In July when the nominations for the 61st Annual Primetime Emmy Awards were announced, they contained quite a few veterans of Star Trek from the original series to the new feature film, including William Shatner and JJ Abrams. But tonight it was a total shut-out for Trek vets, without a single one walking home with a trophy. And it wasn’t much better at last week’s creative arts ceremony. Details below.
Not a good night for Trek vets
As usual the Emmy Awards, held tonight at Nokia Theater in Hollywood, was a huge event, with most of the big names in Television on hand. But for those who had a past with one of the biggest franchise’s in TV history, it wasn’t a great night. The saddest news is that William Shatner (the original Kirk) lost out for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for his role as Denny Crane on Boston Legal in the show’s final season. This was Shatner’s sixth consecutive nomination, with two previous wins. In the end, the award went to Michael Emerson from Lost (a show created by Star Trek (2009) producer Damon Lindelof and Star Trek (2009) producer/director JJ Abrams)
Bill is all smiles at the Emmys – before he found out he didn’t win
A number of Star Trek guest stars also lost out Sunday night. Vanessa Williams (Arandis in DS9’s "Let He Who Is Without Sin…") didn’t pick an Emmy in her third nomination for a supporting role on Ugly Betty and Sarah Silverman (Rain Robinson in VOY’s “Future’s End”) was passed over for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for The Sarah Silverman Program. Also, two Enterprise guest actors (Tom Bergeron and Padma Lakshmi) were both beat out for Outstanding Reality Host for their hosting duties on Dancing with the Stars and Top Chef, respectively.
Williams, Silverman and Lakshmi looked good on the red carpet – but all walked home empty handed
It also wasn’t a good night for Trek writers and producers. Star Trek 2009 producers JJ Abrams and Damon Lindelof’s show Lost was beat out by Mad Men for Outstanding Dramatic Series, and Lindelof also lost out to a couple of writers from Mad Men for Outstanding Writing for a Dramatic Series, as did Andre and Maria Jacquemetton, who wrote three episodes of Enterprise. And on the funny side, Family Guy creator/producer (and periodic Star Trek: Enterprise cameo) Seth McFarlane had the first animated series nominated for Outstanding Comedy Series since 1961, but Family Guy lost out to 30 Rock.
MacFarlane at Emmys 2009 – better luck next time Seth
Some vets walk home winners at Creative Arts Emmys
Last Saturday, September 12, the TV Academy held the Creative Arts Primetime Emmy Awards at Nokia Theater in Hollywood. And there were quite a Trek vets up for various awards, with a mix of winners and losers. Probably the most famous Trek vet up for an award last week was writer/producer Ron Moore who was nominated for Outstanding Special Class – Short-format Live-action program for the BSG web series Battlestar Galactica: The Face of the Enemy, but he lost out to Joss Whedon for his Dr. Horrible’s Sing-a-long Blog. The Outstanding Visual Effects category was full of former Star Trek effect artists, incluing the last year’s winners, the BSG effects team led by Gary Hutzel. But in the end Heroes won, which including Insurrection VFX production manager Mark Spatny.
Other creative arts 2009 Emmy winners include:
- Veteran Star Trek casting director Junie Lowry Johnson and Trek casting assistant Libby Goldstein for Outstanding Casting for a Drama Series on HBO’s True Blood
- Veteran Trek costume designer Robert Blackman and Trek wardrobe supervisor Carol Kunz, for Pushing Daisies
- Trek stuntman Merritt Yohnka for Outstanding Stunt Coordination on Chuck
- Todd McIntosh, David DeLeon, and Steve Anderson (Enterprise) for outstanding makeup for a single camera series (non-prosthetic) on Pushing Daisies
More info and the full list of nominees available at emmys.tv
Photos: Wire Image
There’s only so much good fortune to go around, it seems. ST09 used up most of it this year.
Dear Emmys you forgot one!!!! RIP Kim Manners!
Seriously? How did the Emmys forget to mention the director and co-executive producer of THE X FILES?!?!?! and the senior executive producer and lead director of Supernatural? The man was even a director on Charlies Angels! For Shame!!!!
Kim Manners had a lot of fans, and he will be missed by each and every one of us. #WeRememberYouKimManners
An Oscar best picture nom for Star Trek makes up for all of this. Plus it’s directly tied to the franchise, not six degrees of people who used to work on it.
Shatner didn’t deserve the Emmy for best supporting actor in a drama series. His competition was far too strong this year.
3 – JJ and company excluded of course.
Well, let’s just face it, the better shows and actors/actresses won this year. Except for you, 30 Rock–Family Guy is better. :P
Mad Men, if no one here has seen it, is a terrific show. Leagues better than the others that were nominated, IMHO. That, and TrueBlood. My two favorite shows, they are. :D
It’s still an amazing honor that Bill was nominated (for the 6th year in a row!), considering he is a veteran of tv’s Golden Age in the 1950’s! How many of the other nominated actors can say that? He is likely the only one. Few actors or performers of any kind get to enjoy the longevity and success Bill has enjoyed.
Thank you, William Shatner, for 50 years of entertainment! In many respects, you are a perennial winner, and I hope you get another series!
