In 2023, Canadian writer-director-producer Jacob Tierney read a Washington Post article about the popularity of ice hockey in romance novels. Among the books mentioned was Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid, a love story between two closeted rival hockey stars that was part of her “Game Changers” male queer hockey romance series.
Recalling that moment, Tierney said, “I was like, ‘I think I need to option these books,’ even though it did not feel like the most obvious route to getting a show on TV.” His instincts proved correct: The six-episode series became a breakout hit on the Canadian streamer Crave and the multi-continent HBO Max, not just among LGBTQ+ viewers hungry for this sort of representation and authenticity, but among mass audiences as well.
Tierney spoke in a video showcasing Heated Rivalry as one of six programs recognized at the 19th Television Academy Honors; the Honors celebrates programming that not only entertains but informs and enlightens, turning a spotlight on challenging topics in thought-provoking ways. This year’s ceremony was held May 20 at the Academy’s Saban Media Center in the North Hollywood Arts District and hosted by producer-food expert-host-author Padma Lakshmi, an Honors recipient in 2022 for Taste the Nation: Holiday Edition with Padma Lakshmi.
Check out photos from the 19th Television Academy Honors ceremony.
“For almost 80 years, the Television Academy has been celebrating excellence in television, but it is this night, and this honor, that I feel recognizes work that is truly exceptional,” Academy president and CEO Maury McIntyre said in his welcome. “I strongly believe that television is simply the most effective medium for bringing about positive social change, and the programs we recognize tonight are some of the best of the best from the past year, that exemplify how the power of storytelling can broaden perspectives, champion the unheard, introduce viewers to different cultures, thoughts and ideas and expand our understanding of our shared humanity.”
Accepting on behalf of Heated Rivalry, the ceremony’s first honoree, Tierney cited the support and trust of the entities and individuals involved in making the series. “I didn’t expect any of this from this show, and I’m so grateful to be here and to be included,” he said. “And I’m so grateful that the joy that we felt making it, and that the desire we had to put this into the world, resonated with so many people. Thank you so much to the Academy. This means a lot. Thank you.”
Two other honorees, both documentaries, also focus on representation of their particular communities. The two-part HBO Max documentary series Seen & Heard: The History of Black Television, explores the contributions of Black writers, producers, directors, performers and others to television. Those noted include Redd Fox, who insisted that the producers of his 1972-78 sitcom Sanford & Son hire Black creatives; veteran multi-hyphenates such as Oprah Winfrey and Debbie Allen; and more recently on the scene, actress-writer-producer Issa Rae, who wanted to make the show and headed the team of executive producers.
In the Honors video segment, Giselle Bailey, director-producer with Phil Bertelsen, notes of Seen & Heard, “I really wanted this film to give people hope, and so that, to me, was the most important thing. It really is for fans of Black television, whoever they may be, and it’s also very much for all of us creatives working in the industry and striving to keep telling our stories.”
In accepting, Bailey said, “First of all, thank you to the Television Academy for this honor. I think what we’ve certainly learned is that these stories survive because they’re fought for and they’re championed. So, thank you for being part of that fight. For us, as Phil said [in the video], it’s such a deep honor to be able to speak to so many of the people that we grew up watching, some of these heroes of culture, and for them to give us what really felt like a guide, because as we were making this, we were really living the story that we were telling: the fight for autonomy to tell our stories the way that we want to.”
The other documentary recognized, Deaf President Now! on Apple TV+, chronicles the 1988 protest of the students at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., the world’s only higher-education institution for people who are deaf or hard of hearing, when they learned that the school board had once again bypassed deaf candidates for president in favor of a hearing person. Students organized protests that shut down the school for several days and garnered national and international press attention. As a result, the incoming president resigned and was replaced by the university’s first deaf president.
Directed and produced by Nyle DiMarco, who is deaf, and Davis Guggenheim, the project hired more than 40 deaf people to work on its crew. “Deaf President Now! is a civil-rights movement that pretty much no one knows about,” DiMarco said in the Honors video. “[Students] were protesting because, for 124 years, they had dealt with a paternalistic administration. They never had a deaf president and wanted one to represent them as a student body
“I wanted our production to reflect essentially what Deaf President Now! represented: I wanted deaf people to be able to lead this film in telling their own story. Prior to this project, I’ve always been the only deaf guy on set. The entertainment industry in general looks at representation as though, ‘We just need one,’ but that’s not really the case. If you want authenticity, you have to bring more voices to the table."
In acceptance, DiMarco said, “I grew up seeing deaf stories told again and again by hearing people, always by hearing people, and I can always tell the difference because that nuance was missing, the authenticity was missing. I’m so incredibly grateful to Apple, as well as to Concordia Studio, for believing in having deaf leadership at every level, and I think with this film that is what broke through. … Most of all, thank you to my mother for instilling in me these values. To the [four student protest organizers], thank you for your courage. Truly, this honor is yours."
Like Heated Rivalry, the Netflix limited series Adolescence is a drama whose influence has been felt globally, albeit for very different reasons. The story of a 13-year-old English boy arrested for murdering a female classmate delves into the dangers of the internet and social media for children, among them online bullying and exposure to the “incel” community of young lovelorn men associated with misogyny and hostility toward women. The series won eight Emmy Awards last year, plus one for a short form “making of” program.
