Seth MacFarlane to host the 85th Academy Awards

[Dan]

Courtesy of Entertainment Weekly

Seth MacFarlane is hosting the Academy Awards.

God help us, who ever thought we’d be seeing THOSE words all put together?

The grinning mischief-maker behind the not-so-warm-and-fuzzy teddy bear of Ted, and the animated hits Family Guy, American Dad and The Cleveland Show will be the emcee of the 85th annual Oscars on Feb. 24, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced today.

It’s a bold and unexpected move, especially since he has never hosted another awards show, although MacFarlane proved himself more than capable on live TV with a recent Saturday Night Live hosting gig, which in retrospect would seem to be a major part of this Academy Awards audition.

He’s also been Master of Ceremonies at one other slightly less prestigious event …

“It’s truly an overwhelming privilege to be asked to host the Oscars,” MacFarlane said in a statement. “My thoughts upon hearing the news were, one, I will do my utmost to live up to the high standards set forth by my predecessors; and two, I hope they don’t find out I hosted the Charlie Sheen Roast.”

The Oscars tend to like their hosts to have some kind of movie background — think Billy Crystal, Hugh Jackman, Steve Martin, Whoopi Goldberg, or even the ill-fated work of James Franco and Anne Hathaway. TV-only hosts have sometimes felt out-of-place, such as David Letterman’s infamous flop in the mid-1990s.

Others have straddled both worlds — such as Ellen Degeneres, Chris Rock, or Jon Stewart (who loves to mock his undistinguished filmmography,) and MacFarlane would fit this category. His Ted, which he wrote, directed, and produced — in addition to voicing the big fuzzy lead — made $434 million worldwide this summer. In Hollywood’s eyes, that means … Welcome to being a movie guy, Seth!

Fans of MacFarlane’s work also know he has a long, respected history of absolutely skewering pop culture at every possible opportunity, which for viewers will make him an ideal host who could pop a pin into the self-important blow-hardery that can sometimes accompany prestigious awards shows. Also, maybe Ted and Stewie Griffin will make an appearance in some capacity. (Hey, it happened at the Emmys.)

Purists may sneer, but those looking for a little more irreverence at the Oscars will surely be rejoicing over the Academy’s decision to choose a host from the misbehaving row in the back of the class.

MacFarlane has already poked a little fun at the Oscars, as you can see from this Family Guy clip:



Ironically, Daniel Day-Lewis is a lock on an Oscar nomination this year for Lincoln. As for Grover and “a boob” … we’ll just have to wait and see how awards season plays out.

The Oscar ceremony will take place at the Dolby Theatre in the Hollywood & Highland complex, with Don Mischer, who co-produced last year, directing the telecast and Craig Zadan and Neil Meron producing.

[EricJ]

His Ted, which he wrote, directed, and produced — in addition to voicing the big fuzzy lead — made $434 million worldwide this summer.

It's Chris Rock's disease--"The last one was boring, let's get a young edgy host!"--mixed with a superstitious dose of Ted-fever ("We didn't know why it was a hit either...It must be MAGIC! Let us steal his magic wand and use it ourselves!"), combining to create what may be the ultimate overcompensating for the whiners who felt Billy Crystal was "too old" last year.
FTR, Crystal rocked: They were caught so unprepared by Eddie Murphy's departure, they didn't have a corny script ready, and Crystal and his cronies filled in with what he knew WORKED on an Oscar show.

(Oh, and that "magic" Ted B.O.? August, no competition, opening weekend pilgrimages by zombie hordes of Family Guy fans, and no hit Pixar film to ruin everyone's fun till the Batman movie came out....And then the psycho gun nut ruined that one.)

I suspect (and hope) Seth will either balk for a better gig or do something to discredit himself, causing the Oscars to panic and get Billy back to wing it again. Let it be ever so.

In Hollywood’s eyes, that means … Welcome to being a movie guy, Seth!

Now go make another one and flop, like Mike Judge, so we can write you off!

[Dacey]

While Eric's hissy fit is to be expected (news flash: Ted opened in June, not August, and saw a ton of competition from Magic Mike, Brave and The "Amazing" Spider-Man), Seth's an incredibly talented guy. He can sing, he can tell jokes, and he can do a ton of voices. So long as he keeps his beloved celebrity bashing "friendly" (please, no "Trampire" jokes), I think he's going to do a great job.

