The TV IV:IVy Awards/2006/Best Lead Actress in a Comedy Series

Candidates to be considered the Best Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for work in a series which first aired one or more episodes in the United States between June 1, 2005 and May 31, 2006. Please read carefully the Definitions and Guidelines before putting a candidate up for nomination.

Definitions

comedy

Any live-action (non-animated), scripted (non-documentary, talk or news) episodic (airing on a recurring basis), non-limited series categorized as a Comedy on the TV IV. In the case of shows which are categorized as both Comedy and Drama (and only in those cases), the show will be categorized on the basis of runtime: Less than 40 minutes should be considered a Comedy, 40 minutes or more should be considered a Drama.

actress

A human female performer in a scripted series, including voice actresses and female actresses portraying male characters.

lead actress

An actress who is First Billed in an episodic series at any point during the eligibility year.

Guidelines

Please feel free to propose as many or as few candidates as you like in each category. If you change your mind or wish to retract a candidate, don't worry about editing the page, as it could cause some confusion down the road. (If you propose one unworthy enough, it will most likely not make it past the nominating process, anyway.) Feel free to discuss yours or others' proposals as much or as little as you choose. Tell us why you feel a candidate should be considered, or why someone else's candidate is a horrible choice and should not be considered. (Just remember to follow standard TV IV discussion rules regarding civility.)

Please mark all proposed candidates in bold, and link the show titles, even if the linked articles are empty or stubs. Try to avoid using bold elsewhere in the discussion. (To mark a candidate in bold, surround the name with two sets of three apostrophes, and use double brackets for linking, '''[[like this]]'''.) We must have a series for which each actor is being nominated, so be sure to include one. (For instance, to propose Sarah Jessica Parker for Sex and the City, write: "Sarah Jessica Parker, Sex and the City".)

Candidates Discussion

• Julia Louis-Dreyfus, The New Adventures of Old Christine: Critics and Saturday Night Live are claiming that this series breaks the "Seinfeld curse," and they're right, but a great deal of why it breaks that curse is because, unlike The Michael Richards Show and Listen Up, which either wasted their leads' talents or tried to unnaturally reimagine their Seinfeld characters in distinctly un-Seinfeld situations, The New Adventures of Old Christine banks on Louis-Dreyfus' likeability and east coast sharpness while giving her a character to play who is entirely unlike Elaine Benes. Louis-Dreyfus rises to the challenge, and it is largely because she does so well that Old Christine has become one of the few midseason replacements to be returning for a Season Two. JCaesar 17:31, 2 June 2006 (EDT)

• Mary-Louise Parker, Weeds: Well within the rules there aren't a whole lot of elligible actresses (and like 3/4ths of them are on WB or UPN sitcoms) and Parker is miles beyond the rest of the pack in her portrayal of a young widow who decides to support her family using unconventional means. She swings from comedic exchanges with her dealers and her clients to intense dramatic discussions with her children and competitors. Parker's slow change from portraying an easy going housewife to the godmother of a drug running gang was both hilarious and heartwarming all within concise 30 minute snipets.--The-jam 17:42, 2 June 2006 (EDT)

Absolutely. Her performance here would deserve a nomination even when there was stiffer competition. She was just so fantastic in so many ways. As you pointed out, her transformation into a drug lord was hilarious with its contradictions of character. This is one of the reasons why genres hurt, because her performance here surpassed genre and encompassed many aspects of human emotion. I'm afraid that her role isn't overly comedic enough to win in Best Comedy and not overly dramatic enough to win there. Yet this is probably the best place for the nomination and I can't possibly see anyone beating her out. Though I wouldn't be surprised if the Emmys gave it to Debra Messing because her show finished. --MateoP 00:42, 8 June 2006 (EDT)

Overall, I think you're right. This is simply a weak era for half-hour scripted comedies in general, and certainly for those featuring female leads. But hopefully the thousands upon thousands of TV IV users can come up with five or more contenders, and if they can't, well, it's perfectly acceptable to have fewer than five nominees in any category. Maybe next season, the half-hour-long scripted comedy will have as big a resurgence as the hour-long scripted drama did in the 2004-05 season, and we'll have an embarrassment of riches in this category. Meanwhile, I think we can come up with somebody to fit this category. JCaesar 18:41, 2 June 2006 (EDT)

I can think of a few others that could at least fill out a full slate of nominations, Debra Messing, Will & Grace; Jane Kaczmarek, Malcolm in the Middle and Tichina Arnolds, Everybody Hates Chris and in case you don't think the mothers on the kid centric shows count as leads then Leah Remini, The King of Queens and Reba McEntire, Reba, too. I don't watch any of these shows regularly but have watched a few episodes of each and from what I've seen these woman are all pretty good and a couple have won awards in the past.The-jam 20:30, 2 June 2006 (EDT)

It doesn't look to be getting any better next year The CW cut The WB/UPN line-up from 10+ sitcoms with female leads to 3, ABC cancelled it's two long running sitcoms with female stars and CBS cancelled two of it's long running couple centric sitcoms. Will & Grace and Malcolm in the Middle both ended and King of Queens and Reba are both only getting half-sized midseason orders. Old Christine was the only new show with a sole female lead to get renewed (well Weeds was renewed before the Fall season started) despite a whole slew of attempts. NBC's new 30 Rock starring Tina Fey looks very promising but definitely seems like next year this category is going to be even harder to fill.The-jam 20:30, 2 June 2006 (EDT)

I double-checked the billing on all the series you mentioned on my TiVo list and found that, in fact, all the names you mentioned are eligible in this category. In fact, Terry Crews, whom I nominated for "Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series," should've been put up for "Best Actor," so I'll fix that. See? We found more than five. :) As for the next season, maybe female comedy leads won't come back this season, but who knows what will happen in 2007, or '08? And I'm sure there are others which someone might think of. JCaesar 22:10, 2 June 2006 (EDT)