31st Primetime Emmy Awards
The 31st Primetime Emmy Awards were held on Sunday, September 9, 1979. The ceremony was broadcast on ABC. It was hosted by Henry Winkler and Cheryl Ladd. This ceremony is remembered for problems with the Pasadena Civic Auditorium's air-conditioning, as well as for Taxi's Outstanding Comedy Series victory.
The top shows of the night were Taxi, which pulled an upset in the Outstanding Comedy Series field when it beat All in the Family's final season. Lou Grant received 12 major nominations, which, it won two awards including Outstanding Drama Series.
For the first time, most of the miniseries and Television movie categories were merged into one, this would become the standard for later ceremonies, culminating with the TV Movie and Miniseries program categories combining in 2011. For this year only, the comedy and variety categories were combined in acting, directing, and writing. This combination would not stick, and the traditional categories returned the next year.
Winners and Nominees
[1]
Programs
Acting
Lead performances
Supporting performances
Directing
Outstanding Directing in a Comedy or Comedy-Variety or Music Series |
Outstanding Directing in a Drama Series |
- Noam Pitlik for Barney Miller, (Episode: "The Harris Incident"), (ABC)
- Alan Alda for M*A*S*H, (Episode: "Dear Sis"), (CBS)
- Paul Bogart, for All in the Family, (Episode: "California, Here We Are, Part II"), (CBS)
- Charles S. Dubin for M*A*S*H, (Episode: "Point of View"), (CBS)
- Jay Sandrich for Soap, (Episode: "Episode #27"), (ABC)
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Outstanding Directing in a Limited Series or a Special |
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Writing
Outstanding Writing in a Comedy or Comedy-Variety or Music Series |
Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series |
- Alan Alda for M*A*S*H, (Episode: "Inga"), (CBS)
- Milt Josefsberg, Phil Sharp, Bob Schiller, Bob Weiskopf for All in the Family, (Episode: "California, Here We Are, Part II"), (CBS)
- Michael Leeson for Taxi, (Episode: "Blind Date"), (ABC)
- Ken Levine, David Isaacs for M*A*S*H, (Episode: "Point of View"), (CBS)
- Saturday Night Live, (Episode: "Host- Richard Benjamin"), (NBC)
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- Michele Gallery for Lou Grant, (Episode: "Dying"), (CBS)
- James Bridges, for The Paper Chase, (Episode: "The Late Mr. Hart"), (CBS)
- Gene Reynolds for Lou Grant, (Episode: "Marathon"), (CBS)
- Leon Tokatyan for Lou Grant, (Episode: "Vet"), (CBS)
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Outstanding Writing in a Limited Series or a Special |
- Patrick J. Nolan, Michael Mann for The Jericho Mile, (ABC)
- Gwen Bagni, Paul Dubov for Backstairs at the White House, (Episode: "Book One"), (NBC)
- Jane-Howard Hammerstein for Summer of My German Soldier, (NBC)
- Fay Kanin for Friendly Fire, (ABC)
- Ernest Kinoy for Roots: The Next Generations, (Episode: "Part I"), (ABC)
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Most major nominations
- By network [note 1]
- CBS – 46
- ABC – 30
- NBC – 23
- By program
- Lou Grant (CBS) – 12
- M*A*S*H (CBS) – 9
- Backstairs at the White House (CBS) – 8
- All in the Family (CBS) / The Rockford Files (NBC) / Roots: The Next Generations (ABC) – 6
Most major awards
- By network [note 1]
- By program
- All in the Family (CBS) / Friendly Fire (ABC) / The Jericho Mile (ABC) / Lou Grant (CBS) / Roots: The Next Generations (ABC) / Taxi (ABC) – 2
- Notes
- 1 2 "Major" constitutes the categories listed above: Program, Acting, Directing, and Writing. Does not include the technical categories.
References
External links