Innholdsfortegnelse for Award Special 21A August 2020 i The Hollywood Reporter

For more than a decade, the supporting and guest actor in a comedy Emmy categories have been dominated by performers from Saturday Night Live. In fact, this year alone, a total of eight castmembers (including Kenan Thompson, Kate McKinnon and Cecily Strong) and celebrity hosts (Brad Pitt and Phoebe Waller-Bridge among them) have been nominated in just 28 available slots, accruing more than a third of the entire honors in these categories. Since 2008, 10 individual SNL players have received a total of 24 nominations in the supporting actor fields (while a smattering of other sketch comics like Portlandia’s Fred Armisen, Key & Peele’s Keegan-Michael Key and Inside Amy Schumer’s Amy Schumer have also received noms). Truthfully, however, this taxonomy has never suited sketch’s whimsical style of performance. One could…

Curb Your Enthusiasm boss Jeff Schaffer has often said, “Documenting the missteps and social mistakes of the Westside of Los Angeles is an evergreen business,” and he maintains that as he and star Larry David plot out an 11th season of the HBO comedy. But before cameras roll — “We’re hoping to shoot late fall, but we’ll see,” he says — Schaffer reflects on season 10, which has earned the show’s ninth Emmy nomination for best comedy series. Take me back to the decision to do a 10th season, which, by Curb standards, was made quickly. Usually the last episode of the season is the last episode of Curb there will ever be. This was the first time it went differently. We were sitting in the edit room, finishing up…

When Insecure returned to HBO in mid-April, after being off the air for nearly two years, the romantic comedy proved a welcome distraction for many seeking escapism. TV Academy voters who’d never fully warmed to the series took notice. The show landed a whopping eight nominations for its fourth season, including a first-ever mention in the best comedy race. Showrunner Prentice Penny, who produces the series alongside creator and star Issa Rae, is thrilled about the recognition but also a little conflicted. After all, Insecure is an all-too-rare example of a series made by Black talent — a fact that’s been all the more apparent in summer 2020 as America and Hollywood confront systemic racism. Penny spoke with THR about the most recent season (which saw Rae’s character rekindling a…

“We’d get to the point where they read the award and it always went the same way,” recalls Friends co-creator David Crane of the Emmy Awards during the blockbuster NBC sitcom’s first seven seasons. “They’d go, ‘And the winner is Frr…’ — and time slowed down — and then it always finished with ‘…asier!’ And we would all start to stand and then settle back in our seats.” So, when Friends was nominated again in 2002, no one expected much. The Hollywood Reporter’s coverage of the night described the show’s track record as that of “a perennial Emmy bridesmaid.” But much to everyone’s surprise, the comedy finally was awarded the top honor that year — an extreme rarity for a show almost at the end of its run. (Barney Miller…

After earning Emmy nominations for stars Michael Douglas and Alan Arkin for its first season, Netflix’s The Kominsky Method, centering on an aging actor turned acting coach (Douglas) and his agent/friend (Arkin), added an outstanding comedy series nomination this year, making it creator Chuck Lorre’s third show to receive that lofty recognition. Like all Netflix shows, The Kominsky Method exists in a ratings-free zone, so Lorre spoke with THR about the added importance of awards recognition, his dress-up plans for September’s virtual Emmys and the myriad challenges of writing the third and final Kominsky season in lockdown — along with overseeing Young Sheldon, Mom, Bob Hearts Abishola and the new sitcom B Positive at the same socially distanced time. “One of the things Chuck [Lorre] did so beautifully is he…

Schitt’s Creek — the Canadian comedy that, thanks to word-of-mouth and an ever-increasing Netflix fan base, became a smash hit by its sixth season — aired its series finale in April on Pop TV (it’s the network’s highest-rated show). Four months later, the sitcom landed 15 Emmy nominations, including for comedy series and all four of its main castmembers. Having followed the eccentric, out-of-touch Rose family in their move to the small town Schitt’s Creek after their fortune dries up, the series wrapped with a wedding, a return to the high life (for some) and more fanfare than ever. Dan Levy, the series’ 36-year-old co-creator, showrunner and now Emmy-nominated star (he plays David Rose), spoke to THR about writing those last episodes, dealing with fan pressure and planning his own…

Mike Schur says he’ll miss going to the Emmys this year, but the creator and showrunner of best comedy nominee The Good Place looks at the awards more as a barometer of the industry’s collective taste than a big party. “I’m interested to see what the collection of thousands of people who work in the industry feel is the best work. I disagree with a lot, and I agree with it sometimes, so when you take it that way, it doesn’t really matter to me if it’s in person or over Zoom or whatever,” Schur tells THR. “To me, it’s a kind of check-in of, ‘What did everyone like this year? What did everyone think was worthy of a gold star?’ So it’s a little bit of a bummer that…

For the second straight year, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel racked up 20 Emmy nominations. The Amazon breakout earned its third consecutive nod for outstanding comedy series, along with a whopping seven nominations for its actors. Like most other series, Mrs. Maisel is in limbo in terms of going back into production, but showrunners Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino acknowledge that they’re ready to go back when it’s safe. As Palladino puts it, “King COVID is the showrunner right now.” The married couple, who both also earned directing nominations, talked with THR about the show’s next steps creatively, where they might be on virtual Emmy night and their favorite lockdown TV. Are there any among the nominations that felt particularly gratifying this year? DANIEL PALLADINO We’re the most embarrassed about the…

Despite feuds with witches and werewolves, bungled attempts at world domination and ongoing threats from vampire slayers, What We Do in the Shadows is just like any other TV comedy — it just happens to be about a bunch of bloodsuckers sharing cramped quarters on Staten Island. Earning a nom for best comedy series, the FX series (adapted from Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi’s 2014 mockumentary) brings supernatural flair to the comedy race. Showrunner Paul Simms spoke to THR about blending humor and horror and the show’s incredible ensemble cast. What were the biggest challenges when it came to writing season two? I think the main drive to the second season [began] at the end of the first season. We painted ourselves into a corner with the revelation that Guillermo…