‘Angels in America’ and ‘Sopranos’ top Emmys
Published 9:00 pm Sunday, September 19, 2004
LOS ANGELES – “The Sopranos” became the first cable show to win the Emmy for best drama series Sunday and fellow HBO entry “Angels in America” received a record 11 awards as Fox’s surprise comedy winner “Arrested Developed” proved a rare bright spot for broadcast TV.
HBO received a dominant 32 awards in the 56th annual prime-time Emmys. Fox collected 10, followed by NBC with 8, ABC and PBS with seven each and CBS with two.
“Angels in America,” the miniseries adaptation of Tony Kushner’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play about the 1980s AIDS crisis, won seven Emmys on Sunday, including outstanding miniseries and acting trophies for Al Pacino, Meryl Streep, Mary-Louise Parker and Jeffrey Wright. Kushner received a best writing award and Mike Nichols won best director.
“Angels in America” proved a record breaker. With the four Emmys won Sept. 12 at the creative arts awards and the seven it won Sunday, it exceeded the nine awards won by “Roots” in 1977 to become the most honored miniseries. It matched the 11 won by “Eleanor and Franklin” in 1976, the most for any program in one season.
“The Sopranos” finally collected the best drama Emmy in its fifth try.
“This is really great and seeing those goodbye episodes before gave me some great ideas how to end the show,” series creator David Chase said of “The Sopranos,” which has one more season ahead of it.
Michael Imperioli and Drea de Matteo, who played a hard-luck mob couple whose relationship ended in betrayal on “The Sopranos,” won drama series supporting actor and actress Emmys.
In some good news for the broadcast networks, Allison Janney of NBC’s “The West Wing” and James Spader of ABC’s “The Practice” won best actor awards for drama.
Donald Trump and “Survivor” creator Mark Burnett found themselves looking on from the audience as a less-popular show, CBS’ “The Amazing Race,” won best reality series for the second year in a row.
