Emmy Winning Shows for Best Comedy, Part 2 Quiz

Answer:

Here are the TV shows in this quiz that were nominated for best comedy series but never did win. The years they were nominated will be in parentheses: "You Bet Your Life" (1952), "Candid Camera" (1961), "Car 54, Where Are You?" (1962), "The Beverly Hillbillies" (1963), "That Was the Week That Was" (1964), "Bewitched" (1966, 1967, 1968, 1969), "Family Affair" (1968, 1969), "Love American Style" (1970, 1971), "Room 222" (1970), "The Odd Couple" (1971, 1972, 1974), "Soap" (1978, 1980, 1981), "Three's Company" (1978), "WKRP in Cincinnati" (1980, 1981, 1982), "Family Ties" (1984, 1985, 1986, 1987), "Night Court" (1985, 1987, 1988), "Brooklyn Bridge" (1992), "Home Improvement" (1992, 1993, 1994), "Mad About You" (1994, 1995, 1996, 1997), "3rd Rock from the Sun" (1997, 1998), "Curb Your Enthusiasm" (2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2018, 2020, 2022, 2024) "Desperate Housewives" (2005), "The Big Bang Theory" (2011, 2012, 2013, 2014), and "Parks and Recreation" (2011, 2015).

As you might surmise, "Curb Your Enthusiasm" has more nominations for Best Comedy Series without ever winning it than any other show in this quiz. What's weird to me is that it seems to alternate years being nominated with years being not nominated. Of its 11 nominations, all but one are in even-numbered years.
And what's tragic to me is that The Odd Couple never won the top prize. Another oddity strikes me that, hugely respected and long-running comedy series like "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" and "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" were never even nominated for Best Comedy Series.

Okay, so now for those 13 in this collection quiz that DID win the Emmy for Best Comedy Series:

"I Love Lucy" won what they called at the time, the "Best Situation Comedy Emmy Award" twice: first in 1953 at the 5th Primetime Emmy Awards and again in 1954 at the 5th Primetime Emmy Awards. It lost the following year, though in 1955, unable to three-peat the achievement. The show received a total of 21 Emmy nominations and 5 wins during its run (1951-1957), and pioneered filming on 35mm film before a live audience, a standard for future situation comedies. Over the years, "I Love Lucy" was syndicated in over 40 languages around the world.

"My World and Welcome to It" was nominated only once for that award and won it in 1970. The competition that year was rather dismal, which might account for the series not lasting more than its one single season. Its ratings were only moderate. It also won an Emmy for Outstanding Continued Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Comedy Series-William Windom played John Monroe, a writer and cartoonist for a magazine called "The Manhattanite". The character and the observations about life he makes are heavily based on the life of writer James Thurber.

"All in the Family", one of America's most renowned and ground-breaking TV comedies of all time was nominated for Best Comedy Series 9 consecutive years, from 1971 to 1979, every single year of its run. It won the top award four times: 1971, 1972, 1973, and 1978. Very impressive when you consider that its run coincided with at least a half dozen other comedies considered iconic in the history of television. All in the Family was based on the British sitcom "Till Death Us Do Part", a show that also spawned versions in several other countries. It's four main characters all won Emmys for their roles. Carroll O'Connor, played the unforgettable Archie Bunker, often ranked among the top TV characters of all time, just as the show itself is ranked among the best shows.

"M*A*S*H", of course, is one of those iconic shows that was battling in the 1970s against stiff competition for Emmys. It was nominated for the top award 11 times, in 11 consecutive years from 1973 through to 1983. It won just once, in 1974, its second season. It might come as a slight surprise that it didn't win in its final season, since its final episode ranks as perhaps the best single episode of a television series of all-time. Its conclusion serves as the most outstanding template for which a series could say goodbye to its fans, granting its loyal audience a gift. That episode, "Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen" was directed and co-written by the series star Alan Alda, and as of 2025, remained the most-watched single episode of any TV series in American history. It's a gut-wrenching and highly emotional episode still holding up after several decades.

"Taxi" was nominated 5 consecutive times for Best Comedy Series (1979-1983) and it won its first 3 years in a row (1979-1981). "Taxi" had a tried-and-true creative team behind it: James L. Brooks, Glen Charles, Les Charles, Stan Daniels, David Davis and Ed. Weinberger. Almost everything these folks touch turns gold. All six gentlemen also worked on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show", the Charles Brothers also created Cheers, Stan Daniels and David Davis also worked on "The Bob Newhart Show", and Ed Weinberger also worked on "The Cosby Show". So, "Taxi" was blessed with a fine pedigree of talent behind the camera as well as in front.

