james whitmore

Yeah, they screwed it up again. While it's great that they included the biggies in the 'In Memoriam' tribute (Michael Jackson -- not a big movie star but he did 'The Wiz' and it would have been odd if they left him out, David Carradine, Patrick Swayze, Natasha Richardson), and film industry vets (Army Archerd, Horton Foote), they left out some people, too.

What about Farrah Fawcett? Sure, she wasn't a huge movie star, but she was in several movies and a big name. I'm sure that the Academy thought of her but simply left her out because she was "too TV." But she should have been included, just as Bea Arthur, James Whitmore, and Edward Woodward should have been included. (Actually, Whitmore died over a year ago.)

I think fans would appreciate less time given to each person if they included more people in the montage. They also have to stop filming the 'In Memoriam' the way they do, as Danny and others pointed out earlier today. More closeups of the people and the words on the screen (and not a shot of the screen in the theater!), less singer/songwriter singing a sad tune.

Update: the Academy says they "can't include everybody."

So we come to that time of year when we list all of the TV celebrities that have died over the past year. We hear about these people passing away at various points of the year (sometimes a few the same week), but it's really odd to see them all listed together at once like you'll see after the jump.

It's like 40% of pop culture dies every year.

1. I touched on this in a recent Brought To You By... post, but I'm rooting for the cable guy in those Verizon FiOS commercials. I'm not taking sides when it comes to one technology over another, I just think the Verizon guy is a jerk. For example, the ad where the two guys bump into each other on the elevator. The cable guy just wants to know what's going on with his neighbor and industry buddy and all the Verizon guy can talk about is the newest great offer from Verizon. The cable guy is just trying to connect on a friendship level, and the FiOS guy just brags about his company more. If I was the cable guy, I wouldn't have pressed all of the elevator buttons, I would have kicked the Mr. FiOS in the groin, taken his J.D. Power and Associates award and sold it on ebay.