Practice Makes Perfect

The man standing backstage at the Shrine Auditorium on Sunday holding an Emmy in each hand still seemed as if he couldn’t believe what was happening, that he had made history and accomplished what no other producer in TV history had accomplished. Even though the evening established him firmly as the hottest creative force in television, David E. Kelley still approached the backstage microphone as if he was in a dream.

Kelley’s was just one of the many emotional moments that would fill the backstage chaos of the 51st annual Nighttime Emmy Awards.

“It’s a bit heady right now,” Kelley said as he stood in front of the cast of “Ally McBeal,” the series that had just won an Emmy for outstanding comedy series. Moments before, Kelley had scored another Emmy for producing this year’s outstanding drama series, “The Practice.”

But he smiled: “As shocks go, this is a good one.”

In winning both Emmys, Kelley became the first producer in Emmy history to take home awards for a drama and a comedy.

Both wins had individual significance. “The Practice,” about a upstart Boston law firm, has been a popular and critical success, and had also won the drama Emmy last year. But Kelley was certain the series would lose this year to “The Sopranos,” HBO’s organized crime drama.

“I really thought it was going to be ‘The Sopranos’ because there was so much heat surrounding the show, and it’s so different,” he said. “I just really thought it was their turn. I’ve always had a soft spot for [“The Practice”]. It’s always been an underdog.”

As for “Ally,” Kelley said he had been resigned that the hourlong series would never win an Emmy in the comedy category because it did not fit the mold of the traditional half-hour sitcom: “It’s particularly gratifying when it’s a show you feel passionate about.”

“So I’m genuinely surprised for both,” Kelley said.

“ ‘The Sopranos’ is as good as television can get,” Kelley added.

That Kelley, as executive producer of four television shows currently on the air, would pay tribute to “The Sopranos” underscored how the HBO series had left an indelible impression on fellow artists--if not the Emmy voters.

Kelley’s sentiment was echoed by a parade of winners who filed backstage on Emmy night, including Dennis Franz of “NYPD Blue,” Camryn Manheim of “The Practice” and John Lithgow of “3rd Rock From the Sun.” Maybe it was that reporters had a tendency to ask the winners what other television shows they watched. In that category, “The Sopranos” won outright.

David Chase, who won along with James Manos Jr. for outstanding writing for a drama series for “The Sopranos,” said he was taken aback that viewers found the series so compelling.

“We didn’t think people would like it, that they wouldn’t find the family likable,” Chase said. “But people do seem to identify with the family. It’s surprising, but great.”

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For Dennis Franz, who took home his fourth Emmy as the temperamental Andy Sipowicz on ABC’s “NYPD Blue,” it was a bittersweet victory. He had been pulling for his former co-star, Jimmy Smits, who left the police drama this season in an emotional arc that detailed the death of his character, detective Bobby Simone.

“I was in total shock, and I’m very disappointed,” said Franz, adding that Smits was the first to congratulate him. “At best, I was hoping for a tie. I wanted to hear Jimmy’s name. I’m kind of embarrassed when they have to choose between the two of us.

“He was the first to grab me, and he wished me the best and said I deserved it,” Franz added. “He was very happy for me, and I would have been very happy for him.”

After a season in which his partner died and his wife was murdered, Franz said he hopes that Sipowicz has some “down time” this season.

“I really hope to take a breather with Andy,” said the actor. “He’s going to be rekindling his relationship with his ex-wife [fellow Emmy winner Debra Monk]. I have also asked for Andy to go on a few bad dates. So he’ll be going on some bad dates and some good dates.”

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Helen Hunt’s celebration after making history for her fourth consecutive Emmy win as outstanding lead actress in a comedy series for “Mad About You” hit a sour note when a reporter backstage questioned the quality of the comedy in its final season. The NBC comedy, which premiered in 1992, was blasted by critics who complained that the series was not as funny as it had been in previous seasons.

“Well, I was very involved in the writing this season, so I may have tanked it,” snapped Hunt, who almost walked off before taking more questions.

Hunt added that she was starring in and developing several movies and series, and was glad that she had her time back and didn’t “have an entire show to shepherd.”

