Emmy Awards

HOT ON THE HEELS OF A SUM-mer that saw audience levels sink to an all-time low, the broadcast networks could be in for more pain yet tonight at the 59th annual Primetime Emmy Awards in Los Angeles. The Emmy telecast is designed to promote the start of the new fall season on ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and CW. But tonight's program on Fox could wind up celebrating the cable industry instead -- all those regulation-free channels that have been thrashing the networks in the ratings in recent months.

Brace yourself for the longest Emmy awards telecast in history tomorrow night."The 50th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards Show" will run four hours -- that's almost an hour longer than it ran last year. The extra time will be added at the front end, with the show starting at 7 p.m. instead of 8 p.m., according to executive producer Don Mischer, who says there will also be other big changes in this year's telecast on NBC.The most widely publicized has been the lack of a host. Variety, the industry trade publication, reported that Jerry Seinfeld and several other "four-star" celebrities had been offered the job and declined.

PASADENA, Calif. -- HBO, which has been steadily building a reputation as the place to do quality television, made it official yesterday, becoming the first cable channel to lead the networks in Emmy nominations.Among the 90 nods HBO received were a dozen for "Miss Evers' Boys" and 16 for "The Larry Sanders Show."However, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences once again snubbed the otherwise celebrated "Homicide: Life On the Street." NBC's Baltimore-based police drama received only two nominations -- one for casting and one for Anne Meara as best guest actress in a series.

Can a 15-time loser ever become a winner? Soap fans will be flocking to CBS tonight to find out."Beverly Hills, 90210" (8 p.m.-10 p.m., WBFF, Channel 45) -- Music from the Goo Goo Dolls, and a guest star who just might surprise you, are on hand in tonight's season finale. Fox."Daytime Emmy Awards" (9 p.m.-11 p.m., WJZ, Channel 13) -- In her 16th try, will Susan Lucci of "All My Children" finally win an Emmy? All America holds its breath. CBS."Law & Order" (10 p.m.-11 p.m., WBAL, Channel 11)

Pasadena, Calif. -- "ER" didn't win Emmy awards in the major categories last night, but the NBC medical drama won enough Emmys to tie records set in 1981 by "Hill Street Blues" for most wins by a series in one year and by a new series."

Dennis Franz of "NYPD Blue" (at right) won the Emmy for best actor in a dramatic series last night, but ABC's controversial police drama -- which went into the competition with a record number of nominations -- fell far short of capturing a record number of awards. "Picket Fences" beat out "NYPD Blue" in three major categories: best dramatic series and best supporting actor and actress in a dramatic series.The Emmy for best comedy series went to NBC's "Frasier," and the award for best actor in a comedy series went to the star of that show, Kelsey Grammer.

"NYPD Blue," ABC's controversial police drama, failed last night to set a record for most Emmys won in a season. It needed to succeed in all the categories for which it was nominated to top "Hill Street Blues," which holds the record with eight.Leigh Taylor-Young of "Picket Fences" beat out the competition in the supporting actress category, which included Sharon Lawrence and Amy Brenneman of "NYPD Blue." And in the supporting actor category, Fyvush Finkel of "Picket Fences" beat Gordon Clapp and Nick Turturro of "NYPD Blue."

LOS ANGELES -- CBS and "Northern Exposure" received the most nominations."Cheers" received enough nominations to possibly become the most celebrated TV show in history on Emmy night.But HBO and Garry Shandling made the biggest noise with the announcement yesterday of the 45th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards nominations.HBO set a record for a non-broadcast network with its 55 nominations, more than doubling its previous record of 26 nominations and tying with ABC. The feat marks a new parity between cable and network TV.HBO's "Citizen Cohn," a docudrama about controversial attorney Roy Cohn, was the second-most honored of any TV show with 11 nominations.

"The Daytime Emmy Awards" show hasn't always been a valuable network property. Until last year, when it aired in prime time, it had an erratic broadcast history and was regarded as something of an unwanted in-law to (dare we say it?) The Real Emmys, which honor prime-time shows.Now in its 19th year, "The Daytime Emmys" has emanated from hotel banquet rooms, dingy TV studios, even a sightseeing boat. Typically, it has aired in the afternoon, or not at all, as was the case as recently as 1986 and '87.But since bringing in a knockout prime time Nielsen score last year that outranked that other Emmy show, the daytime fest has come into its own.Among the factors in the show's improved status is the saga of "All My Children's" Susan Lucci, a 12-time loser for Outstanding Lead Actress who is nominated again this year.

You don't have to be first on the block into Nordstrom's. It will still be there a week later.Deja-vu. A bunch of young Germans decided to run the non-Aryans out of Germany, again.May they never give an Emmy Award to the Emmy Awards.

