Day after Oscar thoughts

My thoughts the day after are the same as they were after the show was over. I felt relief that Academy members actually picked the best picture of the year to receive the highest award. The major upset, to me, was Precious winning the adapted screenplay Oscar instead of Up in the Air. I thought the telecast had only a few down moments: the dance bit with the nominated scores -- if they were going to bore me with that I would have rather seen the nominated songs performed -- the tributes to John Hughes and horror movies, and the salutations to the leading actor and actress nominees. But I also thought there were no great moments.

I thought winners, in their acceptance speeches, were not supposed to recite long lists of thank-yous to people no one outside the Kodak Theater ever heard of, yet most of the acceptance speeches consisted of just that.

But what really slowed the program was the commercial breaks. I kept thinking how wonderful it would be if an appropriate cable channel -- i.e., Turner Classic Movies -- could steal away the Oscar telecast and offer it like the Independent Film Channel presented the far livelier Independent Spirit Awards, telecast live Friday, with no commercial breaks except brief and relatively painless thanks to those corporations which had underwritten the telecast.

And I would love to see Tina Fey as a co-host of the show.