Emmy Awards

No matter how lame and rushed the three-hour Emmy broadcast was, we'd happily watch it again just to see Tina Fey keep winning. Our favorite crush saw her 30 Rock receive seven awards, including Best Actress in a Comedy Series and Best Comedy Series. Good thing she was seated in the front row!

Ms. Fey wasn't the only Emmy darling: Mad Men, a shocked Bryan Cranston for Breaking Bad and a totally deserving Jean Smart for Samantha Who? were among the nights big winners. In case you didn't stick with the show for all three hours, don't worry. We did! Here are some observations from the 60th Primetime Emmy Awards.  read more »

LOS ANGELES—Once upon a time—say, around 1995—one of the most coveted occupations in all the land was that of situation comedy writer. Ivy League grads traded in their Heidegger and Foucault for jobs staying up all night, cracking jokes and devouring Twizzlers. Work, if you could call it that, was abundant. Money flowed, in the form of exclusive network deals. “It was like Berlin before the war,” said Jeff Strauss, a former writer for Friends. “We got to be part of a party that we thought would never end.”

But end it has.

At one point in the 1990s, NBC had 16 half-hour sitcoms on the air.  read more »

HBO's critical hit miniseries John Adams made out big at the Emmy announcement this morning with 23 nominations. Twenty-three! God bless America! Although HBO was also recognized for Entourage and Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Wire, the series that has us wired, was totally snubbed!

AMC's Mad Men, where ad men still had their mojo, garnered 16 noms at the top of the drama series category. That's the first time a basic cable program has topped that list. NBC’s "defending comedy champ," 30 Rock, was the most-recognized series overall, with 17 Emmy bids, according to Variety. The winners will be announced Sept.  read more »

Former Vice President Al Gore called on television executives, producers and performers to help warn viewers about global warming as he accepted a special honor last night at the 35th International Emmy Awards at the Hilton New York. Robert De Niro introduced Gore as this year's recipient of the International Emmy Founders Award for his efforts to promote "our common humanity."  read more »

Two locally filmed shows took top series honors at last night's Emmy Awards.

'The Sopranos' took home the Best Drama award, and creator David Chase and director Alan Taylor won for writing and directing.

But in a big upset, favorite James Gandolfini lost to James Spader of 'Boston Legal.'

'30 Rock' took home its single primetime award--but it was a big one: Best Comedy. During their acceptance speech Tina Fey thanked the show's 'dozens' of viewers and thanked NBC's Zucker for sticking with the show.

Altogether the program was its usual mix of bathos and strained humor. But in case you still feel like you missed, something, after the jump is the exhaustive, chronological account put out by the show's organizers. It has a similarly strange, incantatory charm to the show itself.  read more »