“What we’d seen recognized in our country was, there was a problem with boys killing girls, and there’d just been too many cases in the news, and it made us uncomfortable,” explained Jack Thorne, Adolescence creator-writer-executive producer with Stephen Graham, in the Honors video; Graham also starred as the boy’s father. “It was like, ‘Okay, what can we do about it? Let’s try and examine it.’ And through that examination, we got pulled into incel culture, we got pulled into the manosphere, we got pulled into these complicated areas, and we tried desperately to understand them.”
Each of the four episodes of Adolescence was recorded in one continuous take, heightening the immediacy and the tension. The show has sparked conversations worldwide about children’s online safety and is available as a teaching tool to all United Kingdom secondary schools.
“How beautiful to be amongst such luminous shows,” Thorne said in acceptance. “What I love about this award show is, it’s a celebration of the conversation of TV. Stephen and I always talked about wanting to write shows where people sit on the couch afterwards and talk about what just happened, and it makes me so proud that every single other show here tonight is a ‘couch show.’ We will treasure this. Thank you very much, indeed.”
Check out photos from the 19th Television Academy Honors ceremony.
As raw in its own way is the FX on Hulu limited series Dying for Sex, based on the life of the late Molly Kochan, who upon learning of her terminal breast cancer diagnosis, ended her marriage and embarked on a series of sexual encounters to find the sexual fulfillment she had previously lacked. Kochan and her best friend Nikki Boyer teamed up for a podcast about her experiences. The eight-episode television program mixes comedic elements with deeply personal intimacies about the business of living while dying.
“I am grateful to each and every person that has had the courage to come up and share intimately with me and with my collaborators on this show why exactly this show spoke to them,” Boyer, an executive producer, said in the Honors video. “I had so many — it makes me emotional — so many strangers saying, ‘I am in this position, and I have never felt more seen and more heard and more valued. Thank you for making this. Thank you for writing these scenes. Thank you for showing me what it looks like when someone dies. I’m so much less afraid of death than I was before I watched the show.’
“People needed this lesson about life through [Molly’s] death, and I think I think she would feel very valued and really proud of herself.”
Accepting was Kim Rosenstock, who shared creator, executive producer-showrunner and writer credits with Liz Meriwether. “We thank the Television Academy for this amazing award,” she said. “Liz and I are allegedly comedy writers, and the idea of making a comedy about incurable illness, sexual trauma and dying seemed really terrifying. But of course, that’s what made us want to make it. In our final episode, Molly is finished with sex and is letting go of her body, which has resonated with people in a way that I think none of us could have really anticipated, because we’re so scared to look at death in our country.
“The things that ended up really breaking down barriers and starting more conversations than anything were the conversations about death and what actually happens. It was Molly’s willingness to share her experience, and Nikki’s desire to hear it, that made it possible for us to fully depict the experience of living and dying with stage four metastatic breast cancer. Thank you.”
And for a complete change of pace, there was honoree South Park, the Comedy Central animated series about a group of fourth-graders in the titular Colorado town, which in its 27th season is as irreverent — and some would say offensive — as ever, speaking truth to political and cultural power with pointed humor relevant to current events, because, unlike most animated shows with their months-long production schedules, each episode is finished in six days. South Park has won five Emmy Awards as Outstanding Animated Program.
“From the time we were just starting, when it was like, 'Hey, you can’t do this; this is going to screw up your career,’ we’d be like, ‘Okay, we’re going to do that, anyway,’” said Trey Parker in the Honors video; he and Matt Stone are South Park’s creators, executive producers, showrunners, writers, directors and vocal performers. “When you’re doing this kind of stuff, you have to be fearless. We’re not going to be afraid of anyone, and if we’re going to do something, we’re going to say and do what’s funniest, do what’s best and we’re just going to do it. And if they want to kick us out of town, our bags are packed.”
In his acceptance, Parker said, “I get told a lot that I’m fearless and that I’m brave, and the truth is, as we all know, you can’t be those things if you don’t have support, you don’t have the people behind you. … Especially this year, when we started saying, ‘So, this is the show we’re going to do,’ and [their reaction was,] ‘That’s going to really piss some people off.’ There are always groups telling you what you can and can’t say. Now that group has a military, so it is scarier, and they have to be fearless. So, thank you.”
To his daughter Betty, who provides voices and joined him on stage, Parker said, “I know I kind of forced you into this, but don’t ever be afraid, and don’t ever let people tell you what you can and can’t say, and what you can and can’t think, because you’re always going to find people that agree with you, and you’ll get one of these [Honors statuettes], maybe. Thank you very much.”
Sound editors peer group governor Bobbi Banks, MPSE, and children’s programming peer group governor Howard Meltzer, CSA, are cochairs of the Television Academy Honors Selection Committee. The Academy Honors was created by production designer John Shaffner, then cochair of the Academy’s social outreach committee, who later became Academy chair and CEO, and developed with committee cochair Lynn Roth and former Academy chair Dick Askin.
