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The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences announced the 61st annual Emmy's award nominations yesterday. So, in honor of this announcement, I thought it would be fun to look at the Emmy's history and some other sources for television research.
The Academy, established in 1946, first awarded the Emmy in 1949. According to the Emmy Award database, the 1949 awards included only 6 categories: Best Film Made for Television, Most Outstanding Television Personality, Most Popular Television Program, Station Award, Technical Award, and a Special Award for the designer of the Emmy statue. Pantomime Quiz Time won the most popular TV program in the inaugural ceremony. You can see footage of Pantomine Quiz Time in several clips on YouTube. According to the online Encyclopedia of Television, the Emmy's were only given to Los Angeles-based shows and stations in the first year since the United States lacked coast-to-coast signals, driving the focus to shows that would have been seen by the Emmy Awards viewing audience. The Emmy's went national in 1954. The Encyclopedia of Television covers this early history, the split between Hollywood and New York, and the changes to the Emmy Awards in the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences entry.
For more recent television news, there are hundreds of sources for TV reviews and information. Academic Search Complete, one of the Blume Library's databases, is a great place to look for TV reviews, research articles on the influence of television programming, and more details about the Emmy Awards. The Blume Library catalog also lists hundreds of books, ebooks, and government sources about television broadcasting. Of course, Google and other Internet searches provide an overwhelming number of webpages, videos, pictures, etc. about TV. For the latest TV and Emmy news, search Google News for updates from around the world.
The 61st Emmy Award show will be shown on Sunday, September 20 at 7pm Central Time on CBS. I'll be rooting for Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog to win Best Short-format Live-Action Entertainment Programs. I mean, how can you not love one of the first free, Internet-only TV shows, created by the awesome Joss Whedon? Which, of course, begs the question...what is a television show? Can something be a TV show if it was never shown on television? I guess it can.
