In the late 1940s and early '50s, Hollywood studios began to reconsider — and in several cases pulled —their financial support of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' annual Oscars ceremony, fearing they had created a monster. Outsiders were increasingly questioning the legitimacy of the Oscar selection process, given that it was only logical that Academy members under contract to a specific studio would vote in blocs for that studio's top priorities. Stars were demanding to appear in art films instead of pure commercial plays, because the former were likelier to yield Oscar recognition. And in 1949, in the midst of major economic hostilities between Hollywood and the British film industry (the U.S. and U.K. were embroiled in a trade war), the Academy voted its top prize, best picture, to a foreign film, England's Hamlet, for the first time.

The Academy managed to survive by raising its annual membership dues, holding a fundraising drive and even licensing its organization's name to Bulova watches. Then, ahead of the Oscars ceremony in 1953, the ultimate celebration of movies was saved from such humiliations by the new medium many had feared would kill it: television. NBC paid $100,000 for the exclusive TV broadcasting rights to the show — big bucks in those days for the Academy, but small fries for NBC — and overnight the Academy went from being a beggar to being flush.