From the moment producers Bruce Cohen and Don Mischer were hired to oversee the 83rd Academy Awards, one thing was virtually certain: they would hire Michael Seligman to serve as the show's supervising producer.
The Academy made the inevitable official on Wednesday, with the announcement that Seligman would return to his usual duties on the show he has now been associated with for 34 years.
Seligman has had a variety of titles during that time, but for decades he has served as the Oscar show's money man, negotiating contracts and dealing with the logistics of an enormous and complicated operation. (He's also the person who originally came up with the idea for gift baskets to attract Oscar presenters.)
My favorite Seligman moment may have come in 1998, when the show included an onstage appearance by Bart the Bear. Director Chuck Workman had prepared a montage of moments from past Oscar shows to air late in the telecast — and at rehearsal, he offered to cut in a shot of Bart from the dress rehearsal, so that the montage would include a moment from that night's show.
"I can put together a new version and put that in the system [with the original version]," Workman told Seligman and producer Gil Cates. "And then it'll be your call which one to use."
"We'd use the one with the bear, of course," said Cates. "Why wouldn't we?"
"Maybe the bear will run amok or something," cautioned Workman. "I'm just trying to be prepared."
Seligman, who has spent his career preparing for everything on the Oscar show, laughed. "Why don't you prepare us for a plague of locusts while you're at it?" he said.
(Photo courtesy of AMPAS)
