“If my parents were here they’d probably just cry,” said Lucy Arnaz. Her mother Lucielle Ball died in 1989 at 77; Desi Arnaz died in 1986 at 69.
“And then they’d thank the writers,” she added. They were not alive either, so she was accompanied, Zoom style, with the the descendants of original writers Bob Carroll Jr. and Madeline Pugh Martin Davis, as well as producer Jess Oppenheimer.
Indeed, Steve Martin, one of two career achievement award winners, was sure to point out, “I’m so glad this award is not posthumous.”
But he also added, ““I’m grateful you have acknowledged my TV work, which I’m always surprised to realize is at least half my career, or more, from early Steve Allen appearances, ‘The Della Reese Show,’ Mike Douglas, Merv Griffin. Dinah Shore, through ‘Saturday Night Live,’ and now, ‘Only Murders in the Building.’”
Like Martin, his fellow Career Achievement Award-winner, Ted Danson (it was a tie!), is still working, though his latest, “Mr. Mayor” was canceled in May after two season. Danson thanked critics for helping save “Cheers” when it was at the bottom of the ratings and quoted his character Sam Malone from that sitcom’s final episode: “I’m the luckiest son of a bitch in the world.”
The other tie at the TCA Awards was for reality show, shared by the perennial “The Amazing Race” sharing with HBO Max’ ballroom showcase “Legendary.”
“I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson,” from Netflix, was a first time winner in variety talk or sketch (“This is really nice of you,” Robinson said. “This is beyond nice of you”). And as newsworthy a year as it was, it was Peter Jackson’s crowd-pleasing “The Beatles: Get Back” documentary for Disney+ that won for outstanding achievement in news and information.
The Hulu series on the opioid crisis “Dopesick” won best miniseries. “The goal of the show was to help redefine the nature of addiction for the country,” executive producer Danny Strong said. “For too long the victims of Purdue Pharma’s crimes have been blamed for the actions of Purdue and our goal was to show, no, the real criminals here was, in fact Purdue, that was micromanaged by the Sackler family.”
A repeat winner for outstanding drama, nobody from “Succession” send in a message of thanks, possibly to reflect the show’s cutthroat characters.
Mandy Moore won for outstanding achievement in drama for her final season of “This is Us.” “What? This is just beyond wild!,” she said in her message. And Netflix’ “The Baby-Sitters Club” won for youth programming.