Ahead of 81st Golden Globes, flashback to the 80s when the award telecast was banned

the 81st Golden Globe Awards that will be telecast on Monday, January 8. As film-goers await the announcement of these annual awards  with great curiosity , there is a great deal of controversial history behind the awards and its legacy that remains out of common knowledg for most. Very few people know that Golden Globes were banished from network television for 6 years in the 80s, because of a very debatable decision at one of its award ceremonies.

When the award went to a heavily panned performance

1981 was an interesting year for Hollywood that witnessed the rise of many new filmmakers’ voices. Similarly, many of these films made space for emerging acting talents like Cathleen Turner in Body Heat, Rachel Ward in Sharky’s Machine, Craig Wasson in Four Friends. However, the audience was in for a shock when the winner for New Star Of The Year award was announced - it was Pia Zadora for her performance in the film Butterfly.

This decision came as a shock not just because Butterfly was a film that was universally panned by critics, but also because Zadora’s performance didn’t fare any better when it came to reviews. And additionally, there was no dearth of good acting performances from new actors.

Pia Zadora’s husband had influenced the jury?

The decision to award Pia Zadora seemed to confirm for many what had been a suspicion in the industry for years - that Golden Globe Awards were rigged, and were heavily susceptible to influencing and bribery. Reportedly, Pia Zadora’s husband Meshulam Riklis, who was also instrumental in the financing of Butterfly, had flown in members of the jury for a special screening of the movie, and to influence the voting.

While the reputation of Golden Globes as a credible awards ceremony was already on shaky grounds, this incident put a big blot on their reliability. As a result, CBS decided to banish Golden Globes from telecast on their network for the next 6 years.

Today, Golden Globes enjoy great coverage and popularity both among film lovers and film industry, but this one decision at the 1982's ceremony had almost put a full stop to the institution.