It was on "The Sports Buffet" this afternoon that Rod Babers and I discovered that we watched more of the Oscars this weekend than anything else. Now I was finishing a six-games-in-six-nights broadcast week (two men's basketball, two women's basketball, and two baseball games), so it understandably affected my weekend watching, but with Sunday night's arrival, there were the Oscars, with basically no real competition from anything else--sports events included.
For the most part, I was entertained (but then again, I am sometimes easily entertained), and I didn't have quite as many issues with Seth Macfarlane hosting the Oscars as apparently many others had. Maybe it was because after seeing a few episodes of "Family Guy", I was expecting far worse than what he delivered. Either that, or I've become desensitized over the years.
I was, however, very disappointed with the "In Memoriam" tribute presented on the program, not so much with those who were remembered, but more over those who were not remembered. There were some names that might have drawn a question or two as to their exclusion from their tribute (Phyllis Diller, Davy Jones, Alex Karras, and Sherman Hemsley, but two names that were inexcusably left off the list were Larry Hagman and Andy Griffith.
Larry Hagman was best known as J.R. Ewing in the hit television show "Dallas", but also was in films ("Fail Safe, Primary Colors, etc.). The omission of Andy Griffith was incredibly short-sighted. If you've never seen "A Face In The Crowd", you owe it to yourself to see Griffith as an outstanding film actor. He was also a hit on Broadway, primarily known for his role in the production of "No Time For Sergeants", which transitioned to the big screen in the late 50's.
Apparently, I wasn't the only one who noticed the omission of Andy Griffith from the tribute.
http://www.examiner.com/article/oscars-inexcusably-omit-andy-griffith-from-memoriam-segment
Maybe they can make it up next year. But that means they'll probably leave out someone else.
