Emmys

The 50th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards were celebrated Sunday Night from the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. CBS 'This Morning' Entertainment Correspondent Eleanor Mondale spoke with some of the winners backstage.

For the second straight year NBC took home the most Emmy awards despite a strong showing by ABC, which claimed the most victories in major categories.

Led by its sitcoms, NBC led the evening with 18 awards overall including a host of honors in secondary categories handed in earlier ceremonies by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

NBC won six awards, cable network HBO also took six awards on Sunday night for a total of 14, and CBS won in four categories Sunday for a total of eight.

NBC's situation comedy Frasier took home the best comedy series Emmy for the fifth consecutive year, a record for any comedy or drama.

"That feels pretty cool," a smiling Kelsey Grammer who stars in the title role, told reporters after the show.

Grammer won the Emmy for best actor in a comedy and David Hyde Pierce, who plays Grammer's uptight psychiatrist brother, took the award for best supporting actor in a comedy.

NBC's Mad About You star Helen Hunt was awarded best actress in a comedy, her third consecutive award in that category, and Friends co-star Lisa Kudrow won the Emmy for best supporting actress in a comedy.

The ABC network's awards were led by drama series "The Practice" about a big city law firm, which has struggled to find an audience despite its critical success.

Along with best drama series, The Practice led to an Emmy for Camryn Manheim, who plays one of the show's defense lawyers, in the best supporting actress drama series category.

"This is amazing! I have always felt like such a misfitÂ…This is for all the fat girls!" said Manheim. Backstage she told CBS, "You know what I've always wanted to say, this is for all the men I've loved before who never loved me back!"

ABC also won several awards for its presentation of the 70th Annual Academy Awards show, including one for host Billy Crystal. The network saw Ellen Barkin win the Emmy for best actress in a miniseries for Before Women Had Wings.

CBS's Late Show with David Letterman won the Emmy for outstanding variety, music or comedy series over NBC rival The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

Christine Lahti won for outstanding actress in a drama series for the CBS drama Chicago Hope. "I wanted to play an unlikeable character. I think I accomplished it" Lahti joked backstage.

On Sunday, CBS was also honored with a directing award for Brooklyn South, and for the production of The 1997 Tony Awards.

In cable TV, HBO again claimed the crown of most honored network. Notable among its programs were Don King: Only in America which won the Emmy for best made-for-TV movie as well as several other honors.

HBO's From the Earth o the Moon, the miniseries produced by Oscar winning actor Tom Hanks, took home the top honor for best miniseries.

"The fact that we could get an emotional response from the audience from the point of view of these men that just built a glorified toaster oven, with legs that went to the moon, that meant so much to all of us" Hanks said.

TNT's George Wallace claimed victories for lead actor Gary Sinise, supporting actress Mare Winningham, and director John Frankenheimer. In a strange coincidence, George Wallace died on Sunday.

Showtime was honored for its version of the classic 12 Angry Men in which George C. Scott won the award for best supporting actor in a miniseries or movie.

David Hyde Pierce, his voice breaking, saluted his parents. He also acknowledged fellow nominees and paid special tribute to NewsRadio's Phil Hartman, who was shot to death this year.

"You all know how great he is. I guess there's nothing else to say," Pierce said.

Hartman's mother, Doris, was in the audience.

Comedian Garry Shandling won his first Emmy, as a writer for The Larry Sanders Show. Director Todd Holland also won an Emmy for his work on the critically praised show, which ended its run on HBO in May.

Emmys in 27 categories were to be presented by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in an expanded, four-hour anniversary show at the downtown Shrine Auditorium.

The ceremony acknowledged TV's history with salutes to figures both major and minor.

Among those taking bows were the host of Mike Stokey's Pantomime Quiz, which received the first Emmy 50 years ago, and comedy titans Bob Hope, Milton Berle and Sid Caesar. A frail Hope was seated as the trio received a long standing ovation.

NBC's ER and Fox's The X-Files were among the leading series nominees with 16 bids each. NBC's Frasier was the top comedy nominee with 11 nods, while Fox's Ally McBeal had 10 nominations.

The creator-producer of Ally McBeal, David E. Kelley, took the unusual step of entering the hour-long show about a young attorney in a category that traditionally honors half-hour comedies.

Merlin, the special effects-laden NBC miniseries about the legendary magician who helped King Arthur rule, had 15 bids. It topped the list of programs honored at the earlier ceremony, winning four creative arts trophies.

NBC was the most-nominated network with 86, followed by HBO with 72. ABC had 54 bids, CBS received 36 and Fox had 35.

The Emmy ceremony swapped its home of two decades, the Pasadena Civic Auditorium, for the roomier Shrine this year. Audience capacity was doubled to about 6,000, making more tickets available to industry members and, for the first time, to the public.

Sunday's show had audiences in 92 foreign countries. Last year, the academy estimated a half-billion viewers in 90 counties.

In a non-televised ceremony on Aug. 29, awards in categories including outstanding choreography, editing and makeup were announced.

Besides the 12 trophies presented to NBC, eight each went to ABC and HBO. Fox won five and CBS won four.

Four acting awards for guest roles also were presented. They went to Mel Brooks for Mad About You, Emma Thompson for Ellen, Cloris Leachman for Promised Land and John Larroquette for The Practice.

In the second year of the Emmy award for best commercial, Apple Computer Inc. received the trophy for its Think Different entry.

Including Saturday night's ceremony, ABC won 16 Emmy Awards, HBO 14, CBS 8, and Fox 6.