TV: 18th Annual Television Award Winners

The winners for the 18th Annual OFTA Television Awards have been announced.

Mad Men, which went home with 3 awards this year, extended its reign as most honored series in OFTA history. The series won awards for Best Supporting Actress (Christina Hendricks), Best Guest Actor (Robert Morse) and Best Writing, all in the Drama Series categories. That record won’t hold for long as Game of Thrones was the year’s most honored program winning ten awards including a tie for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for Peter Dinklage (who tied with Breaking Bad‘s Aaron Paul), Guest Actress for Diana Rigg (her second consecutive year winning this category for this program), Ensemble in a Drama Series, and seven of eight awards in the Series creative categories for Music, Editing, Cinematography, Production Design, Costume Design, Sound and Visual Effects.

This also marks the second consecutive year that Game of Thrones won the most awards without winning Best Drama Series. For the second year, it lost to Breaking Bad. Along with Aaron Paul’s win, the show also won for Best Actor in a Drama Series going to Bryan Cranston. As for the one creative award not won by Game of Thrones, that went to The Walking Dead for Best Makeup and Hairstyling, which went along with its second award for Best Directing in a Drama Series. Best Drama Series nominee True Detective didn’t go home empty handed taking prizes for Best New Theme Song and Best New Titles Sequence.

The Comedy Series categories were split multiple ways. Comedy Series winner Modern Family also won for Directing in a Comedy Series. The Big Bang Theory won Best Actor for Jim Parsons along with the awards for Best Guest Actor in a Comedy Series going to television legend Bob Newhart, and Ensemble in a Comedy Series. Best Actress winner Julia Louis-Dreyfus repped one of two awards for Veep, which also took the award for Writing in a Comedy Series. The remaining winners in the comedy categories received only one award apiece. Andre Braugher won Brooklyn Nine-Nine‘s sole award for Best Supporting Actor; Allison Janney won for Best Supporting Actress for Mom; and Shameless took its only award for Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for Joan Cusack.

In the movies and miniseries categories, The Normal Heart eclipsed most-nominated American Horror Story: Coven by winning six awards including Best Motion Picture, Best Actor (Mark Ruffalo), Best Supporting Actor (Matt Bomer), Best Ensemble, Best Direction and Best Writing. Coven was restricted to four wins, picking up the Supporting Actress prize for Kathy Bates along with awards for Costume Design, Makeup and Hairstyling and Visual Effects in the non-series categories.

Cicely Tyson won the Best Actress award for The Trip to Bountiful. Best Miniseries winner Fargo won one other award for Best Production Design in a non-series. Sherlock: His Last Vow also picked up two awards for Best Editing and Best Cinematography. The music award went to the special stand-alone episode Psych: The Musical of comedy series Psych. The Kennedy Center Honors was the lone non-movie/miniseries in the creative categories where it won the award for Best Sound.

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart continued its dominance of the fiction categories winning awards for Best Fiction Program and Best Male Performance in a Fiction Program. COSMOS: A SpaceTime Odyssey won Best Non-Fiction Program and Jane Lynch won Best Host/Panelist in a Non-Fiction program for her work on Hollywood Game Night.

For more winners, check out the following link: 17th 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

