N.B.C. scores hat-trick

Press, 27 September 1983, Page 10

N.B.C. scores hat-trick

NZPA Los Angeles N.B.C. crushed its rivals at the Emmy awards for the third straight year yesterday, winning for its critically praised but struggling new series “Cheers” and “St Elsewhere,” its off-beat police show “Hill Street Blues,” and the cancelled “Taxi.” N.B.C. racked up a total of 33 Emmys — more than the other two networks combined — as the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences made its thirtyfifth annual presentation of awards for excellence in prime-time programming.

A.B.C. had 14 Emmys and C.B.S. had 11. In each of the last two years, N.B.C. has dominated the awards with 20. “Cheers,” about the hijinks in a Boston bar, was named best comedy show. Shelley Long won top acting honours as an intellectual barmaid, and the show also won a writing award for brothers Glen and Les CHSrles and a directing award for James Burrows. “Hill Street Blues,” which has become a ratings winner after a slow start, was the year’s best drama-

tic show and also took prizes for writing, directing and film-sound mixing. Ed Flanders won the Emmy as best dramatic series actor for “St Elsewhere,” a realistic show about a rundown Boston hospital. Doris Roberts and James Coco, who co-starred as a bag lady and her derelict boyfriend on a “St Elsewhere” show, were named for outstanding support. It was an emotional victory for Miss Roberts, who dedicated her Emmy to husband, William Guyen, who died last August.