For all the bitching and complaining we all do (myself included) about the Oscars telecast, it’s amazing that any of us are still watching… and yet we are. I still love the Oscars, weaknesses and all… it’s just an extension of my love for movies I guess. But having said that, there are still some big changes I would personally make if I were to produce the show next year. Here are some of my suggestions:
1) Eliminate the Songs
The “Best Song” category is the most pointless of all the awards handed out at the Oscars (most of the time they’re just songs that are thrown in on the end credits of a movie), and yet… for some reason… they get more screen time than the Best Director nominees. That just defies logic and any sense of reason. Fine, keep the Best Song category, but do NOT dedicate screen and stage time to them each singing the stupid songs. We don’t have an orchestra up on stage performing the score for each of the Best Score nominees.
2) Eliminate all Montages except the In Memorium and Honorary Recipients
There is a LOT of time wasted each year on pointless video montages. “Now, here is a look at american history through film”. WHO CARES??? Move on with the show!!! The two i would keep are the In Memoriums and the montages to honor the lifetime achievement winners. These montages have a POINT. None of the others do.
3) Give a LITTLE more time to acceptance speeches
Bear with me here. This night represents the highlight of many of these people’s creative and professional lives. THE SHOW IS ABOUT THE AWARDS… so give these people a TOUCH more time to relish the moment and the thank people. No, don’t give them 2 minutes each (that’s actually a lot of time), but don’t rush them off the stage so damn fast just so you can get to the next pointless montage.
4) Streamline – Make the show about the Oscars Again
There is just far too much fluff in the show that takes away from what is supposed to be the primary purpose… the OSCARS. Throw away all the fluff. Have a host who does an opening monologue and then does NOTHING else for the rest of the show except bring on the presenters. Give out 3 awards in between each commercial break and throw in the In Memoriums and Honorary awards. Do that, and you can give 20 more seconds to acceptance speeches AND have the show come in under 2 hours. It’s not rocket science.
Someone else said in the comments area that The Oscars would benefit a great deal from “Addition by Subtraction”. You’d actually make the show better, not by thinking up new things to throw in… but rather just by taking a lot of unnecessary stuff out. Just my two cents worth. What changes would you make?