If Hunt was a bit miffed, “The Sopranos’ ” Edie Falco was on cloud nine.

“We have so much fun doing this show,” said Falco, the only actor from the HBO series to take home an Emmy statuette and one of the few new faces to break through on Emmy night. “We laugh our heads off from the first read-throughs of the episodes to the last run-throughs.”

All of which means the actors try to ignore the discussions in television circles about whether the show, which airs on cable, can take more creative liberties than network series, she said. That debate was a big part of pre-Emmy talk, as network hopefuls dug in for a big night for “The Sopranos” that didn’t come.

“There seems to be a whole network/cable thing going on that I don’t quite understand, a competition thing that leads to some tension,” she said.

Falco won her award for her role as Carmella Soprano, wife of Tony (James Gandolfini). Gandolfini was nominated for best actor in a drama and Nancy Marchand for best supporting actress for her role as Tony’s mother.

“It’s almost impossible not to get caught up in this stuff,” Falco said of the attention the Emmy nods brought to the show, which is produced in New Jersey. “It’s such a big media thing. But we’re going back to shoot an episode Tuesday, and it’s a wonderful one.”

For Falco personally, the award was special. Shortly after winning her award, she spoke to her family on the phone, “and half of them couldn’t talk to me because they were so choked up.”

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John Lithgow joined his “3rd Rock From the Sun” co-star Kristen Johnston as a surprised--and perhaps surprise--winner, given that he beat out “Frasier’s” Kelsey Grammer, who won best actor in a comedy series last year.

“Kristen and I were both flabbergasted,” said Lithgow, who won his third Emmy for his role as alien patriarch Dick Solomon on the NBC sitcom.

Flabbergasted but gratified, in that, as Lithgow noted, “3rd Rock” endured its bumps and bruises last season. But while Johnston discussed the turmoil in its scheduling and ambiguous support from NBC, Lithgow, among other things, during the fifth season, the series felt as though it had hit a creative wall, Lithgow said.

“It begins to get hard to be creative, especially with a show like ‘3rd Rock,’ which is about aliens discovering new things. I think it’s the exhaustion factor” of a show hitting its 100th episode.

But noting that “70% of the writing staff who started” with the show are still on board, Lithgow said he thinks “3rd Rock” can regain its creative edge, in part by going back to the creative germ of the sitcom.

“I’ve always thought the heart and soul of ‘3rd Rock’ was the Marx Brothers in outer space,” he said.

Johnston said she was in a mellow mood coming into this year’s Emmy Awards because she’d won for her role as the oversexed alien Sally Solomon before. “I knew without a doubt that I wouldn’t win this year,” said Johnston, who took home her second Emmy for outstanding supporting actress in a comedy series.

After thanking Lithgow in her acceptance speech for making last season special, Johnston elaborated backstage, saying that the “3rd Rock” cast felt a lack of support from NBC, given new management at the top and a subsequent change in when the show aired.

“It was a difficult year because of the time slot problems, [and] there was a changeover at NBC,” Johnston said, referring to the departure of former entertainment chief Warren Littlefield and NBC West Coast President Don Ohlmeyer.

“To be perfectly frank, I don’t know how much support we felt from the network at that time. So John just held the whole group together,” she said. “He’s just an amazing force and an amazing presence on the show.”

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With her Emmy for outstanding supporting actress in a drama series, Holland Taylor joked afterward that Americans don’t know what Europeans have long understood--that older women are vital and sexy. Sexier than women half their age.

“Europe reveres the older woman,” said a beaming Taylor, winner for her role as an amorous judge on ABC’s “The Practice.” “Lena Horne is 80. Tell me somebody more sexy than Lena Horne.”

Solidifying her role as Judge Roberta Kittleson on the show, Taylor has already appeared in the first four episodes of “The Practice” to go into production for the coming season. That includes, she said, a nude scene. Last year, Judge Kittleson raised viewer eyebrows when her character confessed to having a sex dream about Bobby Donnell, the attorney played by Dylan McDermott, star of “The Practice.”

