Mike Hughes on TV

Some "American Idol" choices make an ouster seem inevitable.

Flash back to 2007, when the final nine were suppose to each choose a classic American song. Gina Glocksen chose "Smile." It wasn't until after she'd been ousted, she said, that she realized the emotions involved with saying farewell while singing: "Smile, though your heart is breaking, smile even though it's aching ..."

And tonight? Paige Miles chose to sing "Smile." Judges unanimously agreed that she'll be gone. That means she'll be there Thursday, trying to smile while singing "Smile."

Except for that, it was another great night for the women -- who have been roughtly 400-per cent better than the men this year. Here are a few of my comments; please add yours:

1) Crystal Bowersox was sensational again. She's a complete performer, with a natural sense for each song.

2) Lilly Scott, Crystal's only consistent competitor, was merely OK. Her "I Fall to Pieces" was interesting, not sensational.

3) Lilly looks kind of funny with a little mandolin in her hands. She's a big person, in the good, Xena sense -- tall and broad-shouldered. The mandolin looks as out-of-place with her as it did when the hulking Bill Monroe played one.

4) Also, I'm pretty sure Lilly's earrings once held some of the creatures from the movie "Aliens."

5) Siobhan Magnus, by comparison, was even better than the judges said she was. This was a great take on "House of the Rising Sun." The song about a brothel was popularized by Eric Burdon and the Animals, but it's best when sung by a woman; Siobhan's a cappella first verse provided the mournful quality the song needs.

6) Last week, Katelyn Epperly was terrific and the judges claimed her song was too slow. This time, her peppy version of a Carole King song seemed rushed.

7) The judges did, however, praise her Carole King hair. That's also the old Keri Russell hair. It gets several votes from me any time.

8) While we're being petty and snipey, if Paige does make it to next week, please hire someone to steal her lip gloss.

9) Didi Benami was OK and way better than her over-chipper song last week.

10) Katie Stevens and Lacey Brown were merely OK. For the guys this year, that would be enough to survive. In this talented bunch of women, however, they'll need more.

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I admire filmmakers who can do a lot with a little.

I like the ragged energy Alex Orr got in his $25,000 "Blood Car." And what Shane Hagedorn and Michael McCallum can get for less -- maybe $20-some,000 less -- than that in "Handlebar" and other movies. And for the artistry Nathaniel Nose has inserted in his handmade, homemade films.

I admire the best of the genre films (both written by John Sayles), "Alligator" and "The Howling." And, of course, I admire the giant of the cheapie-film world, Roger Corman.

Now Corman has an Academy Award and -- coming Saturday on Syfy -- a new movie. Here's a story I sent to papers; a different version has also run, as part of an Oscar-preview package:

By MIKE HUGHES

Roger Corman – master of the
micro-budget movie – is back.

His “Dinoshark” debuts Saturday on
cable, continuing his life of killer creatures. Corman, after all, is
the producer of “Carnosaur,” “Piranha,” “Night of the Blood
Beast” and “The Monster From the Ocean Floor.” Not to mention
“Attack of the Crab Monster” and “Attack of the Giant Leeches.”

This one, however, adds a distinction:
It can be touted as from Oscar-winning producer Roger Corman.

During the Academy Award ceremony
Sunday, viewers saw Corman, 83, beaming in the audience alongside
another honorary-Oscar winner, Lauren Bacall. They also saw a glimpse
of the honorary awards dinner, held in advance, with Ron Howard
saying what Corman once told him: “If you do a good job on this
picture, you'll never have to work for me again.”

Corman has repeated that often, during
a career that launched many Oscar-winners (Francis Ford Coppola,
Martin Scorsese, Jonathan Demme, Jack Nicholson, Howard) and
nominees. That's a prime reason he was considered for his own award.

“I actually said to a friend of mine,
'There is no way I'll win … They're not going to give an Academy
Award to someone who makes low-budget movies,'” Corman said.

They did, though. And six days after
this year's Oscars, he's back in his element.

In 2004, Corman's “Dinocroc”
debuted on what was then the Sci Fi Channel. “It was their
highest-rated film of the year and we did extremely well in DVD's and
foreign sales,” he said.

At a meeting, he suggested “Dinocroc
II” and was told that sequel titles don't do well on TV. “I said,
'Did I say “Dinocroc II”? I meant to say “Supergator.”'”

That thrived in 2007 and now comes
“Dinoshark.” By one count, it's the 387^th Corman
production.

Like most of his recent movies, it:

– Was filmed overseas, in this case
Mexico. “You get a different look to the film,” Corman said.

– Hired locals, with a few exceptions
– director Kevin O'Neill, actors Eric Balfour, Iva Hasperger and
Corman himself. “Some people feel the best can only come from
Hollywood,” he said. “I go (almost) totally with the local
creative community.”

– And generally used only two or
three takes per scene.

Other filmmakers share that approach,
Corman said, including Jean-Luc Godard. “His thinking was that you
get the most spontaneity in the first or second take.”

