Once upon a time, there was a land called Basic Cable TV that was filled with televangelists, infotainment, Atlanta Braves baseball, wrestling and endless reruns of the 1960s sitcom The Andy Griffith Show.
That world of 1980s cable TV seemed centuries away yesterday as AMC's Mad Men, a brilliant series about post-World War II Madison Avenue, and FX's Damages, a hard-edged legal drama starring Glenn Close, made history as the first basic cable series to earn nominations as best dramas. They joined a field of finalists for the 60th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards that was dominated by cable productions - at the expense of the broadcast networks.
Premium cable has been at the forefront of the Emmys the past five years, thanks to HBO. But with yesterday's record haul of nominations, advertising-supported cable channels like AMC, FX and TNT can call themselves the home of quality TV as well.
Viewers have already delivered their verdicts, making such series as TNT's The Closer, a cop drama starring Kyra Sedgwick, one of the most popular series on television; its audience routinely tops that of most dramas on ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox or the CW.
"These nominations are definitely a case of the Emmys catching up with the audience and rewarding basic cable channels for making some very smart, quality programming moves in the last few years," says Douglas Gomery, professor and scholar in residence at the Library of American Broadcasting at the University of Maryland, College Park.
As Gomery sees it, most Americans have "more viewing options" than time to sample, so they narrow the channels they routinely visit to "five or 10" favorites.
"And the basic cable channels, by putting their resources into quality dramas like Mad Men and series with stars like Kyra Sedgwick, are now among the favorites of millions of Americans - many of who have dropped ABC or NBC or CBS from their top 10 lists to add the cable outlets," says Gomery, author of A History of Broadcasting in the United States.
HBO led all networks with 85 nominations. The subscription-based channel also had the program that received the most nominations, John Adams, a prestige miniseries about the second president of the United States. It gained 23 nominations, including one for Paul Giamatti as best actor for his portrayal of the founding father.