With all respect to mr.shatner. I love you man, but you gotta lose some weight ! (i’m only saying it for the good of you)
ST09 needs to win big at the Academy Awards now.
The gods of fortune and grace themselves have so decreed.
“The saddest news is that William Shatner (the original Kirk) lost out for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for his role as Denny Crane on Boston Legal in the show’s final season.”
Nothing sad about it. Congrats to Bill on being nominated six times in a row and for actually being awarded an Emmy twice. Boston Legal is a great show and Denny Crane has become a cult figure in the course of the series. That makes two icons having evolved from one career. Not half bad! :)
By the way, Bill looks great on that pic – so does his wife.
They weren’t shut out: they simply didn’t win! Better luck next time. Sorry to hear about Kim Manners!
well, this isnt the oscars after all.
Given how many nominations had a Trek connection, it was surprising that there weren’t more wins…on the other hand, though, most of the odds-on favourites to win already lacked such a connection this year.
I didn’t even realise the Jacquemettons wrote for Mad Men until I saw them making out when their nomination came up. ;)
As I see it the Emmy’s only pick shows or TV movies about things that you can grab on to and hold in your hand. If it can’t be sold at K-mart or Walmart they why let it have an award. That shows for the past and future and no matter how idiotic the present day show is, it seems that real and physically present so it can win. History shows can win rarely, for example you can find fossils and those can be held in your hands.
But if the idea is of something out of the box (not in the real physical world) it’s only a dream, and very few dreams get to be real.
Plus those shows that are in the box can offer needed vision but those visions can be controled with ease by those of today. The thing is Sci-Fi can see miracles that can happen and show dangers that result from our miss doings of today and those events do not fit prepackaged for the close minded Emmy voters.
The big flaw is those that vote gain their power and popularity from unpredictable fan base, this fan base is made up of real people but it to is more like a dream than a reality.
It seems that for a Emmy to be given to a Sci-Fi show you need Mr. ET to land on stage with a UFO and come out and present the award, but that is only after a contract has been signed with the marketing/advertising people.
Any more ideas on how a Sci-Fi show will win Emmy’s that does not use UFOs or Money.
It’s all about who you sleep with.
Sorry, Bill, but if you didn’t give in to the casting couch, you were doomed.
Shatner already has two of those statues for bookends on his shelf. And to be in the winning circle of nominations..yet again??
I’m sure he didn’t lose a wink of sleep over his loss.
Not that this has anything to do with the awards, but Williams should have won for being the most beautiful woman on the face of the planet.
I’m so glad that Emerson won. He deserved to win last year. As for the rest of the Trek vets, no big surprises as the academy is so in love with 30Rock and Mad Men (aside from the acting categories for the most part, oddly).
I’m really glad that Family Guy didn’t win. It being nominated is a better joke than any made in the last season. Seriously, that honour (first animated show to be nominated since 1961) should have gone to any number of shows before going to Family Guy (The SImpsons, King of the Hill and South Park spring to mind).
Also, Jon Cryer winning is ridiculous. One of Kevin Dillon, Neil Patrick Harris, and Rainn Wilson should have won. Jack McBrayer also would have been preferable. It’s a shame that Entourage, HIMYM and The Office won’t all run long enough to get those three actors the wins they deserve.
Oh, and Futurama is another animated show that could have been nominated for Best Comedy.
I’ve always felt that once an actor has won an Emmy for portraying the same character, that he should no longer be considered for an Emmy (unless its a different character). Give someone else a chance to win.
I was struck by the omission of Majel Roddenberry from the ‘In Memoriam’ segment. This is not the first time Trek vets have been ignored – very sad.
Michael Emerson deserved to win the Emmy for his excellent portrayal of Ben Linus on LOST. I’m very happy for him.
8 – Probably much easier said than done when you’re pushing eighty.
He’s pretty robust and healthy for a man his age.
The phrase ‘shut out’ smacks of fannish paranoia :(
Shatner…..To Boldy GROW, ..ahahahahahahahahahahahahahha
Why do the Emmy’s love 30 Rock so much?
If I was nominated for an award in some category, and I was up against any aspect of that show, I just would’ve stayed home.
Poor Shatner.
And he looked really not all that impressed when he lost.
:(
When I found out the last season of The Shield didnt get any nominations I pretty much figured it was all a waste, most of this seems to confirm that. Glad I didnt waste time watching it.
I suppose the bottom line for the Emmys could basically be summed up as follows: Do we really care? How much Trek is on television now, anyway? And in an age of global warming and the breakdown of political discourse, is something as purely entertainment-oriented as the Emmys really relevant to anyone other than Hollywood types?
I’m starting to feel that the Emmys is little more than some monied version of “what’s hot and what’s not” — how vacuous can you really get?
Is some of this sour grapes? Maybe, but what of it?
The way Hollywood has always looked down on science fiction, perhaps it’s time we give some of it the cold shoulder.
It’s time to reclaim genuine values from the grip of the prosaic.
25 – It’s better than meekly stagnating. ahahahahahahahahahahahahahha heh heh heh cough cough