Why ‘Outstanding Animated Program’ Deserves Primetime Emmy Spot

Why the heck isn’t the Animation Emmy on the main broadcast? Seriously, last year’s Primal winning Best Animated Program was one of the highlights of the Emmy season for me and I would have loved to see it on the big stage. Animation has been a huge part of what has made television a great medium, even before we hit the golden age of TV shows like with The Simpsons, South Park, and Futurama, which had already started being called some of the greatest comedies of all time. While they have stayed on longer than they should have, their place in TV history has never lost its shine.

Then, within the last several years, shows like Bojack Horseman, Archer, and Arcane have been changing the idea about what can be done with animation as a medium and getting as much, if not more, praise than live action shows. They make critics’ top ten lists and are talked about not as a subgroup of television but as simply great TV. Even within the Emmy show itself, Family Guy in 2009 got a Outstanding Comedy Series nomination and was able to be in the evening broadcast, but it wouldn’t if it had been nominated in its own category.

Even looking at some of the early winners like the Garfield and Peanuts specials puts a smile on my face. While I grew up on these specials, it is more than just nostalgia. I genuinely think these were great TV shows doing interesting things with the genre, telling funny and heartfelt stories. Why, Charlie Brown, Why? deals with cancer treatment in a little girl that I think I saw only once, but seeing it on the Emmy nomination list I remembered almost every detail, her being bullied for losing her hair and then the triumphant moment on the swings when she takes her cap off and her hair has grown back. Or Garfield’s Halloween Adventure, which is so clever in changing up its genre of a fat cat wanting candy to ghost pirates chasing after them and it being a genuinely scary moment. The music still gives me chills and the worry about Garfield not being able to swim and being saved by Odie. Then, as a reward, Garfield giving Odie his share of the candy is heartfelt and funny as Garfield describes it as “a personal sacrifice on my part.” These are still clever and iconic moments and to be able to see Jim Davis or Charles Schulz accept an Emmy on a live broadcast would have been just as exciting as seeing any great TV drama or comedy win.

What makes this seem more egregious for me is what we do have on the main show. We see Saturday Night Live, a show losing its relevance year after year, yet constantly winning Outstanding Variety Sketch Series while literally losing any semblance of competition. (It had one other nominee in this category last year—A Black Lady Sketch Show). Variety Talk Show still brings us great moments but I am getting tired of just seeing John Oliver win all the time. (I am more of a Seth Meyers fan.)

Plus, who was asking for Outstanding Variety Special (Live) and Outstanding Variety Special (Pre-Recorded)? And my own bias, but I couldn’t care less about Outstanding Competition Program. I am not saying these awards do not have merits to them, but in terms of looking at some of the greatest creative moments in television, I think people are streaming old Simpsons over rewatching most of these.

I will admit there are times that the Emmys haven’t gotten this category right and it has fallen into the same trap of just box checking old shows the Emmys are infamous for. Shows like The Simpsons and Bob’s Burgers are still getting nominated (even winning) long past the time most people have been paying attention to them. But we also have the moments like when Rick and Morty won for the first time and, as mentioned previously, last year’s Primal win. A show pitted against a bunch of previous winners and nominees won with no dialogue beyond a caveman’s growl and a T-rex roaring, beating juggernauts of the animation field and deserving it. If that isn’t worth catching live on Emmy night, I do not know what is.