37 replies to this topic

[Anders]

SDG, on 10 November 2011 - 11:00 AM, said:

Tyler, on 10 November 2011 - 10:49 AM, said:

NBooth, on 10 November 2011 - 10:44 AM, said:

In other news, for some reason, I've been confusing Ratner with Brian Singer. Which led to an interesting moment of "wait, what?" when all this first broke.

They both directed X-Men movies, so that's understandable. Just remember that Ratner directed the one that killed that iteration of the franchise.

In other words, Singer is the one who rehearses.

Love your wit, sir!

[Overstreet]

So... how daring and imaginative is the Academy?

The Oscars will be hosted by... [ drum roll ] ... Billy Crystal.

Really?

Edited by Overstreet, 10 November 2011 - 05:23 PM.

[Tyler]

Crystal with Muppet co-hosts?

[SDG]

Tyler, on 11 November 2011 - 09:34 AM, said:

Crystal with Muppet co-hosts?

I tweeted that possibility about a half hour ago before I saw that anyone else had suggested it. It seems the obvious solution.

[Christian]

SDG, on 11 November 2011 - 09:47 AM, said:

Tyler, on 11 November 2011 - 09:34 AM, said:

Crystal with Muppet co-hosts?

I tweeted that possibility about a half hour ago before I saw that anyone else had suggested it. It seems the obvious solution.

A "solution" would suggest there was a "problem." What would that have been?

Am I the only person who thinks Crystal is an upgrade to most of the past hosts, none of whom have been as good as Crystal? (I WOULD have loved to see Eddie Murphy host, but was prepared for him to be disappointing; I've learned it's best to keep the bar low for Oscar hosts.)

The Muppets is a cute idea, but the Muppet brand of humor, while sweet, works for me mainly as a form of nostalgia rather than anything "hip" or contemporary. Now, I know what you're thinking: "hip" and "contemporary" are part of the problem with humor. Why not a throwback?

I'm OK with a throwback. And yes, I'm looking forward to the new Muppets movie, although I wouldn't say I'm eager to see it. I am eager to see Crystal host the Oscars again. Maybe his humor is considered "old fashioned," or "dated" or whatever -- I remember him being charged as such during his earlier hosting gigs! -- but all I know is that it made me laugh repeatedly, more than any other recent host. And more than the Muppets.

Edited by Christian, 11 November 2011 - 10:03 AM.

[NBooth]

Christian, on 11 November 2011 - 10:02 AM, said:

SDG, on 11 November 2011 - 09:47 AM, said:

Tyler, on 11 November 2011 - 09:34 AM, said:

Crystal with Muppet co-hosts?

I tweeted that possibility about a half hour ago before I saw that anyone else had suggested it. It seems the obvious solution.

A "solution" would suggest there was a "problem." What would that have been?

Am I the only person who thinks Crystal is an upgrade to most of the past hosts, none of whom have been as good as Crystal?

I seem to recall a lot of people--not necessarily here--saying that Chrystal's bit last year was the best part of the show, and suggesting that he should just come back and host the next one.

FWIW, I wasn't totally on-board with the Muppet idea, myself. Having them make an appearance is one thing; having them run the entire show seems like too much of a good thing.

[Christian]

NBooth, on 11 November 2011 - 10:08 AM, said:

I seem to recall a lot of people--not necessarily here--saying that Chrystal's bit last year was the best part of the show, and suggesting that he should just come back and host the next one.

FWIW, I wasn't totally on-board with the Muppet idea, myself. Having them make an appearance is one thing; having them run the entire show seems like too much of a good thing.

Yes. To clarify, I LOVE the idea of the Muppets "helping out," or whatever, although I'm not sure what that means. I do hope it works.

[SDG]

Christian, on 11 November 2011 - 10:02 AM, said:

SDG, on 11 November 2011 - 09:47 AM, said:

Tyler, on 11 November 2011 - 09:34 AM, said:

Crystal with Muppet co-hosts?

I tweeted that possibility about a half hour ago before I saw that anyone else had suggested it. It seems the obvious solution.

A "solution" would suggest there was a "problem." What would that have been?

Familiarity? A sense of same-old same-old? Don't get me wrong, I agree that Crystal is the best Oscar host of our day (Steve Martin is also very good, though with a much smaller track record). At the same time, it's not like in the days of Bob Hope, when the Academy Awards were automatically a major cultural event. These days Oscars struggle to draw viewers' attention, and there's a need to shake things up. Bringing in the Muppets would definitely create buzz and raise awareness. There would be a novelty/curiosity factor. It's the reason the Muppet Oscar "movement" built so quickly and fervently. Ergo: solution.

