Anything can happen at the Emmys: Impromptu make-outs. Presenter fraud. Near-death experiences for Bob Newhart. Before the 2016 broadcast begins on Sunday, September 18, read up on the weirdest and most fascinating facts from the award ceremony’s near-70-year history. Sure, host Jimmy Kimmel is likely to bring the comedy heat, but can he match the insanity of the 1974 Super Emmys?
1. THE WORD “EMMY” COMES FROM A CAMERA TUBE.
When the Television Academy was brainstorming a name for its new awards back in late 1940s, founder Syd Cassyd first suggested “Ike,” a.k.a. the nickname for a television iconoscope tube. But the other members worried that term was too closely linked to World War II hero (and future POTUS) Dwight Eisenhower, and therefore might seem too political. So instead, Henry Lubcke (who would go on to become the Academy’s third president) floated “Immy.” It would reference another piece of TV tech, the image-orthicon tube. The rest of the team decided to feminize it into “Emmy,” so that it matched the statuette they had selected. That statuette, which resembles the one you know today, included a winged woman holding an atom. And it was based on a real person …
2. DOROTHY MCMANUS WAS THE MODEL FOR THE STATUETTE.
Cassyd and his friends considered 47 design proposals for their award statuette, and promptly rejected all of them. But the 48th time was the charm. Television engineer Louis McManus’s design of a woman with wings (representing the arts) holding an atom (representing science) was the last one the team reviewed, but it turned out to be the winning pitch. McManus had modeled the woman on his wife, Dorothy—leading at least one art curator to wonder why the awards aren’t called “Dorothies.”
3. ONLY SIX AWARDS WERE HANDED OUT AT THE FIRST CEREMONY, AND ONE WENT TO A VENTRILOQUIST.
The very first Emmy Awards ceremony was held on January 25, 1949 at the Hollywood Athletic Club. Unlike the current iteration, it was a fairly cheap affair (tickets cost just $5) and the run time was a lot shorter. Only six awards were handed out that evening. The first one, for Most Outstanding Television Personality, went to 20-year-old Shirley Dinsdale and her puppet, Judy Splinters, for The Judy Splinters Show. Other winners included a program called Pantomime Quiz and Louis McManus, who got a special Emmy for designing the thing.
4. “BEST CONTINUING PERFORMANCE IN A SERIES BY A PERSON WHO ESSENTIALLY PLAYS HERSELF” USED TO BE A CATEGORY.
In the early years of the awards, the Emmys tested out a number of categories, some of them more logical than others. By far the most nonsensical pair came in 1958, when the Television Academy decided to honor the “Best Continuing Performance in a Series by a Comedienne, Singer, Hostess, Dancer, M.C., Announcer, Narrator, Panelist, or Any Person Who Essentially Plays Herself” along with an identical male category. Rumor has it the categories were mostly designed to honor Lucille Ball for I Love Lucy, but if that was the intention, it failed miserably. Dinah Shore won instead for The Dinah Shore Chevy Show, while Jack Benny took the male category for The Jack Benny Show. These categories were seemingly axed by 1959, much to the relief of tongue-tied presenters.
5. JACKIE KENNEDY IS THE ONLY FIRST LADY TO WIN AN EMMY.
To date, only one First Lady of the United States has won an Emmy. That distinction goes to Jackie Kennedy, who received a special Trustees Award for her famous televised tour of The White House in 1962. (Lady Bird Johnson accepted the statuette on Kennedy’s behalf.) No First Lady has matched her Emmy count since, although Michelle Obama came somewhat close: The current FLOTUS received Emmy attention when her Billy on the Street segment earned a 2015 nomination. But alas, it lost to Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis.
6. THE “SUPER EMMYS” WERE A HUGE FLOP.
In 1974, the Emmys decided to get experimental with a so-called “Super Emmy” ceremony. The show pitted the winning performers from the drama and comedy categories against each other—think Best Lead Actor in a Drama vs. Best Lead Actor in a Comedy, Best Supporting Actress in a Drama vs. Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy, etc. The ultimate champions would be crowned the actor or actress “of the year” in their respective categories, and the big winners included Alan Alda, Mary Tyler Moore, and Cecily Tyson. The next day, The New York Times wrote that the broadcast was “more confusing than ever” and that “the new ‘super awards’ are pointless”; things went back to normal for the next year’s ceremony.
