Get the blood moving a little!
Those are just a few ideas. Joe, I'm sure you have some you'd like to add or delete. I'd love to hear what you think, and what any readers (do we have readers?) think as well.
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Some really good points Berto, but I don't think your giving this Oscar telecast enough credit for changing things up as much as they did, or even for being as entertaining as it was.
ReplyDeletePicking an actor like Jackman to host was a total risk, and I think it worked out well. He had the humor of Billy Crystal, but also brought a real let's put on a show vibe. I thought the opening number was great.
I really liked the way they awarded the major acting categories this year, and didn't miss seeing clips from the performances until you mentioned it. Would it be too long to do both?
I agree the in memoriam with Queen Latifah was a bit of a misfire, but think it was more production then here performance. Weird no Heath Ledger in the clip show though.
I think cutting the major awards down is a good idea, and would free up more time for some extra stuff, or at least full performances of the nominated musical numbers. However, I think 12 is too few. You've gotta keep Foreign film. Although I do think they need to change how those films are selected. Let The Right One In, didnt get nominated and made some best of lists at the end of the year. I havent seen it, but from what I understand, each country selects a film they wish to represent them. Because the selection is done by foreign government there is a long line of important and powerful foreign films that get ignored because of their political message, or because they nominating committee feels it casts their country in an unfavorable light.
I think Film Editing stays as well, I mean why keep cinematography but not this, which is just as crucial if not more so to the impact a film has. I think you gotta keep both categories of short films as well. Over the last two years, these have been showing up on dvd and theater showings more and more. They could really catch on, or encourage people to follow new talent.
That gives us 16, instead of twelve which will still buy us some time to show some backstage reaction, which I think is a great idea.
I have to admit, I'm not in favor or shortening the acceptance speeches. This is a great achievement let the winners say what they want, and thank you they want. Recognizing them is the point of the whole show isn't it?
I also think it was really smart of the producers this year to keep the presenters a secret. I really felt it gave the night a sense of surprise that helped keep the energy level up.