How a 1980s TV show made an EGOT the most prestigious accolade in Hollywood
Anyone with a passing interest in the entertainment industry knows what an EGOT is, but what’s less well-known about the four-trophy haul that’s become the embodiment of reaching the pinnacle of music, film, and television is that it’s only part of the cultural lexicon thanks to a 1980s TV series.
Only 21 people have ever won a competitive Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony, with three of them doing it before the phrase even existed. These days, though, eyes are peeled throughout awards season to see which performers are within touching distance of completing the quartet, such is the way it’s become so firmly embedded into the DNA of the business.
Richard Rodgers of Rodgers and Hammerstein was the very first EGOT winner after winning a Primetime Emmy in 1962. It was a completely unique distinction at the time, but nobody had bothered to come up with the shorthand. He was joined by actor Helen Hayes in 1977 when she scooped a Grammy before the pre-EGOT winners of the EGOT were rounded out by Rita Moreno, who completed the set with an Emmy the same year as Hayes.
In fact, it wouldn’t be for another seven years that the phrase was coined, and it hailed from the star of one of the most popular shows on the airwaves. Clearly brimming with confidence after pastel procedural Miami Vice had dominated the ratings throughout its debut season after premiering in September 1984, Philip Michael Thomas was supremely confident that the part of Rico Tubbs would be the springboard to bigger and better things.
When asked where he envisioned his career progressing, nobody could accuse the actor of lacking self-belief. Thomas started wearing a garish gold medallion bearing the ‘EGOT’ branding, explaining its meaning to an interviewer: “Hopefully, in the next five years, I will win all of those awards.”
Spoiler alert: he didn’t. Thomas did notch a Golden Globe nomination for his work in Miami Vice, but unless something drastic changes, the guy who brought the EGOT to the masses will go the rest of his days knowing that he’s the one responsible for originating the term and was then forced to suffer the cruel ramifications of realising that he was never in with a sniff of any of the four prizes.
Admittedly, the recognition of the EGOT as a viable achievement didn’t truly gain prominence until it became a recurring plotline on 30 Rock a quarter of a century later, but it wasn’t Liz Lemon who said it first. It was Thomas, who – with the greatest of respect – didn’t exactly achieve a whole lot once Miami Vice went off the airwaves following its five-season run.
Still, nobody can take away the fact he was the guy who said it first, even if his optimism blew up in his face when he didn’t come close to realising those lofty aspirations.
