TV: 15th Annual Television Award Winners

The winners for the 15th Annual OFTA Television Awards have been announced.

The most honored program of the year was miniseries Mildred Pierce which won eleven prizes including those for Best Motion Picture or Miniseries, Actress (Kate Winslet), a tie for Supporting Actress (Evan Rachel Wood), Ensemble, Direction, Writing, Music, Editing, Cinematography, Production Design and Costume Design.

The winner of Best Comedy Series was Modern Family which picked up another six awards: Supporting Actor (Ty Burrell), Supporting Actress (Sofia Vergara), Guest Actor (James Marsden), Ensemble, Direction and writing. This is the second year the series has won the Comedy Series prize. Last year, it tied Glee for the trophy.

Mad Men won the award for Best Drama Series along with the award for Writing. The two awards ties Mad Men for most honored program in OFTA history. In the show’s four seasons, it has received the award for Best Drama Series each year. With four awards for Best Drama Series, Mad Men furthers its dominance of the category, earning the prize two more times than any other series in history.

Drama series Boardwalk Empire was the third most honored program of the year earning six awards for Actor (Steve Buscemi), Ensemble, Direction, Editing, Production Design and Costume Design. Game of Thrones earned five awards for Supporting Actor (Peter Dinklage), Music, Sound, New Theme Song and New Titles Sequence.

In other categories, the Tony Awards becomes the first annual awards program to win a program prize against The Academy Awards. Katey Sagal won the prize for Drama Actress for Sons of Anarchy, Joan Cusack won the Supporting Actress award for Shameless and Jim Parsons wins Comedy Actor for The Big Bang Theory while Toni Collette earns the trophy for United States of Tara. Edgar Ramirez becomes the first actor to win a Motion Picture or Miniseries trophy for performing in a foreign language with his Best Actor prize for Carlos. Paul Giamatti wins the Supporting Actor award for Too Big to Fail and in a tie with Evan Rachel Wood in Mildred Pierce, Maggie Smith wins the Supporting Actress award for Downton Abbey.

For more winners, check out the following link: 15th Television Awards

Hall of Fame

In addition to awarding the best in television across the past season, the members of the Online Film & Television Association annually select ten programs, four performers and three behind the scenes artists to induct into their Hall of Fame. Below are this year’s recipients:

Programs

• Batman (1966-1968) – Adam West and Burt Ward starred in this ’60s action series using comic book styles to tell the stories of Batman and his boy wonder Robin as they battled the forces of evil including iconic villains Catwoman, Penguin, Riddler and Joker.
• Bonanza (1959-1973) – This classic television western saw Lorne Greene in the role of Ben Cartwright, the patriarch of the clan that occupied the Ponderosa, a massive ranch in Nevada. Greene and the three actors who played his sons, Pernell Roberts (Adam), Dan Blocker (Hoss) and Michael Landon (Little Joe) became household names thanks to this series.
• Disney’s Wonderful World of Color, et al (1954-2008) – This weekly anthology series began as “Disneyland” in 1954 and saw a number of nome changes, including it’s most recognized “The Wonderful World of Disney” which it carried for 20 of its 52 seasons on television from 1969 to 1979 and from 1997 through 2008 when it was cancelled by ABC. It is the second-longest running anthology series in history behind Hallmark Hall of Fame.
• Father Knows Best (1954-1960) – This NBC radio program moved to television in 1954 where it ran for six successful years. The show followed the lives of the Anderson family led by Robert Young along with his wife Margaret (Jane Wyatt) and three children Betty (Elinor Donahue), Bud (Billy Gray) and Kathy (Lauren Chapin).
• Late Night (1982-Present) – One of the earliest post-Tonight Show programs, Late Night led the way in the late night programming under the leadership of host David Letterman who was followed by Conan O’Brien in 1993 when Letterman moved to CBS to challenge lead-in Jay Leno, and then by Jimmy Fallon in 2009 when O’Brien was briefly promoted to host of The Tonight Show before being dumped by NBC in favor of bringing back Leno.
• Mission: Impossible (1966-1973) – This primetime crime drama ignited the imaginations of millions bringing its Bond-esque adventures of a small group of spies to the small screen. The theme song is one of the most recognized in television history and its “your mission, should you choose to accept it” tagline a part of popular culture.
• Murphy Brown (1988-1998) – A popular newsroom drama in the vein of The Mary Tyler Moore Show followed the aggressive title character played by Candice Bergen as she wrestled with her fame as a news anchor not too dissimilar from Barbara Walters. The show became noted for its thick political commentary, providing a lightning rod for a number of important issues of the 1990s.
• SCTV (1976-1984) – Second City Television was a Canadian variety series featuring the television programming on the fictional SCTV network. Employing some of the most recognizable comedians of the 1980s and 1990s, SCTV was a more risque series than its rival Saturday Night Live. Among the noted names that came out of the SCTV cast were John Candy, Joe Flaherty, Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Rick Moranis, Catherin O’Hara, Harold Ramis, Martin Short and Dave Thomas.
• Wheel of Fortune (1975-Present) – One of the most recognized Merv Griffin game shows of the 1980s, this Hangman-style game show awarded “valuable prizes” after contestants spun a massive wheel with dollar values that would add together to give them a monetary reward. It remains one of the most popular game shows in history and is the longest running game show of all time. Host Pat Sajak began the current syndicated run in 1983, one year before his long-hosting rival Alex Trebek.
• Your Show of Shows (1950-1954) – Sid Caesar’s acclaimed variety program Your Show of Shows was a successful multi-camera skit series that paved the way for a number of other popular programs. Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca rose to fame as they performed skits written by famous writers like Mel Brooks, Neil Simon and Carl Reiner.

