Academy Vs Audience

It's 1995, and we have cuckoos and sharks coming your way! The Oscar went to One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, second film ever to achieve the Oscar Grand Slam, as Jack Nicholson's anti-hero McMurphy squared off with Louise Fletcher's icily villainous Nurse Ratched. It's hailed by a classic, but how does it hold up? And what do other versions of the story do better? But the audience pic is the birth of the blockbuster, Steven Spielberg's classic, Jaws. Claire, Erin, and Dan dig into both, and ask who we feel more sympathy for: controlling nurses or giant sharks? Grab your floaties and find out!

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Two years after The Godfather dominated the box office and snagged the top Oscar, Francis and the Corleones are back for one of the most lauded sequels ever, The Godfather Part 2. Gina Stewart's back to join Erin, Claire, and Dan in unpacking the rise of Vito and the fall of Michael, and the sad story of Fredo and the career of the man playing him. But the sequel didn't fully wow the crowds, so we move on to the pinnacle of the early 70s top genre, disasters, with The Towering Inferno. Paul Newman and Steve McQueen battle to stop a raging fire and claim top billing, while an all-star supporting cast attempts to stay uncooked. Who lives, who dies, why won't Erin be sleeping tonight? Find out!

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It's 1973, and we take a break from Coppola's mafia movies for... more crimes, of legal and spiritual nature! First up, Paul Newman and Robert Redford are back together for new crimes in a new century, as 1930s con men out for payback on a vicious gangster in Oscar winner The Sting. But as popular as the Butch and Sundance reunion was (very), audiences were even more drawn into horror classic The Exorcist, in which a desperate mother exhausts many, many, many options before a young priest and an old priest unite to battle the devil. Horror fan and heist movie tolerator Keith Kollee from Recovered returns to get into the heist and horror double feature. Which one had the more deserving crown? Listen and join the argument.

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It's 1972 and Francis Ford Coppola had an offer neither Academy nor Audience could refuse, with all-time-classic mob movie The Godfather. Erin, Claire, and Dan dig into the suspense, the twists and turns, who the best Corleone kid is and why it's Tom Hagen, and Gina Stewart is back to tell us all about how Mario Puzo's novel was adapted (by Puzo himself and Coppola). Get yourself a plate of pasta, pour some wine, and dig into the first Joint Champion of the 70s with us!

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It's the holiday season, so while taking a brief break, Erin, Claire, and Dan look back at the hits, possible nominees, and other random movies they've seen over the course of 2023. What were some Oscar History highlights? What were the weird trends of 2023 movies? What's the most unfortunate trend? Are we headed for the first Joint Champion in two decades? Probably not but maybe we should be. Join in for a look back.

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1971 brings us another year where you have to ask if someone wrote the winners down wrong, as the Academy goes with the cop thrillers and audiences decide they're not quite done with musicals. Best Picture goes to The French Connection, with Gene Hackman as Popeye Doyle, a cop on the edge in world he never made, fighting French drug traffickers with... racism and mostly inept surveillance? Doesn't seem great... Meanwhile, our Box Office Champion Fiddler on the Roof sings of Tradition, wishes to be a Rich Man, and audiences turned out Sunrise, Sunset. Which did Erin, Claire, and Dan connect with the most? Listen and find out!

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Welcome to the 70s, New Hollywood! And as Erin, Claire, and Dan enter this new decade, all is fair in love and war... and if it isn't, love means never having to say you're sorry. The Academy goes for Patton, a biopic of the controversial World War II general, and Erin and Claire are... not convinced. Meanwhile, the audience showed up in droves for the simply titled Love Story, and the hosts have some notes. War gets the glory, love conquers all at the box office, but who stands the test of time? Listen along and find out.

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Grab your hat, your boots, your portable radio, and all the chewing gum you can carry, as New Hollywood hits hard in 1969. The Academy goes for the bleak, urban tragedy of two failing hustlers in Midnight Cowboy, and Dustin Hoffman shatters our hosts' hearts. The audience went for something lighter, more fun, and yet with fewer surviving protagonists in western buddy comedy Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Two very different movies succeeding in very different ways, but which is the favourite? Which one set a record? Listen in to find out.

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It's 1968, the dying days of Hollywood's "Golden Age," and while grosses have been down and the market's oversaturated, the big-budget Hollywood musical is going down swinging. First, the Oscar goes to Oliver!, a whimsical, light-hearted, peppy musical adaptation of... Oliver Twist? Weird choice. Once we're through the toe-tapping child trauma, it's on to Funny Girl, Barbra Streisand's breakout movie depicting the rise of top-tier Ziegfeld Girl Fanny Brice, the fall of her gambler husband, and how Fanny apparently never did anything wrong ever. It's tone clash vs. whitewashed biography, with songs for the whole family, and Kevin Weir's back to help break it all down!

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Welcome to New Hollywood, listeners! The Academy goes for tense, racially charged In The Heat of the Night, where Sidney Poitier announces "They call me Mr. Tibbs" and helps a hick southern sheriff solve a murder. It's gripping, it's powerful, it brings up some sad thoughts for Erin, Claire, and Dan in the wake of recent events in Canada. Then on the lighter side, Dustin Hoffman makes his AVA debut in The Graduate, a blend of bleak and very funny that your co-hosts fall for partially because the characters are very unlikable. The Hayes Code is dead, the Studio Bosses have fallen, and boundaries get pushed as the New Hollywood era begins! Listen in now.

Find all of our episodes and the rest of Writing Therapy Productions' various entertainments at www.writingtherapyproductions.com