Why the World Owes the WGA a Thank You For (Potentially) Eradicating the Awards Shows

Here's the what's up from yesterday's WGA strike meeting which was attended by a smaller smattering of writers than the smattering of writers who attended our last strike meeting.

The bad news: the strike is not over. The good news: the WGA will not grant waivers to either the Golden Globe awards or the Oscar telecast! That means there would be no writers to write the programs, and a bunch of stars who would likely honor the picket lines and forgo the shows. So, there is a real good chance there will be few if any televised awards next year.

If nothing else comes out of this god awfully mismanaged strike -- and the smart money, meaning my money, says nothing will -- it will have all been worth the marching in tight little circles outside of studio lots if even for just one season we can rid the airwaves of the endless, meaningless Hollywood awards shows.

There are any number of very hard working people in Hollywood who deserve recognition. Mostly its the artisans and crafts persons -- the "below the line" workers -- whose only reward is to be pejoratively labeled "below the line" workers. I say get them all on the next thing smoking to Vegas for an all expense paid weekend of whatever.

Beyond that, true recognition of hard work has as much do to with awards shows as Christ does with the modern consumerized concept of Christmas. That is, unless the Three Wise Men were somehow behind the phrase: "90 days with no payments."

Fact is, awards shows were never really about recognizing achievement. They were a publicity ploy cooked up in the late 1920s by MGM topper Louie Mayer and his newly formed Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences which was itself, back in the day, nothing but a front organization to discourage unionizing.

In the decades since, the Oscars in particular and awards shows in general, have metastasized into personality cults nexused around red carpet arrivals: big stars wearing designer clothes they were given for free 'cause God knows it's hard to shop well when you're only earning tens of millions of dollars a picture. Awards shows have devolved into self-parodies -- liberals in limos, corny insider jokes delivered by the hosts among bad teleprompter reading from the some of the best thespians on the planet. It's gushing, teary acceptances speech, sometimes peppered with a variety of politics broken up by the lamest production numbers three hours running time will allow. It's some of the most beautiful, most admired people alive who seem desperate to finally get that hug they were denied back when they were seven. In the immortal words of Sally Fields: "you like me, right now, you like me." Eve Harrington could not have said it more tragically.

So, for one season at least, let's end the cycle of self-indulgence and the fawning and the jillion "for your consideration" ads for movies that barely deserve consideration on Netflix. Let's reduce our both our carbon footprint and our ego emission and NOT gather before the limelight to self-congratulate. Instead, like the rest of America, let's be quietly satisfied with a good year's work.

Read more strike coverage on the Huffington Post's writers' strike page.

Comments

[Libsrule]

RIGHT ON!

I can only imagine what all the celebs would be like without all the awards shows where they get to tell each other how great they are.

Remember the two ground squirrels in the old Warner Brothers cartoons?

No, YOU'RE BETTER!

NO NO NO YOU are better!

That is exactly what these awards are like.

Personally I would love to them all get their awards vis FedEx. Three months of these people breaking their arms patting themselves on the back is just far too much.

There should be one for movies.

One for TV.

One for Broadway.

One for Music.

Each one a week apart.

[realitytrumpsbull]

I second that emotion. Why have these award
things for turning out the same-o, same-o
year after year? Mutual back-patting societies
sometimes just reinforce boring mediocrity.
Also, TV's pretty much been done, unless they're
going to step up to nude live news or something
nutty, no pun intended, to change the medium
to something more exciting. The Internets
will end up eating their lunch just the same,
though, now that we can write our OWN material
and put it 'on the air'. It's more funner,
that way, and ya never know, might put a couple
of censors out of business too.

[shortgirl]

John - Please post your strike schedule. How many hours have you walked? Did you attend the 1st meeting? Did you attend the 2nd? How many hours have you worked at WGA headquarters?

Please enlighten us.

