‘Dove’ and Peacocks Ruls TV’s Roost : McAnally, Matlin and ‘Raisin’ at Top of the Emmy Omissions

Debating the prime-time Emmy nominations is half the fun of hearing about them. Maybe all the fun.

So here is wisdom from the mount.

It’s encouraging to see so many TV achievements--from ABC’s landmark “War and Remembrance” to Robert Duvall’s aging cowboy in the blockbuster CBS miniseries “Lonesome Dove” to the writing of ABC’s “The Wonder Years”--get the recognition they deserve.

And it’s interesting to contemplate the meaning of other inclusions: Do information-series nominations for the syndicated “A Current Affair” and the newly racy “Entertainment Tonight” confer legitimization on tabloid TV?

Yet stunning omissions abound, beginning with the exclusion of Ray McAnally from the category honoring lead actors in a miniseries or special.

If either Duvall or John Gielgud (“War and Remembrance”) aren’t victorious here, it will be the biggest upset since David and Goliath. Each was outstanding.

However, McAnally, who died recently, arguably gave the season’s best single performance as the charming, manipulative rogue of a father in the PBS novelization of John Le Carre’s “A Perfect Spy.”

Nominees James Woods (ABC’s “Bill W.”), Ben Kingsley (HBO’s “Murderers Among Us: The Simon Wiesenthal Story”) and Duvall’s “Lonesome Dove” co-star Tommy Lee Jones also were very good, but not in a class with McAnally. An Emmy nomination would have been a nice way to celebrate him posthumously.

Moreover, a case could also be made in this category for Danny Glover, who got a supporting actor nomination for his routine work in “Lonesome Dove,” but nothing for his overpowering performance in the “American Playhouse” production of “Raisin in the Sun” on PBS.

Other notable omissions:

--Marlee Matlin as the troubled young mother of “A Bridge to Silence” on CBS; Esther Rolle, so memorable as the mother in “A Raisin in the Sun,” and Oprah Winfrey, whose excellent work as a suffering matriarch was easily the best part of ABC’s largely undistinguished “The Women of Brewster Place.” The show got nominated; Winfrey didn’t.

Jane Seymour (“War and Remembrance”) is the class of this category for lead actresses in a miniseries or special. But a strong case could be made for Matlin, Rolle and Winfrey over of NBC’s “Roe vs. Wade” nominees Amy Madigan and Holly Hunter and “Lonesome Dove” nominees Diane Lane and Anjelica Huston (who had a supporting, not a lead, role).

--”A Raisin in the Sun,” scintillating by any criteria, except those used by the Emmy nominators, whose choices for best drama or comedy special include the infinitely less deserving, but better publicized “My Name Is Bill W.” and “Roe vs. Wade.”

--HBO’s satirical “Tanner ‘88,” which fittingly earned a director’s nomination for Robert Altman, but was slighted in the dramatic series category despite providing TV’s most biting and incisive political commentary of the presidential campaign. Brilliantly written by “Doonesbury” creator Garry Trudeau (who was also ignored in the nominations), it was bold and exiting TV.

HBO’s other fine entry in this category, “Vietnam War Story,” also went unnominated, as did two of its highly worthy entries in the miniseries category: “A Dangerous Life” was an utterly captivating account of the the Marcoses’ fall from power in the Philippines, and “Glory, Glory” was a musical satire of dishonest TV evangelists that was appealingly outrageous--perhaps too outrageous for the Emmy crowd.

--”The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd,” as charmingly enigmatic on cable’s Lifetime network as it was on NBC, and “It’s Garry Shandling’s Show,” the Showtime comedy (with repeats on Fox) that remains as daring and funny as anything on TV. Yes, no comedy deserves an Emmy over last year’s winner from ABC, the wondrous “Wonder Years,” which is also nominated this year. But none of the other nominees--”Cheers” and “The Golden Girls” from NBC and “Designing Women” and newcomer “Murphy Brown” from CBS--is as consistently funny and full of creative jolts as the Shandling show.

--Ken Olin and Mel Harris of ABC’s “thirtysomething,” overlooked in the category citing drama series leads. They’re the very heart of this special show.