Critic’s Notebook: What Emmy is trying to tell you

In the quiet moments, before all the post-Emmy magazine covers and self-congratulatory campaign literature starts piling up, it’s important to remember that the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences is an institution. And like all institutions, it likes to send the world messages. Some of these have become fairly standard (“we love Tony Shalhoub!” “There will never be a competive reality show better than ‘ The Amazing Race’!”) and some are more of the moment (“we can’t pare this list down to five so we’re going to make it six and if that also broadens the Emmy broadcast audience, that’s cool too.” )

This year’s list is chock-full of mini-memos — Tina Fey, for example, is no longer the only woman officially producing good comedy. Here are a few of the most significant:

1. At long last it really is, honest to God, OK to be gay on television. The success of two of this year’s biggest hits — “Glee” and “Modern Family” — rests squarely on the shoulders of their gay characters and cast members. Three of the nominees for outstanding supporting actor in a comedy play gay characters — Chris Colfer’s Kurt (“Glee”) and Jesse Tyler Ferguson’s Mitchell (“Modern Family”) and Eric Stonestreet’s Cameron (also “Modern Family”). The “Modern Family” face-off marks the first time members of a fictional couple have competed against each other for an Emmy, but much more significant were the story lines and performances that led to the nominations.

The one criticism aimed at the phenomenally successful “Glee” has been its surrender of story to song, but the quietly epic tale of Kurt’s coming out to his father (beautifully played by Mike O’Malley, who got a guest star nomination) has consistently grounded “Glee” in real drama when it threatened to lose itself to theatrics.

Meanwhile, on “Modern Family,” the partnership and new parenthood of Mitchell and Cam wound up providing the show’s comedic spine and some of its most moving moments. And while “Modern Family,” like “Glee,” has come under some fire for not allowing their gay characters to do more than pine (“Glee”) or chastely hug (“Modern Family”), at least these states of celibacy make narrative sense — most high school students pine more than participate, and any new father will tell you that Mr. Pants for Romance he’s not.

2. A lot of people still hate Jay Leno and NBC. Or at least what they did to Conan O’Brien. How else to explain O’Brien’s nomination for a show that never quite found its footing, mainly because it only lasted a few months? In many ways, having Leno publicy break the no-take-backs rule may work out well for O’Brien, who could win an Emmy despite managing to lose out in the ratings to David Letterman even as Letterman was coping with a fairly icky sex scandal. Letterman, one cannot help but notice, did not get a nomination. Perhaps the academy felt that having Leno’s prime-time bomb serve as lead-in to Letterman’s competitor was gift enough.

3. Perseverence and good quality pays off, even in television. How happy were the critics to see first-time nominations for “Friday Night Lights”? Very, very happy. After failing to get a viewership that reflected the consistently high praise, NBC put together a deal with DirectTV, which has, for the last two years, aired the show first before sending it to NBC. What sounded like last-chance life support seems to have paid off. Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton were nominated in the dramatic lead actor and actress categories, and Rolin Jones is up for writing for the episode titled “The Son.” (Does this make DirectTV the new AMC?)

4. “Mad Men” is no longer the only well-written show on the block. This year, nods also went to “Friday Night Lights,” “The Good Wife” (Michelle and Robert King) and “Lost” ( Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse), which has received multiple writing nominations but, rather astonishingly, never won. In horse race terms — champion vs. upstart, long shot vs. overdue, this may be the most interesting category to watch.

5. The networks are back in both comedy and drama. Although HBO continues to dominate in all the movie categories, in the comedy acting and series nominations, the networks beat cable almost two to one and held their own in drama. Cable doubled network nominations for best drama, but if we count “Friday Night Lights” as network, Chandler’s nomination, along with “House’s” Hugh Laurie and “Lost’s” Matthew Fox, managed to split the acting category down the middle. (See below.)

6. The television academy still does not heart David Simon. After years of watching “The Wire” inexplicably get the cold shoulder, it should not be surprising that Simon’s flawed but still gorgeous and certainly well-acted “Treme” would suffer the same fate. And yet it is.

7. Smackdowns come in all shapes and sizes: In the miniseries category, HBO’s “The Pacific” takes on PBS’ “Return to Cranford.” It does not get more apples and oranges, or in this case, army helmet vs. frilly bonnet, than that.

8. The line between guest star and supporting actor is a fuzzy one, particularly in the dramatic actor categories, where folks like John Lithgow ( “Dexter”), Alan Cumming (“The Good Wife”), Robert Morse (“Mad Men”) and even Ted Danson ( “Damages”) seem more like cast members, or in Lithgow’s case, costars, than guests.

9. Critics matter, except when they don’t. Oh sure, everyone had a field day with breakouts like “Glee,” and “The Good Wife,” and at this point, shows like “Mad Men,” “Breaking Bad” and even “Lost” are by-rote praise magnets. But this year saw an across-the-board (and Internet) rise in praise for FX’s “Sons of Anarchy,” particularly Katey Sagal, who put in a gorgeous and harrowing performance after her character Gemma was gang-raped early in the season. And yet, no acknowledgement from Emmy. Likewise, “Justified” came out of the box with strong reviews and academy radio silence. Is FX on the naughty list?

10. Did I mention that it really is, at long last, OK to be gay on television?

mary.mcnamara@latimes.com