Mob Hits and Emmy Misfires

It’s that time again, when the dolled-up, high-fiving, self-adoring TV industry slaps itself on the back hard enough to break its spine.

What spine?

Now cut that out!

In fact, Thursday’s Emmy nominations brought resounding evidence that industry voters are not as meek--and impenetrable--as they once were. Not entirely, anyway.

Thanks largely to HBO, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences has widened its vision to include a bit more of the cutting edge. In recent years, near-universal acclaim for “The LarrySanders Show,” combined with its high achievement on the cable channel, nudged the academy toward redefining Emmy-worthy comedy.

Then on Thursday, nominations went to HBO’s clever, urbane comedy “Sex and the City” and its star, Sarah Jessica Parker. That raises the question of what “Sex and the City” clip will be shown on Fox’s Sept. 12 Emmy telecast for, as advertised, this is probably the most sexually active series in the history of mainstream TV. And as a bonus, its orgasms arrive without a laugh track.

But the academy acted even more radically last week when granting a leading 16 Emmy nominations to a weekly HBO drama about a ranking Mafioso, a quasi-satirical series whose levels of graphic violence, sex and coarse language would disqualify it from any broadcast network. As would its inky enigma--facile insights and pat solutions aren’t allowed--about a flawed family benefiting from a line of work that is hardly respectable. How are we to figure out Tony Soprano when, as his regular sessions with a therapist show, the criminal protagonist is a puzzle to himself?

Of course, it doesn’t hurt that “The Sopranos” is also TV’s most original and scintillating series, a superbly conceived and executed hybrid of seemingly incompatible gangsterism and upper-middle-class suburbia whose accompanying HBO publicity buzz and soaring critical praise put pressure on Emmy voters to recognize it.

Perhaps they would have anyway, for what’s not to love, from the writing (four Emmy nominations) and directing (one nomination) to the Emmy-nominated acting of James Gandolfini as brutal but conflicted Tony and Edie Falco as his shrewd, likable wife; Lorraine Bracco as his traumatized therapist; and Nancy Marchand as his demented crime mother?

And what is it with these sourest of grapes, the broadcast networks, so undone by HBO’s burgeoning Emmy success (its 74 nominations were second only to NBC’s 82) that they moan perennially about the cable network benefiting from bigger budgets and looser standards governing sex and language? As if they wouldn’t exploit those advantages.

“The Sopranos” was expected to garner a potful of nominations. But in the lower-profile category, also heartening was the nonfiction special (code for documentary) nomination given “Dying to Tell the Story,” a splendid, revealing little TBS film about the life and death abroad of a young photojournalist whose tender narrative honors the efforts of reporters in hot spots everywhere.

And let’s hear it, too, for the kids’-show nomination granted “The Clinton Crisis,” a Nick News special from Linda Ellerbee that was exemplary for not talking down to its young audience during a candid analysis of the events sparked by the president’s adventures with You Know Who.

But puhleeeeze!

“The Baby Dance” richly deserves its nomination, as Jane Anderson does her pair of citations for writing and directing it, and Stockard Channing her nomination for achingly fine work in that outstanding Showtime film.

But omit Laura Dern, equally brilliant as the indigent mother whose newborn Channing’s wealthy wannabe mom hoped to adopt? And instead pick Ann-Margret for starring in that Lifetime featherweight, “Life of the Party: The Pamela Harriman Story,” and Leelee Sobieski, who was just partly effective as the lead in “Joan of Arc” on CBS?

Get outta here.

What were those Emmy voters thinking, also, when ignoring Peter Riegert and Richard Lineback in “The Baby Dance”?

And also, by the way, when they cited a deserving Ian Holm as Shakespeare’s wandering loopy monarch but snubbed the stunning BBC production of “King Lear” in which he starred on PBS. Can it be true--yikes--that they nominated instead, among others, HBO’s “The Rat Pack,” TNT’s “Pirates of Silicone Valley” and A&E;’s “Dash and Lilly”? Go figure.

There were other misfires, such as the NBC miniseries “The ‘60s” getting a bid despite dropping more IQ points than acid.

And other oversights: Ken Burns’ impressive documentary, “Frank Lloyd Wright,” which failed to secure a nomination in the nonfiction special category, and “Shot Through the Heart,” a strong HBO docudrama about the heartbreaking personal impact of Balkans violence. Playing like a small, independent film, its Emmy chances were probably undermined by an absence of big names.

Also ignored were ABC’s movie on Sonny & Cher and NBC’s Jesse Ventura movie and “Noah’s Ark” miniseries. That’s because the Emmys have no category for camp.