Then there's the flip side. Corman told
of Stanley Kubrick taking Jack Nicholson through 120-plus takes of
one “The Shining” scene. “Jack's a good guy and he went along
with it. Afteward, he told him, 'I … get to peaking in my 70^th
or 80^th take.”

Nicholson's first movie was Corman's
“The Cry Baby Killer”; his third was the original “Little Shop
of Horrors,” which Corman directed in his unique style.

As Beverly Gray tells it in “Roger
Corman” (Renaissance Books, 2000), Corman budgeted $27,500. He had
the sets from another movie for two days, so he shot most of the
scenes then. For exteriors on Skid Row, extras were paid a dime
apiece. Chuck Griffith received only $800 for his script,
supplementing that with two acting roles. And in the costliest
saving, Corman didn't bother to get a copyright.

This is classic Corman, Gray (a former
employee) wrote fondly. “Roger Corman and the Academy Awards are
not usually mentioned in the same breath.”

Except that now he has an Oscar of his
own. “I thought, 'Do I put it in a prominent place so everyone can
see it or do I put it somewhere else to seem humble?'”

He put it on his living room piano, for
all to see. At 83, Corman doesn't really need to feign humility.

– “Dinoshark”

– 9 p.m. Saturday on Syfy (formerly
Sci Fi); CBS' 2005 “Spring Break Shark Attack” reruns at 7

The Oscars are gone now (please see previous blog); so are the Olympics and the "sweeps" ratings period. Still, TV has plenty of big moments coming up.

On HBO, "The Pacific" -- the epic follow-up by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg to their superb "Band of Brothers" -- starts Sunday. On ABC, two terrific science-fiction shows -- "FlashForward" and "V" -- return this month. And on PBS, it's pledge time, for good or bad.

Admittedly, some pledge specials feel like what one TV critic calls "glorified infomercials" -- cheap settings, where authors blare on about their theories. Still, some of them are excellent, including the new Rounder Records one.

Here's the story I sent to papers, about Mary Chapin Carpenter and Rounder. If you happen to be in the Lansing, Mich., area, you can catch it on WKAR (Channel 23) at 9 p.m. today (March 8) and at 5:30 p.m. on the drive's final day (March 21); check www.wkar.org. And if you live elsewhere, check your PBS station; first, here's the story about Carpenter and Rounder:

After a 20-year detour, Mary Chapin
Carpenter finally reached her natural habitat.

That's Rounder Records. Now she's in a
PBS concert, celebrating its anniversary.

“I grew up knowing that if I wanted
to find something really interesting, … I was probably going to
find it on Rounder Records,” Carpenter said. “And I was probably
going to love it.”

The special illustrates that. It has a
folk or blues side, from Alison Krauss and Bela Fleck to Madeleine
Peyroux and Nathan & the Zydeco Cha Chas. It also includes people
better known as a comedian (Steve Martin), an actress (Minnie Driver)
and a country star (Carpenter).

Actually, Carpenter grew up far from
Nashville. Following her dad's career, her family lived in Princeton,
N.J., in Japan and in suburban Washington, D.C. Her home, like
Rounder, was full of eclectic sounds.

“The music I loved earliest was the
Beatles and Randy Newman and Motown (and my parents') Woody Guthrie
records and Judy Collins and Joan Baez and my dad's jazz records,”
Carpenter said.

She listened to public radio and went
to clubs. After her parents divorced (when she was 16), Carpenter
couldn't manage the cover charge; a club-owner took pity. “He'd let
me stand at the sound board, because I couldn't afford to pay,” she
said.

Carpenter went to Brown, then became
part of the folk scene in Washington, D.C That's when her tape
reached Columbia executives – who decided this Ivy Leaguer is
really a country singer.

Nashville had plenty of
singer-songwriters in the folk vein, Carpenter said, reeling off
Rodney Cowell, Rosanne Cash, Guy Clark and Joe Ely. She got the
Columbia deal; for four straight years, she won the Grammy for best
female country vocalists.

Carpenter stayed with the label for 20
years, reportedly selling 13 million records. In 2007, she recorded
for Rounder, a folk label. “We do our best to deliver quality and
substance, vs. flavor-of-the month and lowest-common-denominator,
said Brad Paul, the Rounder chief.

That year, 2007, is also when Carpenter
suffered a pulmonary embolism. “I had to stop touring and just get
well,” she said.

Now, at 52, she's back with the folk
crowd. That may be her natural habitat.

During the Oscars, I'm going to throw out some comments; please add yours. And keep in mind that these are chronological and random:

1) The bar was set pretty low, but Jess Cagle managed to get under it. He's now officially the most obsequious host in red-carpet history.  Working ABC's half-hour premiere (in which Kathy Ireland wasn't much better), he felt compelled to tell us that the every person and every gown was wonderful. If Uriah Heep (the Dickens character, not the rock group) saw this, he'd say: "Can't you toughen up a bit?"

2) That was in stark contrast to the ceremony itself, filled with witty self-mocking. Why did the red-carpet people think Hollywood stars need to be toadied up to?

3) Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin are terrific as co-hosts, filled with wit and surprises. I doubted the two-host approach, but they work together neatly.

4) OK, I guess there's a rule that Neil Patrick Harris must do every ceremony. After hosting the Tonys and the Emmys (both brilliantly), he opened this one with a great song.

5) If there is such a rule, it would be a good one.

6) Yes, the early awards make sense. "The Hurt Locker" script was fairly good through most of it, brilliant in the last half-hour. The "Crazy Heart" song offered a warmly passionate finale to a subtly involving movie. And "Up" (the best-animated-movie winner) is a masterpiece.

7) Good scheduling: Show the best-animated award early; show the "Up" best-picture clips early. Kids could catch them before bedtime.

8) Bad scheduling: Have the John Hughes tribute early. I admire John Hughes immensely -- partly because he helped people learn how to spell a fine old Welsh name -- but a ceremony about right-now shouldn't stop early on for a post-mortem tribute.

9) There are already two candidates for the night's most awful gown: Amanda Seyfried's looked like a wedding dress, with lots of extra curtain fabric attached at the bottom. Zoe Saldana had odd little purple puffs at the bottom, sort of like "Lorax" characters were riding in. And neither woman could walk safely in her dress.

10) Still, I'll bet Jess Cagle would even praise those two gowns. Really.

11) I kind of wish they would pick only funny people as presenters. Ben Stiller was, as usual, wonderful. Steve Carell, Tina Fey and Robin Williams had their moments; some others were just dull.

12) What a delight, to see Roger Corman win his honorary Academy Award. An Oscar for the man who gave us "Women in Cages" and "Attack of the Giant Leeches"? Yes. This guy sort of inspires every kid who figured he can make a movie, despite the lack of money.

13) I'm sure that Mo'Nique gave a fine performance and deserves her Oscar. Still, I've found her so insufferable on her talk show that I have trouble celebrating.

14) We're within a couple hours of the best-picture award. That's James Cameron's first chance to win since "Titanic." If he wins, I think he'll say "I'm king of the virtual world"; he'll also request a moment of silence for dead blue people.

15) It was nice to see "Young Victoria" win something. (It won for costumes.) Not a great film, it is a pretty good one, with an interestingly fresh -- and favorable -- portrait of the eternal monarch and her husband Albert.

16) All of a sudden, my blog mechanism turned balky and I couldn't add anything. Maybe it realized I blah-blah-blog too much. So if this never quite finishes, that's why.

17) There's fresh joy in my part of the country. A Michigan State University alumnus (Bob Murawski) has just won an Academy Award, for co-editing "Hurt Locker." Also, he thanked another MSU alumnus (Sam Raimi) for giving him a start. That's in an Oscarcast co-produced by an MSU alumnus (Bill Mechanic). Also, James Cameron's wife Suzi Amis wore a gown designed by an MSU senior (Jillian Granz).

18) The horror-movie tribute was fun, but the introduction perplexed me. It said the Oscars hadn't paid attention to horror movies since the 1973 "Exorcist." Then its clip package included scenes from the 1991 winner "Silence of the Lambs."

19) Anna Kendrick -- the "Up in the Air" nominee -- is sometimes a dead ringer for Tom Cruise. Really.

20) The introductions of the five best-actor nominees were ponderous. Fortunately, they led up to a well-deserved award. Jeff Bridges is superb -- bringing subtlety and detail to "Crazy Heart."

21) The best-actress introductions were also ponderous -- except for Oprah Winfrey's wise and witty nod to Gabourey Sidibe. As far as the winner? Sandra Bullock was very good -- although, perhaps, no match for the perfection of the other nominees.

22) Now it's over and "The Hurt Locker" has won big. It's a good film, but not -- at least until the final half-hour -- a great one. Catch it at video stores. Also, go to the theater and see "Avatar"; it's the kind of movie that big screens and big budgets were made for.

The "American Idol" emotions got all spun around tonight.

The group number proclaimed "tonight's gonna be a good, good night." Danny Gokey -- hugely upbeat, even by Danny Gokey standards -- sang "my best days are ahead of me."

Still, we knew that for four people, the best days are behind them and tonight was going to be a bad, bad night. Departing were:

-- Michelle Delamor, proving anew that beauty is not a deciding factor. The two most classically beautiful women -- Ashley Rodriguez and Delamor -- are among the first four voted out.

-- Haeley Vaughn, a nice, cheery kid who -- at 16 -- can't get inside the emotions of a song like "The Climb."

-- John Park, way too bland. It's probably no coincidence that Northwestern University students rarely dominate "Idol."

-- And Jermaine Sellers, despite his own prediction. He had said he would stay because God is with him; then he was voted out.

Frankly, I think Jermaine is a terrific singer who should have stayed. Maybe God has another plan for him .... Or pays too much attention to what Simon Cowell says .... Or missed "Idol" this week because of post-Olympic fatigue. Or maybe God is simply focusing on NBC, where help is deeply needed.