Trivia

A planned sequence of film clips featuring Jean Hersholt was suddenly unavailable when presenter Charlton Heston introduced it prior to presenting the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award; after a long pause, during which Heston asked several times if the clip was ready, Heston announced "Never mind" and invited the audience to watch the film later at his house.

The opening number with the four hosts was roundly panned by the critics. Buz Kohan, the song's lyricist, later said "I had written the opening number, called 'It All Comes Down to This.' They were all scared stiff, but ordinarily if you're scared, then you put in the time and rehearse. They took the opposite approach. So Liza was forced to carry the number, Walter was singing in his own zone somewhere, Dudley was just trying to walk down these steps without falling, and Richard Pryor well, I think they told him the next day that he was there."