Family Friendly Programming Awards - Not Bad, Actually

Too often "family-friendly" is a TV code word for "lame crap for the kids." But nearly a decade ago a group of major advertisers put their money where their mouthes were and funded the Family Friendly Programming Forum, which provides seed money for the development of family friendly TV scripts. The show gets on the air, the fund gets reimbursed. Simple as that. And the results have been pretty good, including "Gilmore Girls," "Friday Night Lights" and "Everybody Hates Chris." Separately, the group promotes the annual Family Television Awards, which were handed out Wednesday night in Hollywood, with the ceremony to be televised Dec. 27 on CW.

Now, you're not going to find "The Wire" or "Weeds" here (and ironically you won't find any CW shows either). But the winners mostly demonstrate that the Forum has been true to its word, making inclusive, family-friendly shows that regularly defy the "lame crap for kids" stereotype by being at least halfway decent and often very good. (This year, not surprisingly, it's Fox that brings the average down.) This year's winners are:

Comedy - "Ugly Betty," ABC
Drama - "Heroes," NBC
Actor - Zac Efron ("High School Musical 2," ABC Family)
Actor - Kyle Chandler ("Friday Night Lights," NBC)
Actress - America Ferrera ("Ugly Betty," ABC, pictured)
Miniseries or Special - "Planet Earth" BBC/Discovery
Movie Musical - "High School Musical 2," ABC Family
New Series - "Pushing Daisies," ABC
Cable Series - "Kyle XY," ABC Family
Reality - "Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader?" Fox
Favorite Newcomer - Zachary Levi ("Chuck," NBC)

Comments

[aaron]

No Ice Road Truckers? No Meerkat Manor? WTF?