Acting

• Eve Arden (1908-1990) – Before reaching her height of popularity as the beloved, titular school teacher on Our Miss Brooks, Arden worked on Broadway and in film. She began working in radio on Danny Kaye’s short lived variety show in 1946 before moving on to the radio version of Our Miss Brooks in 1948 and then the television series from 1952 to 1956 before transferring the character to film in 1956. She made a number of guest appearances over the years, but Miss Brooks will be the role she’ll always be remembered for.
• Edward R. Murrow (1908-1965) – Murrow was one of the first television newsmen and became a recognizable face after a long and important career on radio. He hosted three long-running television programs, See It Now (1951-58), Person to Person (1953-59) and Small World (1958-1960), among other duties before becoming director of the United States Information Agency.
• Dinah Shore (1916-1994) – The noted singer and actress began her television career in 1937 on an experimental broadcast for NBC. In 1949, she made her official debut on Ed Wynn’s variety show also appeared on Bob Hope’s first television show in 1950. In 1951, she was given her own variety show where she sang the legendary “See the U.S.A. in Your Chevrolet” theme and commercial which landed her a sponsor and a name-change to The Dinah Shore Chevy Show. The series ran through 1963. She starred in two more self-titled series from 1970-1974 and 1974-1980 and then a third program on cable from 1989 to 1992. With 25 years of variety programming under her belt, Shore remains one of the most prolific stars of television.
• Red Skelton (1913-1997) – Star of film, radio and television, Skelton made a big splash on television as he transitioned his radio program to TV in 1950 and his own The Red Skelton Show began in earnest in 1951. It would run for 20 years until 1971. After that, he made two further appearances as an actor in 1976 and 1981 before retiring.

Behind the Scenes

• Larry Gelbart (1928-2009) – Celebrated writer Larry Gelbart began his career on Danny Thomas’ radio show before writing for Jack Paar and Bob Hope. He also wrote material for legendary comics Red Buttons and Sid Caesar. But it wasn’t until 1972 that Gelbart’s legacy would be preserved. That year, he was one of the main creative forces behind iconic television series M*A*S*H which ran for 11 critically acclaimed seasons.
• David Sarnoff (1891-1971) – Sarnoff was a businessman and pioneer who founded both NBC and RCA, two companies important to the creation and success of television.
• David Wolper (1928-2010) – One of the most successful television producers in history, Wolper was behind the seminal productions of medium-defining miniseries Roots, The Thorn Birds and North and South along with popular series Welcome Back, Kotter.