1994 Daytime Emmy Awards

[FreemanGriffin Joined: Feb 19th, 2012 Topics: 479 Posts: 7472 View Predictions]

#1203460751

1993-94 was unusual in that it had a richer than usual group of nominees and Susan Lucci was not nominated! GL and OLTL split the acting awards in half and each got 4 major awards but AMC for the 2nd time won for Series without winning any other major awards.

Best Drama Series:

All My Children (winner)
As the World Turns
Guiding Light
The Young and the Restless

Best Actor

Peter Bergman, Y&R
Charles Keating, AW
Peter Simon, GL
Robert S Woods, OLTL
Michael Zaslow, GL (winner)

Best Actress

Julia Barr, AMC
Linda Dano, AW
Fiona Hutchison, GL
Hillary B Smith, OLTL (winner)
Kathleen Widdoes, ATWT

Best Supporting Actor

Ian Buchanan, B&B
Thom Christopher, OLTL
Justin Deas, GL (winner)
Patrick Tovatt, ATWT
Jerry verDorn, GL

Best Supporting Actress

Signy Coleman, Y&R
Hillary Edson, GL
Maureen Garrett, GL
Susan Haskell, OLTL (winner)
Sharon Wyatt, GH

Best Younger Actor

Bryan Buffinton, GL
Scott DeFreitas, ATWT
Roger Howarth, OLTL (winner)
Monti Sharp, GL
Dondre Whitfield, AMC

Best Younger Actress

Martha Byrne, ATWT
Sarah Michelle Gellar, AMC
Melissa Hayden, GL (winner)
Melina Kanakaredes, GL
Heather Tom, Y&R

Directing Team

AMC
GL (winner)
Y&R

Writing Team

AW
Days
OLTL (winner)
Y&R

I would have voted for GL for Series, Zaslow, Smith, Deas, Garrett, DeFreitas, Hayden, OLTL for Writing, and GL for Directing – so 6 out of 9 went my way that particular year!

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[DS0816 Joined: Sep 15th, 2011 Topics: 23 Posts: 773 View Predictions]

#1203463962

Not having One Life to Live up for Outstanding Drama Series was an inexcusable failure.

At the time, Academy voters were voting around the ABC soap even though it won for Directing (three by the end of the 1980s), Writing (its second was in 1994), Lead Actor (Al Freeman Jr. and Robert S. Woods) and, by 1994, seven for Best Actress (two for Judith Light, one for Robin Strasser, three for Erika Slezak, and 1994 winner Hillary B. Smith). And this was the 21st Daytime Emmys!

One Life to Live, by this point, was nominated in the top category only twice—in 1973 and 1983.

So, it was a habit.

A bad habit.

All My Children won the top Emmy for the first time in 1992. (It should have gone to Guiding Light, and AMC should won years earlier, very obviously so in the early- to mid-1980s and especially 1988.) AMC won its three Emmys all during this decade—its other two were in 1994 and 1998.

One Life to Live should have finally arrived with the top Emmy for the first time in its history here in 1994. (That’s not to say it should not have won sooner. But, this season was fantastic.)

The 1993–94 Daytime Emmys was, as you can tell by the six performance categories, as well as Directing and Writing, a two-soaps race. So, for the top prize, would have been a fight between Guiding Light and One Life to Live. The ABC soap was the one which had the better season.

This was one of those goofy outcomes.

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[FreemanGriffin Joined: Feb 19th, 2012 Topics: 479 Posts: 7472 View Predictions]

#1203464051

I agree with you that the two best soaps were Guiding Light and One Life To Live but I felt that Guiding Light was the one with the better season but either show winning would have been great that year. Correct me I if I am wrong but I think All My Children submitted an episode where racist violence against Dondre Whitfeild’s character happened?

One of the reasons I probably liked this year was that the nominations overwhelmingly went to east coast soaps and all 9 major awards went to east coast soaps – west coast soaps only got 5 acting nominations. Of course there were many more performers who deserved to be nominated (esp. Robin Strasser for OLTL, Judi Evans for AW, Mark Pinter for AW, Ryan Phillipe for younger Actor for the end of his time as Billy on OLTL, Kathryn Hays for Supporting Actress, I am sure there were plenty of others too) I i still think this group of nominees was unusually strong in 1994.

Michael Zaslow and Hillary B Smith were two of my all-time favorite Emmy wins! Disappointed that Scott DeFreitas never won an Emmy (3 nominations) but Roger Howarth was terrific during the Marty rape storyline.

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[linecelts Joined: Jun 18th, 2011 Topics: 8 Posts: 986 View Predictions]

#1203464145

A pretty good year for GL and OLTL. I do wish these soaps in New York would still happen 🤔🤔

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[adamunc Joined: Jul 5th, 2011 Topics: 69 Posts: 3764 View Predictions]

#1203464162

This was the only time Guiding Light ever won for Directing.

But why was it not nominated for Writing this year?

I recently ran across Melissa Hayden’s reel that year on YouTube and it was killer.

Hillary B. Smith had one of the all-time great winning reels that year and Best Actor was a brutal lineup too.

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[DS0816 Joined: Sep 15th, 2011 Topics: 23 Posts: 773 View Predictions]

#1203465195

Guiding Light previously won the Directing Emmy in 1985; the 1984–85 television season; the same season that marked the first Lead Actress win for Kim Zimmer along with Supporting Actor Larry Gates. (The first times, actually, GL won those specific categories.)

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[robbalto Joined: Jun 19th, 2011 Topics: 23 Posts: 1017 View Predictions]

#1203466657

Looking back, that 1994 Daytime Emmy Awards included a great list of nominees! After all this time, it is difficult for me to recall whom I was rooting for, but I do remember that “One Life to Live” had a great year and that their wins for writing and acting were well-deserved. That said, I was always looking for under-recognized performers such as Scott DeFrietas, Maureen Garrett, and Peter Simon to take home the gold. And I loved Monti Sharp and Melissa Hadyn.

DS0816, I agree that OLTL should have been nominated for Outstanding Series, at the very least. However, from my perspective, the Daytime Emmys have often awarded unfairly, and that continues to be the case today. So the disparity between winning for Writing and not even getting nominated for Drama Series is not all that surprising (although I thought it was at the time).

Thank you for sharing, Freeman. This list evokes a pleasing sense of nostalgia.

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[DS0816 Joined: Sep 15th, 2011 Topics: 23 Posts: 773 View Predictions]

#1203466971

robbalto wrote:

DS0816, I agree that OLTL should have been nominated for Outstanding Series, at the very least. However, from my perspective, the Daytime Emmys have often awarded unfairly, and that continues to be the case today. So the disparity between winning for Writing and not even getting nominated for Drama Series is not all that surprising (although I thought it was at the time).

It was more than that.

To win three of the six performance categories and to win in Writing —and these are four of the nine main categories (with Guiding Light also having won three for its performances as well as scoring in Directing)—One Life to Live having been denied nomination for Outstanding Drama Series was failure by the nominating members of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.

No getting around that.

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[FreemanGriffin Joined: Feb 19th, 2012 Topics: 479 Posts: 7472 View Predictions]

#1203467255

One Life To Live did best in the Best Actress category, winning 11 times, but never fared well with Best Drama Series getting a total of 8 nominations in that category. For 1993-94 I would have nominated All My Children, Another World, As The World Turns, Guiding Light and One Life To Live. I still would have chosen Guiding Light, which had a phenomenal year, but OLTL was definitely my 2nd choice that year.

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