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

Candidates to be considered the Best Supporting 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.

supporting actress

An actress who is Billed or Top Billed in an episodic series at any point during the eligibility year except if he or she is also First Billed in that same series at any point during the eligibility year. (Example: Imagine that this season of The Golden Girls had started off with Dorothy Zbornak as the heroine and Beatrice Arthur in the First Billed role. Rue McClanahan was Top Billed as Blanche Devereaux in those episodes. But in the fourth episode, Arthur left the series to work on a film career, and Blanche became the heroine, and McClanahan was then First Billed. Both Arthur and McClanahan would be eligible for Best Lead Actress in a Comedy, but neither of them would be eligible for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy.)

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 Bebe Neuwirth for Cheers, write: "Bebe Neuwirth, Cheers".)

Candidates Discussion

• Sarah Chalke, Scrubs: The best romantic comedies are the ones in which the audience falls in love with the romantic leads just as they fall in love with each other: The Philadelphia Story, It Happened One Night, When Harry Met Sally. Chalke's Elliot Reid is so adorable in her easily flustered, quirky, sincere ways that it's almost impossible not to fall in love with her.
• Portia di Rossi, Arrested Development: Michael's real sister has always had to sail the choppiest waters on the series, and this season is no exception. Di Rossi ably pulled off Lindsay's on-again off-again relationship with her husband, her attraction to Bob Loblaw and her apparent hermaphroditism.
• Jenna Fischer, The Office: Speaking of romantic comedy heroines whom the audience comes to love as much as the male lead... is there any red-blooded heterosexual male who would not sympathize with Jim Halpert and his crush on Pam the receptionist? Fischer pulls off the neat trick of playing the perfect pretend girlfriend and making it plausible that, although she would be desired, she would remain a secret crush while still avoiding being completely inaccessible. This isn't as easy as it seems, and that's why Fischer is one of this series' breakout stars.
• Jaime Pressly, My Name Is Earl: Pressly is a truly heavy-hitting contender in this category, and another name I'll champion as far as I need to. TV Guide says, "We love all the episodes of My Name Is Earl, but we love the ones featuring Joy just a little bit more." I couldn't agree more. Pressly's portrayal of a trailer-park queen is a comic tour-de-force. In her hands, even Joy's trying to kill Earl for his lottery money (1x02 - Quit Smoking) seems charming, and her decision to ash into an urn to fake her own mother's death and win a mother-daughter contest with an off-key rendition of "You Are the Wind Beneath My Wings" (1x06 - Broke Joy's Fancy Figurine)—like most of Earl's unorthodox attempts to make amends—makes a bizarre kind of sense. Almost every line Pressly utters and every roll of her eyes becomes hilarious, yet she's also able to portray the odd sweetness at the core of her character (1x08 - Joy's Wedding, 1x10 - White Lie Christmas, 1x21 - The Bounty Hunter). Joy is hands-down one of the funniest female characters to appear in a comedy series in a long, long time, and much of that is due to Pressly, who therefore clearly deserves consideration in this category.
• Emily Rutherfurd, The New Adventures of Old Christine: Rutherfurd has a delicate balancing act in this series. As New Christine, she must be likable enough that it tortures Old Christine, yet not so sickeningly sweet as to become unlikable, nor so perfect as to steal focus from the point of the series. Rutherfurd walks this tightrope without breaking a sweat.

JCaesar 01:20, 3 June 2006 (EDT)

• Elizabeth Perkins, Weeds: Playing neurotic housewife Celia, Elizabeth balances the humor and drama of the various situations like no other. Between the ways she deals with her husbands submissive infidelity with the tennis coach, her daughter's weight problems and her breast cancer she makes her characters bizzare choices seem natural. Her talent is best seen in the scene where she reveals to her husband that she has cancer seconds after a plane dropped a case of exploding coke bottles into their bedroom. She delivers her line so perfectly that you want to laugh and cry at the same time which is exactly the reaction the character is going for in her husband.The-jam 10:26, 5 June 2006 (EDT)
• Ashley Jensen, Extras Although new to the British comedy scene Jensen has managed to play a role opposite arguabley the biggest name in British comedy and done it well. The naïve and often slightly simple Maggie Jacobs provides many of the series' funniest and most awkward moments. Jensen thoroughly deserves the awards and nominations she's already garnered and a nomination in the IVy awards. --Kash 22:40, 17 June 2006 (EDT)