Oscars Host Billy Crystal Panned for Being Past His Prime

I was very disappointed with the Oscars last night. I have been watching my entire life and I think that it is going in the wrong direction. The Oscars are about honor and promoting good films, but last night it was obvious the show was about ratings. I think Crystal was hilarious, and a welcome relief of recent hosts, but the whole show was over the top. I think they are trying too hard and I think they are going away from what the Oscars are all about. I love watching the Oscars and I always have and I always will watch them but I would prefer that they take them off the air then to continue to go in the direction they are going. I miss the Oscars of old, which most people consider “boring”, but they were all about the movies and awards, not about entertaining for entertainment purpose. They need to find a host again who can carry the show, like the old days, so that they don’t need all the added distractions.

My 15 year old was allowed to watch the beginning 1/2 hour and thought it was very funny. I enjoyed it.

For God sake, what do you people want? Billy did a great job, elegant and true to Billy Crystal form. You know what you get when you hire him to be the Master of Ceremonies. There’s no pleasing any crowd . . . if the MC is too blah, you complain, if he’s over the top, you complain, if he does a good job, it’s not good enough . . . .What are you looking for?

I enjoyed the Oscars last night. Thought Billy Crystal did a great job.

I say get Robin Williams to host the show….he doesn’t hold much back!!!

The Oscars were the best in years. Billy Crystal is classic and classy. I hope he is back next year.

I thought Billy did a good job. Great? Not really. Too much laughing at his own jokes, and it’s time to retire the song and dance routine. I did, however, loved his opening with George Clooney! Both played it perfectly! Compared to the trashy bits of Ricky Gervais, the non-funny combo of Steve Martin & Alec Baldwin or the stiff-as-a-board James Franco, I think Billy was a good choice. I’d like to see either Mike Myers, Jimmy Fallon or Jimmy Kimmel host. Jane Lynch might make a good host, too.

Billie Crystal is awesome, still so witty and hilarious.

I think it would of been better if they had had a trio of funny. Billy Crystal, Whoopi Goldberg and Robin WIlliams. It would of been funnier and so much more. The show started of good, and loved the Cirq d’ Sole’ but after that it got boring. Making those three host would of been awesome.

i know why they went with billy crystal because he’s been reliable and very funny in the past, especially with his montage of the nominated movies. but last night’s fell and felt flat. the opening montage wasn’t even funny. and the joke he made about not being to find a black woman in beverly hills was downright rascist. nobody laughed. i would’ve loved to see viola davis’ face right then. come on oscars, you have a whole year now, please come up with someone better for next year. personally, my family always loved jon stewart but he’s not for everyone and i don’t think the hollywood people find him that funny. why does it have to be a comedian or even an entertainer, how about just an announcer or emcee. just do away with a host.

Billy Crystal was great last night!!!! His humor had just the right amount of bite without going overboard. No matter who’s hosting the Oscars, there are always going to be critics who complain about the hosting. It’s just the nature of the event.

He was old show, boring. Not funny at all. Get someone new and kinder,please.

@Donna | February 27, 2012, 10:43 am 10:43 am
I completely agree with you, I couldn’t have said it better. What do we really want? Entertainment. It’s there, for a couple of hours. What’s more predictable than the show — the articles after and about the show. The Best and Worst Dressed (who cares?). The Lame Jokes (says who? I mean, if I laughed, it means I am what, stupid, along with the audience who laughed out loud in the theater?) When you brought a young couple to host the show, you didn’t like them, and humiliated a couple of good actors (Donna, I’m not talking to you now, agree?) It’s either too old or too young or too … whatever. It looks like some critics wanted the show racier … meaning what? Actresses in bikini? More revealing cleavages? More faux-pas? If the actors behave, are they too old? You wrote about Old as if it’s a disease. Movies, like novels, are about life, and life stretches from birth to death. So deal with it. Poor Billy, he knew that accepting to go up there on the stage he will be flayed … I tip my hat to him for who he is, maybe a bitter old man, as someone put it, but a bitter old man with a soul and a heart, and more warmth than a cohort of critics.

Billy Crystal was always a little childish and never very funny. He says things that prove he is not with the program. Making jokes is not a part-time profession it is an art-form. Billy Crystal is a guy that knows the right guys. Nothing more really. Did you bother to see City Slickers? What a DUD. In fact I can not remember a movie or show were he was funny without someone else. SNL was a long time ago.

@Julie Hagen
We must have watched two very different shows. I appreciate your comments but wow, are you from New York? That would explain a lot. New Yorkers have a DROLE sense of humor. The rest of the country is in the 21st century. I guess we left New York dreaming about the 20th and how wonderful they USED TO BE. Now you are very much WHINERS like Crystal.
From Arizona with Love, BTW GET OUT OF OUR NEWS AND MEDIA services! We do not agree with you. Face it. You live in a fantasy world. We live 50 miles from the border. Your decision making processes are KILLING US! 127 US citizens DEAD from the Mexican Civil WAR. and you like to pretend the Border is Secure! PFFT!

