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As they make the final preparations for tonights award show we'll enlighten you with our own predictions as to who should win. We'll posts the results after the broadcast (Sunday night on NBC). For more detailed information from the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences try Emmy Online.
Click here to read about this special Emmy Awards show that celebrated 50 years in television!
Drama Series
Nominees: ER, Law & Order, NYPD Blue, The Practice and The X-Files.
We Like: ER, unlike some of the comedy shows it really hasn't won massive amounts of awards.
The Practice took this one with some style, everyone who could get tickets was on stage!
Lead Actor in a Drama Series
Nominees: Andre Braugher - Homicide: Life on the Street, David Duchovny - The X-Files, Anthony Edwards - ER, Dennis Franz - NYPD Blue, Jimmy Smits - NYPD Blue.
We Like: Anothy Edwards. Homicide - just don't like the name of the show and Franz is cool but he's won too much lately.
Andre won and had a nice speech thanking everyone including the city of Baltimore.
Lead Actress in a Drama Series
Nominees: Gillian Anderson - The X-Files, Roma Downey - Touched by and Angel, Christine Lahti - Chicago Hope, Julianna Margulies - ER, Jane Seymour - Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman.
We Like: Christine Lahti, ok I know, Chicago Hope isn't our favorite but that's all the more reason she should win. She stands out in an otherwise ugly show (we love ER, sorry!).
Christine Lahti handled her acceptance speech so much better than the one she gave earlier when presenting an award, and hey, this time she wasn't in the restroom!
Comedy Series
Nominees: Ally McBeal, Frasier, The Larry Sanders Show, Seinfeld, 3rd Rock from the Sun.
We Like: Ally McBeal, yes it is a longer show than the rest but so what, it's usually funnier and Frasier has enough awards.
Frasier broke the record with the Emmy.
Lead Actor in a Comedy Series
Nominees: Michael J. Fox - Spin City, Kelsey Grammer - Frasier, John Lithgow - 3rd Rock from the Sun, Paul Reiser - Mad About You, Garry Shandling - The Larry Sanders Show.
We Like: Well we don't like Paul Reiser, probably have to say Mr. Lithgow again.
An emotional Kelsey Grammer, thanked the people that helped him out of that dark place.
Lead Actress in a Comedy Series
Nominees: Kirstie Alley - Veronica's Closet, Ellen DeGeneres - Ellen, Jenna Elfmana - Dharma & Greg, Calista Flockhart - Ally McBeal, Helen Hunt - Mad About You, Patricia Richardson - Home Improvement.
We Like: Calista! I mean really, she raises her hemline whenever she gets depressed :-)
We were as surprised as Helen Hunt, perhaps the first time an actress won both an Academy Award and an Emmy in the same year. Calista will have to wait another year.
Miniseries
Nominees: Armistead Maupin's More Tales of the City, From Earth to the Moon, George Wallace, Merlin, Moby Dick.
We Like: Merlin, ok it was the only one we actually saw and it wasn't perfect but hey, it was entertaining anyway.
Tom Hanks said it best in accepting for From Earth to the Moon, if we could all work together like they did on the Apollo project, the things we could accomplish.
TV-Movie
Nominees: A Bright Shining Lie, Don King: Only in America, Gia, 12 Angry Men, What the Deaf Man Heard.
We Like: Tough one, Don King and Gia were both excellent, but Don King reached a wider audience and will most likely take home the prize.
Don King took the Emmy, and Ving was again recognized by his peers for his fine work.
Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Special
Nominees: Jack Lemmon - 12 Angry Men, Sam Neil - Merlin, Ving Rhames - Don King: Only in America, Gary Sinise - George Wallace, Patrick Stewart - Moby Dick.
We Like: Love the hair! Ving Rhames all the way here. Special mention however, for Jack Lemmon who always puts on a good show.
Gary Sinise won for George Wallace. Truly fitting on the night that Mr. George Wallace passed away.
Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Special
Nominees: Ellen Barkin - Before Women had Wings, Jamie Lee Curtis - Nicholas' Gift, Judy Davis - The Echo of Thunder, Olympia Dukakis - Armistead Maupin's More Tales of the City, Angelina Jolie - Gia, Sigourney Weaver - Snow White: A Tale of Terror.
We Like: Jamie Lee Curtis, very touching. Again if it's not her our vote goes to Angelina Jolie for Gia.
Ellen Barkin, must have been pretty good, Oprah gets alot of credit for making that one happen.
Variety, Music or Comedy Series
Nominees: Dennis Miller Live, Late Show with David Letterman, Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Tracey Takes on...
We Like: We'd like to see Letterman and Leno removed from this category so we don't have to hear any "who's kicking ass now" crap from either of them. Our vote goes to Dennis Miller, yeah he can go off, way off sometimes on a tangent but he makes you laugh and he makes you think.
Letterman won! Hey, we didn't relize they had never won before, so now we're happy about it!
