Probably the awards that mean the most in the worldwide TV industry are the Emmys (Broadcast this year on the CBS network on September 16th). The Emmy Awards first saw the light of day in 1948. The statuette is of a winged woman (actually modelled on the wife of the engineer who came up with the design) holding an atom. The Emmy Internet site ( http://www.emmys.org/awards/index.htm ) tells us this was the last of 48 separate designs considered by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, that the statuettes was nearly five pounds and they’re made of copper, nickel, silver and gold. The Emmys now are a huge operation, with separate sections dealing with Primetime programmes, Daytime programmes, programmes broadcast in the Los Angeles area, and now programmes made outside the United States are also included (http://www.iemmys.tv/ ).
But it’s what the awards represent that makes them really special. Emmy recipients include Dean Martin, Fred Astaire and the Monkees. They are the best of the industry, and to be numbered among them is considered an honour.
Where the Oscars and the Emmys go, other awards follow. Britains BAFTA awards are celebrated at http://www.bafta.org/bafta/4_tele/4_AWAR... , which, I may say, is a particularly cool site. Those awards are due to be announced in a week’s time (May 13th 2001, if you’re late catching up). If you want to know what the man in the street thinks, then there are the TV Guide awards ( http://www.tvguide.com/features/awards20... ). Personally, I like the slightly more anarchic Petcabus awards ( http://members.aol.com/OneDones/petcabus... ), which claim to honour under-appreciated TV shows. They award dud shows as well as hits with ‘negative’ awards, and I particularly like the snappily named “Almost Completely Unaware That You Have Aired” award.
Other awards are more serious than that – possibly the most prestigious of all is the Peabody Award ( http://www.libs.uga.edu/peabody/archive.... ), which is administered by the University of Georgia. The award has been given to what its committee considers the very best in broadcasting. Certainly, their list of past winners reveals some of the most famous names and programmes in TV and Radio, including Edward R Murrow (broadcasting from London during the Blitz of World War 2); Miles Davis on Jazz; Sesame Street; and Bill Cosby.
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