A record 39 recipients of the 70th Annual Peabody Awards were announced today by the University of Georgia Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication. The winners were chosen by the Peabody board as the best in electronic media for the year 2010.
The oldest awards in broadcasting, the Peabodys are considered among the most prestigious and selective prizes in electronic media. For more information and a complete list of winners, visit www.peabody.uga.edu.
Here are some of this year’s television winners that would have been seen by a national audience, along with comments on each from the Peabody winners press release. How many have you seen?
Justified (FX) — “Part morality play, part character study, this engrossing modern-day Western drama sets its showdowns in the wild, wild east of Appalachian Kentucky.”
Great Performances: Macbeth (PBS) — “Director Rupert Goold takes Shakespeare’s bloody tragedy on location to the countryside and the trenches to riveting effect.”
Coverage of the Gulf Oil Spill (CNN) — “The science, the economics, the politics, the toll on human livelihoods and animal lives — CNN’s coverage of the Deepwater Horizon disaster defined comprehensive.”
The Pacific (HBO) — “The Pacific theater of World War II proves to be gripping theater indeed in this richly detailed miniseries.”
Sherlock: A Study in Pink (PBS) — “The venerable Victorian sleuth is audaciously updated for today’s high-tech times, and the game is afoot all the quicker.”
American Masters: LennonNYC (PBS) — “A portrait of John Lennon’s life and work, after he chose to make New York his home, it’s beautifully composed and lovingly rendered but not blind to his imperfections.”
Burma VJ (HBO) — “The documentary chronicles the heroic ingenuity of underground video journalists (VJs) who captured the 2007 Burmese human-rights protests — and the brutal government retaliation — on handy cams and smuggled the video out to the web and the world.”
Men of a Certain Age (TNT) — “A series about three longtime pals, three ‘regular’ guys, navigating middle age, it’s comical, poignant and harrowing, sometimes all at once.”
Independent Lens: Reel Injun: On the Trail of the Hollywood Indian (PBS) — “A Cree filmmaker takes an affectionate but nonetheless pointed look at how movies have portrayed and misrepresented Native Americans over many decades.”
Magic & Bird: A Courtship of Rivals (HBO) — “Not your average sports biography by a long jump shot, it examines the different cultures from whence these NBA legends sprang, their unusually long rivalry and their unlikely friendship.”
Wonders of the Solar System With Brian Cox (Science Channel) — “In this amazing, simulated travelogue, the boyish physicist flies us to the moon and lets us play among the stars. And gawk.”
Degrassi: My Body Is a Cage (TeenNick) — “True to its history, the durable high-school serial’s two-parter about a transgender teen neither trivializes nor overdramatizes its subject.”
C-SPAN Video Library (cspan.org/videolibrary) — “Every program C-SPAN has shown since 1987, from State of the Union addresses to budget hearings, is now available and searchable online — for free.”
American Experience: My Lai (PBS) — “The worst atrocity in American military history is given new meaning and significance in the documentary enriched by fresh interviews and never-before-heard audio made by the original Pentagon investigators.”
For Neda (HBO) — “A powerful portrait of Neda Agha-Soltan, martyr, and the largest Iranian struggle for freedom, this documentary was filmed on the sly and at great risk in Tehran.”
12th and Delaware (HBO) — “A street corner in Ft. Pierce, Florida, where an abortion clinic and a pro-life center face each other, embodies the ongoing clash over reproductive rights in this thoughtful, fair documentary.”
American Masters: Elia Kazan: A Letter to Elia (PBS) — “Director Martin Scorsese reflects on the nature of art’s influence on artists and how the brilliant but controversial Kazan continues to inspire him.”
If God Is Willing and da Creek Don’t Rise (HBO) — “Spike Lee’s team checks up on New Orleans five years after Katrina hit and the levees broke and documents the city’s successes and failures in a video patchwork by turns beautiful, depressing and optimistic.”
William Kentridge: Anything Is Possible (PBS) — “The multi-faceted Kentridge is creatively personified, a one-man seminar, and he gave filmmakers from ART21 a veritable all-access pass to his mind and work process.”
30 For 30 (ESPN) — “Commissioned for the sports channel’s 30th anniversary, these 30 diverse documentaries about sports in America, well, they shoot, they score.”
POV: The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers (PBS) — “A fascinating true-life political thriller, Ellsberg’s remembrance of his historic actions is made even more compelling by the inventive presentation.”
Temple Grandin (HBO) — “Claire Danes is remarkable as the autistic animal expert and author, and the biography is further enriched by visual creativity that lets viewers occasionally glimpse the world as Grandin experiences it.”
FRONTLINE: The Wounded Patrol (PBS) — “The documentary is a dark, troubling tale of a military health system overwhelmed by psychiatric casualties and of one platoon’s post-traumatic nightmare.”
The Good Wife (CBS) — “In this densely layered dramatic series, the dutiful wife of a disgraced politician resumes her legal career and finds satisfaction, self-worth and moral quandaries of her own.”
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Justified: Credit Prashant Gupta
The Good Wife: © 2010 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Credit: Justin Stephens
