THB #195: Part 1 - The Journey To An HFPA With ZERO Oversight

I was in the audience for the first American Comedy Awards. It was a rubber chicken affair. But I got to hang out for the evening with James Bacon, which was great fun. I was not a journalist at the time (1987). I worked for Marty Ingels, who had a business putting celebrities in ads and doing personal appearances.

George Schlatter created the event, got a deal with ABC, and there we all were, in tuxes at The Palladium. It was complete bullshit. I mean, there was the idea of honoring comedians, which was legit. But this show was based on who would attend and who George liked, etc. There was a head nod to the idea of a committee voting… but a pal of mine had voted… and he wasn’t funny. It was a TV show pretending to be an award show… all in fun.

Damned if the thing didn’t last 15 years!!!

The People’s Choice Awards were created in 1975 by a guy named Bob Stivers who made a show based on popularity surveys that were already being done by Gallup. The show was sold to Proctor & Gamble in 19…