But it got me thinking about other great movies, TV shows, and Broadway plays and musicals that did not win, and it’s a rather startling list.
Among the movies that lost for Best Picture: THE WIZARD OF OZ, CITIZEN KANE, STAGECOACH, MALTESE FALCON, DOUBLE INDEMNITY, IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE, STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE, HIGH NOON, TEN COMMANDMENTS, TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, DR. STRANGELOVE, MARY POPPINS, WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?, THE VERDICT, GOODFELLAS, THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, THE GRADUATE, BONNIE & CLYDE, BUTCH CASSIDY & THE SUNDANCE KID, CHINATOWN, CLOCKWORK ORANGE, ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN, NETWORK, STAR WARS, RAGING BULL, E.T., TOOTSIE, FARGO, and AVATAR.
Not saying the movies that did win didn’t deserve to, but Jesus! And there are some examples of movies that won that will be soon forgotten (if they aren’t already). Not sure THE ARTIST will become a classic. Or CRASH. Or OUT OF AFRICA. Unless you have grey hair, do you even remember an Oscar winner named TOM JONES? You might, however remember CLEOPATRA from that same year (1965).
I think we can all agree that WICKED is one of the most popular musicals of all-time, right? It lost the Tony to AVENUE Q? Can you say that AVENUE Q. (although quite hilarious) will become a classic? Other Broadway musicals that failed to grab the gold: WEST SIDE STORY, GYPSY, OLIVER, FUNNY GIRL, SWEET CHARITY, HAIR, PIPPIN, CHICAGO, DREAMGIRLS, BEAUTIFUL, MISS SAIGON, and INTO THE WOODS.
Plays have a similar roster of classic losers. RAISIN IN THE SUN, NIGHT OF THE IGUANA, THOUSAND CLOWNS, THE ODD COUPLE, THE PRICE, GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS, and NOISES OFF to name a few (I wish I had written).
And in television, just concentrating on comedy (because this post is long enough), how about THE HONEYMOONERS? The classic 39 episodes of the HONEYMOONERS all aired in one season. And that year THE HONEYMOONERS was not even nominated. Unbelievable.
Next to I LOVE LUCY, MASH has become the most successful syndicated comedy of all-time. I’m sure it’s playing this moment on several channels wherever you are in the world (hopefully one of my episodes). In eleven seasons MASH won the Best Comedy Emmy once (season two). FRIENDS only won once (and the year before wasn’t even nominated). CHEERS only won four times in eleven years. And THE OFFICE, THE BOB NEWHART SHOW, and BIG BANG THEORY never won (in the case of the latter, the Academy just hates Chuck Lorre. He’s crying all the way to the bank.)
And don’t get me started on AMERICAN IDOL losers.
The point of course is that we ultimately determine the real winners, not academies. And I’m sure if Billy Wilder were here right now he would say, “Yeah, well, fuck that. SUNSET BOULEVARD was robbed.”
86 comments :
AVATAR? AVATAR was done, and better, *and* won, when it was DANCES WITH WOLVES.
WIZARD OF OZ actually was a bomb at the time of release. It only gained classic status years later once it began being broadcast on network TV, usually around Easter.
As for Chuck Lorre, I'm sure he has something pithy yet snarky to say about his Emmy snubs. Instead of a blog, Lorre has those vanity cards he drops at the end of his episodes....we always read them, sometimes better than the episode itself.
Oh, and repeated threats of domestic violence? THE HONEYMOONERS would not translate today.
Plus, a number of Hollywood greats have never won Oscar, from Richard Burton to Glenn Close, to Marilyn Monroe and James Dean and Harrison Ford.
Fortunately with the Tonys, there are categories for revivals of plays and musicals so there can be SOME vindication.
