Modified On February 28, 2005
Among the many time-saving ideas instituted last night by Gil Cates was, it seems, a horrific compression of the tribute to Johnny Carson. Normally those montages are exceptionally well-done, mixing slow-mo, black and white,color, stills, sound clips, silent clips, on a music bed, etc. The end result is usually enough to bring watchers to tears. Not so with the Carson tribute. It was way too short, the clips were rushed, it wasn’t very artfully assembled. A damn shame, considering all that Carson meant to the Academy and all he meant to television viewers over the past 40 years.
The entire broadcast seemed rushed. The time-saving measures, designed to bring the show to an end at a decent hour, oddly had the overall effect of making the whole affair seem… emptier than in the past! How ever did they manage that?