If It's Great on the Page, It Ends Up on Stage in What's Invariably a Comedy-Filled Night - Hillary Atkin

These truly are the glory days of ABC39s smash hit comedy quotModern Familyquot which by the conclusion of the 2012 Writers Guild of America Awards Sunday night had added two more trophies to its already awardsladen mantleIt was the third year in a row that quotquotMFquot walked away with the guild39s top comedy series award cementing its position as the one to beat against other laughers in the category that included quot30 Rockquot quotCurb Your Enthusiasmquot quotLouiequot and quotParks ampamp RecreationquotquotWe are very scared that people are sick of usquot showrunner Steve Levitan admitted to the audience referring to the freshness of its recent wins at the Golden Globes and the SAG Awards Not to mention those five Emmy Awards from last fallWhen his show also took the statuette for episodic comedy which recognizes specific episodes all of the credited writers came up on stage and spit out a oneliner indicative of their talent including Elaine Ko who spoofed AsianAmerican stereotypes by saying quotI39m bad at math I don39t play an instrument and I39m not Jeremy LinquotThe WGA West ceremony at the Hollywood Palladiumamp8212a simultaneous one was held by WGA East at the BB King Blues Club in New York was filled with such laughs due in no small part to its hosts quotCommunity39squot Joel McHale and this season39s TV comedy quotitquot girl Zooey Deschanel The star of quotNew Girlquot started off the festivities by saying quotWelcome to the nerd promquot and proceeding to make fun of male writers39 penchant for wardrobes filled with plaid shirts admonishing them to shield themselves from the harsh lights of the outside worldThe list of West Coast presenters ranged from Tom Selleck to Amy Poehler Octavia Spencer and Viola Davis Bryan Cranston and Vince Gilligan Patton Oswalt and Lisa Kudrow as the Guild awarded a series of honors in other television categories new media video games documentary and feature filmsAMC39s quotBreaking Badquot gained proof that it is stronger than ever taking home two trophies one for drama series and one for episodic drama tying with upand comer quotHomelandquot which is already stacking up a cache of awards from its freshman season on ShowtimeWith Poehler who had appeared on quotSNLquot the night before pushing for her former show in the tough competition for the comedyvariety including talk prize it was Colbert that was in the cards Stephen39s writing staff bested the scribes at quotConanquot quotJon Benjamin Has a Van quotLate Night with Jimmy Fallonquot quotReal Time with Bill Maherquot quotSaturday Night Livequot and quotThe Daily Show with Jon Stewartquot Since no one from quotThe Colbert Reportquot was in the audience Poehler temporarily claimed the winged statueIn the animation category quotThe Simpsonsquot scored four of the six nominations episodes from quotFuturamaquot and quotBen 10 Ultimate Alien were the others and funny enough Bart and company scored the prize in an episode entitled quotHomer the Fatherquot by Joel H CohenIn the long form original category only two contenders duked it out quotFivequot on Lifetime and quotCinema Veritequot on HBO which took home the WGA In long form adapted again only two candidates and both aired on HBO quotMildred Piercequot and quotToo Big to Failquot a dramatization of the financial crisis starring William Hurt that bested its rival in the eyes of WGA votersAs usual during this untelevised kudofest some of the best material came during the presentation and acceptance speeches of the honorary awards quotThe Helpquot costars Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer both sitting pretty for the Academy Awards next weekend in their respective lead and supporting actress categories presented screenwriterdirector Tate Taylor with the Paul Selvin Award which recognizes work that embodies the spirit of constitutional rights and civil libertiesTaylor a white man from Mississippi has been maligned in some quarters for adapting Kathryn Stockwell39s novel about black maids working in Jackson Mississippi during the 1960s on the brink of the civil rights movement as has Stockwell herself because she is whiteIn his acceptance speech Taylor articulately addressed those issues after revealing that he was coraised by a black woman and had been roommates with Spencer for years as they both tried to break into the entertainment industry noting that they kept loaning each other the same 500 and would fight over the last bowl of chili in their apartmentquotI39ve become aware of a troubling ironyquot Taylor said quotAs 39The Help39 began its rise there are those that said two white people had no right to tell the story Two white people in 2010 had no right to tell the story of people in 1963 But we came from a place of love as Southerners with respect and admiration for those women and millions like her the world overwho may be home with your children right now People should have the right to tell any story they choose If not we all lose We should strive for a place for people to tell the kind of stories they want without judgmentquotJudgment was exactly what David Fincher said drew him to Eric Roth the recipient of the Laurel Award for Screen which honors lifetime achievement in outstanding writing for motion pictures Roth39s work ranges from quotForrest Gumpquot quotThe Insiderquot and quotAliquot to this year39s quotExtremely Loud ampamp Incredibly Closequot to quotThe Curious Case of Benjamin Buttonquot which Fincher directedquotI found someone who hated more people in Hollywood than I did and that was something to build onquot said Fincher in a funny taped piece set on a soundstageFor his turn Roth read a lengthy email reply to Brad Pitt39s query about the importance of storytelling in film starting out with quotBlondie go back to what you do bestamp8212offroad motorcyclingquotMarshall Herskovitz and Ed Zwick received the Paddy Chayefsky Laurel Award for Television They received it after kudos from a writer they mentored Jason Katims and a lengthy clip from the pilot of their first breakout hit quotthirtysomethingquot that brought back a lot of memories of that groundbreaking 1980s showquotMidnight in Parisquot got the WGA39s top honor for original screenplay for its writer and director Woody Allen a win to which McHale reacted by saying quotI can39t believe he39s not herequot He wasn39t at the New York ceremony either but recently made his West Coast presence known through a taped piece for the DGA AwardsFor the best adapted screenplay Alexander Payne won the prize for quotThe Descendantsquot which he also directed with cowriters Jim Rash and Nat Faxon Payne thanked novelist Kaui Hart Hemmings for her Hawaiiset book saying they had a very good time in her worldMeanwhile McHale noted that his friend Rash wrote all the dialog for George Clooney39s wife whoamp8230um hello was in a comaIt was that kind of nightA complete list of winners can be found here httpwgaorgawardsawardssubaspxid1517 Hillary Atkin is the editor and publisher of The Atkin Report wwwatkinreportcom and has written extensively on media and entertainment for USA Today the Los Angeles Times Daily and Weekly Variety The Hollywood Reporter TelevisionWeek Entertainment Weekly The New York Observer and LA Confidential She is an awardwinning journalist who began her career as a television news writer reporter and producer As a broadcast producer at KCBS in Los Angeles she won numerous Emmy Associated Press and Golden Mike Awards for live coverage and entertainment special events programming and then produced and directed biographies on Robert Duvall Elizabeth Montgomery Linda Darnell and Nicolas Cage for AampampE and E She can be reached at hillaryatkinyahoocom Check us out on Facebook at MediaBizBloggerscomFollow our Twitter updates MediaBizBloggerThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaBizBloggerscom management or associated bloggers MediaBizBloggers is an open thought leadership platform and readers may share their comments and opinions in response to all commentaries

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If It's Great on the Page, It Ends Up on Stage in What's Invariably a Comedy-Filled Night - Hillary Atkin

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