If there was any clear winner at the 51st annual Emmy Awards Sunday night, it was superproducer David E. Kelley. He made two trips to the stage: one for his gritty law drama “The Practice” on ABC, and a minute later for the flighty law comedy “Ally McBeal” on Fox.
“I said I was surprised before,” said Kelley on his second trip, flanked by cast members of “Ally.”
“They said backstage, `You’ve got to go back out, you’ve got to go back out.’ . . . I thought there had been a mistake. `The Sopranos’ had won drama.”
“The Practice’s” best-drama win was the last of four awards, including best supporting actor and actress and best guest actor. “Ally McBeal” won three awards, but two were creative-arts Emmys.
“The Sopranos,” the edgy HBO series about a mob boss dealing with personal issues that led all shows with 16 nominations, tied “The Practice” with four awards, including best actress for Edie Falco as the long-suffering wife of New Jersey gangster Tony Soprano.
James Gandolfini, who was nominated for playing Tony, lost to longtime Chicago actor Dennis Franz as brittle detective Andy Sipowicz on ABC’s “NYPD Blue.” It was his fourth win in six tries.
“The Sopranos,” the first cable series to be nominated for best drama, also won best writing for a drama and awards for casting and single-camera picture editing.
As was the case the last several years, Emmy honors were spread around to several shows, but no one dominated, and several who had won multiple nominations found themselves going home with just a few.
Helen Hunt, playing young married mother Jamie Buchman for the last season of NBC’s “Mad About You,” was named best actress in a comedy, the fourth time in a row she was so honored.
“Thank you so much and thank you for the compliment,” Hunt said. She thanked co-host Paul Reiser for “inviting me to be on a show with you, and how will I ever find someone to act with who I trust and love so much?”
John Lithgow won for the third time as the silly alien chief Dick Solomon on NBC’s “3rd Rock From the Sun.”
“I really don’t know why I win this,” he said. “As far as I can tell, every actor in this town thinks what I do on `3rd Rock From the Sun’ is completely disgraceful. . . . I’m embarrassed myself. But I’m very, very proud of `3rd Rock From the Sun.’ “
“You crazy kids, I can’t believe this!” said Lithgow’s “3rd Rock” co-star Kristen Johnston, who won an Emmy for the second time. David Hyde Pierce won his third Emmy for playing Niles Crane, the finicky brother of Frasier Crane on NBC’s “Frasier.”
“The greatest honor the academy (of Television Arts and Sciences) has ever given me is to put me in the same category with John Mahoney,” Pierce said of his co-star, the Chicago actor who has never been honored for his part as the Crane brothers’ father, Martin. Mahoney also was a best-supporting-acting nominee.
Holland Taylor, who played an amorous judge in several episodes of ABC’s “The Practice,” won as best-supporting actress in the drama, beating out Lara Flynn Boyle and Camryn Manheim on the same show, Kim Delaney of ABC’s “NYPD Blue” and Nancy Marchand for HBO’s “The Sopranos,” all of whom were series regulars.
“Overnight!” proclaimed Taylor, a veteran, over-50 actress. “I’m so glad I wrote something. . . . I’m so sorry I can’t see it.”
Michael Badalucco was a surprise winner for best-supporting actor as lawyer Jimmy Berluti in “The Practice,” and he thanked creator Kelley, who also has on the air this fall CBS’ “Chicago Hope,” ABC’s “Snoops” and the half-hour, re-edited version of “Ally.”
Paris Barclay, who grew up in the Chicago area, won the best-dramatic-directing award for the heartwrenching episode in which New York detective Bobby Simone (Jimmy Smits) died on ABC’s “NYPD Blue.”
“Without Steven Bochco and his commitment to diversity — which to him means get the best people, look a little harder — I wouldn’t be here,” said Barclay, the African-American who with Bochco co-created “City of Angels,” the yet-to-be-seen CBS midseason replacement based in an inner-city hospital — the only series in the works with a predominantly black cast.
Helen Mirren, who won best actress for a mini-series or TV movie for Showtime’s “The Passion of Ayn Rand,” called the moment “unexpected, brilliant.”
“Oh, I wasn’t expecting this, I really wasn’t” said “Horatio Hornblower” executive producer Andrew Benson, and he wasn’t alone. CBS’ “Joan of Arc,” which grabbed 13 nominations, settled for a supporting-actor win for Peter O’Toole as Bishop Cauchon.
Winners in 52 categories were announced Aug. 28 at the Emmy creative arts awards ceremony, including outstanding choreography, editing and makeup. “The Sopranos” and “Ally McBeal” took home two statuettes during those announcements.
Sunday’s show was expected to be seen in about 90 countries, the academy said.
