Obligatory Oscar Post
The most boring night on television hit an all-time low of 9 million viewers. In truth, I’m surprised it was that many. I suspect it’s mostly very old liberals who are still watching it. The Joe Bidens still left in America are the Oscars’ primary audience. The 18–49-year-old market has collapsed completely, dropping by 64%. Which will knee-cap the ad money that ABC can charge for this abortion next year. BTW they are stuck with the Oscars until 2028. Another win for Disney!
While I haven’t watched the Oscars in decades, I was usually aware when they were taking place. There was some interest to be had in looking at the Red-Carpet parade and wondering who wore human skin this year, (I’ve heard stories). This year I was only reminded that they had taken place because they were such a ratings disaster.
I know my younger readers will find this hard to believe but when I was a kid Oscar night was a really big deal. The three networks fought over which one of them was going to have the right to a guaranteed rating win that night. Because everyone in the country would be watching the Academy Awards and not All in the Family or Charlie’s Angels or whatever top-rated show was going up against it that night.
It was the one night of the year you got to see every single movie star on TV. Every. Single. One. We still bought into the glamour of Oscar Night. You have to remember that back then we had a much different movie culture than we do now. Going to the movies was a once-a-week thing for a lot of people. Maybe more than once a week if you were single. A movie ticket was cheap back then. Certainly cheaper than going to a nice restaurant. Sure, the popcorn was a little pricey but it was nowhere near the car payment that it is today.
You also didn’t have to hate all of the actors and actresses. Of course, there were plenty of America-hating Communists picking up awards but on Oscar Night you would also see plenty of flag-wavers that hated Commies.
As I said, we had a different movie-going culture. Almost everyone had seen the nominees for Best Picture. There were drinking fountain discussions and barroom bellowing matches over which flick deserved to take home that little statue.
I know it’s hard to believe now but there was actually a bit of cultural reverence for the Oscar. It really did stand for something that everyone believed to be excellence. Even if it did miss the mark by a country mile now and then. The most famous Oscar snub was Citizen Kane but there have been plenty of others. High Noon, The Caine Mutiny, The Lion in Winter.
The Oscars were absolutely NEVER perfect.
But they were a strong reflection of our collective tastes.
Yeah, those days are over.
I didn’t see any of the nominees this year and I’m hardly alone there. Most of these are movies that I hadn’t even heard of until the nominations were announced.
The biggest surprise of the night was that Chadwick Boseman didn’t win. Apparently, there is considerable outrage from people who pretend they care about it. In truth, I was expecting him to win myself, mostly because he died. That usually is enough to get the Oscar.
Although, from what I heard Sir Anthony Hopkins actually deserved to win, which I admit is kind of a shock. Not that Tony can act but that he was rewarded for his performance. This is the old Hollywood tradition of snubbing an actor who deserves the Oscar for years then rewarding him out of the blue. And now that he’s in his eighties, they gave him the statue before they have to give him a posthumous win, just like they didn’t do for Chadwick Boseman.
Also, Hopkins didn’t show up for the awards.
