Many TV fanatics also consider themselves statisticians, and we're no exceptions. Following yesterday's Emmys, we've decided to look back at Emmy history, stack up the ceremony's greatest winners, and vote for the greatest Emmy recipients in all major categories. Is Lucille Ball better than Jean Stapleton? Does Seinfeld top Cheers? Join us for an epic battle.
Best Lead Actor -- Comedy
· Dick Van Dyke, The Dick Van Dyke Show
· Carroll O'Connor, All in the Family
· Alan Alda, M*A*S*H*
· Michael J. Fox, Family Ties
· Kelsey Grammer, Frasier
· Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock
Winner: Carroll O'Connor. Alan Alda and Alec Baldwin come close, but Archie Bunker is the finest character (and performance) in primetime history.
Best Lead Actress -- Comedy
· Lucille Ball, I Love Lucy
· Mary Tyler Moore, The Mary Tyler Moore Show
· Jean Stapleton, All in the Family
· Betty White, The Golden Girls
· Candice Bergen, Murphy Brown
· Tina Fey, 30 Rock
Winner: This is the toughest acting category to judge, but I'd pick Jean Stapleton. Lucy may be a groundbreaking comedienne and the funniest dame of all time, but Edith Bunker is sublime in both her battiness and sly steeliness.
Best Supporting Actor -- Comedy
· Don Knotts, The Andy Griffith Show
· Ed Asner, The Mary Tyler Moore Show
· Danny DeVito, Taxi
· John Larroquette, Night Court
· Michael Richards, Seinfeld
· David Hyde Pierce, Frasier
Winner: Finally, a category with a definitive champion: Ed Asner's Lou Grant. He's the only comic character I know whose snapdragon edges work just as well in a dramatic format.
Best Supporting Actress -- Comedy
· Vivian Vance, I Love Lucy
· Valerie Harper, The Mary Tyler Moore Show
· Rhea Perlman, Cheers
· Laurie Metcalf, Roseanne
· Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Seinfeld
· Cynthia Nixon, Sex and the City
Winner: Great though they may be, Vivian Vance and Cynthia Nixon would rank at the bottom of this list (after just edging out the inclusion of Megan Mullally). Julia Louis-Dreyfus gets a solid fourth and Rhea Perlman ranks third, so between Valerie Harper and Laurie Metcalf, I think I'll choose Metcalf's gawking Aunt Jackie.
Best Comedy
· I Love Lucy
· The Mary Tyler Moore Show
· All in the Family
· Cheers
· Seinfeld
· Arrested Development
· 30 Rock
Winner: Get a load of that. I took advantage of 2009's seven-nominee count in this category to stuff in as many deserving classics as I could (and still, I opted to leave out Get Smart, Taxi, The Wonder Years, Frasier, The Office, and Dick motherf*cking Van Dyke!). Well? I'm sure many feel Seinfeld is entitled to the throne, but when it comes to timeless timing, I'm voting for I Love Lucy. Anything resembling "funny" in 2010 owes a debt to Desilu.
Best Lead Actor -- Drama
· Peter Falk, Columbo
· James Garner, The Rockford Files
· Dennis Franz, NYPD Blue
· Andre Braugher, Homicide: Life on the Street
· James Gandolfini, The Sopranos
· Bryan Cranston, Breaking Bad
Winner: James Gandolfini. Not only is Tony Soprano TV's greatest dramatic character, but we named Gandolfini himself one of the defining five TV personalities of the past decade.
Best Lead Actress -- Drama
· Michael Learned, The Waltons
· Barbara Bel Geddes, Dallas
· Tyne Daly, Cagney and Lacey
· Allison Janney, The West Wing
· Edie Falco, The Sopranos
· Glenn Close, Damages
Winner: First of all, the list of winners in this category reveals it took a long time before great dramatic roles for women on television came along (no offense to four-time nominee Peggy Lipton.) Accordingly, I think this race is between the most recent two entries, Edie Falco and Glenn Close, and the winner would be Falco for The Sopranos. The show that set the bar for serialized drama as we know it also gave us TV's most compelling leading lady.
Best Supporting Actor -- Drama
· James Brolin, Marcus Welby, M.D.
· Michael Conrad, Hill Street Blues
· Larry Drake, L.A. Law
· Fyvush Finkel, Picket Fences
· Bradley Whitford, The West Wing
· Michael Emerson, Lost
Winner: Yet another strange list of honorees. Hill Street Blues is the defining dramatic show of the '80s, but I'd still give the all-time win to Bradley Whitford. Like Ed Asner, Whitford's got the kind of versatile sternness that makes serious moments sing but can also sell brilliant moments of levity, and it should've made The Good Guys a hit.
Best Supporting Actress -- Drama
· Lee Grant, Peyton Place
· Nancy Marchand, Lou Grant
· Julianna Margulies, E.R.
· Camryn Manheim, The Practice
· Drea de Matteo, The Sopranos
· Dianne Wiest, In Treatment
Winner: Lee Grant is a living legend (and her performance in Shampoo is staggering), but I'm going to choose Julianna Margulies here. Carol Hathaway was a revelatory character in the early '90s: a mentally ill, palpably human, sharp professional. Margulies was the only E.R. cast member to get the Emmy, and I'd bet that's because her role was such a benchmark in '90s drama.
Best Drama
· Hill Street Blues
· Picket Fences
· E.R.
· The Sopranos
· Lost
· Mad Men
Winner: Fabulous lineup, but the refrain remains the same. The Sopranos redefined drama and ushered us into TV's true golden age. It wins again.