By Jeff Pfeiffer
Follow @ChannelGuideJP
The Television Critics Association (TCA) honored top programs and actors from the 2010-11 TV season at its annual awards ceremony Saturday night in Beverly Hills, its 27th such event, held during its summer press tour.
Program of the Year was given to Friday Night Lights (DirecTV/NBC), honoring the show’s final season and its overall five-year run of excellence. There was a standing ovation from the crowd as the show’s cast gathered on stage, with executive producer Jason Katims accepting the award. Katims related stories of fans who have told him they did not want to watch the final episode; they wanted to keep that feeling that they still had one more to watch. Katims then related that he himself found it hard to give up the final episode in the editing room, even as moving people were taking equipment and chairs out. At last, he had to lock the final cut and say goodbye to the series, like the rest of us.
More well-deserved standing Os were given out during the announcement of the recipient of the Heritage Award, which honors shows that are culturally and/or socially important. This year’s winner was The Dick Van Dyke Show, and legendary comedy writer/producer/actor Carl Reiner, who created that classic sitcom, accepted the award with his usual wit. Series costar Rose Marie was also in attendance, and she and Reiner had a little back-and-forth banter and recollections, between him on stage and she in the audience.
An O of another sort was (in a way) present as Oprah Winfrey was given the Career Achievement Award for her 25 years of work on her groundbreaking talk show. Oprah couldn’t be at the awards in person, but we watched a videotaped message from her in which she recalled how many of the critics back in January snarkily commented on her now-famous 18-minute answer to a question during a panel for her new network OWN. In this message, she joked that she wanted to outdo that answer. In actuality, she was concise, gracious and thoughtful in her acceptance.
For the first time, the TCA gave out an award for Outstanding Achievement in Reality Programming. The Amazing Race won this category, with co-creator and co-executive producer Bertram van Munster accepting the award. Van Munster told the crowd about how the long-running series premiered 10 years ago, shortly before the events of 9/11. After that day, he thought for sure the program would be canceled since no one would want to travel anymore.
Nick Offerman of NBC’s Parks and Recreation (pictured below) hosted the festivities, introducing the evening with a hilarious song parody (sung to the tune of Johnny Cash’s “I Walk the Line”) about some of the Internet message board comments about him that he just cannot (but probably should) resist reading (“With a fragile ego like mine … I should stay offline …”)
Offerman ended up on stage once again, as a winner, when he tied with Modern Family‘s Ty Burrell in the Individual Achievement in Comedy category. Burrell stated that until recently he had always been used to losing things, and joked that he comes from a long line of “losers.” He recounted how his high-school basketball team had set a record for consecutive losses, breaking the previous record set by a team from the ’60s — a team that had been captained by his uncle.
Complete list of 2011 TCA Awards winners:
Individual Achievement in Drama: Jon Hamm, Mad Men (AMC)
Individual Achievement in Comedy: Ty Burrell, Modern Family (ABC) and Nick Offerman, Parks and Recreation (NBC)
Outstanding Achievement in News and Information: Restrepo (National Geographic Channel)
Outstanding Achievement in Reality Programming: The Amazing Race (CBS)
Outstanding Achievement in Youth Programming: Sesame Street (PBS)
Outstanding New Program: Game of Thrones (HBO)
Outstanding Achievement in Movies, Miniseries and Specials: Masterpiece: Sherlock (PBS)
Outstanding Achievement in Drama: Mad Men (AMC)
Outstanding Achievement in Comedy: Modern Family (ABC)
Career Achievement Award: Oprah Winfrey
Heritage Award: The Dick Van Dyke Show
Program of the Year: Friday Night Lights (DirecTV/NBC)
__________________________
Friday Night Lights: Credit Justin Stephens/NBC
Nick Offerman: Credit Frederick M. Brown/Getty