Edited by SDG, 11 November 2011 - 10:28 AM.

[Christian]

SDG, on 11 November 2011 - 10:26 AM, said:

Christian, on 11 November 2011 - 10:02 AM, said:

SDG, on 11 November 2011 - 09:47 AM, said:

Tyler, on 11 November 2011 - 09:34 AM, said:

Crystal with Muppet co-hosts?

I tweeted that possibility about a half hour ago before I saw that anyone else had suggested it. It seems the obvious solution.

A "solution" would suggest there was a "problem." What would that have been?

Familiarity? A sense of same-old same-old? Don't get me wrong, I agree that Crystal is the best Oscar host of our day (Steve Martin is also very good, though with a much smaller track record). At the same time, it's not like in the days of Bob Hope, when the Academy Awards were automatically a major cultural event. These days Oscars struggle to draw viewers' attention, and there's a need to shake things up. Bringing in the Muppets would definitely create buzz and raise awareness. There would be a novelty/curiosity factor. It's the reason the Muppet Oscar "movement" built so quickly and fervently. Ergo: solution.

I'd be curious to know if the epic "movement" built quickly among adult women -- who are the core Oscars audience -- or among Internet "fanboy" types (no offense by that term; it's OK to be a Muppets fanboy IMHO) who have cheered the choices of recent hosts who presided over telecasts with smaller and smaller audiences.

[Peter T Chattaway]

Christian wrote:
: The Muppets is a cute idea, but the Muppet brand of humor, while sweet, works for me mainly as a form of nostalgia rather than anything "hip" or contemporary.

Ah, but nostalgia, however misconceived, is part of what makes hipsters tick!

Of course, as David Poland points out, it is just completely technically unfeasible to base an entire live awards show on puppets of ANY sort:

(Note to the “Muppets 2 Host” crowd… cure. But having spent my very early 20s working at Henson as a peon, I know how complicated this would be. I think they even tried it at the Emmys one year, no? I love The Muppets too. But all of a sudden, 60% of your production time becomes about making the puppet show work… as opposed to 20% of your time being focused on even the most difficult host. It’s the kind of thing you might attempt after you have a producing team in place that’s done it 3 years in a row and is ready for another level of challenge. It’s not the kind of thing you do in the midst of chaos. Sorry.)

Someone out there was also wondering if this whole `Muppet Oscars` thing might have been some sort of Disney marketing thing, given that Disney owns both the Muppets and ABC, the network that broadcasts the Oscars.

[Overstreet]

Christian, on 11 November 2011 - 10:02 AM, said:

The Muppets is a cute idea, but the Muppet brand of humor, while sweet, works for me mainly as a form of nostalgia rather than anything "hip" or contemporary.

I disagree. I think the appeal of the Muppets, while they do have an established personality and brand of humor, has as much to do with the unique creative possibilities that come with puppetry. I think it also is a good time for the Muppets' return, because the use of puppetry and animation to fulfill our every cynical whim has become tiresome. Family Guy has had its day. I'm hoping The Muppets make a comeback not to remind us of any good ol' days but to give that non-cynical studio the chance to continue developing the ideas that Jim Henson got started, which had only scratched the surface of the possibilities they began to discover with the Muppet movies and with more ambitious projects like The Dark Crystal. One of the reasons I was so sorry to see Del Toro leave The Hobbit was that he was going to make the movie a chance to advance puppetry the way the Jackson trilogy advanced digital animation.

[Peter T Chattaway]

Overstreet wrote:
: I think the appeal of the Muppets, while they do have an established personality and brand of humor, has as much to do with the unique creative possibilities that come with puppetry.

Ah, but where you see `creative possibilities`, people in the biz see `logistics nightmare`. Puppets work fine on TV, where the frame can limit what we see, especially if everything is scripted and rehearsed beforehand ... but how on earth could this work in a semi-spontaneous format on a live stage that is broadcast live all over the world?

I could see getting the Muppets to do backstage interviews, etc., though.

