[We at BazingaCast think these two articles are relevant to The Big Bang Theory and many other fan favorites on broadcast networks as it helps explain the challenges they are up against when it comes to trying to be nominated and win an Emmy. We discussed this being a problem already in our podcast posted earlier today. ]
Deadline
By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Monday June 9, 2014 @ 3:03pm PDT
History could be made at this year’s Emmys. Should Modern Family win the best comedy series award, it would tie the record set by Frasier in the ’90s. Frasier is the only TV show—comedy or drama—to win a best series Emmy five times. Will Modern Family share the enviable title? There’s also some history being made with a call to reform the category. The brouhaha broke out when the TV Academy announced it had approved the move of Showtime’s Shameless to the best comedy arena after three years of largely unsuccessful stabs as a drama series contender.
Traditionalists think it’s bad enough that multi-camera comedies with laugh tracks (The Big Bang Theory, for instance) have to compete against more critically adored single-cams (such as Modern Family and Veep) without hourlong dramedies like Shameless clogging the race. Expect those guys to erupt on nomination morning should Shameless or Netflix’s Orange Is the New Black—which also is being submitted as a comedy after competing unsuccessfully as a drama at the Golden Globes—snags a nom. None of this is a new game; in its first trophy season Fox’s Ally McBeal dabbled as a drama series contender for the DGA Awards before switching to the comedy category for the Emmys, where it went on to snap Frasier’s winning streak.
With three-time champ 30 Rock gone, there’s a big hole to fill, though it might get plugged by Brooklyn Nine-Nine, which won best comedy series at the Globes.
No Brainers
With four noms and four wins in the past four years, Modern Family again is the comedy to beat. If Modern Family makes it five wins, it ties Frasier’s record for best comedy trophies. The season finale, with Mitch and Cam’s nuptials orchestrated by guest star Nathan Lane as a manic wedding planner, could help seal the deal. Veep star Julia Louis-Dreyfus has won the best comedy lead actress Emmy the past two years (joined last year by costar Tony Hale for supporting actor), but her show has come up empty in two nominations as best comedy. With Louis-Dreyfus’ character starting a presidential run, Veep got a fresh infusion of energy this season.
Meanwhile, The Big Bang Theory is now such a ratings behemoth that the TV Academy might be shamed into not only nominating it but handing the show a trophy this year. Star Jim Parsons won best lead actor in 2010, 2011 and 2013 (that 2012 gap was a loss to sentimental fave Jon Cryer for having survived the Charlie Sheen years on Two and a Half Men). A fourth win would tie the record held by Michael J. Fox (three for Family Ties, one for Spin City), Kelsey Grammer (Frasier) and Carroll O’Connor (All In the Family).
A first-time best comedy nominee last year, Louis C.K.’s auteur vehicle, Louie, came on strong midseason, despite a 19-month hiatus. The introduction of Sarah Baker as an overweight waitress love-struck for Louie added another dimension to the show this season. A freshman comedy should be a long shot for an Emmy, but Brooklyn Nine-Nine pulled off a surprise win at the Golden Globes. So there’s definitely some mojo for this show, starring SNL alum Andy Samberg and supporting actor Andre Braugher.
Lastly, Shameless never won an Emmy competing as a drama series (though Joan Cusack is a three-time nominee for guest actress). For this year’s Emmy competition, EP John Wells said he thinks the show belongs in the comedy race, and the TV Academy agreed.
Stranger Things Have Happened
Still a critical favorite, the third season of Lena Dunham’s Girls could be the lucky one for Emmy noms. Both the show and Dunham, as lead actress, were nominated last year, and neither can be ruled out for 2014. Emmy voters love to award a long-running comedy’s final season (see M*A*S*H and Mary Tyler Moore)—though sometimes not (see Cheers). Ending its nine-year run without a major award (it was nominated for best comedy just once, in 2009), How I Met Your Mother has its last chance for statuettes, though reviews on the series finale were so mixed that the cast is still explaining it. Presumably there are limits to Hollywood’s love of political series, but it would not be a total surprise if Amazon comedy Alpha House made the Emmy nom cut given its pedigree. Created by Garry Trudeau and starring John Goodman, it has featured cameos from politicians including disgraced New York Rep. Anthony Weiner and New York Sen. Chuck Schumer. Meanwhile, so buzzworthy that President Obama used it as a punchline for a White House Correspondents’ Dinner gag, the first season of Netflix’s jailhouse dramedy Orange Is the New Black could be a sleeper for a nom this year, on the strength of Taylor Schilling’s starring role.
