Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - EGOT

Episode Date: May 6, 2021

In the United States, there are awards given in many fields of entertainment. For Broadway productions, they have the Tony Awards. Television has the Emmy Awards. Music has the Grammy Awards, and Movies have the Oscars. To win one award is a lifetime accomplishment for most. However, a rare few have won one of each. Learn more about EGOT on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the United States, there are awards given in many fields of entertainment. For Broadway productions, they have the Tony Awards. Television has the Emmy Awards. Music has the Grammy Awards and movies have the Oscars. To win one award is a lifetime accomplishment for most people. However, a rare few have won one of each. Learn more about EGOT on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. What if your perceptions about the past were wrong?

ThruLine is a podcast that takes you back in time. to uncover the parts of the story that may have gone unnoticed. It effectively turned day into night. And how it shaped the world now. Time travel with us every week on the Thulein podcast from NPR. This episode is sponsored by the Restoration Depot. I've told you before about the Restoration Depot and how they provide a one-stop shop for virtual wellness services

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Depot.com. Entertainment awards are a tradition in the United States, which have been around for almost 100 years. The first Academy Awards were handed out in 1929 of the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. The ceremony lasted a whopping 15 minutes. It's unclear exactly where the term Oscar came from, but there's evidence of the staff of the Academy of the Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, using the name as early as 1931. The Oscars were a huge hit, and soon other entertainment organizations followed suit. The other three major awards were all established after World War II. The first Tony Awards were given out in 1947. The award is named after actress Antoinette Perry, who was nicknamed Tony. She died in 1946, and the first awards were done in her honor. At the first ceremony,

Brock Pemberton, who handed out the award, called it a Tony, and the name stuck. The Emmy Awards were first given out in 1949 in Los Angeles, when hardly anyone had televisions. The awards were first only given out for local television stations in the Los Angeles area. The name Emmy comes from the word Imi, which is a nickname for an image orthicon, which is the name of a camera tube that was once used in TV cameras. The Grammys were created in 1958 as a response to the creation of the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The name Grammy is short for gramophone, which is what the trophy looks like, and was the first record player, which could play the first recorded music. Within these four awards are represented a host of separate but related entertainment fields.

For example, actors can obviously perform in movies, television, or on stage. A sound editor might work on musical recordings, movies, or television. However, even if you're great at one thing, it doesn't mean you'd be able to win all four awards. Many actors specialize in one format. Many Broadway performers just work on Broadway. Likewise, for decades, there was a strict division between TV stars and movie stars, only recently as that wall begun to come down. So to win all four awards would require success in multiple endeavors and probably multiple entertainment disciplines. The term Egot is just an acronym for the names of the four awards.

Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony. The term was dubbed in 1984 by Miami Vice Star Philip Michael Thomas, who played the role of Rico Tubbs. In the 1980s, he would wear a net. necklace with Egot on it, saying he was hoping to win all four awards in the next few years. As of today, he has won exactly zero awards. He later tried to backtrack and said it stood for energy, growth, opportunity, and talent. But yeah, no. Philip Michael Thomas, if you're listening, just own it.

It's a thing now. People are making podcasts about it. The EGOT theme was then picked up by the sitcom 30 Rock, where the character, Tracy Jordan, purchased Philip Michael Thomas's EGOT necklace, and then proceeded to actually win all four awards. To date, there have been 16 people who have egotted. The first egot winner was composer Richard Rogers. He's best known as a composer of Broadway musicals.

He composed Oklahoma, South Pacific, and The King and I. He won five Tony Awards. He also wrote an incredible number of popular songs before the Grammy Awards were ever given out. He won his Oscar for Best Song in 1945, for It Might As Well Be Spring from the movie's Fair. He then won an Emmy in 1961 for composing the music for the TV series Winston Churchill The Valiant Years, and then won a Grammy in 1963 for the Sound of Music album. The composer route

to winning an Egot is the most common route, because all four awards recognize music at some level. Other composers with an Egot include Marvin Hamlish, Jonathan Tunic, Robert Lopez, Tim Rice, Andrew Lloyd Weber, John Legend, and Alan Mencken. Oddly enough, Tim Rice, Andrew Lloyd Weber and John Legend all completed their EGOT at exactly the same time. All three won an Emmy for the TV production of Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert. All three needed just the Emmy to complete the EGOT, and all three were working on the same project. Robert Lopez holds the distinction of being the only person ever to win a double EGOT, earning two of each award, and at the age of 39, was the youngest person ever to EGOT.