'Frasier Sets Emmy Record' By Steve James
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -
"Frasier," the veteran series about a
radio talk show psychiatrist,
made television history Sunday when
it won its fifth consecutive
trophy as best TV comedy at the 50th
annual Primetime Emmy Awards.
The NBC show's star, Kelsey
Grammer, won his third Emmy as
best comedy actor. Helen Hunt,
meanwhile, won her third
consecutive Emmy for best
actress in a comedy for NBC's "Mad
About You."
On the dramatic side, ABC's
"The Practice" won the Emmy for
best drama, Christine Lahti
of CBS' "Chicago Hope" was named
best actress and Andre Braugher
best actor for NBC's
"Homicide: Life on the
Street," which he left at the end of last
season.
NBC led the network awards
tally with a total of 18 awards,
followed by ABC with 16 and
cable's Home Box Office with 14.
The win by "Frasier"
takes it past "The Dick van Dyke Show"
(1963-66) and "Hill Street
Blues" (1981-84) -- the only previous
shows to win four consecutive
Emmys.
Grammer's "Frasier"
co-star David Hyde Pierce won his second
Emmy as best supporting actor.
English actress Jane Leeves, who
plays Frasier's father's housekeeper/therapist,
was shut out of the
best supporting comedy actress
award by Lisa Kudrow of
"Friends."
Other notable losers were
the cast of "ER," who had a total of six
nominations; Jason Alexander
and Julia Louis-Dreyfus of
"Seinfeld," and
Garry Shandling, Rip Torn and Jeffrey Tambor of
"The Larry Sanders Show,"
which recently finished their
acclaimed runs.
Grammer, who spent some
time in a clinic for addiction problems
that briefly disrupted production
of the show two years ago, was
close to tears as he accepted
his Emmy.
"This is for the people
who came to me in a very dark time in my
life to say there is a way
out," he said.
Later, backstage, he was
asked if comedy was difficult. "I think
living is the most difficult
thing to do. Comedy is easy after that."
"Frasier" executive
producer Peter Casey, accepting the best
comedy Emmy for the entire
cast and crew, paid tribute, saying:
"We couldn't do it without
one man -- Kelsey Grammer."
For Hunt, it has been quite
a year as she also won the best actress
Academy Award for "As
Good As It Gets" in March.
"My dreams came true.
The joy of this year is that I don't have to
choose (between TV, stage
and film)," she told reporters after
winning the award for the
third year in a row for playing new mom
Jamie Buchman in the show.
Organizers said they believed
it was the first time someone had
won an Oscar and an Emmy in
the same year.
On a night when the Academy
of Television Arts and Sciences
celebrated the 50th anniversary
of the Emmy awards, the normally
three-hour show was extended
by an hour to include a
retrospective of a medium
that has been such a significant part of
the second half of the century.
Despite sometimes sounding
pompous, self-important and
mawkish, the evening however
had moving tributes to some of the
landmark shows that will live
forever on the cathode tube -- like
"Roots," "All
in the Family" and "Hill Street Blues."
And the audience at the
Shrine Auditorium came to its feet when
three of the medium's founding
comedians appeared on stage --
Milton Berle, Sid Caesar and
a 95-year-old Bob Hope.
Strangely, coming the weekend
after independent counsel
Kenneth Starr's sexually-explicit
report on President Clinton was
made public, Emmy presenters
and winners largely steered clear
of politics during the show.
Apart from comedian Chris Rock
making a suggestive comment
about a cigar being used as a prop,
more celebrities talked of
baseball star Mark McGwire's eclipsing
the season home-run record
last week.
But the audience roared
when full-figured actress Camryn
Manheim took away the Emmy
for best supporting actress in a
drama series for her role
in ABC's "The Practice."
"I always felt like
a misfit," the first-time winner said, as she
brandished an autograph book
and implored everyone to sign it.
"This is for all the
fat girls!"
In other awards, Gordon
Clapp, who plays a sometimes annoying
detective on "NYPD Blue,"
won the Emmy for best supporting
actor in a drama. The gritty
ABC series also won for best
directing and best writing
of a drama. But stars Dennis Franz, who
had won three Emmys for his
role, and Jimmy Smits came away
empty-handed.
British actress Emma Thompson
won for best guest actress in a
comedy series for her appearance
as herself on ABC's "Ellen."
Veteran funnyman Mel Brooks
won the Emmy as best guest actor
in a comedy series, for playing
Uncle Phil on "Mad About You."
Gary Sinise and Ellen Barkin
won their first Emmys as best actor
and best actress in a miniseries
or movie -- Sinise for playing the
crippled former Alabama governor
in the TNT series "George
Wallace" and Barkin for
ABC's "Before Women had Wings."
Coincidentally, Wallace died
Sunday in Montgomery. Ala.
HBO's Tom Hanks-produced
"From the Earth to the Moon," the
story of America's journey
into space, won the Emmy for best
miniseries.
