The Powerful Women Behind The Good Wife and Veep Take Home Emmys
Last night’s 66th Annual Emmy Awards left many feeling somewhat ambivalent about television’s biggest night. With AMC’s Breaking Bad and ABC’s Modern Family once again taking home two of the top honors (Best Drama and Best Comedy Series, respectively), some new hopefuls and equally deserving shows were left out in the cold. But not all was lost for TV’s more female-focused dramas.
Julianna Margulies took home her second Emmy for her role as humiliated housewife turned defense attorney Alicia Florrick, on CBS’ The Good Wife. Since the series was snubbed out of a Best Drama nod, many predicted a second win for Margulies who was up against stiff competition – Robin Wright, Lizzy Caplan, Claire Danes, Michelle Dockery and Kerry Washington – in the Lead Actress in a Drama Series category.
Yet her graceful win, and grateful acceptance speech acknowledged the talent of her running mates. “What a wonderful time for women on television and all the women that I’m nominated with here tonight are such a testament to that,” Margulies opened. She then went on to thank the show’s creators, Robert and Michelle King, the writers, and her cast mates. She gave a specific shout out to her co-star, Christine Baranski (who was nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actress, but lost to Breaking Bad’s Anna Gunn), calling her a “beacon of light to all of us.”
The talented actress has been a favorite for TV viewers since the early 1990s when she starred on the original hospital drama, ER. For her role as Nurse Carol Hathaway, Margulies won her first Emmy in 1995.
On the comedy side, Veep’s Julia Louis-Dreyfus also took home the Outstanding Actress award. Though her kiss with Breaking Bad’s Bryan Cranston en route to the stage stole a bit of thunder from her speech, Louis-Dreyfus thanked the show’s “hilarious writers,” the cast, “whom I adore,” along with producers and crew.
“This show is very dense, as you might notice, and it’s a huge labor of love,” Louis-Dreyfus said concluded her speech. “And every labor of love takes a lot of labor – a lot of labor – this one particularly. So I really want to thank everyone on this show for having such extraordinary grace under pressure and for having so much fun.” This win is her third consecutive award for Veep, and her fifth Emmy total. The actress has been nominated 18 times total over the span of her television career.
She also thanked HBO, calling the specialty network her “favorite place I’ve ever worked.” Her win was one of few for HBO, which dominated the nominations field but not the winners’ circle. Netflix (House of Cards and Orange is The New Black) also held it’s own with 31 nominations, but took home zero awards in the major categories.
Yet a final nod towards some of the industry’s funniest ladies came from the show’s first-time host, Seth Meyers. The Saturday Night Live graduate reached out to his former SNL counter-parts, Amy Poehler and Tina Fey to help draft jokes for his monologue. He even joked about how happy they were to help him write.
“When I got in touch with them and asked if they’d like to help me with tonight’s monologue, they both jumped at the chance to write back: ‘new phone, who dis?’” Of course, the comedic ladies come with a stellar track record, having hosted the Golden Globes since 2013, and will return to the job on January 11, 2015 marking their third consecutive year as co-hosts.
While the three-hour long award show made few waves, Meyers hosted a well-written and well-timed ceremony, and many of our favorite leading ladies were celebrated. Congratulations to both Julianna Margulies and Julia Louis-Dreyfus!
Photos (in order) courtesy of Casey Curry, Todd Williamson, and Vince Bucci for Invision for the Television Academy/AP Image
11TAGS: award shows The Good Wife Veep Women in entertainment women in television