Awards and nominations
Midler won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Miniseries or Television Film. Gibb was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film and the production was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Miniseries or Television Film.
The film was nominated for 12 Primetime Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Made for Television Movie and Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie for Midler, and won for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Music Direction (Michael Rafter).
Ardolino was nominated for the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Dramatic Specials
Critical reception
Jule Styne said, “I’m so excited. I just watched a tape of the movie and I cried. It is the most outstanding singing and acting performance I’ve seen on the screen within memory.”[2]
Dorothy Rabinowitz wrote, “Ms. Midler the toughest and brassiest Mama Rose ever… Most everything comes up roses here all right.”[6]
Jennifer Stevenson wrote, “Probably the best movie of the television year…”[7]
Barbara Jaeger wrote, “…Midler deserves both an Emmy and a Grammy.”[8]
“Midler was sensational as Mama Rose in the recent TV version of Gypsy,” wrote The Buffalo News.[9]
The Chicago Sun-Times said, “Midler has the perfect blend of energy and maturity to portray vaudeville’s ultimate stage mother. But the guiding force behind the new, sparkling Gypsy comes from the perceptive and reverent direction of Oscar winner Emile Ardolino, who artfully preserves the spirit of a stage play within the confines of television.”[10] In another article, the publication wrote, “Bette Midler’s star turn in CBS’ Gypsy not only brought the TV musical back from the dead, but it also helped the network win another
Nielsen ratings
The film brought in an 18.6/28 rating/share, ranking 4th out of 90 programs that week, and was watched by 26.2 million viewers
Source: Wikipedia
This is something I feel she was ROBBED of that Emmy!! It still baffles me to this day that she did not win. I have a feeling if they were to put the same movie out today, she would win it!
In her acceptance speech when she won the EMMY the following year for “Best Performance in a Musical Special (“BETTE MIDLER: DIVA LAS VEGAS”) she said “I’m glad I won this because I didn’t win it last year and I was REALLY pissed off!” This would have been her one and only EMMY for an acting performance and it meant a lot to everyone that she win it! (Her loss to Kirstie Alley that year was just a little less exasperating as her loss to Sally Field for the OSCAR for “THE ROSE.”)
In her acceptance speech when she won the EMMY the following year for “Best Performance in a Musical Special” (“BETTE MIDLER: DIVA LAS VEGAS”) she said “I’m glad I won this because I didn’t win it last year and I was REALLY pissed off!” This would have been her one and only EMMY for an acting performance and it meant a lot to everyone that she win it! (Her loss to Kirstie Alley that year was just a little less exasperating as her loss to Sally Field for the OSCAR for “THE ROSE.”)
Read the second version of my reply not the first one…I can’t figure out how to delete it!
Never mind they are identical…boy oh boy I am tired tonight I think! lol
I don’t think anybody knew what happened there. That’s why most awards seem to be won by politics or something else. Kirsty Alley is great but not great enough. In a Lifetime Movie to win over Bette Midler in Gypsy! That’s blasphemy
This still makes my blood boil. I finally understood what people feel when their “team” loses a big sporting event.
LOL I know. I actually like Kirstie Alley in Cheers, and I saw the movie that won her the Emmy. But it was a role anybody could play. I was just dead sure that Bette had this in the bag. I remember I jumped up when she lost and yelled “You’re fucking kidding me!” It’s all politics
At that time EMMYS were awarded by “The Blue Ribbon Panel” who together in a room viewed each nomination in it’s entirety. And then after the viewing they each voted for the performance they felt was the best…They tended to prefer a tsunami of tears kind of performance… and “the winning performance usually surfaces very quickly…” an anonymous panelist said…It was absurd she did not win it. (Susan Lucci understood her pain I’m sure…she had the same problem 18 times!)
The nominees were voted for by all the television performers before the award was voted on by the anonymous “Blue Ribbon Panel.” So in the case of Susan Lucci 19 times the daytime television performers voted for her…but then the panelists would see each nomination and the soap star “chewing scenery” would be chosen over Susan Lucci whose performance was more of a parody…more comedy than drama! Also the soap stars picked two episodes for the panel to view in their entirety that year. Lucci’s people were notorious for picking the two episodes that Lucci was not very good…over and over and over…for example, Erica Kane became a pill addict in 1996 and Lucci’s performance was AMAZING! TV Guide had the cover story: “YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST…THIS IS HER YEAR!” That was in 1996 and me and my friend attended the ceremony in New York to see her win the award. Then we saw the episodes they had submitted to the panelists. They picked the episodes where Erica is in a dark alley trying to score some pills off the street. Those two episodes were the ONLY two that seemed a little phony and far fetched. My friend and I knw it was all over! A hush fell over Radio City Music Hall when she lost…AGAIN!
I used to watch that Susan Lucci soap and the one that went on to be really big and I can’t think of her name but she was called Karen and was a housewife prostitute? I knew she was going to make it.
Judith Lights I believe is who you are referring to who went on to star in “WHO’S THE BOSS” but she was on “ONE LIFE TO LIVE” of which “ALLMY CHILDREN”was a spinoff. lol
That’s correct!