• Agatha Christie: Poirot (1989 – 2013) – For thirteen seasons, David Suchet gave life to one of the most enduring fictional detectives in history, one of the most prominent series ever featured on PBS’ program Mystery.
• Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple (1984 – 1992) – Agatha Christie was one of the foremost murder mystery writers in literary history and gave life to two of the most famous detectives ever to grace the written page. Miss Marple was one of those and in twelve programs across 9 years, Joan Hixson became the epitome of the spinster detective.
• ER (1994 – 2009) – Over 331 episodes across fifteen seasons makes ER one of the longest-running medical dramas in history, launching the careers of prominent actors like George Clooney and Julianna Margulies while bolstering the careers of people like Anthony Edwards, Noah Wyle, Eriq La Salle, Gloria Reuben, Laura Innes, Maria Bello, Alex Kingston, Paul McCrane and many others.
• Family Ties (1982 – 1989) – In Seven seasons, Family Ties became a huge hit, turning Michael J. Fox into a cultural phenomenon. Exploring the shift from cultural liberalism to social conservatism, the show pitted the new Republican Alex P. Keaton against his ex-hippie parents played by Michael Gross and Meredith Baxter-Birney.
• Guiding Light (1952 – 2009) – One of television’s longest running programs, The Guiding Light originally luanched on NBC radio in 1937 and continued through 1956, running concurrently with the television version. Between television and radio, the show logged more than 18,000 episodes with 57 seasons (15,762 episodes) on CBS television before being cancelled due to a shift away from traditional models of daytime television.
• Midsomer Murders (1997 – Present) – Now in its sixteenth season, Midsomer Murders is based on a book series by Caroline Graham and has proven to be one of ITV’s longest running programs.
• Police Squad! (1982) – Airing only 6 episodes, the comedy series from David Zucker, Jim Abrahams and Jerry Zucker has become a key influence to a number of future comedy stars and helped cement Leslie Nielsen as one of the finest dead pan comedians in history.
• Pride and Prejudice (1995) – Jane Austen’s classic novel of romance and longing has been adapted multiple times, including three time as a television miniseries. The 1995 version starring Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth has become of the best regarded and best known adaptations in history.
• The Shield (2002 – 2008) – American cop drama The Shield aired for seven seasons on FX and became one of the most critically acclaimed television programs in history in spite of earning zero nominations for Best Drama Series and receiving a total of four Emmy nomination ever, winning only once for lead actor Michael Chiklis in the show’s first season.
• The West Wing (1999 – 2006) – Aaron Sorkin’s political drama exploring the tightly-knit relationships between staffers in the West Wing under Democrat president Josiah Barlett (Martin Sheen), the show earned critical acclaim and four Emmys for Best Drama Series.

Acting

• Patty Duke (1946 – Present) – Along with her eponymous television series, Patty Duke was one of the most well known child actors ever to work on television and has continued that career through countless guest appearances and television movies, earning ten Emmy nominations and three awards.
• John Ritter (1948 – 2003) – For four decades, John Ritter as an ever-present fixture on network television. His career took off with an eighteen-episode run on The Waltons and individual performances on several series before transitioning into the role Jack Tripper on Three’s Company where he eight seasons and another season on the short-lived spin-off Three’s a Crowd. He also launched two other short-lived series before succumbing to an aortic dissection in 2003. In his career, he was honored with six Emmy Nominations, winning one for his role on Three’s Company.
• Phil Silvers (1911 – 1985) – Renowned comedian Phil Silvers launched a successful television career in the role of Sgt. Bilko in 143 episodes of his self-named series The Phil Silvers Show. Silvers earned five Emmy Award nominations, winning two.
• Ann Sothern (1909 – 2001) – After two decades in film Sothern moved to television in 1953 to headline sitcom Private Secretary, which ran for 104 episodes. Along with various guest appearances, she also headlined the successful eponymous series The Ann Sothern Show from 1958 to 1961. She received a total of five Emmy nominations between her two series, but went home empty-handed.

Behind the Scenes

• David E. Kelley (Producing) (1956 – Present) – Earning 28 Emmy nominations and ten Emmys, series creator David E. Kelley created some of the 1980’s, 1990’s and 2000’s most prominent television dramas including L.A. Law, Picket Fences, Chicago Hope, The Practice, Ally McBeal, Boston Public and Boston Legal.
• William S. Paley (Network Executive) (1901 – 1990) – William S. Paley was responsible from taking the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) and turning it from a small radio network into one of the top radio and television networks in history.
• Betty Thomas (Directing) (1948 – Present) – Betty Thomas began her career as an actress, including an Emmy Award-winning role on Hill Street Blues before launching a prominent and successful career a television director. Her ten Emmy nominations (seven for acting, three for directing), earned her three Emmys (one for acting, one for directing). She was the first woman ever to win an Emmy for directing a comedy series and is one of only five women to ever win a directing Emmy outside of the variety categories (two in drama, two in comedy and one in movies and Miniseries).