HBO owns the Emmys
Claire Danes starred in it. An all-star cast supported her. The movie told the powerful, poignant inspiring story of a woman with autism who overcame her challenges to become a prominent veterinarian and animal rights advocate. The movie garnered very little publicity, even less pre-Emmy buzz; and millions of American viewers tuned-in to something else. On Sunday night, though, “Temple Grandin” collected a boatload of shiny trophies, contributing to HBO’s total domination of the 62nd Annual Emmy Awards.
Danes goes home with the statuette for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Mini-Series or Movie, and the made-for-HBO bio-pic also won the Outstanding Made for Television Movie honors, and earned supporting awards for Julia Ormond and David Strathairn and the directing award for Mick Jackson. Not to be outdone, Al Pacino earned Outstanding Lead Actor in a Mini-Series or Movie, honored for his portrayal of Dr. Jack Kevorkian in the HBO (of course) movie “You Don’t Know Jack.”
Danielle Cox, watching and “tweeting” for Patterson-Forbes Partners, quipped, “If Kathy Griffin had declared one of her famous drinking games, demanding everyone take a shot when a winner said ‘Thank you, HBO,’ EMT’s would take us all directly to rehab at the end of the show.” Taking a more coldly analytic look, Cox added her voice to the chorus proclaiming the advantages of production for cable: “Producers and directors working on projects for broadcast television can take their subjects, characters, situations, and dialogue only so far before they run afoul of FCC regulations. Because anyone can watch broadcast programming, the creative guys must tone-down their fare to make it suitable for anyone. Teams at HBO face none of those constraints.”
In a mild surprise, offering a glimmer of hope for teams at the networks, ABC’s hit comedy “Modern Family” won the Emmy for “Best Comedy Series.” The show’s edgy, innuendo-laden scripts also won trophies for executive producers Steve Levitan and Christopher Lloyd; they take home Emmys for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series.
