The Oscars are turning 80. 

On becoming an octogenarian, it's tradition to throw a big party, invite any surviving friends of the honoree, and then sneak into the other room to imagine which keepsakes you'll make a play for when the old geezer finally kicks it.

But for the moment, the party is on hold.  Toward the end of his 79^th year, Grandpa Oscar has hit a rough patch.

The Academy Awards may not happen.  Well, the awards will happen.  But because of the ongoing writers' strike, the lavish TV ceremony -- with the nominees, the speeches, the fashions, the clips, and the slips -- may not. 

Which begs the question: Since when did the Oscars --the night of all nights about movies-- become all about television?

In the old days, before there even was such a thing as television, the Oscars carried on just fine.  As last week's Golden Globes demonstrated, awards can indeed be given out with little pomp or show (and who better to embody that than Jim Moret).  The first several Oscar ceremonies weren't even as fancy as that news conference at the Beverly Hilton, but they were just about on par.  Take a ballroom at a Hollywood hotel, put out some press packets, set up a podium and a microphone on a stage, and read off a list of winners.  Everyone's home in time to watch Larry King. Easy-peasy, right?

But Hollywood and its star-fawners alike are in a tizzy.  "We can't," they say, "let the Golden Globes happen to The Oscars!"  (I presume they mean more than just letting Mary Hart tell jokes.)  "The Oscars are the last stand of our culture!"  Heaven (and Hart) help us.

But really, amidst all these gray clouds, I see vast mines of silver.

With all the uncertainty surrounding this year's Oscars, even if the televised ceremony does get canceled or substantially changed, I'm hoping that we can take advantage of the huge and obvious opportunity it affords us: To put the focus back on to the movies we're allegedly here to honor.

Sure, we had a summer filled with three-quels (and, God help us, five-quels and nine-quels). Sure, we had a winter where the people chose to reward the matching believability of crackpot conspiracy theories and Nicolas Cage over the matching beauty of delicate human emotions and Keira Knightley.  Sure, we're in the midst of the post-Holiday dumping ground for movies that make you question just what screenwriters get so well-paid for in the first place.

But we have only ourselves to blame if we get distracted by all of that.  It's Oscar season.  Let us not succumb to some Academy Awards ADD.  Let us take our virtual Ritalin and put our attention back on remembering what's good. And there's plenty of it. 

By all accounts, 2007 was a fantastic year for movies --especially American ones.  If you went to a movie theatre last year, there's a good chance you saw characters and stories presented in ways you hadn't even considered before.  Across most every genre, there were films that moved the art form forward.  And, I'll admit, even some of the sequels were better than they had reason to be.

So join me on a bloggy adventure as I navigate through the buzz and hype and try to get at what's real and important.  I'm not exactly sure what that is yet, but I'm pretty sure it has something to do with movies.  Lots and lots of good movies.

Just like on last year's Oscar Blog, I'll be posting my observations and theories, conducting interviews with Oscar-related subjects, giving you my predictions, and trying to keep you comment-posters from launching a jihad on one another.

All of this will lead up to LIVE blogging on the night of the Oscars.  Whether that evening turns out to be the usual bouillabaisse of schlock and glamour, or it has all the excitement of opening your ConEd bill, I'll be there to give it insight and mockery.  I hope you'll join me along the way.

Because even without a party, 80 is still a big birthday.