THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, March 28, 1995 TAG: 9503280255
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Larry Bonko
LENGTH: Medium: 59 lines
The Monday night Oscar show on ABC was only nine minutes old when David Letterman strolled onto the stage of the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, but already the telecast was sinking fast and needed rescuing.
The president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Arthur Hiller, put off viewers here and, probably in the 170 other countries tuned in, when he lit out after the Republican budget-cutters in Washington. Hiller's message was ``save the funding for the National Endowment for the Arts.''
After that bummer of an introduction, the show chugged along with a ``Make 'em Laugh'' computer-interactive-television inspired production number that was hard on the eyes and ears. The telecast desperately needed the laughs generated by Letterman's ``Top Ten Signs That the Movie You're Watching Won't Win an Academy Award'' and an appearance by Sadie, the Dog That Spins When You Applaud.
On a night when the theme of the Oscar telecast was comedy, Martin Landau depressed the mood as much as Hiller when he, too, plugged the NEA. Producer Gil Cates, who had cautioned the nominees to refrain from using the telecast as a political forum, cut off Landau after he accepted the Oscar for best supporting actor.
Landau was blown off stage by the orchestra.
However, when producer-composer Quincy Jones also lobbied against NEA cuts, Gates let him go on, probably because Jones had been awarded the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.
On the night called ``The Night of the Limousine Gridlock'' by Joan Rivers in her pre-Oscar show on E! Entertainment Television, Letterman was not a smash with the audience at the Shrine Auditorium. The bit he did with unusual first names - Uma, as in Uma Thurman, meet Oprah, as in Oprah Winfrey - fell flat. He and the telecast needed the performance from Sadie the Dog that Spins When You Applaud to keep the viewers from dozing.
Could it be that the movie colony was cool to him because it regarded Letterman as an outsider? He's only had a bit part in films, which was brought out in a skit. Was it that his material was second-rate? Or was it that a man who makes a splash in cozy, late-night television was swallowed up by this one grand moment of prime time?
On this night at least, Letterman was no suave Johnny Carson.
Letterman was, well, adequate, no better than Whoopi Goldberg a year ago and light years behind Billy Crystal in the sparkle department.
One of the brightest moments of the telecast belonged to Jerry Seinfeld. Seinfeld? He wasn't in the Shrine Auditorium, was he? Nope.
But he did appear in a clever American Express commercial about being rescued at sea.
Maybe next year, the academy will give the hosting job to Seinfeld. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Composer Quincy Jones received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award
by CNB