The 72nd Annual Academy Award Broadcast
© Jason O'Brien
First up, a discussion of the telecast itself ... this was clearly one of the most classy and slickly produced Oscar telecasts in recent memory. And except for the South Park creators, everyone was dressed very classy and there wasn't even much to talk about fashion wise. Even Cher came dressed as conservatively as she ever has.
And as promised, the show was also a splendid technical accomplishment, with a state of the art set design, which included a huge projection screen, providing all new visual ways of highlighting the action on stage, including remembrances of Oscars past when a presenter would come on stage, especially the acting winners coming to present, revisiting their victory from the year before.
It definitely was a show leagues ahead of past shows, as far as its technical accomplishments go. It was so good to have Billy Crystal back as the host again, even if it seemed he wasn't out there that much.
This year's Oscar pre-show was somewhat better than last year's, but the hosts still were not engaging or good interviewers for that matter. The best moments from the pre-show were the exclusive glimpses into the lobby of the Shrine Auditorium as people mulled around on their way into the Shrine, and especially the first time glimpses at actors and others inside the Shrine being seated, awaiting the show, not knowing they were being televised.
More moments like those should have made up the pre-show. This telecast did provide us with views of areas we usually do not get to see, not only the aforementioned views before the telecast into the Shrine, but after the winners accepted their awards, the camera followed them as they walked off-stage and were greeted by co-producer Richard Zanuck and others, congratulating them on their award. Of course they also got to pass announcer Peter Coyote, who saved some time by handling introduction duties.