Parks and Recreation star Amy Poehler is a perennial fave for a best actress nomination, though she hasn’t won yet in four tries. NBC recently announced the series will end after next season, so if the TV Academy is feeling sentimental already, this year could be lucky for the show. Mike Judge’s tech-geek comedy Silicon Valley divides critics as to whether it’s a dead-on satire of too-rich, too-young software engineers—or too kind by half. Either way, it’s a rare attempt by episodic TV to take on the tech subculture, and Emmy voters might find that intriguing enough.
Long Shots
The Crazy Ones was not renewed for a second season, giving Emmy voters this one chance to take note of Robin Williams’ return to series TV, in collaboration with former Emmy darling David E. Kelley. And another of those arguments for the creation of a one-hour dramedy category, House of Lies has been left out of the best comedy category to date, though lead Don Cheadle has been nommed twice for his Marty Kaan role. Is the TV Academy ready to reward a telenovela from Marc Cherry? His Desperate Housewives never fared well in the Emmy ceremony and it’s unlikely that his Latina-maid potboiler Devious Maids will do better, but buena suerte!
Zooey Deschanel didn’t repeat her 2012 New Girl nom as best comedy actress, and the series may be old news to the TV Academy at this point—Prince or no Prince. Mindy Kaling and Chris Messina’s on-off, doctor-on-doctor relationship got fans buzzing this season about The Mindy Project, which may or may not inspire the TV Academy. The show has yet to earn a best comedy series nom, despite its roster of guest stars.
Source
Variety
JUNE 9, 2014 | 10:00AM PT Christy Grosz
While audiences are enjoying what’s arguably known as the next Golden Age of Television, the TV Academy has been faced with increasingly blurred lines in terms of the shows in the Emmy contest. As eight- and 13-episode cable dramas compete with 22-episode broadcast series, creators and execs are wondering if the Academy’s rules still make sense, particularly when some series can be eligible in two potential categories.
After all, maintaining high quality over 22 episodes is much more difficult, and broadcasters have to appeal to a wider audience over the course of a season. With shorter shooting schedules, cablers have the added ability to attract top-tier talent, which always helps in gaining the attention of Emmy voters.
“It’s very hard to make consistently fantastic television under any circumstances,” says FX Networks CEO John Landgraf. “Clearly, the more episodes you’re making, the more likely that you’re going to dilute the quality of the show. That’s just the reality.”
For now, the TV Academy says the rules are clear: Series producers can determine the category in which they’ll compete when shows are eligible in multiple categories. Recent examples include PBS’ “Downton Abbey,” which competed in the miniseries category in its first season, then switched to drama; HBO’s “True Detective,” an eight-episode show that was widely considered a miniseries but will compete in drama; and FX’s “American Horror Story,” an ongoing anthology series that competes in miniseries rather than drama.
“The Emmy Awards recognize excellence based on the quality of content, regardless of the number of eligible episodes,” the TV Academy said in a statement to Variety. “As it pertains to the outstanding series categories, the Academy is consistent with the various guilds in the definition of what constitutes a series.”
However, cable series have dominated the Emmys for so long now that some insiders are asking if it’s even fair to compare shows with such different artistic concerns and business models.
“Network obviously has to appeal to a wider group of people to stay on the air, which sometimes may (mean) lower-brow choices,” says CBS’ “The Good Wife” executive producer Robert King. “I do think cable is in the business of catering to awards in a way that makes it good for the fans—makes it good for me as a fan—but also sometimes shouts down anything being done by network.”