How about this: Singin' in the Rain-considered the greatest of the movie musicals-wasn't even nominated for the BP prize (in fact, the only Oscar nominations it got were for Best Supporting Actress-Jean Hagen and Best Scoring of a Musical Picture-Lennie Hayton, both of which it didn't win). What won? Well, it was something called The Greatest Show on Earth now considered perhaps the most boring of the BP winners (of those nominated, a better pick would have been High Noon or The Quiet Man). I'm guessing this was more of a career award for Cecil B. DeMille who had never even been nominated in the Best Director category during the previous 23 years of the Academy Awards' existence! SITR eventually did win the Golden Globe for Best Actor-Comedy or Musical for Donald O'Connor and the National Board of Review in the category of Top Ten Films as well as the Writers Guild of America award for Best Written American Musical-Betty Comden and Adolph Green.
https://search.app.goo.gl/WEVh5
FRIDAY QUESTION
Ken- If MASH is as you say playing somewhere in the world can you give us a tiny hint about your residuals? Is it enough to retire on without any other income? I don't think you've ever published one of your checks for MASH that is worth $.01. I think yours might be somewhat bigger than that.
For as long as I worked int he business residuals were something I never found out about. Thanks,
There's a book from about 25 years ago you should look up. It's titled "Alternate Oscars." Author Danny Peary examined each of the Best Picture Oscar winners from the beginning to the present, and then he discussed the movies that he thought *should* have won for each year. It's a fun game, if nothing else.
Also, contrary to what Janet Ybarra wrote above, THE WIZARD OF OZ was initially a hit, of sorts. It had huge attendance at the box office, but most of that attendance was from kids, whose admission prices were cheaper than those of adults -- hence, it did not make a lot of money the first time around. A 1949 re-release, and of course its later TV broadcasts, took care of that.
FRIDAY QUESTION: Ken, during your time working with her, and in light of the recent controversy about her racist tweet, do you have any personal recollection of Roseanne's racist behavior?
1939 had to be THE year for movies that didn't win best picture but should have. You've listed Stagecoach and Wizard of Oz, as films that lost out to Gone With the Wind. There was also Goodbye Mr. Chips, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Of Mice and Men, Wuthering Heights, Ninotchka, Dark Victory, and a film that was nominated, but which virtually no one even remembers -- Love Affair.
On top of that there were three Andy Hardy films, and two Dr. Kildare movies that year. How did Hollywood even find time to make B pictures?
Given his miniscule contribution to the series, one cent would still be too much.
Great post! Although The Office did win Best Comedy Series in 2006.
Tom Jones is a good comedy, though Cleopatra is funnier.
THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION is especially surprising, since it's been sitting on top of IMDB's all-time top-rated list for as long as I can remember, while the actual winner that year, FORREST GUMP, has a meager (but not really meager at all) 8.8.
I think this was originally by KHJ, but other have done it and so have I; a montage of all the songs to hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
I've actually toyed with the idea of doing a companion montage of the songs that peaked at #2. (What keeps me from doing it is not so much the editing, that's simple, but the amount of research. I don't have the time nor patience to thumb through the pages and I don't have access to computerized Whitburn charts, etc.
Actually, I don't think Billy Wilder would have cared all that much about any of his movies being "robbed" at the Oscars. He was much too cynical to take awards seriously.
Also, Ken Levine never worked for Roseanne Barr/Pentland/Arnold/Thomas...and his doctor thanks him every time he sees him, too.
Good and popular aren't always the same thing. I think it was in the 70's or 80's when the joke at NBC was, "Here's your Emmy and your pink slip." In other words, get honored and then get cancelled. I can't remember any specific shows, but I do remember that was a real thing. Ken, the shows you've written for had both critical and popular success. This is NOT a "Friday Question," but if you could only choose one, would you rather have a show that critics hated yet the public loved? (e.g. GILLIGAN'S ISLAND or the above mentioned Chuck Lorre) Or would you prefer a show that critics loved, but nobody watched? (e.g. ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT)
M.B.
Ken,
Friday question.
