‘Dove’ Coup: 18 Emmy Nominations : Miniseries Leads CBS to Narrow Gap With No. 1 NBC

CBS’ Western miniseries “Lonesome Dove” rustled up 18 nominations and its first-year comedy “Murphy Brown” collected 11 today as the network that finished third in the ratings last season nearly caught front-runner NBC in the competition for the 41st annual nighttime Emmy Awards.

CBS received 95 of the 364 nominations announced by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, second only to the 103 garnered by ratings champion NBC, which had dominated the nominations for the last six years.

“Lonesome Dove,” the eight-hour adaptation of Larry McMurtry’s novel that aired last February, led all other programs with its 18 nominations, including one as best miniseries of the 1988-89 season. Nominations also went to Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones as best actor, Diane Lane and Anjelica Huston as best actress, Danny Glover as best supporting actor and Glenne Headly as best supporting actress.

Best Drama Series

The NBC legal drama “L.A. Law” collected 17 nominations, including one as best drama series. Its competition: CBS’ “Beauty and the Beast,” ABC’s “China Beach,” CBS’ “Wiseguy” and last year’s winner, ABC’s “thirtysomething.”

“Murphy Brown,” which stars Candice Bergen as a smart-mouthed television journalist, was nominated as best comedy series along with another CBS show, “Designing Women,” and three former winners in that category: ABC’s “Wonder Years,” which won last year; NBC’s “The Golden Girls,” which won in 1986 and 1987, and NBC’s “Cheers,” which won in 1983 and 1984.

Bergen also won a nomination as best actress in a comedy, as did the three stars of “Golden Girls”--Betty White, Beatrice Arthur and Rue McClanahan--and Blair Brown of the Lifetime cable series “The Days and Molly Dodd.”

Cable Nominations

Brown’s nomination was one of 16 that cable programming received in its second year of eligibility for the nighttime Emmys, with HBO accounting for half of those. Among other broadcasters, ABC got 85 nominations, PBS garnered 32, syndicated shows got 21 and the Fox Broadcasting network picked up 12--10 for its comedy series “The Tracy Ullman Show.”

Winners will be announced Sept. 17 in ceremonies at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium that will be televised by Fox Broadcasting.