Thanks for this post I enjoyed reading it.
f
On May 3, 2009, at 8:46 PM, JIM DOHERTY wrote:
>
>
>
> Todd,
>
> Re your comments below
>
> "Still the most ridiculous category. Somebody is goofy for Dick Wolf
> and WIRE IN THE BLOOD (with CSI MIAMI in to pretend they aren't,
> perhaps).
>
> "Best Television Episode Teleplay
> 'Streetwise' – Law & Order: SVU, Teleplay by Paul Grellong (Wolf
> Films/NBC Universal)
> 'Prayer of the Bone' – Wire in the Blood, Teleplay by Patrick
> Harbinson (BBC America)
> 'Signature' – Law & Order: SVU, Teleplay by Judith McCreary (Wolf
> Films/NBC Universal)
> 'You May Now Kill the Bride' – CSI: Miami, Teleplay by Barry O'Brien
> (CBS)
> 'Burn Card' – Law & Order, Teleplay by Ed Zuckerman and David Wilcox
> (Wolf Films/NBC Universal)
>
> "In a year that also featured LIFE, DEXTER, and a slew of better
> series than SVU and even the re-improving L&O, this has no relation
> to sober professional judgement."
>
> I've served on an Edgar committee, and, while I'm ethically
> constrained from talking about the actual deliberation and
> discussion that took place, I can tell you a few things.
>
> First, the committee can only consider those works that are actually
> submitted. Suppose hypothetically that Edgars were awarded in 1931
> (for 1930), and, in the Best Novel category, that Dashiell Hammett
> did NOT submit THE MALTESE FALCON, D.L. Sayers did NOT submit STRONG
> POISON, and Ellery Queen did NOT submit THE FRENCH POWDER MYSTERY.
> In that case, a situation would have been created in which it would
> be much more likely that S.S. Van Dine might win for THE SCARAB
> MURDER CASE, despite the fact that any of the other books were
> clearly superior.
>
> Second, committee members are not necessarily encouraged to beat the
> bushes for nominees. In fact, they might be actually discouraged
> from doing so, because it might be construed as favoritism. So, if a
> committee member knows of a worthy potential entry in the category
> to which s/he is assigned that has not been entered, s/he might not
> be in a position to encourage the author, publisher, or producer to
> submit that piece.
>
> Third, though the L&O franchise and N.Y.P.D. BLUE have tended to
> dominate over the last decade or so in this category, they haven't
> always won. Dark horses have finished in first place on a number of
> occasions. Episodes of THE SOPRANOS, BURN NOTICE, the British
> version of LIFE ON MARS, THE PRACTICE, and SEA OF SOULS have all
> won, despite the "inside track" that many suppose Dick Wolf and
> Steven Bochco enjoy.
>
> Fourth, all that said, I'd skip over a dozen episodes of LIFE, which
> leaves me totally cold, to catch one episode of L&O, L&O-SVU, or L&O-
> CI. I don't have HBO, so I haven't seen DEXTER, but I'll bow to your
> judgment.
>
> Finally, to me the more troubling aspect of the TV categories is
> that in four out of the last seven years, no award, none at all, has
> been made in the category of Best Mystery Teleplay Special (or best
> Telefeature/Mini-Series, or whatever it's called these days). There
> have been plenty of worthy potential entries in this category.
> Presumably, not enough entries are getting submitted, and the
> committee members feel constraints on encouraging entries. But the
> whole point of having two separate TV categories, a custom going
> back to 1971, arose out of the perceived unfairness of having an
> episode in a weekly series compete with a higher-budgeted,
> presumably more carefully produced TV-movie or serialized drama.
>
> In the three years leading up to 1971, though a number of regular
> series episodes were nominated, the Edgar was awarded, in each case,
> to a made-for-TV movie.
>
> However, if, in recent years, not enough TV-movies or serialized
> "mini-series" are getting submitted to make the competition
> worthwhile, maybe MWA should consider simply folding the two award
> categories together again.
>
> JIM DOHERTY
>
>
>
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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