You've mentioned how Chuck Lorre gets no respect from the Academy and the critics, he just writes shows that actually get tens of millions of people watching. (For the record, I like The Big Bang Theory - it makes me laugh, and I like Mom. It's funny, but it does get serious about addiction and doesn't always have a happy ending, which I appreciate).
So my question is, what's Chuck's reputation among comedy writers?
Just curious, but I understand if you don't want to talk about situations in which you have no first hand knowledge.
another one quits roseanne:
http://money.cnn.com/2018/05/29/media/roseanne-twitter-chelsea-clinton/index.html
I've often thought that awards are more frequently given for concepts than for actual achievement. Of course, there are awards for technical and artistic merit that may be well earned; but that's seldom memorable in the hearts of an audience.
"Best" and "most likely to be popular in the hearts of audiences everywhere" aren't the same things. But it's a shame that the second category doesn't get more respect.
The comedy that swept the Emmys for the 1955 season was THE PHIL SILVERS SHOW, so at least the competition was worthy that year. While THE HONEYMOONERS inexplicably didn't get nominated as best show, Gleason, Carney and Meadows were all up for acting awards and Carney won as best supporting performer. No writing nod, however, perhaps because Gleason was so well known for winging it (he and Carney practically improvised a third act for one episode on the spot when a supporting actor was too drunk to perform) that even the professionals may have given him credit for his own gags. BILKO's authors won.
It's interesting to watch Jack Benny's TV parody of THE HONEYMOONERS, since he consciously or unconsciously mimics the physical cues Gleason used on stage to signal the cast that he had forgotten his lines or was about to try something new.
A lot of Oscar winners in the "Golden Age" were due to studio voting blocs, and middle-of-the-road choices tended to prevail because the business was run in those days on the principle of a balanced slate of films, not mega-hits. The moguls preferred steady performers rather than projects that even flirted with controversy.
I'd add VERTIGO, which has now edged out KANE for greatest-of-all-time honors. Hitchcock never won an Oscar, nor did Cary Grant, Fred Astaire, Charlie Chaplin, Peter O'Toole, Myrna Loy or Greta Garbo (honorary awards only). Or Ernst Lubitsch, whose NINOTCHKA I cherish. We could do this all day, because all awards are political and represent opinions of their time. That includes Big Deals like the Nobel in literature. Take a look at that list and you won't find Tolstoy, Joyce, Proust, Chekhov, Virginia Woolf, Henry James or Mark Twain, but a lot of Scandinavian writers nobody remembers. And Pearl Buck.
I remember TOM JONES. It made a star of Albert Finney and is still better than the recent remake.
And now it's over...
http://variety.com/2018/tv/news/roseanne-canceled-abc-1202824211/
ABC has cancelled Roseanne.
Over to you, Ken!
Very glad Ken that you included "The Shawshank Redemption". It should have won.
FORREST GUMP is the most over rated movie in the history. It didn't deserve the win.
And Tom Hanks is the most over rated actor in the history. He didn't deserve both his Oscars.
How could he be given the AFI Life Achievement Award before De Niro, Meryl, Al Pacino?
And greats like Denzel and Gene Hackman never have been considered even now.
He is a kiss ass of the establishment, the power players and the media. So he has got all these awards. And the media too goes all out to keep drilling it into our head that he is one of the greatest actors in history.
Love Tom Jones! ABC just put the fork in Roseanne. I tried to give her the benefit of the doubt. Maybe she is senile? Can't figure her out.Janice B.
Mary Clancy: Boom! is funnier than both of them!
Hold it, Ken. Tom Jones holds up brilliantly! Just the prologue is pure pleasure.
Off-topic -- although maybe not, in a post about "The Losers" -- but within hours of its star making a horrendously racist tweet, Roseanne has been cancelled by ABC.
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/entertainment/news/abc-cancels-roseanne-after-racist-tweet/ar-AAxZftT?ocid=spartanntp
Wonder what Ken's going to write about tomorrow......
