Lowe does Snow -- live!
Oh, and so much more. Here's the ideal warm-up for Sunday's Academy Awards festivities: the infamous Allan Carr-produced 1989 Oscar opening number that also features Army Archerd, Merv Griffin, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, Vincent Price and Coral Browne, Cyd Charisse and Tony Martin, Dorothy Lamour, Alice Faye, Lily Tomlin, and more stars than there are east of Hobart! (Just look at the celebs in the audience trying to conceal their mortification as Snow White touches and bleats to them.) I was just pining for this the other day, and once again YouTube has delivered! This, truly, is the vision of the man behind "Grease," "Grease 2," "Can't Stop the Music" and "Where the Boys are '84" -- all of which he made before the Academy hired him to produce the Oscarcast. No matter what happens Sunday, you can bet it won't top this, although somehow this mega-production-number almost seems quaint and naive by today's standards. Almost.
I had forgotten the new "Proud Mary" lyrics they wrote for Rob to sing to Snow (whose voice is more Billie Burke than Adriana Caselotti, if you ask me):
Now you made it big in the moviesThey just don't write 'em like that anymore...
Came to Hollywood, learned to play the game
You became a star
Miss Animated Mama
Earned yourself a place in the Walk of FameKlieg lights keep on burnin'
Cameras keep on turnin'
Rollin', rollin'
Keep the cameras rollin'!
What I wouldn't give for Ellen Degeneres to begin the show as Snow White and bring on Rob Lowe for a reprise...
(Thanks to Chris for passing this along.)
Sorry, Jim. As soon as Snow White opened her mouth I had to turn it off. Some things are best forgotten.
Garry: I understand. I hadn't seen this since 1989. But, although I find it simultaneously excruciating and exhilarating, it's more fun for me to watch than, say, "American Idol" -- which is just too painful for me. (Are the winners actually any better than the people who are eliminated early on?)
So, I defend this clip on the grounds that Jack Bauer could use it to extort vital information that will aid America in its war of terror.
Unendurable, yes. Appalling, yes. But forgotten -- never!
I remember at our Oscar party the year this was televised, we all just looked at each other and laughed. You have to remember that this was just after the Supreme Court had declared that gays had no rights (since both overturned and thrown out) and for something this camp to play at something so 'important' was a hoot. Yes it's bad - and oh so tacky but so much fun, too. And when, of all the possible people in the world to come out at the end, it was a goddess - Lily Tomlin! At that point it transcended mere camp and became something quite extraordinary in every sense of the word.
And the award for the most awesome thing ever goes to...
It's like a breath of fresh air when Tomlin hits the stage . Everyone is saved.
Downey Jr.'s face? Classic.
Have you no mercy? I can barely breathe after watching that. I can see you why like it however. This garish over-production is what the Oscars ceremony is all about, excessive hollywood self-agrandisement. Why bother trying to make it seem classy? Just bring on the dancing stars.
Jim,
I commented at length, in a previous post, about the kinds of unexpected moments that (sometimes) make the Oscars worth watching, even past bedtime. So this time I'll just say: Welcome to my side.
Another favorite musical moment for me was probably in the early '80s. I wish I remembered it more clearly, but I think it was the last gasp of the old Oscars when it was directed more toward Hollywood and less at the global audience. Anyway, a quartet of TV characters: Peter Marshall, Betty White, Earl Holliman (I think, though it seems impossible) and Nanette Fabray, maybe, did a swingin', finger-poppin' musical medley of the nominated songs. It was much more like an episode of The Mike Douglas Show then part of Hollywood's Super Bowl. It wasn't that it was so bad, just that it seemed a relic from 20 years earlier that made it so strange and wonderful.
I must posit: Rob Lowe-Snow White version of "tongue-in-cheek" humor vis a vis Ellen DeGeneres bum-rushes Eastwood for Myspace Photos is parallel to Contrarianism vis a vis Post-Contrarianism?
Shoot, I just don't get it. Explain and discuss.
It's less crazy if you understand that they lifted the format from Beach Blanket Babylon. I can't imagine them going through with it if they didn't assume that people would figure that out, though that doesn't make it any less irritating.
"Whenever you're down in the dumps, try putting on Judy's red pumps!"
Oh, LORD!
Just a note in Snow's defense that she was/is an incredible talent - no, really. The show had her do the campy voice, and yes, I was as embarrassed for her as everyone else, but the girl can really sing...she was a classmate of mine at a performing arts high school. It seems youtube has pulled the video - I'd love to see it again!
It's back on YouTube.....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrLzdjKL4l4