‘Cagney & Lacey,’ ‘thirtysomething’ Episodes Nominated for Humanitas Prizes

The writers of two episodes of the long-running “Cagney & Lacey” show and an installment of the first-year series “thirtysomething” have been nominated for the $15,000 award in the annual Humanitas Prizes for “humanizing achievement in television writing.”

A total of $70,000 in prizes is given out each year by the Pacific Palisades-based Human Family Institute to the writers of TV entertainment programs who are judged to have done the best job of communicating enriching values to the audience. The winners will be announced July 14.

Finalists in the category for 60-minute programs are Kathryn Ford for an episode of “Cagney & Lacey” in which Chris Cagney was raped, Shelley List and Jonathan Estrin for another episode of the CBS police series in which Cagney confronted her alcoholism, and Paul Haggis and Marshall Herskovitz for a “thirtysomething” on ABC in which Michael had to deal with his father’s serious illness.

Nominations for the top prize of $25,000 in the category of programs 90 minutes or longer went to Charles Fuller for the CBS movie “A Gathering of Old Men,” Dennis Nemec for the ABC movie “God Bless the Child” and Jeff Andrus for the ABC movie “Proud Men.”

In the half-hour category, which carries a $10,000 prize, the finalists are Hugh Wilson for CBS’ “Frank’s Place,” Bob Randall and Bill Persky (from a story by Anne Flett and Chuck Ranberg) for CBS’ “Kate & Allie” and Carol Black and Neal Marlens for ABC’s “The Wonder Years.”

There are also $10,000 prizes in two categories of children’s programming. The finalists for animated shows are Kayte Kuch and Sheryl Scarborough for ABC’s “The Little Clowns of Happytown,” Star Kaplan and Maia Mattise for CBS’ “Muppet Babies” and Mary Jo Ludin (from a story by Lane Raichert) for ABC’s “The Flintstone Kids.” Nominated for live-action shows are Victoria Hochberg for ABC’s “Just a Regular Kid: An AIDS Story,” Joanna Lee for ABC’s “The Kid Who Wouldn’t Quit: The Brad Silverman Story” and George Lefferts (from a story he wrote with Susan Rohrer) for CBS’ “Never Say Goodbye.”