Let's talk about Penny Marshall.
Penny Marshall is best known as one-half of Laverne & Shirley (she was Laverne) alondside Cindy Williams, characters they originated on the television sitcom Happy Days. Her brother Garry Marshall (who would eventually direct Pretty Woman) created Happy Days, having been a veteran of the TV side of show business; it was he who pushed her into acting, but it was her own independent work with writing partner Williams that inspired the Laverne and Shirley characters. A popular show, Laverne & Shirley ran eight seasons, during which time Marshall received three Golden Globe nominations and started directing: first a pilot of a different, then four episodes of Laverne & Shirley. Set to make her cinematic directorial debut with Peggy Sue Got Married, she left due to creative differences, but the same year got another directing job: the comedy-thriller Jumpin' Jack Flash with Whoopi Goldberg - a modest hit! She followed it up with the fantasy Big with Tom Hanks - an insane hit, and an Academy Award nominee for Best Actor and Best Original Screenplay. Her next film: Awakenings.
Awakenings tells the incredible true story of catatonic patients who miraculously, albeit temporarily, became active and aware after decades of no progress, possibly due to a treatment administered by their new physician. Robin Williams is the doctor, Robert De Niro is the first test subject - both were named Best Actor by the National Board of Review. A hit film based on a best-seller, it grossed over $100 million, was named among the best films of the year by a number of critical bodies, and was a no-brainer for a Best Picture nomination.
Marshall, however, never received any accolades for the film. Not an Oscar nod, not a DGA nomination, not a Golden Globe. And this is part of two problems the Academy had throughout this decade. The first, obviously, was their lack of nominations for female directors - you can’t say they just weren’t good enough, their films kept making money and getting into Best Picture (Randa Haines, anyone?). The second was, as far as I can see it, snobbery. Awakenings is not a comedy. Marshall, however, was a comedienne, a sitcom star. It didn’t matter that her films kept making money or received critical acclaim, just as it didn’t matter that Jerry Zucker - of Airplane!, Police Squad, and Top Secret! fame - brought in the biggest moneymaker of the year. Just as it didn’t matter in 1995, when Ron Howard won the DGA Award for Apollo 13 but blipped with Oscar! They weren’t in the club…yet.
Awakenings came out December 19th, amidst these eleven other eventual nominees and awards season hopefuls:
