Sun, September 19, 2004
Emmys That Actually Matter—11:07 PM
Congratulations to Arrested Development for picking up the Best Comedy Series Emmy as well as the ones for directing and writing. All richly deserved. I still think Jason Bateman should've been nominated, but we'll get there. I'm just glad – for the sake of Fox's continued "support" – the show picked up some major wins. (I'm not doing the research, but I'm curious: how recently has a brand new show won Best Comedy Series? Did Frasier do it? Someone be a dear.)
For the same reason, I'm thrilled that The Daily Show picked up its second writing award in a row. Good for them. Hopefully it will encourage Comedy Central to keep them happy, and encourage Stewart, Colbert, et al, to stay with the show for many years to come.
I didn't watch much of the rest of the show – the little clips the comedy shows send in for Best Writing nominations are always a joy, and Shandling was alternately funny and morbidly Botoxed.
Joe Mulder — Mon, 9/20/04 11:46am
I haven't looked it up, but, I'm a billion percent sure that "Frasier" won Best Comedy Series its first year out.
Brandon — Mon, 9/20/04 12:37pm
A brand-new show has won Best Comedy Series five times since 1970:
Arrested Development (2004) Frasier (1994) Cheers (1983) Taxi (1979) All in the Family (1971)
That is incredibly good company.
I certainly hope this will help AD stay on the air. It's a good thing the show is on Fox, because I don't think it would have survived its first-season ratings struggles on one of the Big Three networks.
Let's hope Fox puts some marketing muscle behind the show this year...
Bee Boy — Mon, 9/20/04 12:50pm
Good company, indeed. Thanks! (I can't believe some people actually hire a research staff...)
Brandon — Mon, 9/20/04 1:00pm
Another thing AD has in common with All in the Family and Cheers is first-season ratings problems - Cheers was almost cancelled after its first season. Both of those shows rebounded in the second season, partly due to their Emmy Awards, so maybe this win will bode well for AD.
Of course, on the flip side, Taxi was cancelled even after winning the Emmy for Best Comedy in its first three seasons. Fuckin' network execs...