EMMY Tally (updated)
OK, the party is over - time to look at what last night’s EMMY awards yielded for The Walt Disney Company … and it was quite a bit, as ABC together with NBC and HBO topped the list of winners with 6 statues / awards each. While not nominated for any of its programs, ABC had garnered ten nominations for individual achievements in connection with its programs. In this sense the ABC comedy “Ugly Betty” took two awards: “Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series” for its star America Ferrera (who did beat Felicity Huffman nominated for her part of Lynette Scavo in ABC’s “Desperate Housewives”) and and “Outstanding Directing For A Comedy Series” for the work of Richard Shepard on the pilot of “Ugly Betty”.
In addition James Spader took the award for “Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series” for his work in ABC’s “Boston Legal “ - surprisingly beating out James Gandolfini who had been nominated for his part of Tony Soprano in the final season of HBO’s “Sopranos” and now missed winning a fourth EMMY for his work on the show. Alluding to that Spader said, “Oh my goodness, I feel like I just stole a pile of money from the Mob.” But as expected HBO’s “Sopranos” did take home the EMMY for “Outstanding Drama Series”, leaving no chance to “Lost” and “Grey’s Anatomy”.
ABC garnered another award though, thanks to Sally Field who was named “Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series” for her role in ABC’s “Brothers & Sisters”. The award was presented to her by Hugh Laurie, star of the Fox series “House”, and Felicity Huffman, of ABC’s Desperate Housewives. In her acceptance speach Sally Field included a passage that was interpreted as being political statement: referring to her part as Nora Walker a widowed mother of five children, one of which had served in Afganisthan (but has returned by the beginning of the first season) and has embarked to another tour in the Iraq at the end of the first season, she said: “At the heart of Nora Walker, she is a mother, so surely this beloings to all the mothers of the world. May they be seen, may their work be valued and raised, and to especially the mothers who stand with open heart and wait for their children to come home from danger, harm’s way and from war … I am proud to be one of those women. Let’s face it, if the mothers rules the world, there would be no god-damn wars in the first place. Thank you for everything.”
FOX, the station presenting the telecast in the US, censored the speech by Sally Fields by cutting the sound of right after “god-”. To distract viewers from the censorship the camera suddenly turned away from the stage. In the meantime viewers of the Canadian telecast were allowed to hear the full sentence. In this regard it is worth pointing out (as done by the LA Times) that from a legal point of view there was no need to censor the statement of Sally Field as technically, her words are not profane: “A 2004 FCC ruling specifically stated no objection to the use of “god damn” on TV when making a judgment on the uproar over Bono swearing at the Golden Globes in 2003 where he used more colorful language”. In light of this information it could be assumed that FOX deliberately censored Sally Fields based on a political decision (unless it used badly trained staff for one of the most important live telecast events of the tv-year).
USAToday cites Sally Fields as stating backstage, that her speech was NOT(!) intended as a political statement: “I didn’t have a point to get across. I have no agenda, I didn’t have any political something I wanted to say. I wanted to pay homage to mothers, period, and especially the mothers waiting for children to come home from the war.” On the other hand LA Times cites Sally Fields statement backstage in the press room as follows: “I would have liked to have said more four-letter words up there! [...] Oh, well. I’ve been there before!” Wehn asked about how she felt about being being gagged she added according again to the LA Times: ”Good. I don’t care. I have no comment other than, ‘Oh, well.’ I said what I wanted to say. I wanted to pay homage to the mothers of the world. And I very, very seriously think that if mothers ruled the world we wouldn’t be sending our children off to be slaughtered.” Later on she also added: “Too bad. That’s a shame. And I think I probably shouldn’t have said the ‘god’ in front of the ‘damn.’ If they bleep it, oh, well. I’ll just say it somewhere else.” Now this does sound a bit more like she did want to make a political point. And why not? Award shows are a unique opportunity for actors to make their political views known. And making their political views known is something they have a right too, just like any other person.
However, back to the show … the EMMY as “Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series” went to Terry O’Quinn for his performance as John Locke on ABC’s “Lost”, who did beat out William Shatner from ABC’s “Boston Legal” and T.R. Knight from ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy”. The award was presented to him by the costars (and nominees) Vanessa Williams and America Ferrera of ABC’s “Ugly Betty”. Eva Longoria, star of ABC’s “Desperate Housewives” later on presented together with Kevin Connolly, Kevin Dillon, Jerry Ferrara, Adrien Grenier and Jeremy Piven of the HBO’s “Entourage” the award for “Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series” to Katherine Heigl, who plays Dr. Izzie Stevens on ABC’s medical drama “Grey’s Anatomy”.
In addition to the awards ABC was also honored during the EMMY telecast with a unique 30th-anniversary salute to it’s miniseries “Roots”, which premiered on January 23, 1977 and aired over the course of eight consecutive nights. The miniseries had been nominated for thirty-seven Primetime EMMY Awards (of which it won nine) and also received a Golden Globe and a Peabody Award. The series was based on the novel of the same name by Alex Haley, whose families story it had inspired, beginning in Gambia, Africa, and continuing in the United States, where Haley’s ancestor, a teenage boy named Kunta Kinte, was sold into slavery and renamed Toby. Up till today the miniseries’ final episode stands as the third most watched telecast with an estimated 130 million viewers!
Last but not least: congratulations to all winners at the EMMYs 2007!