Cynopsis presents: The Primetime Emmy^® Awards 2009
In the categories of Outstanding Lead Actress

08.24.09

Good morning. It’s Monday, August 24, 2009, and this is the final installment of this special five-part series on this year’s Emmy® Awards.  I hope you found these fun and interesting!

THE ACTRESSES
by PJ Bednarski

This year’s nominations for outstanding actress in a television comedy run the gamut of styles, from familiar to freaky.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus gives a fresh spin to a comedy about a single woman trying to cope in CBS’s The New Adventures of the Old Christine, a role that got her the prize in 2006. And Christina Applegate, star of ABC’s Samantha Who?, made a lot of out of the role about an amnesiac’s efforts to make amends for her prior nasty self.

Both of those well-done series follow a sitcom style viewers are accustomed to seeing, not that there’s anything wrong with that. But the rest of the nominees come from somewhere else.

For example, nominee Toni Collette stars in Showtime’s The United States of Tara as a housewife who suffers from dissociative identity disorder, and who, at various times becomes cookie-baking retro-housefrau Alice, sexy teenager T or even a guy, a Vietnam vet named Buck. 

Just about as different is Comedy Central’s entry, The Sarah Silverman Program, starring the woman formerly best known for her Webby-award winning ode,  I’m ****ing Matt Damon. Silverman plays a self-centered, sarcastic character whose vinegar-flavored style fits Comedy Central’s tone, while also mocking the conventions of television itself.

The other nominees, Mary-Louise Parker as an over-her-head suburban pot-dealing mom in Showtime’s mischievous Weeds, and Tina Fey as the harried television show producer on NBC’s subversively witty 30 Rock, are only familiar because the shows have been around a little bit.  Fey took home the award last year, and the show is nominated for a record 22 Emmy® awards this year, so many think she’s the one to beat. 

Recently, no one has “owned” this category, as Helen Hunt seemed to a decade ago. The Mad About You star was nominated seven times and won for four straight years (1996-1999). Patricia Heaton was the prize winner in 2000 and 2001 for her role in CBS’s Everybody Loves Raymond. But for much of this decade, the winners have ranged widely, from Jennifer Aniston of Friends, to Sex and the City’s Sarah Jessica Parker, to ABC’s Ugly Betty star America Ferrara, who wasn’t nominated this year.

In the drama category, the competition hasn’t changed much from last year, when Damages star Glenn Close was the winner for her portrayal of that tough-as-nails litigator Patty Hewes on the FX hit.  Holly Hunter, the star of TNT’s Saving Grace, Kyra Sedgwick, star of TNT’s The Closer, and Close are in roles their series revolve around, creating a great stage for them. They play three of the most deeply-developed female characters on TV.

Their front-and-center status may give them a little better showcase than Mariska Hargitay gets as part of an ensemble cast on NBC’s Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. The same is true for Sally Field, matriarch of the contentious Walker clan on NBC’s Brothers & Sisters, which also has a large cast. But being part of a large cast doesn’t necessarily hurt. Field took home the Emmy® in 2007 and Hargitay the year before that.

New this year is Mad Men star Elisabeth Moss as Peggy Olson, the complicated secretary-turned-account-executive at the Sterling Cooper ad agency. The AMC hit series has not suffered any lack of pre-Emmy® buzz. The 1960s-era series also could repeat as outstanding drama, and Jon Hamm is up for the outstanding actor statue too.  The Outstanding Lead Actress award is usually given before the Actor’s and Outstanding Drama awards, so a Moss victory could signal bigger things to come on Emmy® night for AMC. Indeed, watching that drama unfold is the outstanding feature of the Emmy® ceremony itself.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE FROM FX NETWORKS

AND THE NOMINEES ARE … OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES:

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series: Sally Field as Nora Walker
Series: Brothers & Sisters
Network: ABC
Studio(s):  ABC Studios

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series: Kyra Sedgwick as Brenda Leigh Johnson
Series: The Closer
Network: TNT
Studio(s):  The Shephard/Robin Company in association with Warner Bros. Television

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series: Glenn Close as Patty Hewes
Series: Damages
Network: FX Networks
Studio(s):  FX Productions and Sony Pictures Television

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series: Mariska Hargitay as Detective Olivia Benson
Series: Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Network: NBC
Studio(s):  Wolf Films in association with Universal Media Studios

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series: Elisabeth Moss as Peggy Olson
Series: Mad Men
Network: AMC
Studio(s):  Lionsgate Television

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series: Holly Hunter as Grace Hanadarko
Series: Saving Grace
Network: TNT
Studio(s):  Fox Television

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE FROM THE ACADEMY OF TELEVISION ARTS & SCIENCES FOUNDATION

AND THE NOMINEES ARE … OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES:

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series: Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Christine
Series:  The New Adventures of Old Christine
Network: CBS
Studio(s):  Kari’s Logo Here in association with Warner Bros. Television

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series: Christina Applegate as Samantha Newly
Series: Samantha Who?
Network: ABC
Studio(s):  ABC Studios

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series: Sarah Silverman as Sarah Silverman
Series: The Sarah Silverman Program
Network: Comedy Central
Studio(s):  Central Productions/Eleven Eleven O’Clock Productions/Oil Factory Inc.

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series: Tina Fey as Liz Lemon
Series: 30 Rock
Network: NBC
Studio(s):  Broadway Video, Little Stranger, Inc. in association with Universal Media Studios

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series: Toni Collette as Tara Gregson
Series: United States of Tara
Network: Showtime
Studio(s):  Showtime Presents in association with DreamWorks Television

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series: Mary-Louise Parker as Nancy Botwin
Series: Weeds
Network: Showtime
Studio(s):  Showtime Presents in association with Lionsgate Television and Tilted Productions.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE FROM THE ACADEMY OF TELEVISION ARTS & SCIENCES FOUNDATION

Emmy® Fact:  So let’s say you win one of these puppies … don’t even think about using it for commercial use or selling it. That’s a big no no according to the label on the bottom of every Emmy® which reads:  This EMMY® is the property of, and all rights are reserved by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.  Possession hereof has been awarded subject to the recipient’s compliance with all of the rules applicable to EMMY® now or hereafter established by the Academy, including rules restricting reproduction or commercial use of EMMY® or any element thereof in any manner.  Manufactured by R.S. Owens and Company, Chicago, Illinois 60630

Later — Cyn
08.24.09

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