No Acceptance Speech
The world salutes genre in 2000... but what of 2001?
      by Rachel Hyland

It's a plaintive, perpetual cry heard wherever geeks gather. Why doesn't my favorite genre show/movie/actor get nominated for an award? And not just any award, but a major, mainstream award, presented by the likes of Dennis Franz or Helen Hunt during a prime time, over-long ceremony?

A cut scene from the movie Get Carter.

A good question. And the answer: well, actually, they do.

Okay, sure, so Buffy genius Joss Whedon didn't win that Emmy this year -- an Emmy he so richly deserved -- but he was finally nominated, which has to count for something. Films like The Sixth Sense, The Green Mile and Being John Malkovich garnered critical approval, high box office returns, and award nominations by the score. This year's Golden Globes were an absolute genre-fest, so too the Film Critics Guild, Art Director's Guild, and the many other Guild Awards. The Oscars went crazy! And even the aforementioned recalcitrant Emmys, so often the bane of the genre fan, threw more than that Joss-bone to a community they often spurn. (And not just 'cause they didn't nominate The X-Files this time around.)

Of course, genre has consistently dominated in the technical award categories, and it is no wonder. In those "Awards ceremonies held earlier," genre productions, from Babylon 5 to The Matrix have always brought home the goods year after year. But now it's not just the Best Boys and the Sound Mixers and Make-up Artists (always make-up artists!) who get to look all modest and pleased when the camera focuses on them during the ceremony. In fact, all things genre are becoming more and more recognized in the Muggle world, and this year's awards shows, celebrating the sterling work produced in both 1999 and 2000, have certainly proved that beyond a shadow of even the most skeptical doubt.

And the nominees are...

The Emmy Awards -- Genre Credentials

What more do they have to do?

Presented by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, the Emmys have traditionally been no friend to the genre fan. Right from the early days of Emmy, genre shows like Bewitched and The Twilight Zone were being sadly overlooked for deserved Emmy gold. Bewitched's Elizabeth Montgomery and Agnes Moorehead were nominated a combined eleven times and neither ever won (and Dick York was nominated once, but poor Dick Sergeant never, thus proving who was the superior Darren), while Morticia, Gomez and family never even warranted a starting gate. Battlestar Galactica, Space: 1999, Wonder Woman, The Six Million Dollar Man... all mostly ignored. Tales From the Crypt, Scooby-Doo, The Smurfs, The Wonderful World of Disney... all the defining experiences of a genre fan's life, snubbed cruelly by this august body.

Even that genre show most beloved of Emmy, The X-Files, has not been given its due. But the pattern of its nominations does show just how clueless about great genre television the Academy really is. Behold: two nominations in its revolutionary freshman year (it won for best title sequence, but Mark Snow was robbed for his title music); seven in the wonderful 1995 (mostly for the episode "Duane Barry"); eight for the outstanding third season of 1996 (they took home five of those, including one for Darin Morgan and "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose"), twelve in 1997 (three won), sixteen in, ugh, 1998 (only one technical award won), eight in 1999 (one technical award) and six in 2000 (three technical awards, including make-up.) David Duchovny was nominated twice as Mulder, but never succeeded, while Gillian Anderson, nominated four times (1996-1999), actually triumphed in 1997 as the already-getting-dull Scully. Chris Carter, meanwhile, has been up for eight Emmys, and has garnered nary a one. So, perhaps there is some justice in their hearts, after all.

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