 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

