Lifetime Achievement "Snub"?

[Little Big Brother]

In the Game show grapevine segment of tvgameshows.net, SB mentions/complains that Bill Cullen and Arlene Francis will not be receiving lifetime achievement awards at this year's daytime Emmys.  Granted both have made significant contributions to the game show genre, but each of their most recent contributions have not been all that recent.  Also, although it seems to be more appropriate to honor one's lifetime achievements after they have passed on, most award shows tend to bestow the honor on those who are still with us.

Granted, this seems like another issue that allows SB to stay on his soapbox, but is it realistic to expect that either Bill Cullen or Miss Francis would receive this honor?  It seems like an exercise in futility to be as outraged as SB seems to be in his mentioning of this, particularly when his only efforts to attempt to correct this "most glaring mistake" is a vague banner at the top of his website.

I'll get off my soapbox now.

[Jimmy Owen]

The more years go by, the less likely they will be honored.  Arlene had the "Home" show with Hugh Downs (has he been honored?) but that's about it in daytime.  Bill didn't attend the Emmys when he was alive and nominated, so I don't think it mattered much to him to get this kind of recognition.  I would let it go.

[chris319]

The Perfesser writes:

Yet again, the Television Academy has ignored Bill Cullen and Arlene Francis for a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Daytime Emmys this May. Ten soap actors who are all past 70 and well-deserving are sharing the honor this year but the Academy continues to gloss over two legends in one of its most glaring mistakes.

Hey, guess what? Bud Collyer won't be receiving one, either.

Am I the only one who finds it absurd that the Perfesser is singling out two people out of hundreds who won't be receiving a LTAA this year or any other year? Art Fleming? No award for him, nor for Bill Nimmo, Clark Race, Jim Lange, Win Elliott,  Jan Murray, Mike Stokey, Henry Morgan, Hildy Parks, Faye Emerson, Bess Myerson ... I could go on.

It would be one thing if BC and AF had been nominated for LTAAs and specifically rejected, but there is nothing in his blurb to suggest that so I have to assume they weren't.

[inturnaround]

I, too, will not be recieving a lifetime achievement award.

C'mon, out of all the people in the world Bill Cullen and Arlene Francis are not the first people I'd award a Lifetime Achievement award to if I ran the East Coast ATAS. If someone like Merv Griffin doesn't have one for his game show work and his long running talk show, what chance do they have to get one posthumously?

Awards show mean very little. It's nice if you get one, but it doesn't take away from the body of work you've put together if you don't.

If there was a Game Show Hall of Fame, an honest to goodness one with nominations and a board, I don't doubt that Bill would be one of the first to be inducted, but a Daytime Emmy is a completely different thing and I think SB should stop grandstanding in small print (it is then actually grandstanding, I ask myself...)

[Craig Karlberg]

I guess that banner ad will stay up there for another year whether SB switches webhosts in a matter of days.  Sometimes, he has a guilt complex regarding those B&W game shows that show up on GSN overnights now.

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'chris319\' date=\'Feb 3 2004, 12:13 AM\'] Am I the only one who finds it absurd that the Perfesser is singling out two people out of hundreds who won't be receiving a LTAA this year or any other year? [/quote]
 No, it's just that I find most everything the Perfesser excretes onto his site to be absurd in one way or another.

[Matt Ottinger]

I could obviously make a very good case about why Bill Cullen deserves a Lifetime Achievement Award -- but I don't.  Much as I admire the man, I'm also realistic.

[goongas]

The Daytime Emmys are much more concerned about soaps than game shows, so it is no surprise no game show person received the honor.

[Robair]

I have a very big problem with the fact that the Daytime Emmys have given us their "Lifetime Achievement Awards" (probably what Professor Backwards is referring to) and have named 10 soap opera stars who are still on their shows today as the first inductees. Usual suspects like Jeanne Cooper, Eileen Fulton, Don Hastings, Ruth Warrick and Helen Wagner (almost 50-year vet of "As The World Turns"), ad infinitum.

Why they would start with stars like those of soaps and totally ignore the creators that made the genre like Irna Phillips and Bill Bell and Agnes Nixon...they're the ones who should be lauded.

And where are the game show people? We can throw people in there posthumously! Barker should be leading the charge, having been a host longer than almost anyone on the Academy's list.

[inturnaround]

[quote name=\'goongas\' date=\'Feb 3 2004, 12:10 PM\'] The Daytime Emmys are much more concerned about soaps than game shows, so it is no surprise no game show person received the honor. [/quote]
 For the record, Bob Barker recieved a Lifetime Achievement Emmy for Daytime Television 5 years ago in 1999.

[Matt Ottinger]

[quote name=\'Robair\' date=\'Feb 3 2004, 01:25 PM\'] I have a very big problem with the fact that the Daytime Emmys have given us their "Lifetime Achievement Awards" (probably what Professor Backwards is referring to) and have named 10 soap opera stars who are still on their shows today as the first inductees. [/quote]
Actually, the Lifetime Achievement Awards have been a part of the Daytime Emmys for some time, and despite what someone else in this thread says, some game show and audience-participation show folks have been honored over the years.  Soap creators and other behind-the-scenes folks have been honored as well.

The difference *this year* is that ten active soap veterans are being honored collectively.  The thought must have been that any one of them individually wasn't enough of a "giant" to deserve recognition.  Not that the organizers will actually SAY that...

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/040202/nym125_1.html

[SplitSecond]

[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' date=\'Feb 3 2004, 01:26 PM\'] The difference *this year* is that ten active soap veterans are being honored collectively.  The thought must have been that any one of them individually wasn't enough of a "giant" to deserve recognition.  Not that the organizers will actually SAY that... [/quote]
 Well, it was either them or Dakota Fanning.

[Winkfan]

I just sent an e-mail to the 'Perfesser' about this. I think the Academy's take on this is 'Let's honor these folks before they die on us.' I also stated to him that if the Academy DID get around honoring Bill or Arlene, (or even the Winkster, for that matter!) they'd probably honor them during their 'non-televised' portion of the awards. Back in 1999, a month before his passing, the Academy gave a 'Lifetime Acheivement Award' to Gene Rayburn; but there were no TV media to cover the event.

Cordially,
Tammy Warner--the 'Kit Dougherty of the Big Board!'