TCA Press Tour: Critical acclaim doesn’t always bring Emmy love for FX shows
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FX’s popular “Sons of Anarchy,” “Rescue Me” and “Justified” rank among the most acclaimed shows by TV critics as well as viewers. But the edgy dramas were snubbed by Emmy voters, who declined to give the show any nominations.
“The Emmys live in their own separate universe,” said FX President and General Manager John Landgraf. Even though he noted that those shows, which all fall within the FX brand of edgy, raw material, all received “universal acclam,” he noted that “Damages” was the only FX series to receive any marquee nominations from Emmy voters.
Landgraf said that while “Damages” takes place in the world of upper-class Manhattan and involves mostly wealthy characters, “we have a tendency to do the literature of the common man or the common woman. Nobody is going to get any lessons on personal grooming from ‘Sons of Anarchy.’ But it’s literature, and it’s entertaining. And we have had great fortune and great success with that.”
While the cable network established itself with hard-edged dramas such as “The Shield” and “Rescue Me,” FX is developing more comedies. “Louie,” the sitcom starring Louis C.K. which premiered five weeks ago, has been renewed for a second season, and it has ordered a new comedy pilot, “USS Alabama” from “Reno 911” producers Robert Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon.
--- Greg Braxton
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