ONE AFTERNOON, 24 EMMY WINNERS, 53 YEARS OF TRAILBLAZING TVAND ONE WOMAN?????!!!!
Are you kidding me? One woman is all you can think of that's left a trailblazing mark on television? Perhaps its because they went through the history of TV and it was a timeline and only recently have women been able to fight their way into Hollywood as show runners, creators and executives? Even the wording of the blurb at the top of the page is maddening, "as drama 'it' boys traded notes with comedy gods" We have IT BOYS and comedy GODS but no IT GIRLS or Comedy GODDESSES?
What about Lucille Ball? I Love Lucy? and sure, maybe you had to be alive to be a part of this discussion, and maybe you also had to be a white man?
Here are some LADIES that I think deserved to be on this list, in this article, a part of the discussion.
LUCILLE BALL -- "I LOVE LUCY" She's THE TRAILBLAZER, one of the first to create her own show as well as her own production company.
TINA FEY -- "30 Rock" -- Wikipedia says. . .
30 Rock was a runaway critical success, winning several major awards (including Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Comedy Series in 2007, 2008, and 2009 and nominations for every other year it ran), and achieving the esteemed top ranking on a myriad critics' year-end best of 2006-2013 lists.[2] On July 14, 2009, the series was nominated for 22 Primetime Emmy Awards, the most in a single year for a comedy series.[7] Over the course of the series, it was nominated for 112 Emmy awards and won 16, in addition to numerous other nominations and wins from other awards shows.
WINNIE HOLZMAN -- "My So Called Life", not only did I love this show, but according to Wikipedia, "The show was praised for its portrayal of adolescence and the commentary of its astute central character, Angela. My So-Called Life was named the second Best School Show of All Time by AOL TV.[6] It placed No. 33 on Entertainment Weekly's "New Classics TV" list of shows from 1983 to 2008,[7] and then, in 2012, at No. 9 in that magazine's "25 Best Cult TV Shows from the Past 25 Years," with the praise,
It was the first teen drama that didn't feel like an after-school special. No one ever learned a very important lesson or uttered the phrase 'I love you, Dad.' Angela acted like a real 15-year-old, with all the crying jags and Buffalo Tomconcerts that implies. What's even more impressive is that anyone who watched the show back in the '90s, when angst and Manic Panic felt totally of the moment, can now enjoy it on a very different level. Suddenly, Angela's parents are relatable.[8]
In 2007, it was listed as one of Time magazine's "100 Best TV Shows of All-TIME".[9] TV Guide ranked the series #2 on their 2013 list of 60 shows that were "Cancelled Too Soon".[10] and in 2004 ranked it number 16 on its 25 Top Cult Shows Ever list [11] however the ranking was later withdrawn in an updated list published three years later, saying it "had not withstood the test of time".[12] "
Yes, it was only around for one season, but I would argue that it had an effect on many of the shows created after it, like "Freaks and Geeks".
SHONDA RHIMES -- I would argue that this is the most glaring omission from THR's list. Shonda is a woman, but she's also a woman of color, she's fighting double the battle and she's created three of the most successful shows for ABC, "Grey's Anatomy", "Private Practice" and "Scandal"! Soon to be a 4th with the premiere of "How to Get Away With Murder".
Shonda Rhimes (born January 13, 1970) is an American screenwriter, director, and producer. Rhimes is best known as the creator, head writer, and executive producer of the medical drama television series Grey's Anatomy, its spin-offPrivate Practice and political thriller series Scandal. In May 2007, Rhimes was named one of TIME magazine's 100 people who help shape the world.[1] - Wikipedia
JENJI KOHAN -- Literally the biggest trailblazer in television right now could be Jenji Kohan, changing the face of television and what we know about it with "Orange is the New Black" a show where the majority of the cast is female AND ethnically diverse, its also found incredible success on a new platform of television, airing solely on Netflix, she also created "Weeds".
Kohan has received seven Emmy Award nominations, winning as supervising producer of Tracey Takes On.... She shared a CableACE Award in 1996 for her work on that show. She received her first nomination for her show Weeds in 2009, for Outstanding Comedy Series. She was nominated for a Producers Guild of America Award in 2007, and two Writers Guild of America Awards.[23]
In 2014, Kohan was named one of Time's 100 Most Influential People.[24] In 2014, Orange is the New Black was nominated for 12 Emmys.[1] - wikipedia
LENA DUNHAM -- She's 27 and she's already blazed a trail, whether or not you like Hipsters, she's making a name for herself in TV with "Girls".
Lena Dunham (/ˈlinə ˈdʌnəm/ lee-nə dun-um; born May 13, 1986) is an American actress, screenwriter, producer, and director.[3] She wrote and directed the independent film Tiny Furniture (2010), and is the creator, writer and star of the HBO series Girls. She has received eight nominations for Emmy Awards as a writer, director, actress and producer and won two Golden Globe Awards for Girls. Dunham is also the first woman to win a Directors Guild Award for Outstanding Director in a Comedy Series.
MARTA KAUFFMAN --- Maybe I spoke too soon? Marta could be the most glaring omission on this list as the co-creator of "FRIENDS", one of the most successful TV shows of all time?
Marta Kauffman (born September 21, 1956) is an American writer and TV producer, best known as the co-creator of the popular sitcom Friends, alongside David Crane. Both Crane and Kauffman were also executive producer of the show, along with Kevin Bright. Crane and Kauffman have also produced Veronica's Closet, starring Kirstie Alley, and Jesse, starring Christina Applegate. From 2005–2006 she was an executive producer on Related. Both writers were the creators of the 1990 HBO series Dream On.
MINDY KALING -- Creator of "The Mindy Project" currently in its 3rd season on ABC, Mindy has trailblazed her way as a woman and an Indian American on TV.
known professionally as Mindy Kaling, is an American actor, comedian, writer, and producer best known for portraying Kelly Kapoor on the NBC sitcom The Office and creating and starring as Mindy Lahiri in the Fox sitcom The Mindy Project. She is also a co-executive producer, director, and writer of several of the show's episodes. Kaling also wrote, was executive producer for and directed various episodes of The Office.
A simple Google search and memories of some of my favorite shows led me to 8 WOMEN that could have been included on your list THR. I know there are more. We're not doing enough to make Hollywood a balanced representation of the world. According to this article in the Huffington Post only 30.5 percent of TV staff writers are women.
"According to the most recent stats from the Writers Guild of America, about 30.5 percent of TV staff writers are women, and about 15.6 percent of TV writers are people of color; both numbers represent modest gains from the past. San Diego State University's Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film, which uses a different calculation method, puts the percentage of female TV writers for the 2012-13 season at 34 percent.
Yet according to SDSU's most recent study, 27 percent of women bear the title executive producer, and 24 percent are a "creator" -- numbers that have remained stagnant for a long time. In the 2010-11 season, "just 24 percent of the pilots in the pipeline for the season had at least one woman writer attached, while only 9 percent of the projects had at least one minority writer," according to the WGA."
What's it going to take for Hollywood to find value in women? Are you helping or hindering the problem? THR, you're definitely not helping.