Hollywood plastic people fail to entertain again. And this is news?

I agree with you that Crystal is much better than last year’s “Fiasco With Franco”, but the Academy should think twice about asking him back, ever. He’s old and tired, even for this baby-boomer. Unfortunately, there really aren’t any other funny people who could pull it off. They tried Letterman, Stewart and Rock. Nothing worked. Whoopi was safe, but still Whoopi. Steve Martin on his own (no Baldwin, please!) might be their only hope.

Ricky said, “The last time I saw Billy Crystal interviewed on Leno he was just a bitter old man.” If you’re still watching Jay Lamo, then demographically you’re probably a bitter old man.

The New York Times should talk! It is an AARP pep rally trying to be hip and cool. Forget about it, grey lady. You are what you are.

I thought Billy Crystal did a great job. My problem with the show was they didn’t focus on the point of the award show. Normally they actually perform the best song nominees, did I miss that. Also, I would like to have seen stills or clips of the movies that those that had passed on were apart of. I am sorry I do not know what movie an executive, producer, editor, etc. was part of so it would have been nice to have been informed. Thank goodness for Emma Stone. She was fantastic.

Billy Crystal was a last minute replacement for another performer — an African American comic whose name escapes me — who due to a health matter had to bow out of the gig. I think Billy did a great job under the circumstances. We’ve known for months who the nominees were, but it takes a lot of time and energy to develop the hosting shtick. A lot of folks who’ve panned Billy’s performance have forgotten that the Oscars is considered a family show, which means double entenre material has to be very oblique. The 18-25 demographic might have wanted something racier but that would cut out a large percentage of viewers. I do agree, however, that the pace of the rest of the production could have used a pick-me-up, but with 9 major films and their respective casts plus short subjects, documentaries and cartoon productions, it was dragging more than moving right along.

He’s certainly no the BC of old, I had hopes biting truth and not hollywood malarky would be coming from him, but I guess he’s now watching what he says too. Really too bad.

I would have been disappointed if the News Media gave positive reviews on Billy Crystal’s magnificent Hosting of the Oscars. I gave up reading Movie Reviews as well as any other reviews put out by the Media and Critic’s 25 years ago. I agree with the Majority of the Posts which “Praise” Billy Chrystal’s creative and outstanding Hosting of the Oscar’s!

I only caught the last 45 minutes or so of the show so probably don’t have enough knowledge to comment but I just didn’t feel any energy from the show. Was that because everyone was tired by then or was that the fault of the host?

Crystal was great. My problem, and I suspect that it may be the challenge here, is that for the first time in many years, I had only seen a couple of the movies. I didn’t have a horse in this race. It is always tough to stay interested in the attendant awards, even though it is their night to shine as well, but if the movie didn’t compel me into the theater, then I have even less interest. There were beautiful dresses, decent acceptance speeches, sharp and funny Crystal moments…I just didn’t get fired up for many of the movies, so it was tough to generate excitement.

Billy was marvelous darling.

I too thought that Billy did a great job. It did feel like the Oscars of old and I’m happy about that. I don’t agree that the host needs to be racey. The show was entertaining!

I loved Billy Crystal last night! My entire family could watch the show and not be embarrassed, and I thought the entire show was entertaining….don’t understand the negative reviews.

Who wants to watch a bunch of sheltered ungrateful self congratulating elites celebrate bad films? Not a word of praise for the troops protecting their right to be millionaires? Worst people on earth. Shameful that people watch this rubbish yet don’t care about REAL issues.

Oh, and Morgan Freeman is such an overrated actor. Why was he there? Lose the earring, fool.

Gawd ,some people will just never be happy unless they are unhappy and have something to complain about. Billy Crystal did a fine job keeping the night moving along. Was he at the top of his game? Probably not ,but what do you expect after being away from the job for years. You get a little rusty and need to shake off the cobwebs. And here’s a newsflash for you: people get older. Perhaps he doesn’t have the same energy level as in Oscars past, but he was upbeat, gracious when called for, and off-the-cuff when appropriate. The audience share jumped significantly with Mr. Crystal at the helm, in comparison to that zombie-walk of a disaster, James Franco.

What’s the problem?? Not enough f—, mf, s— or other foul language for you. Remember, “Obsenity is the attempt of a weak mind to express itself forceably”
Crystal had some class

All the people who said he was funny and did a good job- Go back to your retirement home. You all just proved you have no taste and sense of humor at ALL. Don’t forget to change your dentures.

Come on. Last year at this time people were begging for the man to come back. So he comes back and people slam him. There is a time and place for crass bathroom humor and the Academy Awards is not the place. Billy did a terrific job. He’s a consummate professional. He kept the evening running smoothly. What’s wrong with a little class once in a while? Why does America want to shelve every celebrity once they reach 40? Very frustrating.