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Our long national nightmare is over! The sock monkey who types this blog finally got around to bringing the Katie-Bar-the-Door Awards up to date — we now have nominees and winners for the entire Oscar era, from 1927 all the way through 2024 ... and one big winner for 2025.
And what are the Katie-Bar-the-Door Awards? Not so much alternate Oscars as alternate Golden Globe awards, I have chosen movies, actors, directors and writers I think Hollywood should have honored over the years in the categories of drama, comedy/musical (broadly defined) and (in the best picture category) foreign language.
Other than the immortal Erik Beck, who does that? Well, what can I tell you — the Monkey is a full-service old-school blog!
Check out the nominees and winners by decade:
1927-39
1940s
1950s
1960s
1970s
1980s
1990s
2000s
2010s
2020s
And I'll be writing again soon ... next up, three to see starring Norma Shearer!
In case you've forgotten, I'll repeat the list: This Is Spinal Tap, Stand By Me, The Princess Bride, When Harry Met Sally, Misery and A Few Good Men.
In the course of that run, he made stars of River Phoenix, Meg Ryan and Kathy Bates (who won an Oscar as James Caan's biggest fan); turned the mockumentary up to eleven, establishing a beloved comedy genre in the process; gave us Jack Nicholson's best known catchphrase ("You can't handle the truth!"); and most importantly, taught women everywhere how to fake an orgasm (Oh, no, sorry — I've just been informed they've been doing that since the beginning of time).
Throw in The Sure Thing (1985), a very funny screwball rom-com that put John Cusack on the map, and you can say Reiner's movies helped shape everything that came after.
The son of comedy legend Carl Reiner, he was also a very good comedic actor in his own right. On the groundbreaking comedy All in the Family, his performance as Mike Stivic — a.k.a. the earnest, sometimes misguided but always funny "Meathead" — twice earned him a Primetime Emmy.
Maybe of more significance, Reiner, with his comic foil Archie Bunker (the great Carroll O'Connor), helped left-wing and right-wing America carry on a conversation at a particularly fraught moment in our history.
If only there were such a cultural meeting place these days! But alas, times change and we're lucky now if we can agree on the day of the week much less things that matter.
Finally, on a personal note, Rob Reiner taught me how to put on my shoes — one foot at a time, of course, not like the rest of you animals, with your sock and a sock and a shoe and a shoe.
Saw that as a kid fifty-plus years ago and I've been walking in Rob Reiner's footsteps, so to speak, ever since.
For that, and for all those movies I still watch and love, thank you, Mr. Reiner. You will be missed.
