TV awards involving the actors may be the more glamorous of affairs, and those beautiful faces are the ones we associate best with some of our favorite TV characters and shows. But good scripted television does not exist without good writers. The nominees for the 2013 Writers Guild Awards are in and it looks like Writers Guild of America East and West are favoring cable shows - at least, when it comes to dramas - which is a familiar trend for TV award shows these days, and given the level of quality in the series coming from basic and premium cable these days, that's unsurprising.
In the Drama Series category, it's all cable, with writers from Boardwalk Empire, Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, Homeland and Mad Men all nominated and the five awards split between HBO (2), Showtime (1) and AMC (2). Among the names credited for the mentioned shows are Vince Gilligan, David Benioff, Howard Gordon, Chip Johannessen and Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin. While it's anyone's game for Drama Series, if the Episodic Dramas category nominees are any indication, the Breaking Bad writers have a good chance of winning, considering they have four of the six nominations for episodic drama.
On the comedy front, the writers of HBO's Girls not only made it onto the list of New Series nominees, but they also managed to land a spot on Comedy Series, going up against the writers of Modern Family, who have all of the other comedies beat in terms of the number of nominations the ABC comedy received for Episodic Comedy (3 of 6). Still, Girls' Judd Apatow and Lena Dunham (and the list of other writers for the series) finding their way onto both Comedy and New Series suggests its writers are serious contenders. Nashville, The Newsroom, Veep and The Mindy Project also made it onto the New Series nominees list.
The Simpsons writers earned numerous nominations in the Animation category, including David Mandel and Brian Kelley, who wrote this year's "Treehouse of Horror" special.
DRAMA SERIES Boardwalk Empire, Written by Dave Flebotte, Diane Frolov, Chris Haddock, Rolin Jones, Howard Korder, Steve Kornacki, Andrew Schneider, David Stenn, Terence Winter; HBO
Breaking Bad, Written by Sam Catlin, Vince Gilligan, Peter Gould, Gennifer Hutchison, George Mastras, Thomas Schnauz, Moira Walley-Beckett; AMC
Game of Thrones, Written by David Benioff, Bryan Cogman, George R. R. Martin, Vanessa Taylor, D.B. Weiss; HBO
Homeland, Written by Henry Bromell, Alexander Cary, Alex Gansa, Howard Gordon, Chip Johannessen, Meredith Stiehm; Showtime
Mad Men, Written by Lisa Albert, Semi Chellas, Jason Grote, Jonathan Igla, Andre Jacquemetton, Maria Jacquemetton, Brett Johnson, Janet Leahy, Victor Levin, Erin Levy, Frank Pierson, Michael Saltzman, Tom Smuts, Matthew Weiner; AMC
COMEDY SERIES 30 Rock, Written by Jack Burditt, Kay Cannon, Robert Carlock, Tom Ceraulo, Vali Chandrasekaran, Luke Del Tredici, Tina Fey, Lauren Gurganous, Matt Hubbard, Colleen McGuinness, Sam Means, Dylan Morgan, Nina Pedrad, John Riggi, Josh Siegel, Ron Weiner, Tracey Wigfield; NBC
Girls, Written by Judd Apatow, Lesley Arfin, Lena Dunham, Sarah Heyward, Bruce Eric Kaplan, Jenni Konner, Deborah Schoeneman, Dan Sterling; HBO
Louie, Written by Pamela Adlon, Vernon Chatman, Louis C.K.; FX
Modern Family, Written by Cindy Chupack, Paul Corrigan, Abraham Higginbotham, Ben Karlin, Elaine Ko, Steven Levitan, Christopher Lloyd, Dan O’Shannon, Jeffrey Richman, Audra Sielaff, Brad Walsh, Bill Wrubel, Danny Zuker; ABC
Parks and Recreation, Written by Megan Amram, Greg Daniels, Nate Dimeo, Katie Dippold, Daniel J. Goor, Norm Hiscock, Dave King, Greg Levine, Joe Mande, Aisha Muharrar, Nick Offerman, Chelsea Peretti, Amy Poehler, Alexandra Rushfield, Mike Scully, Michael Schur, Harris Wittels, Alan Yang; NBC
NEW SERIES Girls, Written by Judd Apatow, Lesley Arfin, Lena Dunham, Sarah Heyward, Bruce Eric Kaplan, Jenni Konner, Deborah Schoeneman, Dan Sterling; HBO
The Mindy Project, Written by Ike Barinholtz, Jeremy Bronson, Linwood Boomer, Adam Countee, Harper Dill, Mindy Kaling, Chris McKenna, B.J. Novak, David Stassen, Matt Warburton; Fox
Nashville, Written by Wendy Calhoun, Jason George, David Gould, David Marshall Grant, Dee Johnson, Todd Ellis Kessler, Callie Khouri, Meredith Lavender, Nancy Miller, James Parriott, Liz Tigelaar, Marcie Ulin; ABC
The Newsroom, Written by Brendan Fehily, David Handelman, Cinque Henderson, Paul Redford, Ian Reichbach, Amy Rice, Aaron Sorkin, Gideon Yago; HBO
Veep, Written by Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Roger Drew, Sean Gray, Armando Iannucci, Ian Martin, Tony Roche, Will Smith; HBO
EPISODIC DRAMA
“Buyout” (Breaking Bad), Written by Gennifer Hutchison; AMC
“Dead Freight” (Breaking Bad), Written by George Mastras; AMC
“Fifty-One” (Breaking Bad), Written by Sam Catlin; AMC
“New Car Smell” (Homeland), Written by Meredith Stiehm; Showtime
“The Other Woman” (Mad Men), Written by Semi Chellas and Matthew Weiner; AMC
“Say My Name” (Breaking Bad), Written by Thomas Schnauz; AMC
EPISODIC COMEDY
“The Debate” (Parks and Recreation), Written by Amy Poehler; NBC
“Episode 9” (Episodes), Written by David Crane & Jeffrey Klarik; Showtime
“Leap Day” (30 Rock), Written by Luke Del Tredici; NBC
“Little Bo Bleep” (Modern Family), Written by Cindy Chupack; ABC
“Mistery Date” (Modern Family), Written by Jeffrey Richman; ABC
“Virgin Territory” (Modern Family), Written by Elaine Ko; ABC
LONG FORM – ORIGINAL Hatfields and McCoys, Nights Two and Three, Teleplay by Ted Mann and Ronald Parker, Story by Bill Kerby and Ted Mann; History Channel
Hemingway & Gelhorn, Written by Jerry Stahl and Barbara Turner; HBO
“Pilot” (Political Animals), Written by Greg Berlanti; USA
LONG FORM – ADAPTED Coma, Nights 1 and 2, Teleplay by John McLaughlin, Based on the book by Robin Cook; A&E
Game Change, Written by Danny Strong, Based on the book by Mark Halperin and John Heilemann; HBO
ANIMATION
“A Farewell to Arms” (Futurama), Written by Josh Weinstein; Comedy Central
“Forget-Me-Not” (Family Guy), Written by David A. Goodman; Fox
“Holidays of Future Passed” (The Simpsons), Written by J. Stewart Burns; Fox
“Ned and Edna’s Blend Agenda” (The Simpsons), Written by Jeff Westbrook; Fox
“Treehouse of Horror XXIII” (The Simpsons), Written by David Mandel & Brian Kelley; Fox
View the full list of nominees for the 2013 Writers Guild Awards here
