i didn't watch last night but from the few posts i've read, this thread should have won for best(worst) drama.
Who would you suggest? Billy Crystal shouldn't have to keep hosting it every year. McFarlane was fine... better than anybody since him. Had a good mix of jokes... some offensive, some wholesome (esp the Plummer/sound of music one). Didn't take himself too seriously... to the point of even making fun of himself. The opening monolouge was somewhat innovative (bits about what the award show "could" be if they had let him do whatever he wanted)... and it certainly got some laughs. In the end, they're going to look for somebody who can deliver/write jokes, but can also pull off a musical act or two.
It didn't seem like there were any surprises last night as far as who won. That was the biggest disappointment to me.
Show seemed overlong but I thought it was solid. Seth did about as well as expected, it was really hit or miss.
Billy Crystal is popular among old people but I thought he was pretty terrible the last time I saw him. Seth did a pretty good job in my book
Eddie Murphy this year or last would have been great; completely valid from an industry and accomplishments standpoint, would have actually been the right mix of emcee, sketch/ad-lib performer and comedian that they couldn't quite get with C. Rock. Heck, it probably should have happened 15 or maybe even 20 years ago. Seinfeld would be fine too, heck he should be hosting Larry King/Piers Anthony's slot.
Didn't Murphy turn it down though? I doubt Seinfeld would reduce himself to "awards show host"... maybe in another 10 years when he's run out of things to keep him busy. I like the fact that Seth is not a major player in the biz, and has no real connections to any of the big studios/producers/actors. Gives him more free reign to make fun of the whole ridiculousness that is holywood.
Eddie bowed out when his producer Brett Ratner was forced out due to publicly saying a gay slur. Ratner was to Eddie for the Oscars as Paul Greengrass is to Matt Damon for the Bourne movies: without him, I won't do it. Seth was mostly okay. I liked the opening bit. The Lincoln joke was in horrifically bad taste; he should have remembered, "This is the Oscars, not Stewey; these are the old farts who passed on Samuel L. Jackson in 'Pulp Fiction'"---(I'm still incensed about this, time for me to get over it)---"and gave the award to Martin Landau because he was one of their peers [re: OLD] and had never won before." But Seth wasn't good enough to get an invite back. He's no Crystal, Carson, whatever. He's Letterman. One and done.