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 CANE, 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 three 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.”
from By Ken Levine
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