BREAKING NEWS, KEN: ROSANNE'S been cancelled! Hope to hear your thought on this.
But Bette Davis should have won Best Actress for "All About Eve."
I'm partial to the book Steve Bailey mentioned above, "Alternate Oscars" because he (Danny Peary) picked Tim Curry in "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" for best actor. :-)
A possible reason why "Love Affair" isn't much recalled today: The movie's director Leo McCarey re-made it 18 years later with Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr and called it "An Affair to Remember."
Re Roseanne - well that didn't take long, did it? I feel for the people who supported her, who championed the show's return. She really let them down. They deserve.
HOLY F, they've canceled "Roseanne"! I have to admit that while I always thought Roseanne herself was an awful person, I really liked the original run of her show (and thought the revival was OK, especially as the original "kids" grew into good actors). And even though she seems a little nutty now, I was still surprised by the awfulness of her recent tweet. (Didn't anyone at the network have a handle on this -- or was staying out of her way one of the conditions for getting the revival on the air?) It's kind of amazing how quickly this happened, but I can't really see how the network could have avoided it. Still, you have to feel sorry for the cast and crew for getting caught up in this whole thing.
A William Powell movie won Best Picture in 1936, but it was "The Great Ziegfeld," not "Libeled Lady" (which at least was nominated for the honor) or "My Man Godfrey" (which wasn't, and went 0-for-6 in other awards). If people rated those three films today, "Godfrey" probably would top the list -- heck, it might be the greatest screwball comedy ever (sorry, fans of "Bringing Up Baby") -- followed by "Libeled Lady" and then "Ziegfeld."
Such behavior just led ABC to cancel the "Roseanne" revival. But I don't think Fox or CBS has to worry about similar tweets from Tim Allen or Candice Bergen.
Hey, at least "The Big Bang Theory" has been nominated for Best Comedy. Its stablemate "Mom," a superior series, has yet to be nominated -- and there's far more to that show than multiple award-winner Allison Janney.
Also, it was an extremely expensive film to make, and I believe it was about then that foreign markets were being cut off by the war. But as you mention, it did catch up with a profitable afterlife comparatively few non-Disney films enjoyed.
Ken
Speaking of "Here's to the losers!", look forward to your take on Roseanne Barr being fired by ABC. Has Omarosa Manigault's position with the Office of Public Liaison been filled yet? If not, perhaps Barr can now apprentice for the job.
I remember a story about Walter Brennan winning three Oscars practically in a row. (I always seem to recall those roles as "That Mule," "Old Rivers" and "Me"). The scuttlebutt was that he had begun as an extra, so all the extras in the union would pool their votes for him. Tom & Jerry dominated the animated Oscars for a while because MGM had the voting clout to do so.
And now ICM has dropped Roseanne as a client. Boom!
Roseanne, who's the AssHat now?
(Can't wait for tomorrow's "By Ken...")
Janet's comment about THE HONEYMOONERS and domestic violence is simply her following the popular trend of "being outraged about something from another era."
Yes, Ralph's threats to Alice would never be written today, but in the show it's obvious he's just a blowhard and would never follow through on what he says. The fact that Alice isn't concerned about his rants and doesn't back down one inch, proves she knows he's just a fraud blowing off steam. It wouldn't fly today, but these shows are still hysterically funny.
Bill Maher did a great segment about not applying today's standards to everything from the past, and just enjoying things that were good at the time (and still are):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugLbotr1RuQ
Hmm, I wonder what Ken is going to blog about later today or tomorrow? Any interesting news out there?
Speaking of losers, really looking forward to hearing your thoughts on the newly fired Rosanne Barr. ABC did the right thing in cancelling it. I feel bad for the cast and crew. What would you say to them?
Speaking of losers...so, um, Roseanne's had a day, huh?