Yes, "Cheers" is part of that behind-the-scenes family tree. It reminds me of how sports broadcasters point out the "Tree of Coaching" in the NFL, the lineage of coaches who sprang from the head of Bill Walsh, the coach of the great San Francisco 49ers. The coaches that worked under him and then found their own success include Mike Holmgren, George Seifert, Dennis Green, Sam Wyche, Mike Shanahan, etc. But anyway, along with "Curb Your Enthusiasm" and "M*A*S*H", "Cheers" has garnered 11 Best Comedy Series Emmy nominations, more than any other show in this list. And those nominations for "Cheers" were every year of its run, 11 consecutive years from 1983 to 1993. It won its first two years, 1983 and 1984, and then twice more in 1989 and 1990. While "Saturday Night Live", "Game of Thrones", "Dancing with the Stars", and "ER" have more total Emmy nominations throughout their runs, "Cheers" does lead the pack of comedy series with 117 total Emmy nominations throughout its run.

"The Wonder Years" was nominated for Best Comedy Series the first four seasons (1988-1991) of its 6-season lifespan. It won the Award in just that first year. "The Wonder Years" was a coming-of-age story featuring a teen named Kevin Arnold growing up in suburban America in the late 1960s-early 1970s. "The Wonder Years" was a mid-season replacement for a show called "You Can't Take It With You", and it became the first show ever to win the Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series as a midseason replacement. "The Wonder Years"' legacy remains being one of the pioneers of the dramedy genre in TV.

When "Sex and the City", produced by HBO, won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series in 2001, it became the first premium cable series to win in this category, winning in the 4th season of its run from 1998 to 2004. The show got 55 Emmy nominations in its six-season run, and won 7 of those, including Sarah Jessica Parker (Carrie Bradshaw) for Lead Actress, and Cynthia Nixon (Miranda Hobbes) for Supporting Actress both in 2004, its final season.

The American version of "The Office" (the original version, in Britain, starred Ricky Gervais) ran for 9 seasons from March 24, 2005, to May 16, 2013. The show was nominated for Best Comedy Series a total of six consecutive years, from 2006 to 2011, but only won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series for its second season in 2006. It was the first mockumentary-style show to win Best Comedy, paving the way for "Modern Family" to become the second series in that genre (in 2010).

"Modern Family" was nominated 8 consecutive years for Outstanding Comedy Series, from 2010 to 2017, and it won 5 consecutive years in its first five seasons, tying "Frasier's" five consecutive wins in that category. Writer Christopher Lloyd worked on both those shows. Overall, it won 22 total Emmy wins out of its 85 nominations, including Emmys in the acting, writing, and directing categories. "Modern Family" was the first ABC-TV series to win the Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series in 22 years since "The Wonder Years" won in 1988.

"Veep" was nominated for the Outstanding Comedy Series Emmy in its first three seasons (2012-2014) but didn't win until its fourth season in 2015. It would continue its streak the next two seasons by winning that top award in 2016 and 2017 as well. It wasn't nominated in 2018, but did garner another nomination the next year, its final season in 2019. The most amazing Emmy achievement of the show however, was Julia Louis-Dreyfus's unprecedented 6 consecutive Emmy WINS for Lead Actress in a Comedy Series from 2012 to 2017.

In 2018, "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" won its only Outstanding Comedy Series Emmy Award.. It was nominated again in its second season, but lost. Then again in 2020, its third season, but lost again. There were 2 years and 2 months between the release of its third and fourth season, so it wasn't in the running for the 2021 Emmys. In its fourth season in 2022, it resumed earning a nomination for Outstanding Comedy Series, and then again in its final season in 2023. Extra Trivia Tidbit: You can see me, William Kozy in the show, playing the boom operator in the scenes from various episodes that take place on "The Gordon Ford Show."

"Hacks" debuted in 2021 and was nominated for Outstanding Comedy Series, and then again in 2022 for its second season. Its third season wasn't until 2024, and that third time was the charm as it won the Emmy. Jean Smart won Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy in all three of those seasons, and indeed it's like a master class in acting to watch her performances.