Emmys Won for Roles on ‘227,’ ‘Night Court’ : John Larroquette Handed His Third in a Row, Jackee Gets Her First at 39th Annual TV Awards

John Larroquette of “Night Court” was honored for the third year in a row and Jackee of “227” got her first win as the 39th annual Emmy Awards ceremonies got under way in Pasadena on Sunday night.

“Oh, boy, I’m beginning to get slightly embarrassed by your generosity,” Larroquette told members of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.

“I emphasize slightly,” continued Larroquette, who was named best supporting actor in a comedy series for his role as prosecutor Dan Fielding in the NBC series. “If you really want to embarrass me, keep this up.”

Jackee, who shortened her name recently from Jackee Harry, won the statuette for best supporting actress in a comedy series. She plays man-crazy Sandra Clark on the NBC entry.

“Oh, this is fabulous,” said the actress, who wore a shimmering, cherry-red gown. After thanking her mother, producer and a few others, she asked, “I wonder if I get paid more money for this?”

Other Early Winners

Among other early winners in ceremonies at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium were Bonnie Bartlett of NBC’s “St. Elsewhere,” best supporting actress in a drama series; John Hillerman of “Magnum, P.I.” on CBS, best supporting actor in a drama series; NBC’s “Family Ties” for best comedy writing, and the same network’s “L.A. Law” for best drama writing.

As promised by producer Don Ohlmeyer, the 39th Annual Emmy Awards telecast by Fox Broadcasting Co. differed from previous Emmy broadcasts from the start, with “Moonlighting” star Bruce Willis opening the show by talking to a television set backstage.

“You’ve had a hell of a year,” he told the “tube.”

Ohlmeyer used roving cameras to cover the three-hour show. There were no big song-and-dance production numbers, no hokey theme, no hosts and no 30-second rule that limits victory speeches.

“L.A. Law” drew 20 Emmy nominations in its first year on NBC, one short of the record set by “Hill Street Blues” in 1981 and 1982. Virtually all the stars of the show were nominated for Emmys, including Jill Eikenberry and Michael Tucker, husband and wife in real life and lawyers in love on the TV show.

It was Tucker’s character, the nebbish lawyer Stuart Markowitz, who learned from a bigamist of the “Venus Butterfly” sex technique that supposedly drove women wild. After NBC broadcast that episode, viewers flooded the network with calls and letters wanting to know details of the technique.

But “Moonlighting” took the prize for what ABC called the longest foreplay in the history of episodic television. For two years, the characters played by Sybil Shepherd and Willis, detectives Maddie Hays and David Addison, flirted and fought until it culminated in the season-ending episode with a madly passionate love scene on the floor of Maddie’s apartment.

Snubbed Last Year

“Moonlighting,” snubbed at last year’s Emmys, had 14 nominations this year, tied with NBC’s “The Golden Girls,” a situation comedy about four mature women living out their golden years in Miami. Willis was nominated again but this year Shepherd was not.

The competition for best drama was the most intense, with last year’s winner, CBS’s cop show “Cagney & Lacey,” up against the legal eagles in NBC’s “L.A. Law,” the doctors in “St. Elsewhere,” the flirty detectives in ABC’s “Moonlighting” and the crime-fighting mystery novelist in CBS’s “Murder, She Wrote.”

Best comedy was close, too, but NBC was assured a win. “The Cosby Show,” “Family Ties,” “Night Court,” and “Cheers”--all on Thursday night--and “The Golden Girls” on Saturday all had a shot.

Grant Tinker, who was at the helm of NBC’s climb to the No. 1 spot among the three television networks, was to be honored with this year’s Governors Award for lifetime achievement.

Tinker, 61, served three tours of duty at NBC, beginning as a management trainee in 1949. He left the network in 1954, returning in 1961 as West Coast vice president for programming.

Distinguished Reputation

The public probably knows him best for his marriage to actress Mary Tyler Moore, but his reputation in the industry is a distinguished one, for initiating a wealth of sophisticated dramas and situation comedies during his tenure as NBC’s chairman and chief executive officer.

Under his direction between 1981 and 1986, NBC climbed from third place to a solid first position with such shows as “Hill Street Blues,” “St. Elsewhere,” “Cheers,” “Night Court” and “The Golden Girls.”

Tinker earlier implemented a philosophy of high quality programming when he and his wife founded MTM Enterprises Inc. in 1970 in Studio City.

Under his supervision, MTM produced “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” “The Bob Newhart Show,” “Phyllis,” “Rhoda,” “WKRP in Cincinnati,” “Lou Grant” and “The White Shadow.”

Tinker’s 17-year marriage to Moore ended in divorce in 1981, with Moore retaining control of MTM Entertainment, which retains the rights to her shows and several other series.

He left NBC last year to establish another production company, GTG Entertainment, in partnership with Gannett Co. Inc.

‘Fourth Network’ Question

The biggest question Sunday was whether viewers would tune in to Fox, the so-called “fourth network” that is struggling to compete with ABC, CBS and NBC. Fox was only nominated for two statuettes in its first year of competition, and has never put on anything like the Emmy Awards show.

The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, which awards the Emmys, refused the older networks’ demands that it cut the number of on-air awards in favor of more “star” awards. Fox was willing to air all the awards, plus it paid twice what the networks were offering--$3.75 million--for the right to air the Emmy broadcast for the next three years.