Well *I* think that Avenue Q is a classic. I've been humming "Everyone's a Little Bit Racist" to myself all afternoon.
Edward G. Robinson was never even nominated for an Academy Award.
Judy Garland lost the Academy Award for A Star Is Born to Grace Kelly
Rod Steiger lost the Academy Award (For The Pawnbroker, his finest performance) to Lee Marvin
Bette Davis lost the Academy Award to Anne Bancroft (admittedly a close call but it may have been due to Joan Crawford).
The Beatles won only five Grammys while they were together, mostly in secondary categories.
The Number of legendary movie songs that didn't win Academy Awards is too long to mention (and some of those not even nominated)
From Emmys over 20 years ago:
"For more on the losers, here's Jason Alexander."
Interviewing Seinfeld
"Now you haven't lost yet, but if past history is our guide..."
@Rock Golf, one has to wonder what suddenly prompted today's Roseanne spew. Not sorry to see her gone again but sorry for anyone working on that series that needed the paycheck.
I find it ironic today she is a conservative darling since a generation ago she was a conservative villain (including by President Papa Bush) for her intentional butchering of the national anthem.
It's hit or miss with the Emmy's. Sometimes they get it right (Kyle Chandler for Friday Night Lights) and sometimes they get it wrong (Nathan Fillion should of at least been nominated for the 1st season of Castle. He put that show on his back and dragged it to a renewal).
For Fun, see if you can find on YouTube that medley, "Not Even Nominated", that Sammy Davis and Steve Lawrence did on one Oscar show, consisting of one pop classic after another that didn't even get a mention for an award.
It ought to take your mind off the Bull Mastodon that just entered the room ...
... about which Ken should have a pertinent comment by this time tomorrow.
I don't get the idea of canceling a show because of a tweet by the star. What if the tweet were by John Goodman? Or whoever plays Becky?
If Ted Danson had said something people felt was horrible in 1984, should Cheers have been cancelled?
Roseanne never won, and now she never will. There is a god, but he has a lot of patience.
Janet Ybarra said...
'Oh, and repeated threats of domestic violence? THE HONEYMOONERS'-
There were never any threats of violence on The Honeymooners, there was zero intent behind his comments, everyone watching with any intelligence knew there was no threat of any kind, what next, people being offended that a character gave another one a joke look of anger?
***Wednesday Question or Topic***
Rosanne's off-the-field comment getting her popular TV show canceled. Not unique.
Some recent examples:
1: Charlie Sheen figured out how to get fired from the #1 comedy on CBS.
2: Keith Olberman figured out how to get fired from MSNBC where he was the #1 rated host.
3. Bill O'Reilly figured out how to get fired from FNCs #1 rated show.
Steve Lawrence recorded an album called Academy Award Losers." Here's the track list (though, in fairness, none of them lost out to "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp"; that came later.
A1
I've Got You Under My Skin
A2
Change Partners
A3
Love Letters
A4
You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To
A5
Long Ago (And Far Away)
A6
They Can't Take That Away From Me
B1
I'll Remember April
B2
Cheek To Cheek
B3
My Foolish Heart
B4
How About You
B5
That Old Feeling
B6
Chattanooga Choo Choo
Hey, at least you were left out of the latest Rosanne Barr meltdown. I was waiting for her to call someone an asshat!
Don't forget the actors and actresss who were screwd over the years.John Houston not being nominated for best supporting actor in Chinatown is one of the top fuck yous in Oscar history.
There are lots of great movies released every year, and the idea of a "best" picture is of course pretty subjective. So by the very nature of having a single Best Picture or Best Play or whatever, there by definition has to be lots of great work that doesn't take the top prize, even if you could magically make every Best Picture into a more correct choice.
To use Ken's example of 1950, you had two great classics (Third Man and Sunset Blvd.) losing out to another classic in All About Eve. If Sunset Blvd. had actually won, you could've just as easily written a post saying "man, I caught All About Eve on TV the other day, hard to believe that never won the Oscar."