He's best known for the music from Frozen, as well as broad-made musicals such as The Book of Mormon and Avenue Q. The first actor to Egot was Rita Moreno. She won an Oscar for Westside Story in 1961, a Grammy in 1973 for her work on the PBS Children's Show The Electric Company, a Tony in 1975 for the stage play The Ritz, and finally an Emmy for her appearance as the host on The Muppet Show in 1977. Other actors with an Egot include Audrey Hepburn, John Gilgood, and Helen Hayes. All of them won their Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word album. One actor who deserves special mention is Whoopi Goldberg. She won an Oscar for acting in the movie Ghost.

She won a Tony Award as the producer for the musical Thoroughly Modern Millie in 2002. She won a daytime Emmy as a talk show host on The View and won her Grammy Award for Best Comedy album for her stand-up performance on Broadway. four completely different things, only one of which involved acting and playing a character. There are two other egotts, both of whom took a unique route. Mike Nichols is best known as a director. He won eight Tony Awards for directing. He won an Oscar for directing the movie The Graduate and several Emmy Awards for directing and producing.

However, his Grammy Award came in a totally different way. Before he was a director, he was a stand-up comic, and in 1962 he won the Grammy for Best Comedy album with his partner, Aline May. The final Egot recipient is Mel Brooks, and he also did it in an odd way. He won an Oscar in 1967 for Best Screenplay for the Producers. In 1967, he also won an Emmy for comedy writing, and later won three more Emmys for acting. His first Grammy came for a comedy album with Carl Reiner. And finally, he won three Tony Awards for the musical The Producers.

There are a few people who've gotten special Egots if you include Lifetime Achievement Awards, given out by the various organizations. This list would include Barbara Streisand who won a special Tony, Liza Minnelli who won a special Grammy, and James Earl Jones, Harry Belafonte, and Quincy Jones, who won special Oscars.

There's one person who has an anti-Egot, and that's Lynn Redgrave. She's been nominated for all four awards and hasn't won a single one. One variation is called a Peaot, which includes winning a Peabody Award or a Pulitzer Prize, and that's the P in the acronym.

The only two people with a competitive P-GOT are Mike Nichols and Rita Moreno. There are a whole host of people who've won three of the four awards. Just limiting it to people who are living and still have a chance to EGOT, those missing only a Tony Award include Cher, Ron Howard, Julie Andrews, Bert Baccarac, Trent Rezner, Martin Scorsese, Kate Winslet, and Randy Newman. Just missing an Emmy Award is only one person, Elton John. Those missing a Grammy Award includes Jessica Langell, Frank, Francis McDormant, Ellen Burstyn, Viola Davis, Al Pacino, Helen Mirren, and Jeffrey Rush.

Finally, those needing just an Oscar include Audra McDonald, Cindy Lopper, Hugh Jackman, Lily Tomlin, Dick Van Dyke, Bet Midler, Cynthia Nixon, Trey Parker, Matt Stone, and Lynn Manuel Miranda. If I had to bet money on the next person to Egot, I would put my money on Lynn Manuel Miranda. All he has to do is make a non-stage version of Hamilton with an original song not in the musical to qualify for the best song category, and he has a good chance to win something. Plus, he'd make a ton of money in the process. Likewise, if Elton John were to just do a TV concert special,

he might be able to get his Emmy. For Al Pacino, Francis McDormit, Viola Davis, and the other actors who need a Grammy, I would recommend going into your basement and recording a spoken word album as a vanity project. There's a good chance you'd win on name recognition alone. Heck, Ken Jennings was nominated last year in that category, and he's just the Jeopardy guy.

I should close by noting that there's also a thing called a regot, which is an Egot winner who also wins the Razzie Award, which goes to the worst performances of the year. The only Regot winner is Alan Mencken, who won a Razzie for the worst song for High Times, Hard Times, from the Musical Newsies. Don't worry, Alan, you can't win them all. Except, I guess in your case, you actually did. The associate producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Thor Thompson. If you'd like to support the show, please donate over at patreon.com. There is content only available to supporters, merchandise, and even opportunities for a show producer credit. If you know someone you think would enjoy the show, please share it with them.

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