Animation Guild | We are 839 Digital Magazine
Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1525032
26 KEYFRAME In the great debate of whether animation is for kids or for kids and adults, the adults have it … at least when it comes to the Primetime Emmys, overseen by the L.A.-based Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS). These days, Primetime Emmy voters routinely nominate adult- themed animated series for the Outstanding Animated Program category. The reasoning behind this, like a lot of Emmy categories, comes with a backstory. The Emmys began in 1949, and honors for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Children's Programming were first given out the following year. The category was originally open to both daytime and primetime programming—The Huckleberry Hound Show became the first animated program to win that race in 1960. Then in 1974 the inaugural Daytime Emmys ceremony were broadcast. With its own categories for children's programming, it would soon come under the jurisdiction of the New York-based National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS). Brian Sheesley, a former Academy Governor who is an animator, director, and producer, explains that while the Primetime Emmys (known then as the Emmy Awards for Nighttime Programming) still had a children's programming category, this new ceremony sent most animated programming associated with kids' TV vying for the Daytime award. In 1985 the Daytime Emmys added a category for Outstanding Animated Program. By this point the Primetime Emmys covered 6 p.m. to 2 a.m., so the majority of kids' animation inevitably landed in this daytime category. Over in the primetime world, ATAS added Outstanding Animated Program in 1979, with its first winner being The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. Although this category was open to any animated program that aired in primetime, the winners tended to be kid-centric fare like the Garfield and Charlie Brown specials… that was, until The Simpsons first won in 1990. Although there were still some wins for programs targeted at younger viewers after that (Batman: The Animated Series in 1993; Pinky and the Brain in 1996), the past 30 years have mostly seen adult animated programs win this category. But with today's increase in streamed programs that don't fit into traditional time slots, not to mention that the old guidelines for time slots are no longer used, Sheesley says NATAS formed the Children's and Family Emmy Awards in 2022. All children's categories from both the Daytime Emmys and the Emmy Awards—Primetime is no longer an official part of the name—were moved to this ceremony. Back when Sheesley joined the ATAS Governors' ranks in 1999, he says there was talk of just having an all-animation Emmys. This was dropped because the International Animated Film Society already had the highly respected Annie Awards which began in 1972. "We don't want to get kicked to the kids' table in the living room. We want to be in the main dining room's kids' table," Sheesley says. Ironically, after all of this, some of the most notable primetime shows with the most nominations for Outstanding Animated Program are, in fact, about kids and their families. F E AT U R E BY WHITNEY FRIEDLANDER BY WHITNEY FRIEDLANDER ANIMATION HAS GROWN UP ALONGSIDE THE EMMYS AS AWARD CATEGORIES—AND CEREMONIES—HAVE BECOME MORE SPECIALIZED OVER THE YEARS.