Tonight marks a first. This is the only time we have ever spent an entire evening watching the Oscar telecast. Well, we missed the beginning, but once we turned it on, we were hooked.
Lately … having been somewhat incapacitated, I have done away with one of my long-standing taboos, and started watching some Daytime TV.
At 3:00 PM, I might turn on the TV to watch Oprah. Generally, if she is featuring a movie celebrity, the TV gets turned back off, and I wait till 4:00 PM when The Ellen Show comes on.
Ellen’s sense of humor tickles my funny bone, and can make me erupt into laughter. Because she was to be the host, I thought that The Oscars might loose some of its normal self-congratulatory pomposity and might actually be entertaining.
Tonight, the Academy completely thumbed their collective noses at the narrow-minded and bigoted people whom they have tried not to offend in the past. For once, the producers refused to even try to coddle the sensibilities of the Religious Right in this country.
I only saw the two of the nominated films, neither of which I could imagine to have been considered the ‘best’ of anything. But the chance of viewing Ellen hosting the show caused me to change my normal viewing habits. And, even though we do not have DirecTV or a Tivo connected downstairs, we actually watched the broadcast … commercials and all.
All I can say is that the Oscars have come a long way! The beautifully staged and produced show moved along at a rapid pace and riveted our attention almost to the very end. The very end was a bit disappointing, not because of the ‘best picture’ choice, but because the usual self-congratulatory manner reemerged with many of the usual suspects patting themselves on their collective backs.
The producers tonight have accomplished one of the main purposes of the awards in producing this year’s show. I think that the telecast will result in causing more people to see the films that were nominated, which in turn will be good for the economy.
Ellen was terrific! And if ABC were to broadcast a repeat, I would watch it again. Tomorrow she will appear on Oprah and will host her own show live. Right now, I am signing off to make sure the Tivo is set to capture both shows.
Posted by Judi at February 25, 2007 8:38 PM | TrackBack