The 1st Golden Globe Awards show, sponsored by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), was held in January 1944 at the 20th Century Fox studios in Los Angeles. The 66th Awards were presented on January 11, 2009 in Beverly Hills, California. The Golden Globes are awarded every January, based on votes from around ninety (yes 90) international journalists living in Hollywood and affiliated with media outside of the United States. The Golden Globes is one of the three most watched awards shows on TV, the first two being the Academy Awards and the Grammies. You might think that the powers that be at the HFPA would bring down the hammer on so much really, truly, emphatically tedious and unnecessary time being spent by so many winners on thanking everyone who ever breathed on them, from their managers, agents, spouses, significant others, to their children, teachers, inspiring enemies and kindly strangers. Oh, did I forget pet Geckoes? Unless someone who is receiving an award is as witty as Brits such as Emma Thompson, who can thank people in her entourage and make it sound like an hilarious sitcom pitch, it should be required that thank you speeches be written by tried and tested comedy writers. Or,they should be limited to funny or poignant anecdotes and maybe a thank you to the HFPA since it provides the ceremony, the awards, AND the endless champagne flow which often loosens lips, sink ships, rubberizes legs and causes podium amnesia. The litany of "I want to thank…" read off a scrap of paper or torn Louis Vuitton price tag is quite boring and mostly meaningless to everyone but that person being mentioned. A personal, hand-written note on fine linen paper, a calligraphied "thank you so much for being there for me," delivered by someone dressed in livery should be sufficient. After all, would a person receiving an award be dropped by an agent or manager if he or she was not thanked on prime time TV? In Hollywood? Forgeddaboutit. Your value is in your earnings and your earnings figures "pop" when you win awards. As for obsequious manners and etiquette, save it for the IRS audit. If award winners know they are not permitted to disgorge a bolus of names known only to people in the "industry," then they can spend less time worrying about forgetting someone and more time working up a creative, even witty acceptance speech. Yes, people being tongue tied or verging on an anxiety attack or overcome with adrenalin may, on occasion, be funny-scary, moving, or exciting. Take Sunday night’s winner for best actress in a comedy or musical, Sally Hawkins for Happy-Go-Lucky. She approached the lectern in the throes of hyperventilation from surprise, confusion, unpreparedness, and a BMI of -3; or when Ari Fulman, the Israeli writer/director/winner of the Golden Globe for best foreign language film, the animated, anti-war Waltz With Bashir, expressed his hope that war in the Middle East will, in the not too distant future be looked back upon as an historical curiosity, essentially a dead issue ( Enshala, Bizrat Hashem ). Or recall Cuba Gooding who lit up the stage and almost scaled the wall when he won the Oscar for his "show me the money" role in Jerry Maguire. And Heath Ledger’s acceptance speech spilled out from the minds of the audiences. Mostly, though, award acceptors are compulsive thankers because they’re thinking about their next job, sucking up, making breathless appreciation an art form while not looking too ecstatic about beating out the competition. As for those who say they didn’t prepare anything because they didn’t think they were going to win but sure remember to thank their agent and the studio and, and, and… well, that’s why there in the acting profession. It’s all about faking sincerity, isn’t it? Don’t misread me. I truly enjoy watching award shows. I wish they would telecast more of them, like, say, the Writer’s Guild of America (WGA) annual award show. It’s much more literate than most. And, yes, while most writers are not eye candy celebrities, some celebrities are there to hand out some of the awards and amuse the crowd. And some writers are buzz makers, like Diablo Cody (who wrote the marvelous Juno ). And, hey, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon won Oscar and WGA awards for their screenplay for the film Good Will Hunting. Not bad. Worth a look. In terms of irreverence or casualness bordering on outrageousness, I think the Globe show is almost as good as the Independent Spirit Award show (best independent films and performances). The latter is real casual. Usually held in the afternoon. In a tent in Santa Monica. Overlooking the Pacific ocean. Very anti-establishment. Indie Award actors are generally most playful and funky and annointed movies and actors tend to be, well… more independent-minded. Both Globe and Spirit award shows are generally more enjoyable than the Oscars because celebrities and winners tend to be more relaxed, less phony and exhibit less overt networking and fawning over the power brokers, maybe their next employers. They all, to greater or lesser degrees, must get over this "thank you-itis," and give the TV audiences the respect they deserve. Most award shows carried on TV only have their real financial profit by virtue of people tuning in to watch them. By contrast, there’s much less of thank you-itis on the Tony Awards (Broadway shows). The Tony show is one hour shorter than Globes and Oscar shows (smaller audience). But shorter may be better. Maybe allowing so much biz "kiss, kiss, call me, where would I be without you, ducky? " verbal smooching contributed to the Golden Globe’s telecast sinking to a record low TV audience, according to the overnight Nielsen ratings . That klunk puts the 2009 ceremony at a 26% decrease from the last full ceremony in 2007 (the WGA strike derailed last year’s ceremony). A thought: The Golden Globes’ and the Oscars’ ratings have been sinking like GM stock or Dubya’s approval scores. You gotta wonder — is it the economy, a decaying, senescent audience, or just too many outbreaks of thank you-itis? © 2009 Psychology Today. This RSS Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. 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Golden Globes, Oscars and the Droning Horrors of Thank You-itis