Word: oscared
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...lewdly embarrassing each other. The mud wrestling is only verbal, but it's still a tiny step from Jerry Springer--and a long way from the stellar font of quiz shows, radio's Information, Please (1938-48), hosted by Clifton Fadiman and featuring the mordant wits Fred Allen and Oscar Levant. Back then folks tuned in to meet people cleverer than they were, not more deranged; and intelligence was an attribute to flaunt, not hide like an appendix scar. Today's game shows might take their cue from another '40s radio favorite, It Pays to Be Ignorant...
Whose Line's current run ends March 17, but it's a good bet to return. The show boasts solid ratings, costs next to nothing to produce and provides priceless laughs for people with three-figure IQs. Somewhere the ghost of Oscar Levant is watching Whose Line, listening to Says You! He may even be smiling...
...This Morning, a nationally-televised show on which he delivered outstanding interviews with some of Hollywood's top directors. These were meaty interviews about the state of the motion picture industry, art in the 1990s and different players' roles within--none of this "Who designed your dress? Oscar de la Renta?" garbage that seems to pass for arts reporting on several less-reputable "entertainment news" shows...
...prefer to make Oscar-night predictions based on which acceptance speeches I do and do not want to hear. For instance, I wouldn't bet on whether Tom Hanks will receive a third Best Actor statuette for Saving Private Ryan, but I do know that if he wins, he will offer a halting, heartfelt tribute to the veterans of World War II. Hanks can be eloquent, and veterans obviously deserve the recognition, but we have congressional resolutions and postage stamps for that sort of thing. What we have awards shows for is displays of sheer, naked narcissism. "I'm king...
...Yikes! The only thing worse than listening to mawkish European comics lecture about innocence is listening to mawkish $20 million-a-picture American movie stars do the same. We can be grateful, then, that Robin Williams wasn't nominated for Patch Adams. But I don't look forward to Oscar night 2002, when Williams will surely be honored for the American remake of Life Is Beautiful--unless, that is, Billy Crystal beats him to the role...