Each year some type of controversy has touched the Emmys. This year’s flap was actually a continuation of a running gripe: cable’s deepening incursion into what previously has been considered broadcast television’s territory.
“The Sopranos’ ” 16 nods were the most ever by a cable drama. And HBO was second only to NBC in total nominations. NBC had 82 to 74 for HBO. ABC received 58, CBS 46 and Fox 33. By the end of the program, however, HBO had won more awards than NBC, its closest competitor, with 23.
The networks cried foul at cable’s challenge this year, mostly because of the contention that cable’s lack of restrictions on language and mature themes allows some cable shows to be, in the networks’ view, more honest than broadcast shows can be.
However, several shows that push the language and sex envelopes weren’t nominated in any major categories, Showtime’s “Rude Awakening,” about a recovering alcoholic (Sherilyn Fenn) among them.
“The Sopranos,” on the other hand, was nominated not only in such major categories as best actor for Gandolfini and best actress for Lorraine Bracco and Falco — with Falco winning — but the show also dominated the best-writing category, with four out of five bids; “NYPD Blue” earned the fifth. “Sopranos” creator David Chase, along with James Manos Jr., won in that category.
“The Sopranos” had already won two Emmys prior to Sunday’s telecast, for casting and single-camera picture editing. The networks are painfully aware that cable has been eroding their audience for years; they’ve also been losing the war of Emmy when it comes to television movies, mini-series and a few other key areas.
While three of the five outstanding mini-series were from the networks (NBC had two with “The ’60s” and “The Temptations”) all five made-for-TV movies nominated for Emmys came from cable, with HBO owning two, “A Lesson Before Dying,” which won, and “The Rat Pack.” Cable’s inroads into broadcast territory is one reason cable did away with its own CableACE Awards a few years ago.
Lack of minority representation on television, a hot button this season, was noticeable among Emmy-nominated actors and actresses.
Of 85 performance nominations (including the five outstanding performances in a variety or music program), only nine went to minorities (although Smits, Steve Harris and a few others were in prominent categories), and only two were females (Cicely Tyson for HBO’s “A Lesson Before Dying” and Lucy Liu for “Ally McBeal”).
John Leguizamo, who won best performance for a Variety/Music Program for his HBO special “John Leguizamo’s Freak,” referred to the cable network as “Hispanic Box Office” for their support of his work.
Don Cheadle was nominated twice–and lost twice. Other winners:
Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series: Johnston, “3rd Rock From the Sun,” NBC.
Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series: Hyde Pierce, “Frasier,” NBC.
Writing for a Comedy Series: Jay Kogan, “Frasier,” NBC.
Directing for a Comedy Series: Thomas Schlamme, “Sports Night,” ABC.
Writing for a Variety/Music Program: “The Chris Rock Show,” HBO.
Directing for a Variety/Music Program: Paul Miller, “52nd Annual Tony Awards,” CBS.
Performance for a Variety/Music Program: Leguizamo, “John Leguizamo’s Freak,” HBO.
Supporting Actress for a Drama: Taylor, “The Practice,” ABC.
Supporting Actor for a Drama: Badalucco, “The Practice,” ABC.
Writing for a Drama: Manos and Chase, “The Sopranos,” HBO.
Directing for a Drama: Paris Barclay, “NYPD Blue,” ABC.
Supporting Actress for a Mini-series/TV-Movie: Anne Bancroft, “Deep in My Heart,” CBS.
Writing for a Mini-series/TV-Movie: Ann Peacock, “A Lesson Before Dying,” HBO.
Supporting Actor for a Mini-series/TV-Movie: O’Toole, “Joan of Arc,” CBS.
Outstanding Variety/Music/Comedy Special: “The 52nd Annual Tony Awards,” CBS.
Outstanding Variety/Music/Comedy Series: “Late Show with David Letterman,” CBS.
Directing for a Mini-series/TV Movie: Allan Arkush, “The Temptations,” NBC.
Lead Actress for a Mini-series/TV Movie: Mirren, “The Passion of Ayn Rand,” Showtime.
Outstanding Mini-series: “Horatio Hornblower,” A&E.
Lead Actor for a Mini-series/TV Movie: Stanley Tucci, “Winchell,” HBO.
Outstanding Made-for-TV Movie: “A Lesson Before Dying,” HBO.
Lead Actress for a Comedy Series: Hunt, “Mad About You,” NBC.
Lead Actor for a Comedy Series: Lithgow, “3rd Rock From the Sun,” NBC.
Lead Actress for a Drama Series: Falco, “The Sopranos,” HBO.
Lead Actor for a Drama Series: Franz, “NYPD Blue,” ABC.
Outstanding Drama Series: “The Practice,” ABC.
Outstanding Comedy Series: “Ally McBeal” Fox.
