The shortlist for the annual Writer’s Guild of America (WGA) awards have been announced, with the long-running and incredibly popular animated series The Simpsons bagging itself no less than five nominations, including (apparently for the first time) one in the Best Comedy category in addition to four seperate episodes of the show nominated in the same Animation (any length) category (against two episodes from King of the Hill and er, nothing else…). Hmmm, is it just me or does that sound like a pretty silly way to run the Animation category? Nominate four episodes from one show, two from another and ignore everything else?
(Life on the couch – The Simpsons by Matt Groening, (c) Fox)
Elsewhere there are several showings from the fantastical genres – Lost is contending the Dramatic Series category (as is Dexter – do we consider Dexter to be borderline fantastical genre area material? I’m kind of leaning that way because of the horror elements. And because I like it.), Fringe (is it the new X-Files?) and the American version of Life on Mars both get a nod in the New Series section, with the Fringe pilot also getting a mention; the full list can be found on the WGA site while the winners will be announced on February 7th.
(Harvey Keitel as the New York incarnation of Gene Hunt in the US version of Life on Mars, (c) ABC)
Wed, Dec 10, 2008
Art and animation, Awards, Film, TV and radio