[EricJ]

While Eric's hissy fit is to be expected (news flash: Ted opened in June, not August, and saw a ton of competition from Magic Mike, Brave and The "Amazing" Spider-Man),

Usually the space where the Pixar movie runs in and tramples all other competition for a month or two, but...that didn't quite seem to happen with Brave this year (yeah, I know, but it didn't), so left more room for wild cards with niche audiences that were hoping to fly in under the "counterprogramming" radar--With nothing in front, all of a sudden, those got stuck out in #1, like a deer in the headlights.
Frankly, most didn't expect Magic Mike to make as much as it did either, and that TASM turned out to be good as it was would've knocked disgruntled Raimi fans over with a feather.

Seth's an incredibly talented guy. He can sing, he can tell jokes, and he can do a ton of voices. So long as he keeps his beloved celebrity bashing "friendly" (please, no "Trampire" jokes), I think he's going to do a great job.

Now if he could just get over that ADD issue that makes his humor so inexplicably hostile towards its audience, and neurologically focusing on one annoying joke for long stretches of time, like Jim Carrey with autism.
(And that's just that Wheat Thins commercial....To medically analyze a whole FG episode would take more space than would be allowed here.)

[Dacey]

Usually the space where the Pixar movie runs in and tramples all other competition for a month or two, but...that didn't quite seem to happen with Brave this year

Really? Why don't we look at the last five years of Pixar movies?

Ratatouille: Opens at number one, is beaten by Transformers the following week.
Wall-E: Opens at number one, is beatn by Hancock the next week.
Up: Opens at number one, is beaten by The Hangover the next week
Cars 2: Opens at number one, is beaten by Trasnformers 3 the following week
Brave: Opens at number one, is beaten by Ted the following week.

The ONLY movie go against this pattern is Toy Story 3, which had 11 years of anticipation from fans to back it up. And even that film saw itself crushed by Twilight after two weeks of release, and then saw itself crushed again by Despicable Me the following week, which dominated the family market for the remainder of the summer. Also not sure what you're talking about with TASM, as it was by far the lowest grossing Spidey movie to date.

[Bill1978]

I personally have no real opinion on this announcement. I just hate how it's the producers trying to aim for the cool young hip demographic thinking that's what is needed to bring in the audience. I'll remind open minded as I love American Dad but can't stand Family Guy.

Maybe, just maybe, Hollywood needs to return to producing those movies where critics AND the public love them. You know how in the 90s it seemed the Box Office often matched the nominations. These days it seems you can't be an awards darling and a box office darling.

And since we have new producers perhaps they will realise that we don't need endless pointless tribute packages for breaking up the awards, just use nominees from the category that allows for a naturally occuring link to the show - Best Original Song. In full, spread throughout the show.

[EricJ]

I personally have no real opinion on this announcement. I just hate how it's the producers trying to aim for the cool young hip demographic thinking that's what is needed to bring in the audience. I'll remind open minded as I love American Dad but can't stand Family Guy.

The problem with Chris Rock type "contemporary" hosts is nervous TV producers who think the host is hosting for the TV audience. Uh-uh.
When the TV audience laughs at the jokes at home, nobody hears it. When the seated celebrity/director crowd in the seats don't laugh at the jokes--or just shrugs them off in puzzled silence, or rolls their eyes that the comic hasn't seem to have done his homework--EVERYBODY hears it.

With the TV ceremony, we're basically a little step up from watching a private ceremony that used to be hosted at a nightclub seventy years ago, and the first job the host has to do is be the live Master of Ceremonies, and tell private shmoozing jokes to the in-house crowd, Bob Hope style. Carson could do it, Crystal could do it, even Steve Martin did it. He'd have to whether the cameras were on or not.
Anybody want to put their hands up and say MacFarlane could do it? The only live raconteur-host experience he's had was at a goofy undisciplined comics-roast, and even he jokes about that looking bad on his resume'.
Doesn't matter how "mysterious" Ted's grosses were, money don't buy everything.