In an uncanny repeat of last year, the same shows and many of the same performers again took top honors at "The 61st Primetime Emmy Awards" Sunday night. "Mad Men" and "30 Rock" won as best drama and comedy, respectively, while Bryan Cranston of "Breaking Bad" and Glenn Close of "Damages" won as best actor and actress in a drama series. Meanwhile, Alec Baldwin of "30 Rock" again took home the Emmy for best comedic actor. What are the odds? But there was one new and big winner on CBS Sunday: the telecast.

I can think of a dozen reasons to dislike the Emmy awards. Five of them served as co-hosts of last year's telecast. But for all the excess of the TV show itself, and some of the winners that seem totally off the wall, it is still the one night and morning after that millions of us watch, talk and argue about. We focus on quality - whatever each of us means by that - rather than ratings. And last year, with "Mad Men" and "30 Rock" winning as best drama and comedy, it seemed like the voters finally and mysteriously got it right.

theater 'The Matchmaker': Hello Dolly! this is not. Thornton Wilder's classic play, which was the basis for the 1964 musical, has tons of wit and charm. But it makes pointed observations that were given short shrift in the musical. The show runs through Oct. 12 at Center Stage, 700 N. Calvert St.. Showtimes vary. Tickets cost $10-$60. Call 410-332-0033 or go to centerstage.org. Mary Carole McCauley art Ireland photos: Charles Carroll, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, lived at 800 E. Lombard St., now one of the Carroll Museums.

The telecast was lackluster, but for once, there was genuine drama at the Emmy Awards last night. HBO's acclaimed crime saga, The Sopranos, came into the telecast with more nominations than any series and was heavily favored to dominate. But as the evening wore on, acting award after acting award went to the competition. In four major drama categories - best actor, best actress, best supporting actor and best supporting actress - performers from ABC series beat out the favorites from The Sopranos.

HOT ON THE HEELS OF A SUM-mer that saw audience levels sink to an all-time low, the broadcast networks could be in for more pain yet tonight at the 59th annual Primetime Emmy Awards in Los Angeles. The Emmy telecast is designed to promote the start of the new fall season on ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and CW. But tonight's program on Fox could wind up celebrating the cable industry instead -- all those regulation-free channels that have been thrashing the networks in the ratings in recent months.

The Emmy Awards always spark morning-after controversy. Remember the debates last year about HBO's critically acclaimed The Sopranos getting shut out in major awards, while Everybody Loves Raymond swept top comedy honors? This year has been even more contentious, with the nominations themselves coming under fire as the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences added an extra layer of voting to the process in hopes of including some new faces among the finalists. THE 58TH PRIMETIME EMMY AWARDS / / Airs at 8 tonight on NBC.

CBS yesterday named Ellen DeGeneres host of The 57th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards telecast to be broadcast at 8 p.m. Sept. 18 on CBS. "We are thrilled," said Nina Tassler, president of CBS Entertainment. "She's an incredibly multi-talented performer whose comedic skills and energy promise to deliver an Emmy Awards broadcast to remember." DeGeneres emceed The 53rd Annual Primetime Emmy Awards on CBS in 2001. "Ellen has demonstrated her extraordinary ability to connect with the television viewing audience," said Dick Askins, chairman of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.

Executives at ABC hoped the 56th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards would put some muscle behind the network's new fall lineup. Instead, the show delivered the weakest ratings in more than a decade. Sunday's telecast was the least-watched Emmy ceremony since 1990, with an average of nearly 14 million total viewers, according to early figures from Nielsen Media Research. That's a 22 percent slide from last year's ceremony on Fox, which itself delivered lower-than-expected ratings. The network estimated that approximately 30 million viewers tuned in to at least part of the three-hour ceremony.

Angels in America, an epic six-hour drama about AIDS in Ronald Reagan's America, picked up 11 Emmy awards last night as HBO asserted its dominance as the home for daring and quality television. The haul ties Eleanor and Franklin, a 1976 TV movie, for the most Emmys won by a show in a single season - cementing Angels' place as a historic television event and a groundbreaking movie. The miniseries based on Tony Kush- ner's award-winning play swept the acting awards for a miniseries or movie - with awards going to heavyweights Al Pacino and Meryl Streep - as well as winning Emmys for writing and directing.

Emily Morison Beck, 88, who edited three editions of Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, died March 28 of kidney failure in Canton, Mass. She helped edit the 13th edition of Bartlett's, which was published in 1955 and marked the pithy resource's centennial. She traced lyrics, quotes and poem verses to their original sources, which included Charles Dickens, the Bible, James Brown and Bob Dylan. She edited the 14th edition, published in 1968, and the 15th edition, published in 1980. The book was started by John Bartlett, a bookstore employee in Cambridge who decided to publish his notebook full of quotations.