I was absolutely floored to ...

Question: I was absolutely floored to see Dave G.'s comments on the Oscar telecast. How can someone claim to love quality like Friday Night Lights but not recognize Seth Rogen and Jonah Hill? And he hadn't even heard of the movie Once, or as I like to call it "the little movie that could." I don't mean to knock Dave — it's hard to see every last movie and TV episode — but it did make me realize two things: First, as much as the public claims to want quality, there's a reason Moment of Truth gets better ratings than a show like Friday Night Lights — people will watch anything. Secondly, shouldn't winning an award drive people to go discover the piece of work which was just awarded? I'd like to make the recommendation to Dave, and all of your other readers who may not have seen the fine little Irish film Once to please go rent it. I know your column is about television, but if there's any movie that deserves as many mentions as it can get, it's this one.
Answer: I'm not really sure what Moment of Truth has to do with any of this, and to be fair, the Oscar show failed to properly ID Seth Rogen and Jonah Hill. I'm sure more than a few who fall outside the Judd Apatow demographic wondered who the heck those clowns were. As for Once, you're right that the best thing about an Oscar win like that is how it tends to expose a much larger audience to an undiscovered gem. (If only the Emmys had been as generously disposed toward Friday Night Lights.) Thanks for the Once recommendation, and thanks as well to my Chicago buddie Maureen Ryan, who called it to my attention long before it won that Oscar (and as much as I enjoyed Enchanted, a charmer like Once needed the boost quite a bit more).