Focus : Breaking Down the Daytime Emmys

While most people consider the Daytime Emmys a bubble fest, soaps and their glamorous stars aren’t the only prizewinners in the show.

In fact, in this year’s 22nd annual awards celebration, airing Friday on NBC, daytime programs other than soap operas lead the total nomination tally, 179 to 79. Ironically enough, some of the nominations in the “non-soap” categories of talk, game/audience participation, service, children’s, animation and special-class arenas, are more dramatically opposed than are the soaps.

The syndicated “American Gladiators,” for instance, takes on the syndicated “Jeopardy,” among other contenders, in the outstanding game/audience participation show category. For outstanding special-class directing, the CBS film “A Promise Kept: The Oksana Baiul Story” vies with such shows as “The Walt Disney Very Merry Christmas Parade” and “Good Morning America,” both from ABC.

In one category, soap gets in the eyes of its competition. Because daytime serials and non-soap programs actually share nominations for outstanding graphics and title design, this year ABC’s “All My Children” is up against the syndicated “Marilu” and PBS’ “Storytime.”

Many of those awards, primarily in the creative arts field, were scheduled to be handed out May 13 in a non-televised ceremony in Los Angeles. The 17 major categories will be revealed in the prime-time telecast (tape-delayed on the West Coat) from the Marriott Marquis hotel in New York.

“The reality of non-prime-time television is that most of it is not soap opera,” points out Ron Ziskin, a nominee as executive producer of “American Gladiators” (he also produces the NBC talk show “The Other Side”). Ziskin’s category, which besides “Jeopardy” includes the CBS game show “The Price Is Right,” the syndicated “Wheel of Fortune” and “MTV’s Fourth Annual Rock N’ Jock B-Ball Jam,” was also slated to be part of the ceremonies on May 13, after TV Times went to press.

Dick Clark, executive producer of the Daytime Emmys show, notes the other reality: “Soap opera was and still is an important part of daytime television. It gets the press, it has the glamour, and you have the finest professionals in the world--period.

“But,” he adds, “I’ve been toiling in the field of daytime all my life, and it’s good that we’re finally letting people see that there’s more to daytime. We all feel: ‘It ain’t fair.’ Everybody in daytime is a professional. They all do their jobs professionally. There’s a pecking order.”

The awards presented in the telecast are almost evenly divided between soap and non-soap programming, with nine for daytime drama and the remaining eight distributed to talk show, children’s, animation and other categories.

Preceding the talk-show presentation is a retrospective on Merv Griffin. “It’s amazing how many people debuted on his show,” Clark says. The Lifetime Achievement Award pays tribute to the late Ted Corday, co-creator and executive producer of the NBC soap “Days of Our Lives,” and his late wife Betty, who took over as executive producer after her husband’s death. There also will be performances by Boyz II Men and Barney.

“And this is the year we’re all going to see if Susan Lucci gets the award,” Clark says, referring to the yet-to-win “All My Children” star’s 15th nomination as outstanding lead actress in a drama series. “If that happens, that’s standing ovation time. That’s the thing a producer prays for.”

Some televised non-soap categories rotate each year. One category to be decided Friday is outstanding children’s special, whose contenders include two HBO’s “Lifestories: Family in Crisis” programs (“A Child Betrayed: The Calvin Mire Story” and “P.O.W.E.R.: The Eddie Matos Story”), two “CBS Schoolbreak Specials” (“Love in the Dark Ages” and “The Writing on the Wall”) and “Nick News Special Edition: Space Shuttle, Phone Home” from Nickelodeon.

“Since this event is very much a soap opera event in people’s eyes, we’re pleased that the children’s category is included. That’s progress,” says Carol Starr Schneider, a double nominee as co-producer and writer of “The Writing on the Wall,” which received six nominations for its true story about religious tolerance.

“People can spend a lot of time criticizing children’s television, but there’s a lot of excellent programming being done. But you have to look for it, and sometimes it’s hard to get the kind of recognition it deserves.”

Echoing that sentiment is Tom Ruegger, senior producer of the thrice-nominated “Animaniacs” on Fox, whose competitors in the outstanding animated children’s program category include the syndicated and CBS show “Disney’s Aladdin,” “Disney’s The Little Mermaid” on CBS, Nickelodeon’s “The Rugrats” and “Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego?” from Fox.

“The children’s Saturday morning ghetto” was the phrase used to describe his time slot, Ruegger says. “Cartoons made quickly, with not a great deal of attention to quality.

“It really hurt for the people who work in the business. Most try to do good work. There are some very entertaining shows in our category, some that are more educational than others.”

Sums up “American Gladiators’ ” Ziskin: “As a television producer, my job is to provide unusual, outstanding programs distinguishable from other programs. It’s nice to get nominations from your peers telling you that you’ve done just that.”

“ The 22nd Annual Daytime Emmy Awards “ show airs Friday at 9 p.m. on NBC.