Nobody ‘Stole’ Anything, Says Miller

Over the past few years, I have directed a few MTV programs. And as Patrick Goldstein made mention of one of those, “The MTV Movie Awards,” and of my involvement therein, I thought it best to set the record straight, since neither he nor anyone else ever contacted me to check the facts.

I have directed (not produced, as stated) many of the films featured in the perennial special, beginning with the original “Brady Bunch” cast performing scenes from the year’s nominated films. That concept continued in subsequent years with other veteran sitcom stars doing “reenactments.”

Enter Billy Crystal, who had the idea of doing a montage of the year’s Oscar-nominated films and inserting himself as the host into them, in the spirit of Woody Allen’s “Zelig” or Steve Martin’s “Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid.”

This is different from the “Movie Awards” work I had done. The MTV interstitial segments didn’t include the show’s host, nor did they use any of the films’ original footage and, more importantly, [the Oscar clips] were/are of a completely different comic sensibility--Billy’s. That alone, I think, is enough.

So we did it--three years’ worth.

In fact, MTV didn’t even begin to intercut actual film footage until after the Oscar clips aired.

And I have since occasionally returned to direct at MTV (including the “Movie Awards”), as they remain one of the few outlets for quality short-form comedy.

The MTV interstitial films were funny, really funny. And the Oscar opening films--they’re funny too, really funny. I especially like David Letterman crashing the plane from “The English Patient” in the now-famous “Uma-Oprah” run.

However, they are all quite different. There were many precedents set for all of this long before any of us came along. Nobody “stole” me from anyone, and Billy Crystal didn’t “lift” anything.

I know this to be true--I was there.