TVSquad

Do you remember what film won the Oscar for Best Picture last year? (No Country for Old Men). What about Best Actor and Actress? (Daniel Day-Lewis and Marion Cotillard). If you didn't remember, don't feel bad. You're probably like most people. Most of us weren't watching in 2008. Even though they were celebrating the 80th anniversary of the Academy Awards, it was the lowest rated and least watched telecast ever.

As I perused the Academy Award nominations yesterday, I couldn't help but think that this year's broadcast is going to have a hard time drawing a huge TV audience. And considering that the only thing you can usually count on with the Oscars is that they'll run over three hours long, the show will probably leave something to be desired, too.

In fact, here's six reasons the Oscars -- which will be broadcast live on February 22 on ABC -- will probably stink.

Have you noticed lately that the new faces cropping up on TV series in starring roles are often actors you've never seen before -- or if you have, it was in a supporting role of a feature or a foreign TV show? Think about it, Lee Pace as the Pie Man on Pushing Daisies, Jonny Lee Miller on Eli Stone, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau in New Amsterdam, Michelle Ryan in Bionic Woman, all of these leads are relatively new faces. That's one way to cast series. Another is for big stars to take to TV, if not for the first time, than for a return.

In an interesting article at IGN.com, blogger Travis Fickett points out that there used to be a line of demarcation between the worlds of acting: film actors vs. television actors. But nowadays the stars are going back and forth a lot more fluidly.

If you are interested in seeing Clint Eastwood before his sneering, raspy voice, Bridges of Madison County days, then today (July 4th) is your lucky day. The Hallmark Channel, which seems to show an inordinate amount of Western movies and television shows, is currently running a marathon of Rawhide until 8 p.m. this evening.

For those of you not familiar with the series, Rawhide starred Clint Eastwood as Rowdy Yates, one of a group of Texans led by Gil Flavor (Eric Fleming) who where taking 3000 herd of cattle north to market in Kansas. During their journey they encounter a number of characters, such as a bank robber who portrays himself as an East Coast lawyer, and they run into plenty of trouble, like a mob of angry townsfolk who learn that Rowdy and a number of cows have come down with anthrax. What the hell was Rowdy doing with the cows anyway? I mean, I know it's lonely in the West, but come on!

Episode summaries and some more information on the series, which ran from 1959 to 1965 on CBS, can be found at The Hallmark Channel website.