There have been maybe 10 times in Oscar history when the consensus best movie of the year (both at the time and in historical hindsight) actually won the prize.
You left off the greatest film of all time: Rear Window (1954).
They didn't actually cancel Roseanne. They're just going to replace her with Dick Sargent.
To the day he died, Jackie Gleason insisted that the reason THE HONEYMOONERS only ran one season was that he realized those thirty-nine episodes were so good, so perfect, that he'd never be able to top them, so he chose to end the series rather than produce a second season that could only have been inferior to the first one.
Which is complete bullshit. During its one season on the air, THE HONEYMOONERS got its ass kicked in the ratings by THE PERRY COMO SHOW, which ran opposite it on NBC. Gleason's network, CBS, didn't want a second season of THE HONEYMOONERS and insisted that he return to his old variety show format, where "Honeymooners" sketches continued to be performed on a recurring basis well into the 1960s.
The one regret Gleason truly had over THE HONEYMOONERS is that he sold those films outright to CBS after the series ended, never dreaming that the show would have much of a life in syndication, there being so few episodes. CBS made a fortune. Gleason never made another dime off of them. Lucy and Desi would have similar regrets after doing the same thing and selling I LOVE LUCY outright to CBS after that series ended. Lucille Ball said in later years that they figured the shows would only be good for another five, maybe ten, years, then would disappear.
On another topic, I know someone who's been checking this blog every fifteen minutes or so since this afternoon because he's convinced that Ken is going to do some sort of blogpost "special edition" so he can do some "in your face, bitch" celebrating over today's Roseanne news. Myself, I never saw the revived show and was never a fan of the woman's. I do feel bad for the show's crew people, who just saw the jobs they thought they had go up in smoke.
Since others have brought it up:
Every so often, Johnny Mercer would record his lyrics, which were always fun to hear, especially since he'd occasionally ad-lib revisions to those words.
Here's a favorite, an amendment to "Goody Goody":
... You had it comin to ya -
And you don't like it, do ya?
Goody Goody for you
Goody Goody for me
Goody Goody for your indiscretion too -
- And I hope you're satisfied
You Rascal You!
CORRECTION
Chaplin won a competitive Oscar for Limelight :
Oscar [Winner] (1973)
Best Music, Original Dramatic Score
The film was unreleased in L.A. until 1972. Under the Academy’s rules, it was thus eligible , even though 20 years old.
I know this will get lost on some but John Denver hosted the Grammy Awards for a number of years and LOST to Michael Jackson one year. At that moment, he knew his hitmaking career was over.
I will say that I spent a rainy afternoon watching "Butch Cassidy" on streaming a year ago..and how that movie DIDN'T win amazes me. Paul Newman was fantastic and I actually tolerated Robert Redford(my mom had an obsession with him so I never GOT him).
Of course, my idea of BEST Picture isn't Hollywood's idea..or else "Stranger Than Fiction" would have won...but I digress.
I think it was Jackie Gleason's final interview for Playboy, where the interviewer asked him if "The Honeymooners" could succeed today. Gleason snapped, "It IS, pal. It's playing all over the world, and people think it's a riot!"
Although she was nominated every year, unbelievably Shelley Long only won one Emmy for CHEERS. The worst part was that she lost to The Golden Girls, one after the next for 4 years! Being old is not a good reason to bestow an acting award. Shelly was great that first year of CHEERS, but I thought she also did some of her finest work in year three. She certainly deserved to win over every one of the Golden Girls, outstanding though they were.
Myrna Loy was never nominated, either.
You forgot SAVING PRIVATE RYAN.
Diane D. said...
Although she was nominated every year, unbelievably Shelley Long only won one Emmy for CHEERS. The worst part was that she lost to The Golden Girls, one after the next for 4 years! Being old is not a good reason to bestow an acting award. Shelly was great that first year of CHEERS, but I thought she also did some of her finest work in year three. She certainly deserved to win over every one of the Golden Girls, outstanding though they were.
