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'Frasier' Sets Emmy Record
1998-09-14
Los Angeles - ``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. [Reuters]
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