Nominees David Hyde Pierce (Frasier) and Jenna Elfman (Dharma & Greg) are the hosts of the Emmy Awards on Sun., Sept. 12 (FOX, 8 p.m. ET). Will they name themselves winners? Here are our preferences for the honor roll.
COMEDY SERIES
Everybody Loves Raymond (CBS) *
Frasier (NBC)
Friends (NBC)
Sex and the City (HBO)
Everybody Loves Raymond, now three years old, has practically perfected the art of the domestic sitcom. It's a fine blend of wholesomeness and eccentricity—like a Seinfeld that settled down in the suburbs. In a competitive Emmy field filled with shows about singles—not that there's anything wrong with that—the family headed by Ray Romano stands out.
DRAMA SERIES
Law & Order (NBC)
NYPD Blue (ABC)
The Practice (ABC)
The Sopranos (HBO) *
In its first season of 13 episodes, The Sopranos (see story on page 58) validated the slogan "It's Not TV. It's HBO." Each hour of creator David Chase's drama about a Mafioso (James Gandolfini) beset by stress was like a first-class feature film in everything but length. It's our clear-cut choice, despite the consistency of Law & Order and the resilience of NYPD Blue.
DRAMA SERIES LEAD ACTRESS
Lorraine Bracco, The Sopranos (HBO) *
Edie Falco, The Sopranos (HBO)
Christine Lahti, Chicago Hope (CBS)
Julianna Margulies, ER (NBC)
Falco is dynamite as a resentful Mafia wife, but we have to go with her Sopranos colleague Bracco (Good Fellas), who gives an exquisitely subtle performance-as the psychiatrist who helps James Gandolfini's gangster character cope with life's pressures. She's professional and analytical, but also sexy and simpatico. A sympathy vote goes to Lahti, cut from the Chicago Hope cast in the spring.
DRAMA SERIES LEAD ACTOR
James Gandolfini, The Sopranos (HBO) *
Dylan McDermott, The Practice (ABC)
Jimmy Smits, NYPD Blue (ABC)
Sam Waterston, Law & Order (NBC)
Sometimes choosing is just too hard. There are so many facets to Gandolfini's bravura performance as the conflicted Mafia capo—confused, vulnerable, cunning, explosive. But Franz's cop character went through wrenching changes last season, and we marveled anew at the actor's ability to look hurt and talk tough at the same time. Let the two streetwise guys share the award—or fight over it.
COMEDY SERIES LEAD ACTOR
Kelsey Grammer, Frasier (NBC)
John Lithgow, 3rd Rock from the Sun (NBC)
Paul Reiser, Mad About You (NBC)
Ray Romano, Everybody Loves Raymond (CBS) *
Hey, it wouldn't hurt to spread the wealth around a little (without lowering artistic standards, of course). Lithgow is deserving, but he won in '96 and '97. Same with Grammer, but he took this category in '94, '95 and '98. Romano has developed into a top-drawer comic reactor. His timing is hard to beat, and we dare say few grown males in America have a better whine. We'd like to see him rewarded on his first nomination, though here's a tip of the hat to the Emmy-less Reiser for seven fine years on Mad About You.
COMEDY SERIES LEAD ACTRESS
Calista Flockhart, Ally McBeal (FOX) *
Patricia Heaton, Everybody Loves Raymond (CBS)
Helen Hunt, Mad About You (HBC)
Sarah Jessica Parker, Sex and the City (HBO)
With this field, we can't complain, no matter whose name is in the envelope. It could be Heaton, a bracingly smart sitcom wife and mother; Elfman, the ditz who keeps Dharma & Greg bubbling; Parker, who gets to the loneliness as well as the laughs in the role of a sophisticated sex columnist; or Hunt, though a fourth Emmy for her work on Mad About You might seem redundant. But we'll give the nod to Flock-hart to recognize the emotional range she displays at the center of what may be television's most cleverly crafted show.
PBS (Sun.-Thurs., Sept 12-16, 9 p.m. ET)
Show of the week
Last year around this time, PBS presented The Farmer's Wife, a 6½-hour documentary on a Nebraska family in crisis. Now here's another endurance test—10 intimate hours with an interracial family in the New York City borough of Queens. An American Love Story asks a lot of the viewer but gradually gives much in return.
For two years (1992-9'4), producer-director Jennifer Fox filmed the daily life of black blues musician Bill Sims, now 50; wife Karen Wilson, 48, a white corporate manager; and daughters Cicily, 26, and Chaney, 18. Fox continued interviewing them into 1999, shaping a huge amount of material into a complex, multilayered study of four human beings bound together by a love that surpasses the understanding of so many who are blinded by skin color. Racial issues matter a great deal here, but as you watch this family cope with Karen's illness, Bill's alcohol abuse and the stress of Chaney's first date, you'll be struck by the universality of their experience. When Cicily graduates from college, simply color her parents proud.