[BinBaldwin]

I couldn't agree more. Enough of these awards shows for stars to honor themselves. Just this week I saw one honoring Julia Roberts for her lifetime achievements. Aren't these usually for the 85 Yr old actors and actresses who are near death? Roberts is only about 40.

Whats next? Award show for best Award Show?

[RegimeChange]

Thank you for cutting through the caramel-coated gauze of these award rituals. My own take is that the Oscars, over time, have allowed some of the top comedians to demonstrate their wit, skepticism and poise. Johnny Carson and Steve Martin come to mind.
It's an odd ritual. Even if you believe that the work being honored genuinely moved you, it's idiotic to say that Ben Kingsley was a better Gandhi than Paul Newman was a disillusioned lawyer, or that Alan Arkin was a better sardonic grandpa than Eddie Murphy was an R&B star. Or that Paul Newman or Eddie Murphy shows up one day, and creates the movie they're in.

But the worst part is, the Globes, Oscars, Emmys, Tonys and Grammys are only the beginning. The AMAs, People's Choice Awards, Teen Choice Awards, MTV Movie Awards, and so on ad infinitum make the awards business a separate industry, unrelated to creating anything but awards.

Next up, the Awardies, a separate show, which will relieve the TV academy of the need to award awards to performers on Award shows.

[Bladernr1001]

Smokescree­n....you need to talk about the utter failure of socialist unions. Nobody wins...nob­ody ever really gets ahead.

you want to do good in life...don­'t take a union job.

[ParacleteofKavorka]

I did like that awards show back in the '60s (not the Oscars) where Jayne Mansfield's boobs popped out of the top of her dress as she descended the stairs. I think Ronald Reagan was the host and had to speak right afterward while the audience laughed. Ah, the good old days.

I can't figure out what there is to like about the Oscars, Emmys, etc. The speeches are painful. The jokes usually bomb. The nominees aren't really paying attention cause they're thinking of their category. I either like or don't like a particular movie regardless of whether it wins an award.

Lastly, if actresses insist on calling themselves 'actors' nowadays. They should just have one category for 'Best Actor' and put them in with the
guys. If would be interesting to see how they react to that.

[larry278]

Not having access to the orgies of self congratulation which Hollywood tries to pass off as award ceremonies is a pain I'll bravely endure for the sake of the WGA. Watching the Academy Awards is as exciting as watching a MLB game where none of the players is on 'roids or other performance enhancing substances.

[pljlehsp]

"Here's the what's up from yesterday's WGA strike meeting which was attended by a smaller smattering of writers than the smattering of writers who attended our last strike meeting."

There you have it, folks. John Ridley, who wasn't at the first strike meeting, somehow knows it was attended by a "smattering," which would certainly come as a surprise to those of us who WERE there.

Now, who wants to bet Ridley wasn't at this meeting, either?

It is not that Ridley is anti-strike and, it is clear, anti-writer that bothers me; it's that to support his positions, he is constantly making up things that he must know are not true.

Whether it is inventing opinions for those he (allegedly) walks the lines with (opinions that -- surprise! -- are always completely in line with Ridley's, which is truly remarkable given that more than 90% of the WGA voted for the strike and those most adamant about it are the ones who actually ARE walking the lines) or pretending to know about events that he did not attend, Ridley is not just wrong, but dishonest.

[FrankFurter]

amen

[Nicolja]

Brilliant. I like it when someone from the Hollywood inside expresses what many Americans think about award shows. I'm stunned that the "enlightened" members of Hollywood royalty don't see how egocentric award shows really are. I hear complaints coming from certain people in Hollywood about America’s selfishness, when it comes to the environment, but look at the ridiculous way these same "progressi­ve-minded" individuals parade themselves around on award shows. Has there ever been a more selfish group of individuals? (maybe the hippies) And a more hypocritical? (maybe the conservative Christians) I’m in favor of Hollywood expressing their opinion but it’s events like the Oscar’s that makes everyday Americans so cynical to their point of view.