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Page 2 February 16 - 22, 2015 Oscars go very musical, very independent By Jay Bobbin © Zap2it Music and indepen- dence: If there are any overall bywords for this year's Oscars, those would seem to be the ones. Having presided over the Tony Awards four times and the Emmys twice, Neil Patrick Har- ris — a winner of both those honors — becomes the first-time host of the movie industry's biggest night as ABC televises the 87th Annual Academy Awards from Hollywood's Dolby Theatre on Sunday, Feb. 22. He'll perform an original song by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Rob - ert Lopez, composers of "Frozen's" Oscar-winning "Let It Go." That's just one of the musical highlights planned by returning producers Craig Zadan and Neil Mer- on for their third consecu- tive Oscar show. They've also enlisted Adam Levine, Common and John Leg- end (in a duet from "Sel- ma"), Rita Ora and (in a tribute to Glen Campbell) Tim McGraw to perform nominees for best song. As for independence, the vast majority of nominated films and per- formances are from the independent-film world ... from "Birdman" and "Boy- hood" to "The Imitation Game" and "The Theory of Everything." Among the major contenders, only a handful of the related mov- ies hail from major studios (including "American Snip- er," "Gone Girl," "Into the Woods" and "The Judge"). If it's a surprise Ellen DeGeneres isn't hosting again this year — espe- cially after the huge popu- larity and frequent imitation of her celebrity-packed 2014 Oscar-night selfie — she maintains, "I didn't think I was ever going to come back again after the first time I did it eight years ago, so when I decided to do it last year, it was a sur- prise to everybody. "I just decided it was time to challenge myself and do something that I thought would be fun and interesting and creative, so I just chose to do it last year. And that, for sure, was going to be 'it.' I knew that I wasn't going to come back again this year ... or ever, but I've said that be- fore. I will say that I most likely won't do it again." Among the likeliest bets to receive 2015 Oscar gold is best supporting actress nominee Patricia Arquette, who's been on a run of film-award wins for the Richard Linklater-directed "Boyhood." Also starring in the CBS series "CSI: Cy- ber" starting March 4, she reflects, "I like to entertain people. We made this little art movie. It's having in- credible reception. I'm very grateful for that, so I just feel like I'm having a beau- tiful moment in my life. I'm grateful for everything." Rory Kennedy, the pro- ducer-director daughter of Robert F. and Ethel Kennedy, also is a current Oscar nominee for the U.S.-evacuation documen- tary "Last Days in Viet- nam" — set to make its television debut on PBS' "American Experience" April 28. She says she considers her filmmaking "a gift my parents and fam- ily gave me as the idea of giving back. That is not an obligation, but a gift ... and the greatest gift, so I try to instill that in my children as much as possible, and some of that takes place through my work." Picture Don Rickles as a bowtied puppet Rottweiler with a cigar dangling from his his mouth and you have a handle on the co-star of the new comedy series "The Jack and Triumph Show." The series, which premieres Friday, Feb. 20, as part of the Adult Swim programming block on Cartoon Network, stars Jack McBrayer ("30 Rock") as Jack, a former child star of a "Lassie"-type series that ran in the 1980s and '90s. After the series was canceled, his canine co-star Triumph spiraled downward into trouble and brought Jack along with him. Now 15 years later, Jack has gotten away from show business and cleaned up his life. Then Triumph shows up on his doorstep. The series is shot in multi-camera format, offering a mix of scripted scenes and remotes like those the character did on shows ranging from "Late Night With Conan O'Brien" to the Westminster Dog Show. At a recent gathering of TV critics in Pasadena, Calif., series creator and writer Robert Smigel ("Saturday Night Live," "Conan") as Triumph broke up the crowd at a post-lunch Q&A session with a slew of often profane jokes directed at the audience, proving that insult comedy is still indeed alive. "People kind of make an assumption that Triumph just rushes up to people in these remotes and assaults them," Smigel explains. "I actually always ask people in advance before we put the camera in their face, 'Do you guys mind if we hurt your feelings?' " "It's just something I've never wanted to be, like, an assault comedian," he continues. "I didn't start that way. I wrote sketches for a zillion years, and this is just a character that came up, you know, 15 years into my career, or 12 years, and just evolved and became bigger than, you know, the rest of my career pretty much. ... But I don't take pleasure in hitting people who don't want to be hit." Of course, filming scenes with a hand puppet can be challenging, given some of the awkward positions Smigel and McBrayer are required to put themselves in. "I don't know exactly how that show 'Alf ' ... technically did it," McBrayer says, "but I imagine we're doing some of those same things. Like sometimes Robert is, like, hiding behind a table, and so I'm sitting, straddling this 50-some- year-old man and going, 'Triumph, you ate all the cake.' " "A variety of unnatural positions," Smigel adds. "And anybody should know that for all the abuse I'm unleashing on people, I'm placing a lot of it on myself by degrading myself." BY GEORGE DICKIE Insult comedy gets new life on 'The Jack and Triumph Show' Jack McBrayer (left) and Robert Smigel Patricia Arquette is among this year's nominees in the Oscars, Sunday on ABC.

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