All of that is true, but my Oscar watching goes back to the late 1950s when things were simpler. The big production numbers of the 1970s and 80s were at least live and so much more entertaining. You never knew if Liza would fall and break an ankle or something. The modern production numbers are mostly pre-filmed which may have been novel the first time they were done but have now become as mechanical and boring as modern action films with no real plots. If they're not going to eliminate the opening, at least go back to live performances and save the bang-bang for the new stunt performance Oscar presentation.Mister Tee wrote: ↑Thu Apr 04, 2024 9:56 pmI've been busy and missed this, but, come on, Magilla, you know that's not true. A big, elongated opening number was frequently part of the Oscars -- I can recall stinker numbers featuring Ray Bolger, Angela Lansbury, Liza in the early to mid-70s. it's what Billy Crystal was parodying when he first hosted in 1989. And Hope's monologues weren't any shorter than Kimmel's or anyone else's.Big Magilla wrote: ↑Mon Apr 01, 2024 5:00 pmProbably not, but the whole production number that goes along with the host's opening monologue before the first award is handed out takes more time than it did in Bob Hope's day, and that was before the introduction of the In Memoriam segment.
Never spoken about is that the network WANTS the show to run longer than it did in the 60s/70s. Back then, because of the late (10PM ET) start, the show was scheduled to run 2 hours, though it frequently ran close to 2 1/2. Once they moved it up an hour, the show began running longer -- which the producers love, because they can sell more ad time. And a big thing that's made the show run longer is the length of commercials. In the 60s, ads took up barely 10 minutes of each hour; now they're close to 20.
As for commercials, they've already been eliminated on the streaming awards, which run much more smoothly except for the one which recently ran concurrently on broadcast and streaming replacing the commercials on streaming with even more boring backstage interviews.