Actor Michael Chiklis, last year’s best actor Emmy winner for his blistering performance as Det. Vic Mackey on the F/X crime drama The Shield, breathed a long, deep sigh of relief when he heard actress Jane Kaczmarek finally add his name among this year’s crop of Emmy-nominated actors.
Rising at dawn to help Kaczmarek deliver this year’s list of nominees for the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences’ 55th Emmy Awards had paid off, but Chiklis was still shaking with excitement in mid-presentation after his name was announced.
“Still haven’t caught your breath, have ya?” Kaczmarek asked him.
“It’s like asking someone to prom in front of a pep rally,” Chiklis replied, voice quavering.
Despite her tightly crossed fingers, Kaczmarek‘s show Malcolm in the Middle didn’t get an outstanding comedy series nomination–“Is there anyone I can talk to around here? Nuts!” she barked, Lois-like. But moments later, she got down on her knees to kiss the stage when Chiklis read her name off the list of outstanding comedy actress nominees. Her patience was also rewarded with nominations for her real-life husband Bradley Whitford of The West Wing and her TV hubby Bryan Cranston.
After the TV announcement, both Chiklis and Kaczmarek retreated to various corners of the stage to chat on their cell phones with their loved ones–Kaczmarek to Whitford, who was home recovering from a treatment for kidney stones and Chiklis to his 9-year-old daughter–as the world awoke to discuss and dissect the latest round of the Emmy anointed.
Big winners before the big day
If TV remains a numbers game in a video landscape of increasingly narrow target audiences and rapidly multiplying off-network options, the best numbers may be in prestigious Emmy nominations, which may make or break a network as soundly as Neilsen ratings.
Just look at the Little Pay-Cable Channel That Could, HBO, bolstered over the years by past Emmy cred that signifies quality TV worth paying for. Once again the cabler dominated the field with 109 nominations, including 16 for the most-nominated series Six Feet Under, 13 for The Sopranos (left out of last year’s race due to a lengthy hiatus between seasons), another 13 for the truncated season of Sex and the City, 10 for Curb Your Enthusiasm and more for its many original star-powered movies.
NBC came in second with 77 total nods including 15 for The West Wing, the second-highest score among nominated shows this year–though this network triumph was counterbalanced by the lack of a best drama series nom for Law & Order, which would have given it 12 consecutive best series nominations. The long-running crime series remains tied for the record with Cheers and M*A*S*H.
Among the major networks, CBS followed in third place with 59, including 13 for Everybody Loves Raymond; Fox with 37; ABC with 33; and UPN and WB with one apiece. Off-network, PBS earned 16, TNT garnered 14, and A&E and Showtime both took 12. A total of 435 nominations in 89 categories were announced.
A not-so dramatic turn of events
There wasn’t much real drama among the outstanding drama series nominees. The usual suspects included CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, the most-watched series on TV; critical darlings Six Feet Under and The Sopranos; the genre-redefining 24; and The West Wing. The only glaring omission, given West Wing‘s weak season, was Chiklis‘ show, the riveting “bad cop” drama The Shield. Other than Law & Order, the only other likely contender left as a bridesmaid and not a bride was the oft-nominated spy series Alias.
Joining last year’s magnetic winner Chiklis among nominees for oustanding actor in a drama series are the always searing The Sopranos‘ James Gandolfini (who, not in the last
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Emmys race, could spoil Chiklis‘ chances for a repeat win); Peter Krause for his harrowing character work in Six Feet Under; Martin Sheen, charismatic as ever in The West Wing; and Kiefer Sutherland for reinvigorating the TV thriller in 24. One of the strongest and most competitive categories, it’s also one of the best-filled, with no serious oversights this year.
After an especially powerful season as The Sopranos‘ increasingly dissatisfied mob matriarch Carmella, previous winner Edie Falco, will go head-to-head for the first time against last year’s victor, The West Wing‘s Allison Janney (especially potent in an Alzheimer’s-themed episode) in the outstanding actress in a drama series category. Opposing them will be Marg Helgenberger for CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Jennifer Garner in Alias and Frances Conroy for Six Feet Under. Woefully absent was The Shield‘s intense CCH Pounder, nominated neither here nor as a supporting actress, and usual suspect Lorraine Bracco.