What the hell do you do, woman, watch CHEERS and masturbate every time Shelley Long comes onscreen? And what in the world makes you think the four women from THE GOLDEN GIRLS were given their awards as some sort of achievement prize for being over fifty?
Diane D. said...
Although she was nominated every year, unbelievably Shelley Long only won one Emmy for CHEERS. The worst part was that she lost to The Golden Girls, one after the next for 4 years!
You have your Emmy history wrong, Diane. Shelley Long won her Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series in 1983. In 1984 and 1985 she lost to Jane Curtin, who won both years for KATE AND ALLIE. In 1986 she lost to Betty White, the only year Shelley competed with a GOLDEN GIRLS cast member. (Actually, she was competing against three of them. Rue McClanahan and Bea Arthur were also nominated that year.) Shelley wasn't nominated in 1987 for her work on her fifth and last season on CHEERS.
In 1993 she was nominated for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for her appearance on the CHEERS finale, but lost to Tracy Ullman. Shelley got another nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress in 1996 for FRASIER, but lost (again) to Betty White.
Funny that you should mention TOM JONES. I thought it was hilarious back in 1965, when TCM ran it recently I found it darn near unwatchable. My tastes have changed I suppose.
@Gary
I'm not "outraged" as you put it it....just merely acknowleding that wouldn't pass as a so-called reboot on today's TV.
Still growing up watching that show I always wondered what was so funny in a big man like Gleason/Kramden physically threatening bodily harm to his slight built wife. Just not my cup of tea. I much preferred old Abbott and Costello movies.
"Zsa Zsa Gabor, who kept five lawyers and a justice of the peace on retainer, never got an Oscar!"
Sorry - the topic is pushing my red buttons.
SUNSET BLVD, by its very anti-Hollywood nature, was not going to take home the prize. Someone at a screening, Louis B. Mayer?, called Wilder a "traitor".
Shelley Long only won one Emmy for CHEERS. The worst part was that she lost to The Golden Girls, one after the next for 4 years!
You are misinformed. CHEERS premiered in 1982 and THE GOLDEN GIRLS in 1985, so Shelley Long couldn't have lost to THE GOLDEN GIRLS "every year" after her first Emmy win.
Also, Shelley wasn't even nominated for her fifth year on CHEERS. Only her first four. Emmy winners and nominees are easy to look up on Wikipedia. So she only competed with THE GOLDEN GIRLS actresses once. She lost to Betty White that year.
Yesterday afternoon I comments on the Roseanne fiasco, but unintentionally posted the comment before finishing my sentence. I meant to say that those who worked on the show and supported her deserve better. My apologies.
FWIW, "Boom!" was initially titled "The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore."
Jon
Thank you for correcting my CHEERS mistake in a civil and polite manner. I shouldn’t have trusted my memory.
Carol
I’m familiar with Wikipedia. I thought I remembered the circumstances, and since it was not a life and death issue, I didn’t think a mistake would be met with the type of hysterical outrage exhibited by Peter.
Peter
Good grief! Settle down you ridiculous hysteric. If this is the kind of trivial mistake that can drive you mad, your life must be a struggle, indeed.
For the record, I'm not the Peter who ranted at Diane D. I posted about Roseanne. Thanks.
Thank you for that clarification, Peter. It seemed out of character for you, but I had forgotten there was another Peter who has caused confusion in the past.
I was going to mention "2001: A Space Odyssey" as another great movie that failed to win the Best Picture Oscar but then I remembered IT WASN'T EVEN NOMINATED. I'm aware Kubrick's movies have always divided people but to not even be nominated is something I still can't wrap my head around.
So much has happened since this post, but Tom Jones came out in 1963. The Sound of Music won in 1965, beating out Doctor Zhivago.
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