The 39th Primetime Emmy Awards were held on Sunday, September 20, 1987. The ceremony was broadcast on Fox for the first time, as the network premiered a year earlier from the Pasadena Civic Auditorium in

Pasadena, California Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district. ...

. For the second straight year, ''

The Golden Girls ''The Golden Girls'' is an American sitcom created by Susan Harris that aired on NBC from September 14, 1985, to May 9, 1992, with a total of 180 half-hour episodes, spanning seven seasons. With an ensemble cast starring Bea Arthur, Betty Wh ...

'' won the

Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series The Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series is an annual award given to the best television comedy series of the year. From 1960 to 1964, this category was combined with the Comedy Specials (one time programs) category so that both type ...

. The winner for the

Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series This is a list of winners and nominees of the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series since its institution in 1951. The award goes to the producers of the series. The award is often cited as one of the "main awards" at the Emmys cere ...

was '' L.A. Law'', which, for its first season, won four major awards, and led all shows, with 13 major nominations. The winner for Outstanding Drama/Comedy Special, ''

Promise A promise is a commitment by someone to do or not do something. As a noun ''promise'' means a declaration assuring that one will or will not do something. As a verb it means to commit oneself by a promise to do or give. It can also mean a capacity ...

'', set a new record, with five major wins. This record still stands for TV movies, though it was tied by ''

Temple Grandin Mary Temple Grandin (born August 29, 1947) is an American academic and animal behaviorist. She is a prominent proponent for the humane treatment of livestock for slaughter and the author of more than 60 scientific papers on animal behavior. Gra ...

'' in

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. '' The Tracey Ullman Show'' received three major nominations on the night, making it the first ceremony in which the network Fox received a major nomination. This was the only time that ''

Hill Street Blues ''Hill Street Blues'' is an American serial police procedural television series that aired on NBC in prime-time from January 15, 1981, to May 12, 1987, for 146 episodes. The show chronicles the lives of the staff of a single police station loca ...

'' wasn't nominated for Outstanding Drama Series, in its seventh and last season; also, no males actors of ''Hill Street Blues'' were nominated (even with 20 previous nominations). Only

Betty Thomas Betty Thomas (born Betty Lucille Nienhauser; July 21, 1948) is an American actress, director, and producer. She is known for her Emmy Award-winning role as Sergeant Lucy Bates on the television series '' Hill Street Blues''. As of March 2018, T ...

for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series was nominated, and did not win, making her the only one in the cast to be nominated in all seasons.

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

continued its dominance of the field, becoming the first network to gain over eighty major nominations (82). Its résumé was highlighted by gaining all five nominations for Outstanding Comedy Series. This had been done only once before (in

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, but with a field of only four shows), and has not been matched in either field since.

Winners and nominees

Emmys.com list of 1987 Nominees & Winners
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Programs

Acting

Lead performances

Supporting performances

Guest performances

Directing

Writing

Most major nominations

;By network "Major" constitutes the categories listed above: Program, Acting, Directing, and Writing. It does not include the technical categories. * NBC – 82 * CBS – 36 * ABC – 15 ;By program * ''L.A. Law'' (NBC) – 13 * ''The Golden Girls'' (NBC) / ''St. Elsewhere'' (NBC) – 10 * ''Cheers'' (NBC) – 8 * ''Moonlighting'' (ABC) – 7 * ''Cagney & Lacey'' (CBS) / ''Nutcracker: Money, Madness and Murder'' (NBC) / ''Promise'' (CBS) – 6

Most major awards

;By network "Major" constitutes the categories listed above: Program, Acting, Directing, and Writing. It does not include the technical categories. * NBC – 15 * CBS – 9 * ABC – 3 ;By program * ''Promise'' (CBS) – 5 * ''L.A. Law'' (NBC) – 4 * ''The Golden Girls'' (NBC) – 3 ;Notes

References

External links

Emmys.com list of 1987 Nominees & Winners
* {{EmmyAwardsbyYear 039 1987 television awards 1987 in California September 1987 events in the United States