On The Beatles’ cover of Buck Owens’ song, "Act Naturally," Ringo Starr sang the line, “Might win an Oscar you can never tell." While The Beatles did win an Oscar back in 1971 for the original Let It Be documentary, they can add an Emmy — five, to be exact — to their resume as the Peter Jackson-directed Disney+ series, The Beatles: Get Back took home five awards at the 74th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards.
The Beatles: Get Back won in all five of the categories the three-part series was nominated for at last night’s Creative Arts Emmy Awards which included Outstanding Sound Editing for a Nonfiction or Reality Program (Single or Multi-Camera) (for "Part 3: Days 17-22), Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Nonfiction or Reality Program (Single or Multi-Camera) (for "Part 3: Days 17-22"), Outstanding Picture Editing for a Nonfiction Program (for "Part 3: Days 17-22"), Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series, and Outstanding Directing for a Documentary/Nonfiction Program (for "Part 3: Days 17-22").
Jackson beat out stiff competition for his Outstanding Directing award including the likes of Judd Apatow and Micahel Bonfiglio for George Carlin's American Dream, Amy Pohler for Lucy and Desi, W. Kamau Bell for We Need to Talk About Cosby, and Andrew Rossi for The Andy Warhol Diaries.
Debuting an episode-a-day on Disney+ from November 25-27 last year, The Beatles: Get Back chronicled the Fab Four’s studio sessions for the group’s final album, Let It Be. While there was a documentary released in 1970 about the making of the album, Jackson’s three-part documentary dives even deeper and runs a total of 468 minutes. Included in these sessions is a peek behind the curtain where you see Paul McCartney create the song “Get Back” from a simple bass line and the members of the band covering some of the songs that came before them (“Twenty Flight Rock,” “Stand By Me”). The documentary series also shows the origins of songs that would appear on some of the member’s future solo albums including George Harrison’s “All Things Must Pass” and “The Back Seat of My Car,” which would later appear on McCartney’s album, Ram. The series culminates in the band's famous rooftop concert.
Jackson had gone back and restored footage from the old sessions and created an epic documentary for fans ofThe Beatles to sink their teeth into. Disney also released the rooftop concert portion of the documentary, titled The Beatles: Get Back — The Rooftop Concert, in limited IMAX theaters earlier this year. The audio from the concert, remixed in Dolby Atmos, was made available on streaming services.
McCartney’s recent Got Back tour even integrated some of the footage that Jackson had restored. This included giving McCartney a chance to duet with the late John Lennon on the Let It Be song, “I’ve Got a Feeling.”
The Beatles: Get Back is available to stream on Disney+ and available on Blu-ray and DVD now. Check out our interview with Jackson below.