Traditionally one of the toughest categories to handicap, the supporting drama actor nominees include Alias‘ Victor Garber; The Sopranos‘ Michael Imperioli and Joe Pantoliano; and The West Wing‘s Bradley Whitford and John Spencer, a worthy lot that unfortunately edged out equally deserving candidates like West Wing‘s Rob Lowe and Richard Schiff, 24‘s Dennis Haysbert, The Shield‘s Jay Karnes and Six Feet Under‘s Michael C. Hall.
Among the outstanding supporting actress in a drama series nods were Alias‘ Lena Olin, Judging Amy‘s Tyne Daly, Six Feet Under‘s Lauren Ambrose and Rachel Griffiths and The West Wing‘s Stockard Channing. Conspicuously missing was a nomination for Lili Taylor‘s fine work as Nate’s doomed wife Lisa on Six Feet Under and the perhaps undervalued work this season from The Sopranos Drea de Matteo.
Matthew Perry may not have gotten a nomination for his work on Friends this season, but his brief role as an attorney on The West Wing earned him a place on the outstanding guest actor in a drama series list, which, like the similar actress category, is typically filled with movie stars visiting TV shows (Don Cheadleand Sally Field, ER; Kathy Bates and James Cromwell, Six Feet Under; Alfre Woodard, The Practice), longtime TV favorites (Farrah Fawcett, The Guardian; James Whitmore, Mister Sterling; Charles S. Dutton, Without a Trace Barbara Barrie, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit) and the just plain fun to watch (Tim Matheson, The West Wing; Tovah Feldshuh, Law & Order).
Laughing matters
The familiar outstanding comedy series nominees seemed to indicate both the continuing quality of the series singled out and also the somewhat sorry state of the sitcom on today’s tube–no fresh up-and-comer has appeared to challenge the perennials, two of which are heading into their final seasons.
Curb Your Enthusiasm, Everybody Loves Raymond, Friends, Sex and the City and Will & Grace sum up almost all that was intentionally amusing in primetime; even last year’s great, um, not-so-white hope for a newbie contender, The Bernie Mac Show, lost steam in its second season, the cuttingly funny Scrubs has yet to build Emmy momentum, and whereas Malcolm in the Middle‘s cast is honored routinely, the show can’t catch a break. We won’t even open the can of Emmy worms that keeps The Simpsons out of competition.
Yet again the outstanding actor in a comedy series category seems awfully familiar: everyman Ray Romano for Everybody Loves Raymond, check; put-upon Bernie Mac in The Bernie Mac Show, check; home-run hitter Matt LeBlanc in Friends, check; adroit Eric McCormack in Will & Grace, check; the brilliant Larry David in Curb Your Enthusiasm, check; and–oh finally, here’s a new face!–the great Tony Shalhoub in Monk. Kelsey Grammer is deservedly off the list after a lackluster season of Frasier, while room should be made for the always-on Matthew Perry and underappreciated David Schwimmer.
It’s hard to argue with the choices among the outstanding actress in a comedy series
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noms: Malcolm in the Middle‘s Kaczmarek (her fourth straight nomination), Patricia Heaton for Everybody Loves Raymond, Jennifer Aniston in Friends, Debra Messing in Will & Grace and Sarah Jessica Parker in Sex and the City. Only Lisa Kudrow was obviously overlooked.
It’s TV dad vs. TV son twice in the supporting actor in a comedy category, with Everybody Loves Raymond pater Peter Boyle taking on his on-screen kid Brad Garrett (who also grabbed a nod for his role as Jackie Gleason in the TV movie Gleason), while Frasier father John Mahoney contends with his TV offspring David Hyde Pierce. Another befuddled TV pop, Malcolm in the Middle‘s Bryan Cranston, vies with the childlike antics of Will & Grace‘s manic Sean Hayes. Missing in action: Curb heavyweight Jeff Garland and, depending on how you categorize him, Sex‘s devilish Mr. Big, Chris Noth.
The best news in the outstanding supporting actress in a comedy series category is the first-time nod for Curb Your Enthusiasm‘s Cheryl Hines as Larry David‘s long-suffering wife. She joins returning favorites Everybody Loves Raymond‘s Doris Roberts, Sex And The City‘s Cynthia Nixon and Kim Cattrall, and Will & Grace‘s Megan Mullally. The saddest news is that despite a particularly effective season as a despairing divorcée, Sex‘s Kristin Davis was overlooked yet again.
