The brighter side
-- Broadcasting & Cable, 7/24/2000
What with peep cams and talking urinals and news as infotainment, we haven't been doing too much bragging about the old box lately. However, the announcement of this year's prime time Emmy nominations last week gives us an opportunity to look at what's right with TV, and there's a lot of it.
With dramas like The West Wing, The Sopranos, The Practice, ER and Law & Order competing for the top prize, that genre has as fine a group of shows as any in recent memory, with cable again strongly represented.
On the comedy side, cable is again in contention with acclaimed Sex and the City up against, among others, the wonderful Frasier and a Raymond that, if its acting nominations are any clue, everybody at the academy loves, too. And for those who are looking for the kind of dramas they did in the so-called Golden Age, we had that, too, with the live, black-and-white Fail Safe on CBS.
And let's face it, even though it didn't get nominated for an Emmy, we all watched some part of Millionaire and had fun. Like that little girl with the curl, when TV is bad, it's horrid. But when it's good, it is very, very good. Thanks, Emmy, for reminding us.