- - -

Billy Crystal is hosting, which proves that the Oscars are officially out of new ideas. Thank goodness.
Ever since the last time Billy Crystal hosted the Academy Awards in 2004, the Oscars have been trying desperately to be cool. Just look at their post-Crystal hosting choices. They brought in Chris Rock. They brought in Ellen DeGeneres. They brought in Jon Stewart twice, once at a very specific cultural moment — the never-ending Presidential campaign of 2006-08 — when hiring Jon Stewart felt extremely transgressive. They brought in non-comedian Hugh Jackman. The 2010 Oscars felt like an old Saturday Night Live episode, with Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin as co-hosts. The 2011 Oscars, conversely, felt like a new SNL episode, with bright young things James Franco and Anne Hathaway modeling their respective youth-group charms: winking irony for him, breathless exuberance for her. . . .
The decision to hire Brett Ratner to produce this year’s Oscars was a final youth-demographic Hail Mary. And it could have been interesting — I’ll always wonder just what an Eddie Murphy Oscars would have looked like. By comparison, the decision to bring back Billy Crystal may seem like kind of a safe choice. It feels like an admission by the Academy Awards that, well, they’ve tried everything. They’re out of new ideas.
I say: Thank goodness. There’s no reason for the Academy Awards to pitch themselves to snarky young people. Young people will be snarky about anything, most of all things that are trying to appeal to them. When I was a kid, I loved watching the Oscars specifically because they didn’t kowtow to my specific tastes. Too often lately, the Oscars seemed almost embarrassed by themselves. None of the presenters ever made jokes about the sound effects Oscars; nobody invited Colin Farrell onstage to talk about partying in Tijuana with Jeremy Renner. And the honorary Oscars served as quick-hit film classes: I learned about cinematography the year they gave the honorary Oscar to Jack Cardiff.
That’s why I’m especially excited about the return of Billy Crystal. It’s almost as if the show has been going through a midlife crisis — buying a shiny new car, dating people young enough to be its grandchildren — and now it’s admitting that, well, sometimes the safe choice is the best choice. Crystal will probably be mildly amusing. He won’t ruffle any feathers. He won’t convince teenagers to watch the show. He won’t tweet. I hope he hosts for 10 years.
Darren Franich, Entertainment Weekly, November 11

[Overstreet]

Quote

Billy Crystal is hosting, which proves that the Oscars are officially out of new ideas. Thank goodness.
The decision to hire Brett Ratner to produce this year’s Oscars was a final youth-demographic Hail Mary.

I'm curious to hear an explanation as to how Brett Ratner is a magnet for a "youth-demographic." His greatest claim to fame is that he ruined the X-Men franchise, and his latest claim to fame his use of the term "fags," bragging about having sex with Lindsay Lohan, and lying about having sex with Olivia Munn.

Edited by Overstreet, 11 November 2011 - 03:14 PM.

[Peter T Chattaway]

Overstreet wrote:
: I'm curious to hear an explanation as to how Brett Ratner is a magnet for a "youth-demographic."

Maybe they were trying to split the difference between the old-SNL vibe of Steve Martin & Alec Baldwin and the new-SNL vibe of James Franco and Anne Hathaway.

Although, given that Ratner`s big idea was to hire Eddie Murphy, an old-SNL veteran who hasn`t starred in much more than flops and cartoons for the past decade or so...

: His greatest claim to fame is that he ruined the X-Men franchise . . .

Perhaps. Some might say his greatest claim to fame is the Rush Hour franchise (and, heh, someone recently pointed out that Jackie Chan used to complain that `Hollywood` filmmakers wouldn`t let him fine-tune the stunts properly -- a possible reference to Ratner`s disdain for rehearsals?).

The third X-Men film is certainly Ratner`s greatest claim to NOTORIETY, but it`s not like the franchise ended with that film: there have been two more films since (both prequels, admittedly, though they both featured actors from the original three films), and there are plans for at least two more, etc. And Ratner was brought into the picture so late in the game that I doubt he had much to do with the script or the general direction of that film. (Was it Ratner`s idea to kill off or de-mutantize so many characters? I kind of doubt it, but you never know.)

: . . . and his latest claim to fame his use of the term "fags," bragging about having sex with Lindsay Lohan, and lying about having sex with Olivia Munn.

Well, all of THOSE things happened AFTER he was hired, of course. And it was, indeed, the `accumulation` of those things (in Tom Sherak`s words) that led to Ratner`s departure.

[Peter T Chattaway]

[Tyler]

The Oscars will be switching to an electronic voting system.

No hacking, please.

Edited by Tyler, 25 January 2012 - 07:38 PM.

[Overstreet]

Oh, please... may I?

[Lauren Wilford]

Hey A&F'ers-- if you're interested in chatting during the show, unfortunately, you can't do it here this year-- something about our boards needing updating.

BUT, we have a solution. You can join the chat at this link.

Once you get there, you'll need to enter a username, and then pick a color you'd like your name to appear as. Then, once you click "Enter Room," it will take you to a room where you can post messages. But what you really want is to be a part of the chat-- so click "Join Chat" at the bottom of that room! Then you're there.

I, your intern, will be available for any technical problems/questions, so just PM me if you have those.