Outstanding guest actor and actress in a comedy series nominees featured a host of perennial TV favorites: (Everybody Loves Raymond‘s Fred Willard and Georgia Engel; Life With Bonnie‘s Jonathan Winters and David “Johnny Volcano” Duchovny; Friends‘ Christina Applegate and Hank Azaria; Yes, Dear‘s Betty White; a couple of Mel Brooks regulars, Will & Grace‘s Gene Wilder and Malcolm in the Middle‘s Cloris Leachman; and one plucky nominee who, along with her Laverne & Shirley roots, goes all the back to the Gene Kelly–Frank Sinatra musicals of the 1940s, Becker‘s Betty Garrett.
Movies ‘n minis
HBO again led the pack among nominees for outstanding made-for-television movie with Live From Baghdad, My House in Umbria and Normal vying with TNT’s Door to Door and Lifetime’s Homeless to Harvard: The Liz Murray Story.
Only three programs qualified for outstanding miniseries: CBS’ Hitler: The Rise of Evil, A&E’s Napoleon and Sci Fi’s Steven Spielberg Presents Taken.
Then just look at the straight-from-the-big-screen talent in the lead actor and actress categories for movies and minis, chock full o’ Oscar winners and nominees: Door to Door‘s William H. Macy, Normal‘s Tom Wilkinson, Our Town‘s Paul Newman, Rudy: The Rudy Giuliani Story‘s James Woods, and Gleason‘s Emmy winner Brad Garrett as well as the distaff side: Thora Birch (Homeless to Harvard: The Liz Murray Story), Helena Bonham Carter (Live From Baghdad), Maggie Smith (My House in Umbria), Jessica Lange (Normal) and Helen Mirren (Tennessee Williams’ The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone ).
The most glaring oversights were Michael Keaton, terrific as an ambitious Gulf War journalist in Iraq in Live From Baghdad and Uma Thurman, both funny and tragic in Hysterical Blindness.
Among the supporting actor and actress nominees were heavyweights including Peter O’Toole, Ben Gazzara, Chris Cooper, John Malkovich, Alan Arkin, Kathy Baker, Mirren again, Gena Rowlands, Juliette Lewis and Anne Bancroft.
A dose of reality
This year, bowing to the changing tastes of TV audiences, the Academy also unveiled its first-ever outstanding reality/competition program category. While three of the nominees seem non-brainers (The Amazing Race, American Idol and Survivor), two other seem like more routine specials than non-scripted reality shows starring sexy singles (AFI’s 100 Years … 100 Passions and 100 Years of Hope and Humor). Let’s be glad Meet the Folks didn’t make the cut and hope the judging is as harsh as Simon Cowell‘s.
…and oddball nods
Speaking of Simon, there was also no shortage of “who’da thunk it?” nominees–for example, would you ever imagine that Ryan Seacrest might have a shot at thanking his
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colorist at the Emmy podium? Well, the host of American Idol did indeed receive a nod as host of the show in the outstanding reality/competition program category, as did judges Randy Jackson, Paula Abdul and yes, even mean ol’ Simon.
The King of the World himself, Oscar-winning director James Cameron, could also take home an outstanding directing for nonfiction programming Emmy for co-directing the Discovery Channel’s undersea documentary James Cameron’s Expedition: Bismarck. Actor Gerard Depardieu may also bring an Emmy home to France as a producer of A&E’s Napoleon mini.
Late-night television offered up a host of familiar after-hours performers among the staff writer nominees for outstanding writing for a variety, music or comedy program, including David Letterman, Conan O’Brien, Jon Stewart and Saturday Night Live head writer Tina Fey. Other writing nominees in the category include Robin Williams for his HBO special and former vice president Al Gore’s daughter Kristin, another SNL scribe. And proving himself to be as adept at the word processor as he is at hitting his marks, actor William H. Macy earned a nod in the outstanding writing for a miniseries, movie or a dramatic special category for co-writing TNT’s Door to Door, which also provided a nom to co-executive producer Forest Whitaker.
Even three-fourths of the on-screen Osbournes–Ozzy, Jack and Kelly–got in on the action: their memorable pitch for Pepsi Twist (alongside Donny and Marie Osmond and Florence Henderson) was nominated for outstanding commercial. They’ll be competing head-to-head with another showbiz family, Charlie and Martin Sheen, whose hilarious ad for VISA was also nominated.
And just to ensure that she’s had a shot at every major award in business, the Emmys have also nominated the star who, despite numerous public goodbye attempts, may never go away: Cher, who gets a nod for executive producing her Cher – The Farewell Tour, recognized in the outstanding variety, music or comedy special category. Talk about long goodbyes!
The 55th Emmy Awards are scheduled to air live from the Shrine Auditorium Sept. 21 on FOX.
