SEPTEMBER 19 • 2019 | 43
Arts&Life
Sarah Silverman
Borstein, plays a non-Jewish
character.
Michael Douglas and Alan
Arkin won 2019 Golden Globe
awards for their Kominsky
Method roles. The series began
in November 2018 and this is
its first year for Emmy consider-
ation. Both have good chances
to win the Emmy. However, I
think Tony Shalhoub, who lost
to Henry Winkler last year, will
probably best Winkler (and oth-
ers) this year in the supporting
actor category. Winkler was a
sentimental favorite in 2018. He
had been nominated six times
before he finally won an Emmy
last year.
DIRECTING, WRITING
The directing and writing
awards cite a specific episode,
which I have omitted.
Director, comedy series:
Amy Sherman-Palladino,
53; Mrs. Maisel; Director,
drama series: David Benioff
and D. B. Weiss, both 48,
Game of Thrones,
and Miguel
Sapochnik, 45,
Game of Thrones;
Director, limited
series, movie or
dramatic spe-
cial: Ben Stiller,
53, Escape at
Dannemora and
Stephen Frears,
78, A Very English
Scandal; Director,
variety series:
Sacha Baron
Cohen, 47,
Nathan Fiedler,
35, and Dan Mazer, 47, are
nominated as co-directors of
an episode of Who is America?;
Writing, comedy series:
Natasha Lyonne, co-writer of
an episode of Russian Doll; and
Allison Silverman, 47, writing
(alone) another Russian Doll epi-
sode; and David H.
Mandel, 49, Veep;
Writing, drama
series: David
Benioff and D.B.
Weiss, Game of
Thrones and Bruce
Miller, 54ish,
for co-writing an
episode of The Handmaid’
s
Tale. Writing, limited series
or movie: Craig Mazin,
48, Chernobyl; and Michael
Tolkin, 68, co-writer, Escape
at Dannemora; and Steven
Levenson, 35, co-writer of Fosse/
Verdon.
DIRECTING/WRITING NOTES
Amy Sherman-Palladino com-
petes with her husband, Daniel
Palladino, for best director, com-
edy. They co-created Mrs. Maisel
and they each directed a Maisel
episode that was nominated.
Natasha Lyonne’
s acting
and writing nominations are
wonderful “ratifications” of her
amazing comeback. She had a
pretty hot career in good films
like The Slums of Beverly Hills
(1998), but she gradually fell
into alcohol and heroin use and
seemed on a terminal slide in
2004-5 (arrests, etc.). But she
totally cleaned-up her act and
gradually re-built her career.
She was helped by a big part on
Orange is the New Black from
2013-2019.
Michael Tolkin’
s father, Mel
Tolkin (1913-2007), was a
great, Emmy-winning comedy
writer who wrote for everybody
big in his era (Sid Caesar,
Danny Kaye, Jerry Lewis, Bob
Hope).
BEST SERIES/
MOVIE CATEGORIES
The “best” awards are normally
given to the producers of the
nominated program. My prac-
tice is to list the nominated
shows and TV movie(s) that
have a Jewish creator or co-cre-
ator. Usually the creator(s) are a
producer of their show, too.
Comedy series: Curb
Your Enthusiasm, created by
Larry David, 72; and Glow,
co-created by Liz Flahive
and Carly Mensch, 36ish;
and Silicon Valley, co-cre-
ated by Mike Judge, John
Altschuler, 56, and Dave
Krinsky, 56; Drama series:
Game of Thrones, created by
David Benioff and D.B. Weiss
(above); and The Americans,
created by Joe Weisberg, 50ish;
and The Crown, created by
Peter Morgan, 56; and The
Handmaid’
s Tale, created by
Bruce Miller (above); and This
is Us, created by
Dan Fogelman,
43; Variety sketch
series: Drunk
History, co-cre-
ated by Derek
Waters and Jeremy
Konner, 39ish; and
I Love You America,
created by Sarah Silverman, 48;
Limited series: Chernobyl, creat-
ed by Craig Mazin (above); and
Fosse/Verdon, created by Steven
Levenson (above) and Thomas
Kail; and Escape at Dannemora,
co-created by Michael Tolkin
(above) and Brett Johnson; TV
movie: Deadwood: The Movie,
written by David Milch, 74,
creator of the Deadwood series.
“BEST” NOTES
Craig Mazin, nominated for
writing and creating Chernobyl,
was Sen. Ted Cruz’
s roommate
when they both were freshmen
at Princeton.
Glow, co-created by Carly
Mensch, has some Jewish con-
tent and I figured that some-
body named Mensch connected
with this show had to be Jewish.
But so far as I can tell, nobody
has asked Mensch, a respected
playwright, about her back-
ground. Well, I checked family
history sources and found out
that both her parents are Jewish
and her paternal grandfather, an
orphan who became a big guy in
the suburban lumber business,
was born Israel Mensch(!) Is
there a more Jewish name than
that? (He went by the name
Edward I. Mensch as an adult).
INTERNATIONAL NOTE
Miguel Sapochnik, Stephen
Frears, Sacha Baron Cohen and
Dan Mazer are Brits. Eugene
Levy, Sarah Goldberg and
Nathan Fiedler are Canadians.
IMDB
Dan Fogelman
Ben Stiller
FACEBOOK
Miguel
Sapochnik
FACEBOOK
David H.
Mandel
IMDB
IMDB
Sacha Baron Cohen
FACEBOOK
FACEBOOK/HULU