Praising Kelley for creating her character, Taylor said: “David and I want to do a woman who is a viable human being over 40. . . . David has found a very useful character. He’s going to run with it. And I’m going to run with him.”

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For Thomas Schlamme, who won for outstanding directing for a comedy series for the pilot of “Sports Night,” he hopes the award will help the series get more attention from viewers.

“I thought we did a really good job this year,” said Schlamme, sayingadding that he wished ABC’s freshman comedy had received more nominations. The series has been critically acclaimed but has not attracted a large viewership.

“I hope that people will realize how good the show is, and that we’ll get a little push.”

Schlamme, who is directing “Sports Night” and NBC’s new White House drama, “The West Wing,” added that one bonus for the upcoming season will be appearances by actor William H. MacyCQ, who will guest star as a ratings executive on several episodes. Macy is the real-life husband of “Sports Night’s” Felicity HuffmanCQ, one of the show’s ensemble cast.

“Having him on will be great for all of us,” said Schlamme of Macy, best known for his role as the troubled car salesman in the film “Fargo.”

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Chris Rock, whose HBO show, “The Chris Rock Show,” won for outstanding writing for a variety or music program, took the occasion to reflect on being named by Time magazine as “the funniest man in America.”

“I am not the funniest man in America,” Rock maintained. “Jim Carrey is. Anybody who knows comedy knows that. And look at what Eddie Murphy did in ‘Bowfinger.’ It’s not like Time magazine has great comic reviewers. There are a lot of people who are a lot funnier, that I can learn from.”

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Michael Badalucco, who plays the insecure attorney Jimmy Berluti on ABC’s “The Practice,” said he was “flabbergasted” by his win as outstanding supporting actor in a drama series, particularly since one of his competitors was Steve Harris, also of “The Practice.”

“All of us sincerely love each other, and we share in the joy of each other’s successes,” he said. “When you work on a David Kelley show, it’s such a wonderful experience.”

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Robert Benedetti, producer of HBO’s Emmy-winning “A Lesson Before Dying,” said the success of the film has reignited interest in the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Ernest Gaines. The film won for outstanding made for television movie.

“Schools are now requiring it, and it’s enjoying a whole new life,” said Benedetti of the film, about a bitter schoolteacher who is assigned to help bring self-esteem to a convicted man before his execution. “It’s even bigger now than it was with Oprah’s Book Club.”

Echoed one of the executive producers, Ellen M. Krass: “If this all hadn’t started with Ernest’s words, this would not have been possible.”

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To tell the story and tell it honestly, that’s what Allan Arkush, who won an outstanding directing Emmy for miniseries or a movie for NBC’s “The Temptations,” said he wanted to do.

“I really wanted to make the Motown story as honest as I could,” said Arkush, adding that he was so gratified that viewers were moved by the movie. “People are saying they didn’t realize that the group went through so much.”

Given the cast and subject matter of “The Temptations” and that audiences turned up in huge numbers to watch it, Arkush said he was surprised that more projects and television shows featuring minority casts did not follow in its wake.

“To get a show like this, we thought it would make a real mark, but it really doesn’t seem to have made much of an impact,” Arkush lamented. “You look at all of TV, and you don’t see a show like that.”

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Stanley Tucci, whose performance as Walter Winchell won him an Emmy for lead actor in a miniseries for HBO’s “Winchell,” said it was important to show both sides of the outspoken journalist.

“He was a very unlikable guy, but he had terrific charm,” Tucci said. “The key was to show his bad side but also his charm. I had to make you believe that people would follow him.”

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By the end of the evening it seemed clear that, in addition to making history, David E. Kelley also was the unofficial star of the ceremony. The camera cut repeatedly to the producer and his wife, actress Michelle Pfeiffer, as comedian David Spade and several others made references to Kelley’s writing prowess. Emmy winners Holland Taylor and Michael Badalucco continually praised Kelley for his creative invention. Even with the star power of Jack Nicholson and Jodie Foster in the Shrine, the star of the soft-spoken Kelley seemed to shine the brightest.

And he got to go home with Michelle Pfeiffer.