“The Good Wife,” a critical favorite with a strong fan base, was the only broadcast network drama to get an Emmy nom in 2011 (“Friday Night Lights” was also nominated that year, but it had moved from NBC to DirecTV), and no network drama has been nominated since (the last network series to win best drama was Fox’s “24” in 2006).
But the answer is not segregating network and cable at the Emmys, Landgraf says.
“There used to be something called the CableACE Awards,” Landgraf says. “The Emmys were the prize, and the CableACE Awards were the booby prize. Imagine a circumstance now where you separate broadcast from cable: Which is going to be the more prestigious award? Does broadcast really want to be put in a second tier so they can get a second-tier award the way cable used to? I don’t think so. Ultimately, you have to just say what’s the best drama or best comedy or best miniseries on television.”
Nevertheless, some showrunners would welcome a change in categories at the Emmys. “Precisely because the television landscape has changed, the Emmys should be broken down into more categories so that more work can be acknowledged,” says Michael Hirst, creator of History’s “Vikings.”
“Good Wife” exec producer Michelle King also thinks different categories make sense.
“The Olympics are not a bad way to think about this,” she says. “You don’t need to create different games to say that a marathon is judged differently than a sprint. There (are) just simply different categories. You might think in terms of x-number of episodes or fewer is one type of category, and above (that) is a different category.”
In a nod to prevalent genre-crossing in primetime, one studio insider suggests categorizing shows by run time, rather than separating drama and comedy.
“Maybe Jenji Kohan (‘Orange Is the New Black,’ ‘Weeds’) was right when she said the Emmy categories need to change—have a 30-minute and an hourlong category,” the insider says. “There are plenty of examples of 30-minute shows that get entered into comedy that aren’t funny.”
No matter how the Emmys change — or stay exactly the same — what once was perceived as the “typical” broadcast drama is also changing, with series like NBC’s “The Blacklist” and “Hannibal,” Fox’s “The Following” and “The Good Wife” pushing boundaries in a way that used to be reserved for cable. But shorter orders will still most likely provide the best way to attract Emmy voters.
“Broadcasters are responding to the new reality by producing many more shows with short orders,” Landgraf points out. “Look, if you want to make a commercial juggernaut and you want to make 22 episodes a year and you want the money and you want the syndication, then deal with the fact that you’re putting handcuffs on your creatives to make it harder for them to match in quality. If you want to compete in quality, then make fewer episodes and make a better show.”
Hirst, who also created Showtime’s “The Tudors,” agrees that fewer episodes boost quality.
“I’ve got the whole season in my head. I couldn’t keep 22, 24 episodes in my head,” he says. “There are lots of advantages to having shorter seasons; each episode of ‘Vikings’ is like a little movie.”
The bottom line is that broadcast, cable and streaming services are giving Emmy voters more original content to choose from than ever before, which means it’s even harder to get their attention when they’re filling out ballots.
“Emmy voters are confronted with how many hundreds of dramatic series that they have to look at, and I think there tends to be a groundswell around a few familiar faces,” says Gale Anne Hurd, producer of AMC’s “The Walking Dead.”
Adds Landgraf: “There are going to be about 350 scripted original series in American television aired this calendar year. There is no human being alive who will watch every one or even 60% of those. It literally would have to be your full-time job seven days a week, 365 days a year. And I’m not even sure you could do it then.”
Despite the daunting challenge for voters, awards remain a great motivator for the industry.
“I’m just a fan of what is going on in TV right now,” says “Good Wife’s” Robert King. “The awards make everybody want to do better work.”
Source
According to Deadline, President Barack Obama called Ryan Murphy today to congratulate him on his adaptation of Larry Kramer’s The Normal Heart for HBO.
Kramer had been trying to get his Tony-winning play adapted to the screen for three decades, with Murphy taking on what would become a passion project for him too in 2010. Murphy confirmed getting the call to Deadline, adding, “The whole movie is about Larry trying to get the attention of Washington and 30 years later, to get a call from the President is a full-circle moment.”
The Bazinga Cast 