Nominees Announced for Humanitas Prize

Writers from two episodes of ABC’s “The Wonder Years” find themselves in competition for a Humanitas Prize this year, as do writers from two installments of ABC’s “China Beach.”

The awards are given by the Pacific Palisades-based Human Family Educational and Cultural Institute for “humanizing achievement in television writing.” Winners will be announced July 11.

Nominated in the category for 30-minute prime-time programs, which carries a $10,000 prize, were David M. Stern for “The Wonder Years” (an episode titled “The Powers That Be”), Todd W. Langen for “The Wonder Years” (“Square Dance”) and Charles M. Schulz for the CBS special “Why, Charlie Brown, Why?”

The nominees for the $15,000 prize in the 60-minute category were John Wells for “China Beach” (“Dear China Beach”), Georgia Jeffries for “China Beach” (“How to Stay Alive in Vietnam, Part I”), and Joseph Dougherty for ABC’s “thirtysomething” (“The Other Shoe”).

Competing for the top prize of $25,000 for programs 90 minutes or longer: Edward Hume for “Common Ground, Part II” on CBS, William G. Borchert for “My Name Is Bill W.” on ABC, and Sam Blackwell and Ara Watson for “No Place Like Home” on CBS.

There are also two categories for children’s programming aired outside of prime time, both with $10,000 prizes. The live-action nominees were Cynthia A. Cherbak, Elizabeth Hansen and Herb Stein for “CBS Schoolbreak Special: American Eyes,” Bruce Harmon for “ABC Afterschool Special: A Town’s Revenge,” and Harry and Renee Longstreet for “CBS Schoolbreak Special: Frog Girl--The Jenifer Graham Story.”

Nominees in the animation category were Cliff Ruby and Elana Lesser for CBS’ “Dink, the Little Dinosaur” (“Badge of Courage”), Ted Field for “Dink, the Little Dinosaur” (“Crusty’s Baby”), and Jeffrey Scott for CBS’ “Muppet Babies.”