The first Academy Awards telecast I remember seeing was it's 50th (April 3rd, 1978), and it was a pretty historical one.
Annie Hall won for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress (Diane Keaton), and Best Original Screenplay. Richard Dreyfus won for The Goodbye Girl, although he has gone on record as saying he was so coked up that night that he has no memory of the event.
What a dick.
Vanessa Redgrave won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for the film Julia and was booed during her acceptance speech:
"My dear colleagues, I thank you very, very much for this tribute to my work. I think that Jane Fonda and I have done the best work of our lives, and I salute you and I pay tribute to you, and I think you should be very proud that in the last few weeks you have stood firm and you have refused to be intimidated by the threats of a small bunch of Zionist hoodlums whose behavior is an insult to the stature of Jews all over the world and to their great and heroic record of struggle against fascism and oppression. And I pledge to you that I will continue to fight against anti-Semitism and fascism. Thank you."
Wow, lighten up, sweetie.
Later in the evening, before presenting an award, screenwriter Paddy Cheyefsky responded to Redgrave's speech with:
"Before I get on to the writing awards, there's a little matter I'd like to tidy up--at least if I expect to live with myself tomorrow morning. I would like to say, personal opinion, of course, that I'm sick and tired of people exploiting the Academy Awards for the propagation of their own personal propaganda. I would like to suggest to Miss Redgrave that her winning an Academy Award is not a pivotal moment in history, does not require a proclamation and a simple 'Thank you' would have sufficed."
Oh, the drama, the drama.
I was hooked and even though I'm not as into it as I used to be, I still haven't missed a telecast since.
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