Amidst the complaints about Seth MacFarlane, one finds another category of Oscar gripes on the web at the moment: Complaints about folks omitted from the "In Memoriam" montage.
I suppose it's inevitable. No matter how many names you include, there are always a few folks who, true, were in a movie once but don't make the cut. Someone could certainly justify not including Larry Hagman, Sherman Hemsley, Phyllis Diller and Richard Dawson — folks whose names are known to us because of their TV work, not their few film credits. Still, if I were putting the show together, I think I would have cut one chorus of "We Saw Your Boobs" to have time to include them, a few more on the cusp…and especially, Andy Griffith. A Face in the Crowd will continue to resonate for a long, long time.
Most of the online lists I see that ask "How could you leave this person out?" mention Ben Gazzara and Whitney Houston as shocking omissions. They were both in last year's montage. Some mention Frank Pierson. He was in this year's montage. Someone hasn't been paying attention.