Oh Joy! The Oscars are upon us once again, my favorite star-studded ceremony of them all. I’m a bit of a junkie for award shows, but Oscar night is preeminent, the mother-load. When possible I tune in at 5:00PM and try not to miss a lick to the bitter end at 11:00PM.If you’ve been to my sandwich blog (http://www.samwich365.com/) you know I’m a huge cinema buff, and completely enamored with vintage Hollywood in particular. So when I heard about the program changes planned for this year’s Oscar production, my heart started to bleed a little.
Apparently, the show as we know it has lacked in ratings for several years, and the powers that be are concerned the audience has grown too old. Typical Hollywood mentality!
So in an effort to attract a more youthful and culturally relevant Oscar following, producers will forsake tradition this year and implement change.
Out with old fashioned comedic genius’ like Billy Crystal or Robin Williams, and In with carefully contrived (likely pre-recorded) banter between Anne Hathaway, 28 and James Franco, 32 who, with all due respect, I doubt have ever written or told a joke in their lives.
Out with the antiquated film montage paying honor to the completely original creators of Hollywood magic, and In with an elementary school choir from Staten Island?
Out with the luxoriously decked-out stage... so cliché, and In with computer generated backdrops created by a present-day techno geek, not some long-standing, gifted professional set designer, how passé. Maybe next year all the nominees can Skype in their acceptance speeches from home.
I may be jumping the gun here, and most certainly owe the Oscar folks the benefit of doubt, but wrapping my head around this much change in Academy Award tradition may prove to be more than this old lady can take.
Fasten your seat belts, it’s going to be a bumpy Sunday!
