If you had a question about which category to compete in, he was your man.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What was your first job with the TV Academy?
I was hired and began work in January 1980.
Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images; Inset: Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP/Shutterstock
How did you become the man who seemed to know everything about rules and procedures?
In 2021, the rules book runs to 162 pages.
I didn’t write all of it, but I wrote a lot of it.
You’ve seen a lot of change during your tenure.
What were some of those positive changes that you remember the most?
A million little things, but the armature on which the awards process is built is evolving informational technology.
With streaming, the entire membership is engaged in both the nominating and final judging phases of the competition.
That dear little Wang mainframe, no bigger than a motel refrigerator, was a gamechanger.
Every year, we in the press like to write about snubs people who were not nominated.
Did you ever take those stories personally?
Zero-sum games of relative worth are right up there with proving a negative.
Can you recall when Emmy campaigning started to become a phenomenon?
Do you have a favorite Emmy telecast of all time?
My first, the 1980 telecast, was crippled by the SAG strike.
All of a sudden, there he was at the podium accepting the Emmy.
It was a glorious Hollywood finish!
What was the worst Emmy year of all time?
As someone later noted, nobody tells Truck Krone to dim his lights.
Can you wow us with some of your Emmy knowledge?
What’s a piece of Emmy trivia that has always been fascinating to you?
What do you see happening with the Emmys going forward?
Can you see more categories, like Best Streaming show, to accommodate all that content out there?
