 The Emmy Awards, Past and Present
I hope that your last week was filled with imagination. Now, the second week has started.
Besides your courses, don't forget to spend some time having fun. This week, I want to
offer a little bit of information about another subject related to imagination: the Emmy
Awards. The 57th Emmy Awards ceremony was held this past Sunday. Before I go into more
detail about this year's Emmys, let's have a look at the history of the awards.
The first Emmy Awards were given in 1949. The ceremony took place at the Hollywood
Athletic Club on January 25 of that year. The event was certainly different from today's
Emmys. Six awards were given: most outstanding TV personality; most popular TV program;
best film made for TV; a station award for outstanding overall achievement; a technical
award; and, a special award. The special award was presented to Louis McMannus for
designing the Emmy statuette.
In 1951, the best actor and the best actress categories were added. As of 1957, according
to TV Guide's March 16, 1957 issue, the Emmys had become as popular as the Oscars. In 1960
Henry Belafonte became the first black performer to win an Emmy. Also in that year, Hanna-
Barbera's "Huckleberry Hound" was the first cartoon to win an Emmy.
In more recent years, the popular program "Cheers" won 6 awards in 1983. Some
readers may remember "The Golden Girls," which in 1986 was the first winner of
the award for the most outstanding comedy series. In 1994 "NYPD Blue" received
26 award nominations, and in the following year "ER" received 23. In 1997
"The Simpsons" made Emmy history as the winner of the award for the most
outstanding animated program. In 1998 "Frasier" won five of the Emmys given to
primetime shows.
For this year's Emmy Awards, the nominees for the most outstanding comedy series are
programs that are also popular in this country: "Arrested Development,"
"Everybody Loves Raymond," "Desperate Housewives," "Scrubs"
and "Will and Grace." Since I'm writing this column before the awards ceremony,
I can't comment on the results--I can only make predictions. I predict that there will be
a very tight competition between "Desperate Housewives" and "Will and
Grace." They were my favorites to watch during the summer. They're not very
instructive in general, but they do have some good messages about life. After watching
them, you feel that you're not alone in experiencing life's ups and downs. In one of my
favorite areas, the outstanding animated program award, the nominees are "Family
Guy," "Samurai Jack," "The Simpsons," "South Park'" and
"SpongeBob SquarePants." I can't really guess which program will actually get
the award, but I've always enjoyed watching SpongeBob. This summer SpongeBob items were
very popular in the toy shops, and many people watched the show. Still, "South
Park" and "The Simpsons" have large followings, so we'll have to see what
happens.
By the time you read this column, you'll probably already know the winners, and we'll be
able to see if I'm a good guesser or not! Until next week, enjoy your life...
Sıla Türkü Kural (EE/III)
turku@ug.bilkent.edu.tr
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