The Television Academy today announced this year's honorees for the Seventh Annual Television Academy Honors. For using the power of television to bring awareness to important social issues, this year's honorees include The Big C: hereafter, Comedy Warriors: Healing Through Humor, The Fosters, Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God, Mom, Screw You Cancer and Vice.
Consistent with the transformative year that the Television Academy is having, the Academy Honors ceremony is changing its format as well. This year's honored programs will be celebrated beginning the week of May 25 with daily special content on the Television Academy's digital platforms and on Yahoo TV (tv.yahoo.com) that includes opportunities for involvement in the causes presented. At the end of that week, all Television Academy Honors recipients will be officially presented and celebrated at an outdoor cocktail reception on the Garden Terrace of the SLS Hotel at Beverly Hills on Sunday, June 1 from 5 – 7pm, hosted by Emmy Award-winning actress Dana Delany. This marks the sixth time Delany has hosted Television Academy Honors.
"The programs being honored this year are some of the most emotionally moving and socially powerful programs on television," said Television Academy Chairman and CEO Bruce Rosenblum. "As our industry evolves, it is exciting to see this type of smart and empowering content presented across such a wide variety of distribution platforms."
This year's honorees feature a selection of programming seen on broadcast television, basic cable, premium cable and the internet. With topics ranging from cancer, PTSD and the foster care system to clerical sex abuse, alcoholism and a new approach to covering news, these seven programs have exemplified what it means to use the medium of television to inform and enlighten, as much as entertain. Selections were made by the Academy's Honors committee, chaired by Lucia Gervino.
Recipients of the Seventh Annual Television Academy Honors are:
The Big C: hereafter (Showtime) – The Big C: hereafter is the fitting conclusion to Cathy's (Laura Linney) journey of battling Stage Four melanoma. With the help of her husband (Oliver Platt), son, brother and former student, Cathy's valiant fight ends the way she wanted it to—with dignity, humor and strength, surrounded by those who loved her. (Executive Produced by Jenny Bicks, Darlene Hunt, Laura Linney, Michael Engler, Richard Heus, Vivian Cannon and Neal H. Moritz)
Comedy Warriors: Healing Through Humor (Showtime) – Five severely wounded Iraq and Afghanistan veterans explore their experiences through the healing power of humor. This program follows their journey as they work with professional comedy writers and A-list comedians (including Lewis Black, Zach Galifianakis, B.J. Novak and Bob Saget) who help them craft stand-up comedy routines, giving them lighter perspectives from which to view their injuries and their lives. (Produced by John Wager, Ray Reo and Bernadette Luckett)
The Fosters "Pilot" (ABC Family) – The Fosters has carved its own niche within the ever-evolving landscape of modern television. The show focuses on a multi-ethnic family of foster and biological kids being raised by two mothers (Teri Polo and Sherri Saum). They have built a close-knit, loving family when their lives are disrupted in unexpected ways by the addition of a hardened teen girl who has spent her life in the foster care system. (Executive Produced by Peter Paige, Brad Bredeweg, Joanna Johnson, Greg Gugliotta, Jennifer Lopez, Benny Medina, John Ziffren and Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas)
Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God (HBO) – Around the world to the highest office of the Vatican, a systematic conspiracy existed to silence victims of sexual abuse. This program investigates the secret crimes of Father Lawrence Murphy, a charismatic Milwaukee priest who abused more than 200 deaf children in a school under his control. At the heart of the film is a small group of deaf heroes who sought to protect other children and courageously exposed the priest who had abused them. (Executive Produced by Lori Singer, Jessica Kingdon and Sheila Nevins)
Mom "Zombies and Cobb Salad" (CBS) – From Executive Producer Chuck Lorre, Mom is a unique scripted half-hour comedy which addresses the issue of recovery from alcoholism and drug addiction. The show centers on Christy and Bonnie (Allison Janney and Anna Faris), an alcoholic mother and daughter who have been reunited by sobriety. The show explores the impact of alcoholism on families when Christy discovers that her mother Bonnie has relapsed after two years of sobriety. (Executive Produced by Eddie Gorodetsky, Chuck Lorre and Nick Bakay)
Screw You Cancer (Glamour.com) – Caitlin Brodnick, a 28-year-old comedian living in New York City with her husband, shares her life-changing decision to have a preventative double mastectomy after learning she is BRCA-1 positive. In this docu-series, viewers accompany Caitlin as she faces this journey with humor, honesty and empowering determination. (Produced by Cathryne Czubek and Ruth Somalo)
Vice (HBO) – Vice presents a style of news coverage that is unlike anything else on television. The newsmagazine covers groundbreaking and shocking stories which are often overlooked by mainstream media outlets, including out-of-control political assassinations in the Philippines, children used as suicide bombers, an underground railroad that rescues North Korean women from sex slavery and the precarious nuclear stare-down in Kashmir. (Executive Produced by Bill Maher, Shane Smith and Eddy Moretti)
Television Academy Honors held its inaugural ceremony in 2008. Among the honorees from the past five years are such distinguished programs as:
Alive Day Memories: Home From Iraq
Boston Legal
Brothers and Sisters
CSI "Coup De Grace"
Dr. Oz Show
Explorer: "Inside Death Row"
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition
Five
Friday Night Lights "I Can't"
Glee "Wheels"
Grandpa, Do You Know Who I Am? with Maria Shriver
Half The Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide
Harry's Law "Head Games"
Hot Coffee
Hunger Hits Home
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit "Harm"
Men of a Certain Age "Let the Sunshine In"
The Newsroom
Parenthood
Private Practice "Did You Hear What Happened to Charlotte King?"
Rescue Me "344"
Stand Up to Cancer
The Big C
Whale Wars
Women, War & Peace
Vanguard: "The OxyContin Express"
Eligible programs for this year's Television Academy Honors aired during the 2013 calendar year, and were submitted in the fiction/nonfiction categories as whole series, single episodes or story arcs up to three episodes. Made-for-television movies, miniseries and fiction/nonfiction specials were also eligible to apply for Television Academy Honors. For complete details, please visit TelevisionAcademy.com/Honors
