The TV IV talk:IVy Awards/2006/Best Lead Actor in a Drama Series

Peter Outerbridge

• Peter Outerbridge, ReGenesis: There are certain actors who once you've seen what they can add to a show, you seek out anything you can they are cast in. It doesn't matter whether they can act, or just seem to play themselves; they have the personality to draw you in anyway. For me, Peter Outerbridge is like this. As the womanising David Sandström, he can act and the quality acting he does slots perfectly into this quality show. Peter Outerbridge = Mantastic.

--Rmt38 16:11, 8 June 2006 (GMT)

Drama vs. Comedy Submissions

Shalhoub won the Emmy for Best lead actor in a comedy series last year, so shouldn't he be nominated there? --MateoP 16:57, 8 June 2006 (EDT)

No read the rules any show that is both comedy and drama but has a running time longer than 30 minutes is a drama for these awards. The Emmys are based on where the studio submits it we don't have submissions so can't use those qualifications.The-jam 17:01, 8 June 2006 (EDT)

To clarify what The-jam said: We do not have the same category standards as the Emmys because we couldn't if we wanted to. We therefore had to find the fairest way to decide our own category standards. While there are certainly 30-minute shows which are very dramatic (such as Scrubs) and 60-minute shows which are very comedic (Desperate Housewives, Monk), it is still pretty universal around the world that there is a clear distinction in the tone and format of 30-minute vs. 60-minute series, and so that was the dividing line which was ultimately used to select category standards when all other factors were equal. JCaesar 17:06, 8 June 2006 (EDT)

These aren't the same standards as any awards. Monk has been nominated for 20 awards[1] and all of them for comedy. Shalhoub has won 2 Emmys, 2 SAGs, and 1 Golden Globe. All for comedy.

There is nothing worse than basing the genre of a show on how long it is. That's just patently absurd. Monk has fewer dramatic sequences than Friends or How I Met Your Mother. When it is very close I can see doing this, but it is not here. Common sense and past history indicates it's always been a comedy. --MateoP 17:30, 8 June 2006 (EDT)

By the way, it's best if we move this conversation to the talk page or the Future IV awards page. --MateoP 17:53, 8 June 2006 (EDT)

Monk has fewer dramatic sequences than Friends or How I Met Your Mother. Exactly. So... do "common sense and past history" suggest we should start classifying those latter two series as Dramas? Personally, I find myself laughing out loud at House, M.D., The Sopranos and Boston Legal—all of which are noted for being funny—at least as often, if not more often, than I do at Sons & Daughters or Weeds. Yet all those former series have been categorized by the Emmys, the Golden Globes and the SAG Awards as Dramas. Again, we don't have the same standards, because we can't have the same standards, because we don't get the submissions that all the other awards do. (I've voted in the SAG Awards. They get the submissions, also.) The other thing to remember is that the Emmys, Golden Globes, SAG Awards, etc. are also highly political. Nominations and awards are a big boost for the business of TV, and so producers submit shows with an eye towards business as much as an eye towards what the show actually is. That's one of the reasons why Ally McBeal was submitted as a Comedy back in the day (the producers felt it necessary to play up how funny the show was to encourage more male viewership), while Boston Legal, which is very, very similar in many ways, is submitted as a Drama. (The producers have said they were worried that casting William Shatner, most noted as a comedic actor in recent years, and Candice Bergen, who was last seen winning Comedy Awards every year, might imply the series was less serious than it's supposed to be.) Similar political/business decisions may have had an impact on the categorization of Desperate Housewives or Monk. We are not part of the politics and business of Hollywood. It's not our job to help the producers promote the image they want to promote. Even if we were, I'd say we're still not big enough that anyone would pay that much attention to us. And we don't get the producer's submissions, anyway. Using past nominations in other awards is one option, but what would we then do with new series, or series which have been overlooked by the other awards?

Again, runtime was chosen because it was the best empirical method of delineating the difference that we had available to us for all series at all times. However, if you have a better suggestion for use in the future, as with everything, you are encouraged to submit it in our Future IVy Awards discussion. JCaesar 17:56, 8 June 2006 (EDT)

Drama seems like a fair enough placement considering the lack of a mystery category. -Philoetus 00:00, 23 June 2006 (EDT)