Tag: EGOT

Viewing the EGOT shows

history

The Emmy Award nominations were announced on July 17. The awards will be given out in September. It got me thinking about my history of viewing the EGOT shows.
There are many other award shows, such as the Golden Globes and the Country Music Awards, but these are the Big Four.
Emmys
“The 1st Emmy Awards, retroactively known as the 1st Primetime Emmy Awards after the debut of the counterpart Daytime Emmy Awards, were presented at the Hollywood Athletic Club in Los Angeles on Tuesday, January 25, 1949.” However, the first three Emmy ceremonies were primarily given to shows produced or aired in Los Angeles and only broadcast there.
“Starting with the 4th Annual Emmy Awards, nominations were considered on a national television network basis.” There’s a complicated history involving the East Coast versus West Coast branches of the Academy.
From the 1970s to the early 2000s, I watched the Emmys regularly because there were shows I watched that I rooted for, mostly on the on-air networks, from The Mary Tyler Moore Show to Hill Street Blues. “Cable programs first became eligible for the Primetime Emmys in 1988. Original online-only streaming television programs then became eligible in 2013.”
Changing environment
Also: “Networks shell out big bucks to get those winged ladies sitting in their offices. TV Guide reports that an average Emmy campaign costs between $150,000 and $500,000. In 1993, HBO reportedly spent $1 million on its campaigns, an investment that paid off when the network took home more awards than most broadcast networks for the first time.
“In 2013, Netflix’s ‘House of Cards’ was the first streaming service series to win an Emmy. Hulu’s ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ was the first to win an Emmy for outstanding drama in 2017, and in 2018, Amazon’s ‘The Marvelous Ms. Maisel’ was the first to do so in comedy.”

I look at the current nominees. I’ve seen some of the shows in the talk series, variety specials, and game shows. (Three of the Outstanding Variety Special (live) are the Grammys, Oscars, and Tonys.) But aside from Abbott Elementary, I’ve seen very few others, so I’m no longer inclined to watch that awards show.

Grammys
“The second Annual Grammys Awards, held on November 29, 1959, were the first to be televised, but not live. The ceremony was broadcast on NBC as a taped special called NBC Sunday Showcase and hosted by Meredith Willson.” 
Finally, the Grammys were broadcast live in 1971, and I watched them religiously. I specifically recall Paul Simon winning for Still Crazy After All These Years and thanking Stevie Wonder for not putting out an album.
Then, in the early 2000s, I stopped watching it because I didn’t know the musicians. But as my daughter started listening to music on her own, I restarted watching, precisely because I didn’t know the musicians.
Oscars
On March 19, 1953, “The Oscars presentation was first televised. The NBC TV and radio network carried the 25th Oscars ceremonies live from Hollywood, with Bob Hope as master of ceremonies, and from the NBC International Theatre in New York, with Fredric March making the presentations.”
It was the only one of the four I’ve always watched. When I was a kid, movie stars were almost like royalty, even if I’d never seen their movies. Starting in the 1970s, I watched because I had rooting interests. As late as 1995, I would listen to the radio at 8:37 a.m. Eastern time to catch the announcements of the major nominations. Now, I record it and watch the show at leisure; this is true of most television I watch.
Tonys
“The 21st Annual Tony Awards ceremony was broadcast on March 26, 1967, from the Shubert Theatre in New York City on the ABC Television network. This was the Awards ceremony’s inaugural broadcast on U.S. network television.”

But I don’t remember just when I started watching the Tonys. Perhaps it was in the 1980s when I caught the Kennedy Center Honors. They’re both prestige shows with low ratings that CBS broadcasts year after year. 

 

In 2005, I wrote about them in the first six weeks of this blog. “I watch the Tony Awards because it is generally all I know of the shows on Broadway. I mean, there is usually ONE show I’ve heard of…” Nowadays, I know a lot more about the shows, even if I haven’t seen them. 

When the musicals and plays tour and appear in Schenectady’s Proctors Theatre or occasionally other venues, I have a sense of the storyline. Also, “I like to discover that a number of actors better known from other venues are on the boards.” 

 

Here’s my love letter to the Tonys from 2011.

