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14th Primetime Emmy Awards
U.S., 5/22/1962
Preserved by the UCLA Film & Television Archive from 2 in. videotape with original commercials!
Brimming with Kennedy-era New Frontier verve, the 14th Primetime Emmy Awards, presented in 1962, illuminates a still-developing medium of television at the crossroads of mid-century. Broadcast a year after Federal Communication Chairman Newton Minow’s devastating indictment of American TV programming as representing a “vast wasteland,” CBS’ critically-acclaimed series The Defenders earned the most awards of the evening, representing a nod to the past prestige dramas of the golden age of television.
Presented live on NBC from Hollywood, New York, and Washington, D.C., the technically challenging format is propelled by stalwart comedians Bob Newhart and Johnny Carson and esteemed journalist David Brinkley. The Space Age broadcast boasts an array of beloved talent for television aficionados, with future icons Carol Burnett, Peter Falk, and Don Knotts all called to the podium to collect Emmy statues. Featuring a parade of star presenters, ranging from Eartha Kitt to Jack Webb, the broadcast moves at an unexpectedly efficient clip, with most acceptance speeches clocking in at well under a minute. Original commercials star comedienne and producer Edie Adams, mere months after Ernie Kovacs' untimely death rocked the entertainment industry, and television’s last angry man Rod Serling in an incongruously lighthearted role for Schlitz Beer.
In 1965, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS) and the UCLA Theater Arts Department partnered to create the ATAS/UCLA Television Library, a cornerstone collection of the UCLA Film & Television Archive. Please join us as we celebrate the continued partnership between UCLA and the Television Academy with our special 60th anniversary co-presentation of this rare broadcast time machine.
Screening introduction by comedian, podcaster and writer-producer Louis Virtel.
—Mark Quigley, John H. Mitchell Television Curator
DCP, b&w, 90 min. Presented by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Executive Producer: Fred Coe. Producer: Claude Traverse. Director: Dick Schneider. Screenwriter: Robert Goldman. Hosted by: David Brinkley, Johnny Carson, Bob Newhart.
Funding has been provided by California Humanities and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) as part of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.
