February 25, 2007: Family Guy Versus Oscar
The Academy Awards are on tonight, so Fox scheduled two
Family Guy repeats. From 9-10 pm/ET tonight I switched back and forth between Oscar coverage and
Family Guy, so this post will be about both. Right before I hit the Fox pre-set button on my remote, they had just handed out the first Oscar of the evening. It only took almost 30 minutes. And what a first award it was! Art Direction. Riveting! I couldn't hit the button fast enough. I love movies and although every year I rant and rave about the Academy Awards, I watch. It's a televised gaper delay.
The clock turned 9:00, and I moved over to
Family Guy. The first episode provided one of the best sight gags this season: Joe's legs floating to the surface of the beer vat every three seconds. And the idea of messing about with the opening credit sequence was inspired. During the first commercial break I switched back over to the Oscars. Alan Arkin won Best Supporting Actor for
Little Miss Sunshine! Now that made me happy. I've been an Arkin fan since I saw
The In-Laws when I was a kid.
Serpentine Shel! Serpentine! After Arkin's speech it was time to get back to
Family Guy. I needed to wash my dinner dishes, so I cranked up the volume in order to listen while I scrubbed. OK, back to the awards. Wow! Time has been cruel to Randy Newman! His movie soundtracks are timeless though, mainly because he rewrites the same song for every movie. How did this Melissa Etheridge tune get nominated? It's middle-of-the-road pap! I never thought I'd say this, but I long for the days of Phil Collins belting out
Against All Odds.
I missed the end of the first episode, so I figured I should get back to the show that I really should be writing about. This is without a doubt my favorite episode this season for many reasons, among them: David Cross, the Tooth Fairy subplot, the text-message gags, but mainly for the "Sexy Grimace" bit. Commercial time again and it looks like William Monahan won Best Adapted Screenplay for
The Departed. Good deal. I loved that flick. If Scorsese doesn't win this year I want him to drop-kick every member of the Academy! It's bad enough that he's lost so many times, but look at two of the folks he has lost to: Costner (Costner!?!?!?!?!) and Roman Polanski. They gave it to the guy who would later direct
The Postman, and a man who is looking at a nice stretch in jail if he ever sets foot in America. If he doesn't win tonight they'll give him an honorary Oscar right before he dies, just like they did for Altman.
Well, now it's time to finish watching the Oscars. And by that I mean, I'll fall asleep on the couch in about 40 minutes, and I'll find out the Best Picture winner tomorrow morning when I'm brushing my teeth. New episode next week!
