This Happened at the SAG Awards: 22 Moments That Need Remembering

Not exactly known as the thriller of awards shows, the relatively young annual celebration has still provided a number of moments over the past 21 years that merit remembering

By Natalie Finn Jan 29, 2016 3:00 PMTags
Emma Stone, Amy Ryan, Zach Galifianakis, Naomi Watts, Edward Norton, SAG AwardsKevork Djansezian/Getty Images

Not exactly known as the most thrilling of the major awards shows, the Screen Actors Guild Awards tends to get short shrift when it comes to anticipation and attention. It's only a handful of acting awards, after all. There's no host. It's on cable. And it used to be (and is once again, this year) on a Saturday.

But the SAG Awards shouldn't be ignored! And not only because it's the other show where champagne is flowing at the table...

SAG just started handing out these honors—in the form of statues called Actors—in 1995, making this a relatively new tradition when compared to the Oscars (now in its 88th year) or the Grammys (58) or even the Golden Globes, which just turned 73. So it can't even lay claim to a storied history yet.

The show's youth, however, makes it easier to wrangle the moments that are worth remembering from the past two decades, ahead of tomorrow's 22nd Screen Actors Guild Awards. And we'll bet that you forgot about most of them, not least because you had no idea the SAGs existed until 2006.

So without further adieu, here are 22 things that have happened at the SAGs over the years:

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Seinfeld won the inaugural award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series in 1995 and would lay claim to the honor for the rest of its historic run, dethroned only once—the following year—by...

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Look, it's the entire cast of Friends. You just don't see that any more these days.

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Halle Berry walked the red carpet in 1995, apparently stumbling into a fountain of youth along the way, because here she also is 19 years later looking nary a day older.

Also at that first ceremony in 1995...

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Star of your kid-bedroom wall Jonathan Taylor Thomas! Home Improvement was one of the most-watched shows of the entire decade and the then-13-year-old actor was the stuff tween dreams were made of.

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Angelina Jolie was blond and newly divorced from Jonny Lee Miller when she won her first SAG, for the heartbreaking TV movie Gia, in 1999.

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In 2001, Kristin DavisSarah Jessica Parker, Cynthia Nixon and Kim Cattrall actually went around looking like Charlotte, Carrie, Miranda and Samantha.

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Four-time SAG Award winner Sean Hayes drew us a diagram one year.

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Look at these crazy kids, in love and experimenting with clipper setting 1 and hair dye.

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A reminder, from 2006, to appreciate all the talent we can when we can.

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Twelve-year-old Dakota Fanning brought a Shirley Temple doll with her on stage in 2006 to introduce Lifetime Achievement Award honoree Shirley Temple Black.

SAG has a history of recognizing the young talent in its midst. Dakota was a nominee at 8 for her role in I Am Sam and Jacob Tremblay, 9, is nominated this year for his supporting performance in Room, both of them following in the footsteps of...

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12-year-old Haley Joel Osment, who was in the running for The Sixth Sense 16 years ago.

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The cast of Grey's Anatomy won best drama ensemble in 2007. Five of these 11 actors remain on the show. Three of the six that left played characters who were killed off in utmost tragic fashion. Also part of the win but soon to be fired and absent that night amid off-set controversy: Isaiah Washington.

While this nostalgic walk down SAG Awards memory lane is serving as a real blast from the past, we're also reminded that we all make mistakes.

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Jennifer Lawrence's dress did this in 2013.

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The Dior gown of course wasn't really falling apart, but J.Law did frankly admit later, while being forced to relive the moment on Piers Morgan Live, "My pants fell off! Somebody trips me on the way, I remember that...There it starts to fall off...and I'm keeping it together, keeping it together, and...my pants fall off again."

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In 2014, Cate Blanchett forever changed the way we watched the stars hold these things.

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Life Achievement (and EGOT!) winner Rita Moreno, then 83, officially established herself as a badass for the ages as well.

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A few weeks after tossing her heels at the Golden Globe, Emma Thompson, came ready to dance in shiny Louboutin flats.

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Cuba Gooding Jr. was seemingly bum-rushing Ben Affleck, but was really just wishing the audience a happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day as the telecast was about to roll credits.

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Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher were every mother and perennially embarrassed teen daughter everywhere in 2015.

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The film ensemble win for Birdman was almost made that much more dramatic when Naomi Watts stumbled over the train of Emma Stone's to-die-for (but not really) skirt-tux combo.

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