Innholdsfortegnelse for Emmy Special Issue 26A August 2018 i The Hollywood Reporter

How often do Emmy voters award a performance from a series that not even the show’s network deemed worthy of keeping around? The answer, believe it or not, is more often than one might expect. There’s no “official” list of examples, but an exhaustive THR survey identified 26, the earliest from 1970, when William Windom won best actor in a comedy for My World and Welcome to It, which also took best comedy despite the fact that NBC had already whacked it. Other years produced two, three or, in the case of 1983, even four examples: Taxi’s Judd Hirsch, Christopher Lloyd and Carol Kane and Cagney & Lacey’s Tyne Daly. Oddly enough, Daly has won under these circumstances three times: After her aforementioned victory, Cagney & Lacey was revived, but…

Emmy nominations morning was extra special for veteran comedy writer Alec Berg this year. Instead of getting recognized for one show, as he has recently with the HBO stalwart Silicon Valley, he racked up nominations for two — thanks to the cable network’s formidable newcomer Barry, about a hitman who takes up an interest in acting. “It’s very flattering. I have the rare opportunity to lose to Atlanta twice in the same category in the same year,” jokes Berg, who serves as the showrunner on the dark comedy along-side star Bill Hader. The former Seinfeld writer spoke to THR about his nominations, the reaction to Barry that’s surprised him most and where the series is headed in its second season. When did you feel like you had something special with…

True to the spirit of their show about pioneering female wrestlers, GLOW showrunners Liz Flahive and Carly Mensch approached the announcement of Emmy nominations July 12 assuming they’d get shut out. “We’re just such an underdog show,” Mensch explains. “GLOW is a show about underdogs. We’re just starting to get some attention now.” But the pair were rewarded for their pessimism with 10 nominations for the show’s debut run (season two dropped on Netflix on June 29), including one for comedy series and a supporting actress nod for Betty Gilpin. The haul contributed to helping Netflix topple HBO from its 18-year perch as the most nominated outlet. Mensch and Flahive talked about the “baller mom moment” of hearing their show cited 10 times, what the wrestling community thinks of GLOW…

Kenya Barris is not afraid to go there on Black-ish. The fourth season of his ABC comedy — which also said goodbye to Yara Shahidi as a full-time regular, off to spinoff Grown-ish — tackled the cultural complications of celebrating Christopher Columbus, post-partum depression, racial and gender biases and, in a particularly difficult turn for longtime viewers, divorce. The comedy spent the last four episodes of its season pushing central duo Bow and Dre, played by Emmy nominees Tracee Ellis Ross and Anthony Anderson, toward the brink of a breakup. It’s not light stuff for a broadcast sitcom, but it’s one of the many reasons why Black-ish is the only Big Four comedy to score a series nomination this year — the first time in history that traditional TV has…

After it premiered in November, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel swiftly became a critical darling thanks to its quick-witted protagonist Midge (Rachel Brosnahan), a 1950s housewife who pursues a career in stand-up after her husband abruptly leaves her. The show scooped up Golden Globes for comedy series and lead actress in January, and Amazon — which originally ordered two seasons from Gilmore Girls creator Amy Sherman-Palladino (who executive produces and writes with her husband, Dan Palladino) — renewed it for a third in May. Now deep into writing and shooting their sophomore season, which includes some Midge misadventures in Paris, the pair spoke to THR about finding the perfect lead actress, what to expect in season two and who they hope to run into on Emmy night. Was there anything you…

Unpredictable may be the better term to describe this comedy. Netflix’s Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt again proved game to play with form during the first half of its fourth season, devoting an entire episode to spoofing Making a Murderer and The Jinx with a true crime mockumentary about a jailed cult leader (recurring guest Jon Hamm). This was all done in service of the show’s greater mission, however — one that comedically roots out misogyny at every turn. In the home stretch of its final season, showrunners Tina Fey and Robert Carlock are juggling the last episodes with the possibility of a feature film How are you handling the potential of the Kimmy movie when writing the series’ final episode? TINA FEY Well, if we’re lucky enough to get to do…

For its first season, Atlanta star and creator Donald Glover took home two Emmys — one for his leading role as Earn on the show and another for directing an episode. Though the FX series itself lost to perennial favorite Veep, with the HBO stalwart out of the race this time around, Atlanta could be poised to take the top prize. As the writers prep for the third season, Stephen Glover (Donald’s younger brother and a writer and producer on the show) says that the comedy will get “a bit bigger” and “weirder.” He spoke with THR about writers room debates, filming that “Teddy Perkins” episode and what it was like to sit next to Sean Spicer at last year’s Emmys. Congratulations on the nominations. How did you find out?…

It wasn’t until its fourth season, in 1993, that Seinfeld won its sole Emmy for outstanding comedy series. (Over its nine-year run of 169 episodes, the show won a total of 11 Emmys in all categories.) One reason Seinfeld had time to develop and find its audience is that NBC’s president at the time, Brandon Tartikoff, ignored The Hollywood Reporter’s initial evaluation, which called the show’s 1989 pilot “misfired.” The reviewer’s take on the show (originally named The Seinfeld Chronicles) might best be summed up as “meh.” THR said the sitcom was “too light on plot and character to attract much interest.” It did give star Jerry Seinfeld some kudos as a “likable guy capable of handling a featured or starring part,” calling the other characters “underconceived.” THR’s advice was…