Bottom Line: Real family value
FOX (Thursdays, 9:30 p.m. ET)
Mind you, all I've seen of this new comedy is the pilot (airing 16 at 9 p.m., followed by a second episode in the show's regular 9:30 slot). But it looks pretty bleepin' funny. Why the expletive deleted? To get into the spirit of the thing. One reason Action has generated a ton of advance publicity is that the pilot makes liberal use of bleeped profanities. By my count (I don't add well when I'm stunned), there are six in the first scene, in which arrogant movie producer Peter Dragon (Jay Mohr) browbeats a lowly studio employee. And the humor tends toward the outrageous even when the characters don't talk dirty. The high point of the opener comes when an agent (played by Drop Dead Gorgeous producer Gavin Polone) unabashedly entreats Peter to sign O.J. Simpson. Illeana Douglas gives depth to the role of a failed actress turned hooker who suddenly becomes Peter's script evaluator, and Buddy Hackett adds daffiness as his "head of security" (and oh, yeah, his uncle). Don't know if this extremely edgy material will wear well, but I'm up for more Action.
Bottom Line: Fast starter
A&E (Sun.-Mon., Sept. 12-13, 8 p.m. ET)
"A man with imagination could build an empire," says young P.T. Barnum (Jordan Bridges) in Part 1 of this colorful four-hour miniseries. "We've built an empire before; we can do it again!" vows the middle-aged Barnum (now portrayed by Jordan's father, Beau Bridges) in Part 2. Get the idea? P.T. thought big. And Bridges père and fils play him big. Neither gives as grand a performance as Burt Lancaster in the 1986 TV movie Barnum, but both capture the legendary 19th-century promoter's boundless enthusiasm for whatever attraction he touted—from Jumbo the elephant to the Swedish Nightingale, soprano Jenny Lind.
Alas, while Barnum was busy globe-trotting and tub-thumping, he apparently was paying insufficient attention to his family. The drama bogs down whenever it turns from his show-business ventures to his domestic troubles, maybe because a dining-room argument is intrinsically less interesting than a three-ring circus. In one overcooked scene, Barnum's wife and trio of grown daughters take turns reading him the riot act and walking out of the room—leaving viewers to wish the great man would spend even less time at home.
Bottom Line: Fun under the big top, soapy on the side
HBO (Tues., Sept. 14, 7:15 p.m. ET)
This animated special gets preachy and a tad treacly at times, but writer Harvey Fierstein (Torch Song Trilogy) adds plenty of humor to his plea for tolerance. In a variation on The Ugly Duckling, a young fowl named Elmer (voiced by Fierstein with his trademark rasp) endures abuse from his peer group—as well as his gruff father (Ed Asner)—because he prefers "sissy" stuff like puppetry to manly (so to speak) pursuits like baseball. Only Elmer's mother (Melissa Etheridge) assures him it's okay to be different—until he performs an act of heroism that wins the general admiration of the flock. Narrator Sharon Stone, Andy Dick, Kathy Najimy and other notables lend their voices to help communicate the message of respect for diversity, but it comes through loudest and clearest when Fierstein's Elmer declares, "I am a big sissy and proud of it!"
Bottom Line: Kids, listen up
>Sunday, Sept. 12 BRAVEHEART NBC (7 p.m. ET) Expect to wrinkle your kilt if you sit through four hours of Mel Gibson's Oscar-winning 1995 saga about a Scottish hero.
Monday, Sept. 13 THE MARTIN SHORT SHOW Syndicated (check local listings) The Tony Award winner (Little Me) launches a weekday talk-variety effort.
Tuesday, Sept. 14 JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH USA (8 p.m. ET) Treat Williams goes underground in a four-hour version of Jules Verne's classic. Concludes Wednesday.
Wednesday, Sept. 15 LAW & ORDER NBC (10 p.m. ET) The good guys say nyet to the Russian Mob in a repeat of last season's finale.
Thursday, Sept. 16 WHOSE LINE IS IT ANYWAY? ABC (8 p.m. ET) Drew Carey's improv party starts a new season.
Friday, Sept. 17 PANIC HBO (8 p.m. ET) Kim Basinger and other sufferers reveal their struggles with panic attacks.
Saturday, Sept. 18 MISS AMERICA PAGEANT ABC (8 p.m. ET) Donny and Marie Osmond play host for the 79th annual exhibition of modest swimsuits.
>Supporting Actor, Comedy Series Peter MacNicol, Ally McBeal (FOX)
Supporting Actress, Comedy Series Doris Roberts, Everybody Loves Raymond (CBS)
Supporting Actor, Drama Series Steve Harris, The Practice (ABC)
Supporting Actress, Drama Series Nancy Marchand, The Sopranos (HBO)
Movie A Lesson Before Dying (HBO)
Miniseries Joan of Arc (CBS)
Lead Actor, Miniseries or Movie Don Cheadle, A Lesson Before Dying (HBO)
Lead Actress, Miniseries or Movie Stockard Channing, The Baby Dance (Showtime)
Supporting Actor, Miniseries or Movie Don Cheadle, The Rat Pack (HBO)
Supporting Actress, Miniseries or Movie Anne Bancroft, Deep in My Heart (CBS)
Guest Actor, Drama Series Tony Danza, The Practice (ABC)
Guest Actress, Drama Series Julia Roberts, Law & Order (NBC)
Variety, Music or Comedy Series Tracey Takes On...(HBO)
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
