Congrats to Jon Stewart who will once again be hosting the Academy Awards come February. I only have one hope that I will throw out to the universe in a brief letter as follows:
Dear Oscar Telecast Producer Gil Cates:
So you're back huh? This every other year thing with you is getting a bit tiresome. I mean, I realize that somehow every other producer who comes in between your shows somehow manages to screw-up everything worse than anyone could imagine, trying to add all these "inovative" segments or what-have-you to recreate the show but in the process always making the damn thing longer and less watchable. And so, it makes your dry, tedious, stiff, formulaic telecasts seem more exciting in retrospect, so how can you really go wrong?
And two years ago when you first brought in Jon Stewart as host, I applauded you, quite sincerely. After the show, I commented that I thought, like Chris Rock the previous year, he did as well as he could have under your conservative producers hand.
So please ... do us a favor. Hands off. Get Bruce Vilanch out of the writers' room and let Stewart and his crew do their thing. Yeah yeah ... I know you have to deal with the FCC and ABC censor crap too, and I will say, I have no doubt that you will be much better in handling it than Fox did last night, but please please please ... just let Stewart be Stewart. Let him actually host. Try to go back to the days when the host ran the show as opposed to acting as filler between the off-screen announcer. Let him schtick; let him riff; just let him be!
And while you're at it ... you get one montage in addition to the "In Memorium." Let's trim the fat, OK? Seriously ... nobody will miss it. In fact, if you bring the damn show in on time and there was absolutely nothing but the awards themselves, the song performances -- all together again would be nice -- the Best Picture nominee clips/presentations and the "In Memorium," that is more than enough show and more than enough of a celebration for all of us. Trust me. It should actually be easy for you because doing so will take very little thought or creativity. I'm just saying ....
Anyway, that's all I've got to say. Hopefully, throwing this out there five months ahead of time might actually get it to sink in. But I won't put my money on it. As usual, I'll have my ass planted firmly on my couch in order for the Annual Grand Disappointment on Feb. 24, 2008.
Sincerely,
Aaron
The Oscars are only 5 months away? And no sign of a frontrunner yet? Jesus christ, this is actually, minutely exciting!
Posted by: Karina | Tuesday, September 18, 2007 at 01:04 PM