‘MIAMI VICE’ LEADS EMMY LIST WITH 15 CITATIONS

“Hill Street Blues” moved a step closer to television history Monday when it received 11 Emmy Award nominations, but it was another NBC police series, “Miami Vice,” that captured the most citations -- 15 -- for outstanding work during the last prime-time season.

“Miami Vice,” a first-year show that has drawn considerable media attention and a loyal following for its style, color scheme and rock-music score, was nominated as best drama series along with the grittier, more realistic “Hill Street Blues,” which has won the Emmy in that category for four years running.

The two cop shows combined with the most-nominated comedy series, “Cheers” (12), the most-nominated music special, “Motown Returns to the Apollo” (11), and the most-nominated dramatic special, “Wallenberg: A Hero’s Story” (9), to help give NBC a whopping 42 percent of the nominations for the 37th annual prime-time Emmys.

NBC collected 125 of the 297 nominations, more than CBS and ABC combined. CBS, which won the prime-time ratings race last season for the sixth year in a row, received 75 Emmy nominations while ABC, which fell to third in the ratings for the first time in a decade, got 41. PBS programs received 39 and syndicated programs garnered 17.

The winners will be announced by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences during ceremonies at the Pasadena (Calif.) Civic Auditorium on Sept. 22. They will be broadcast nationally by ABC.

“Hill Street Blues” won five Emmys last year to become the most honored dramatic series in Emmy Award history, with 25. The only program that has ever won more was “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” which got 26. With its 11 nominations Monday, including ones for stars Daniel J. Travanti, Veronica Hamel, Bruce Weitz, Barbara Bosson and Betty Thomas, the police series has a chance to equal or surpass that record.

Other nominees for the best drama series Emmy were CBS’ “Cagney & Lacey,” CBS’ “Murder, She Wrote” and NBC’s “St. Elsewhere.”

“Miami Vice” also received nominations for actors Don Johnson and Edward James Olmos (who play Detective Sonny Crockett and Lt. Martin Castillo, respectively), two each for directing, cinematography, film editing and film sound editing, and for writing, art direction, music composition and costume design.

“Cheers,” named best comedy series the last two years, was nominated again in that category, along with the three other shows in NBC’s Thursday-night comedy block -- “The Cosby Show,” “Family Ties” and “Night Court.” CBS’ “Kate & Allie” rounded out the field.

“The Cosby Show,” the top-rated new program last season, received eight Emmy nominations, but none of them was for its popular star, Bill Cosby. A spokesman for the TV Academy said that the actor, who won three Emmys in the 1960s as the co-star of “I Spy,” had requested that his name not be placed on the preliminary nominating ballot for consideration.

“I do not believe in competing with other performers, actors and artists,” Cosby told a reporter last spring.

The nominations for best actor in a comedy series went to Harry Anderson of “Night Court,” Ted Danson of “Cheers,” Robert Guillaume of “Benson,” Bob Newhart of “Newhart” and Jack Warden of “Crazy Like a Fox.”

PBS’ “The Jewel in the Crown,” the British-made adaptation of Paul Scott’s “Raj Quartet” novels, collected six nominations to lead all miniseries, but only one of its actors, Peggy Ashcroft, was nominated. She won an Academy Award earlier this year as best supporting actress for her performance in “A Passage to India.”

Other programs nominated as best miniseries were “Robert Kennedy and His Times,” “Ellis Island” and “Space,” all of which aired on CBS, and “A Woman of Substance,” which was telecast on the ad-hoc syndication network Operation Prime Time.

Nominated as best drama special (which includes one- and two-part TV movies) were NBC’s “The Burning Bed,” “Fatal Vision” and “Wallenberg: A Hero’s Story,” CBS’ “Do You Remember Love” and ABC’s “Heartsounds.”

In the category of best actor in a drama series, the nominees were Johnson of “Miami Vice,” Travanti of “Hill Street Blues,” William Daniels and Ed Flanders of “St. Elsewhere” and Tom Selleck of “Magnum, P.I.,” who won last year.

Besides Ashcroft of “The Jewel in the Crown,” the nominees for best actress in a miniseries or special were Jane Alexander for “Malice in Wonderland,” Farrah Fawcett for “The Burning Bed,” Mary Tyler Moore for “Heartsounds” and Joanne Woodward for “Do You Remember Love.”

“Cagney & Lacey” was the only non-NBC show to receive more than seven Emmy nominations. The CBS police series got 10, including citations for its two stars, Tyne Daly (who has won the last two years) and Sharon Gless. The other nominees for best actress in a drama series were Hamel of “Hill Street Blues,” Angela Lansbury of “Murder, She Wrote” and Debbie Allen of “Fame.”

Lansbury and Allen were double nominees. Lansbury also was nominated for best individual performance in a variety or music program, for “Sweeney Todd,” and Allen received another one for “Fame” as best choreographer.

Jane Curtin, who won last year as best actress in a comedy series, was nominated again this year, as was her “Kate & Allie” co-star, Susan Saint James. Also nominated were Isabel Sanford of “The Jeffersons,” Shelley Long of “Cheers” and Phylicia Ayers-Allen of “The Cosby Show.”

Other shows with multiple nominations included NBC’s “St. Elsewhere” with nine, NBC’s “The Burning Bed” with eight, NBC’s “Night Court” and CBS’ “Murder, She Wrote” with seven each and CBS’ “Do You Remember Love” with six.

Three of the Emmy nominations came posthumously: to Richard Burton, for his performance in “Ellis Island”; to Selma Diamond, who played Selma Hacker on “Night Court,” and to Nicholas Colasanto, who played Coach Ernie Pantusso on “Cheers.”

Colasanto was nominated as best supporting actor in a comedy series along with two of his “Cheers” co-stars, John Ratzenberger and George Wendt. Also nominated were Michael J. Fox of “Family Ties” and John Larroquette of “Night Court.”