Kennedy Center Honors 2015

I remember buying my copy of Tapestry somewhere in Binghamton, NY, along with Sticky Fingers by the Rolling Stones.

Rita Moreno bookAs I’ve noted over the years, I LOVE the Kennedy Center Honors. The event generally takes place in DC the first weekend in December and is broadcast on CBS-TV at the end of the month. The celebration of the honorees’ Lifetime Artistic Achievements took place on Sunday, December 6, and will be aired on CBS on Tuesday, December 29 at 9:00 p.m., ET/PT. This year’s honorees are Carole King, George Lucas, Rita Moreno, Seiji Ozawa, and Cicely Tyson.

Rita Moreno – if she were in nothing but the movie West Side Story – a pivotal film in my life – I’d be a big fan, but she accomplished so much more and, as she indicated in this interview, had to fight the Latina actress stereotypes.

She’s won the EGOT:
OSCAR: Best Supporting Actress (1961) West Side Story (Anita del Carmen)
GRAMMY: Best Album for Children (1973) Electric Company
TONY: Best Featured Actress in a Play (1975) The Ritz
EMMY: Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program (1977) The Muppet Show; Outstanding Guest Actress – Drama Series (1978) The Rockford Files

Even though I was in college by then, I was a huge fan of The Electric Company, and she was a big reason.

WATCH:
West Side Story-America
Electric Company – STOP!
Muppet Show – Fever
Rockford Files
***
George Lucas – the writer/producer/director made a bunch of movies I enjoyed tremendously. The first was American Graffiti; a couple of the movie’s actors ended up in 1950s-based sitcoms, Ron Howard (Richie on Happy Days), and Cindy Williams (Cindy on Laverne &…) The film also featured some carpenter-actor named Harrison Ford, who later starred in Lucas’ original Star Wars trilogy, and the Indiana Jones trilogy, all of which I enjoyed (except Indy 2, which I’ve never seen).

All that hate for Star Wars 1: I didn’t enjoy it, but it was just a movie. All that nerdy nuance about the films, some brought on by Lucas himself – Han shot first! – is beyond my interest. Oh and he likes Star Wars 7.

I see Lucas’ wife, Mellody Hobson, on CBS News frequently.

WATCH:
American Graffiti (1973) – Original Trailer
Star Wars (1977) Original Trailer
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) Theatrical Trailer
READ:
The Other Side of The Other Side of Midnight
***
Cicely Tyson – I wrote about her at length only a couple of years ago.

WATCH:
The Bold Move That Left Cicely Tyson’s First TV Director Speechless And Sparked A National Movement
The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman
Cicely Tyson on Roots, Grief and Strength
The Marva Collins Story (1981)
***
Seiji Ozawa – Though he had been the conductor for the San Francisco Symphony early in his career, I know him best from him leading the Boston Symphony. I’d see him on TV fairly often, and as he got older I recognized him as much for his style, and his coif as anything.

WATCH:
What’s My Line? – Seiji Ozawa (1963, TV Show)
Tchaikovsky Overture 1812
Beethoven Symphony No 5
Seiji Ozawa’s 80th Birthday
***
Carole King – Her life was so amazing that they turned it into a hit Broadway musical, Beautiful, which will be going on a national tour shortly. She is a songwriter, early on primarily with her then-husband, the late Gerry Goffin; they are in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I found this list of 17 Popular Songs You Never Knew Were Written By Carole King, with links, but mostly, I DID know.

If you went to college in the US in the early 1970s, either you had a copy of her massively successful album Tapestry, or your roommate did; it may have been mandated by Congress. I remember buying my copy somewhere in Binghamton, NY, along with Sticky Fingers by the Rolling Stones. Tapestry was number one on the Billboard 200 for 15 consecutive weeks, and on the charts for over five years in a row.

Her Jazzman was covered by Lisa Simpson in an early episode of the TV cartoon The Simpsons. Where You Lead was the theme song of the TV show Gilmore Girls, sung by one Louise Goffin, daughter of Carole and Gerry.

LISTEN to Carole King:
Jazzman
It’s Too Late
So Far Away
Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow, with the Mitchell-Taylor Boy-and-Girl Choir

The Everly Brothers -Crying In the Rain (1962)
KCH2015

Social media & sharing icons powered by UltimatelySocial