7. ALAN ALDA CARTWHEELED DOWN THE AISLE FOR HIS 1979 WIN.
Speaking of Alan Alda: he made a bigger splash at the Emmys just five years later. During the 1979 ceremony, he picked up a prize for his writing on M*A*S*H. Although he’d previously won acting and directing awards for the show, he’d never been recognized for his writing before—and he was excited. So he cartwheeled down the aisle in what is now an iconic Emmy moment. “The writing one meant so much,” he later told Variety. “I wanted to be a writer and a good writer since I was eight years old. To get an Emmy for writing meant so much that that was really spontaneous when I did the cartwheel on the way to the stage … I’m 80 now, but a couple of months after my 80th birthday, I was on the beach in the Virgin Islands and I said, ‘I’m gonna see if I can still do a cartwheel.'”
8. SOMEONE NEARLY STOLE BETTY THOMAS’S EMMY—ON STAGE.
When Betty Thomas won Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for Hill Street Blues in 1985, a man came up to accept the Emmy on her behalf. This was strange for two reasons: Thomas was actually in the audience, and she had no idea who this guy was. The mystery man turned out to be Barry Bremen, a.k.a. “The Great Imposter.” He was known to pull similar pranks at large sporting events, including the Super Bowl. The Emmys were just his latest target, and it cost him; he walked away from that stunt with a $175 fine and six months’ probation.
9. CABLE SHOWS WEREN’T ELIGIBLE FOR EMMY AWARDS UNTIL 1988.
Up until the late 1980s, only network shows were eligible for Emmy consideration. Cable series competed for prizes at their own awards show, the CableACE Awards. But the Emmys modified their rules in 1988 to allow cable programming in. The last CableACE Awards ceremony took place in 1997.
10. HECTOR RAMIREZ AND SHEILA NEVINS SHARE THE RECORD FOR MOST EMMY NOMINATIONS.
The most Emmy-nominated individuals of all time are Hector Ramirez and Sheila Nevins, each of whom has a whopping 74 nominations. So who are these insanely talented individuals? Ramirez is a camera operator who has filmed everything from Richard Nixon’s resignation to Dancing with the Stars. Nevins is the president of HBO Documentary Films, who has overseen such critical hits as Going Clear and The Jinx.
But when it comes to Emmy wins, Nevins comes out on top: As of 2015, she has clinched the statuette 31 times, making her the most decorated person in Emmy history. This year, she received four nominations—with three of them in a single category, Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special—which means she could very likely add to her haul.
11. SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE IS THE MOST CELEBRATED SERIES.
Over its 41-year history, Saturday Night Live has racked up 209 nominations and 47 wins. That makes it the most awarded show in Emmy history. Frasier previously held the record, until SNL blew past that show’s 37 wins in 2013.
12. THE TELEVISION ACADEMY REALLY LOVE COPS.
If you’re serious about winning that statuette, it’s best to pick up a badge and gun. In 2015, Rolling Stone crunched the numbers and discovered that characters in law enforcement receive the most Emmy love. It adds up when you look at past acting winners: Dennis Franz picked up four for his run on NYPD Blue, Tony Shalhoub won three for Monk, and Tyne Daly and Sharon Gless collectively earned six as the stars of Cagney & Lacey. Current nominees Andre Braugher (Brooklyn Nine-Nine) and Idris Elba (Luther) could continue the streak.
13. SOME WINNERS HAVE TO PAY FOR THEIR STATUETTES.
No, Peter Dinklage doesn’t have to fork over cash for his Emmy backstage. But for categories where the winners can include 15 to 20 people (think writing teams), the Television Academy imposes some fees. In the interview above, Mo Rocca recounted how he paid for his own Emmy as part of The Daily Show writing staff.
14. IT COSTS $400 AND TAKES OVER FIVE HOURS TO MAKE ONE EMMY.
Charging winners to collect their prize might seem outrageous, but then again, an Emmy isn’t cheap. Each statuette costs about $400 and requires five-and-a-half hours of labor to create. They’re all made at Chicago’s R.S. Owens, where employees mold and then coat the figures in copper, nickel, silver, and gold. Watch them in action above.
15. THE EMMYS OVERCAME A DIVERSITY HURDLE JUST LAST YEAR.
When Isabel Sanford won Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for The Jeffersons in 1981, she was the first black woman to receive that honor. The corresponding drama category remained all-white for over six decades, until 2015. Last year, Viola Davis won the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for How to Get Away With Murder. She used her acceptance speech to talk about race and opportunity, provoking tears from several audience members and wild applause from her fellow nominee, Taraji P. Henson.
September 14, 2016 – 10:00am