Last night the 63rd Primetime Emmy Awards aired on Fox. While many science fiction and fantasy shows were nominated very few won and most of those awards were in the smaller categories.
Outstanding HBO series ‘Game of Thrones’ was nominated for 13 Emmy Awards, but only took home 2 with a win for actor Peter Dinklage for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series and Outstanding Main Title Design. ‘Game of Thrones’ was nominated for Outstanding Drama Series along with ‘Dexter’, but lost to AMC’s excellent period drama ‘Mad Men’. The HBO series was also nominated for Outstanding Directing and Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series, but lost to ‘Boardwalk Empire’ and ‘Friday Night Lights’ respectively.
After winning 2 Emmy Awards last year, Showtime’s ‘Dexter’ was nominated for 5 awards this year, but was completely shut out. CBS’ T’he Big Bang Theory’ was nominated for 5 Emmy Awards and took away just one. Fortunately, it was Jim Parsons winning Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series for his hilarious impersonation of a human being named “Sheldon”. However, he also won the award by beating fellow co-star Johnny Galecki. In the Outstanding Comedy Series category though ‘The Big Bang Theory’ lost to ‘Modern Family’.
You would think it would be difficult for three science fiction series to lose to a non-genre show for special effects, but that’s what happened. ‘Stargate Universe’, ‘The walking Dead’ and ‘Game of Thrones’ all lost to ‘Boardwalk Empire’ for Outstanding Special Visual Effects For A Series. And ‘Game of Thrones’ and ‘Spartacus: Gods of the Arena’ both lost to ‘Southland’ for the Outstanding Stunt Coordination award. At least ‘The Walking Dead’ won the award for Outstanding Prosthetic Makeup For A Series, Miniseries, Movie Or A Special beating the canceled series ‘The Cape’ and ‘Game of Thrones’.
And talk about a bloodbath, HBO’s hit vampire series ‘True Blood’ was nominated in 4 categories and went home with a stake through the heart. Ouch! One bright spot for science fiction fans was ‘Futurama’. The long running series went 2 for 2 winning the Outstanding Animated Program award and the Outstanding Voice-Over Performance award for actor Maurice LaMarche’s hilarious “Lrrr” & “Orson Welles”.
Many outstanding science fiction and fantasy series qualified to be nominated but didn’t get a single nomination including ‘Fringe’, ‘Caprica’, ‘Warehouse 13’, ‘Being Human’, ‘Chuck’, ‘Eureka’, ‘Haven’, ‘Sanctuary’, ‘Supernatural’, ‘Smallville’, ‘Doctor Who’ and others. Seeing that the inventive and well done series ‘Fringe’ was looked over again points to the nature of these types of award shows. At least the digital spin-off ‘Fringe: Division’ was nominated for the Outstanding Creative Achievement In Interactive Media award. However, it lost to another awards show – ABC.com’s ‘Oscar Digital Experience’.
You can view the full list of Emmy winners and losers here.
