Emmy-winning shows from the '90s that have been mostly forgotten

As the multi-cam sitcom started to fall by the wayside (since suddenly every sitcom had to be a single-cam mockumentary after “The Office”), shows like “3rd Rock from the Sun” have not gotten the love of the canonized multi-cams of the ‘90s. Sure, it’s also quite silly and high-concept. Aliens come to Earth, pose as humans, and consistently misunderstand social norms. However, for a silly sitcom, “3rd Rock” is quite fun, and both John Lithgow and Kristen Johnson won multiple Emmys for the show.

CBS must have thought “Picket Fences” was too weird, given that it consistently aired on Friday nights, which by the ‘90s was where you put shows you didn’t care about. However, the fantastical drama about life in a small Wisconsin town lasted four seasons, perhaps owing to the critical acclaim. To that end, “Picket Fences” won Outstanding Drama Series not once, but twice, and multiple actors won Emmys as well.

Now, “The Practice” did run into the 2000s, but it won Outstanding Drama Series in 1998 and 1999. Creator David E. Kelley created the show as a “rebuttal” to the stylized, inaccurate “L.A. Law.” That’s notable, since Kelley wrote on “L.A. Law.” What is also notable is that Kelley also created “Picket Fences” and another show later on this list. Maybe Kelley’s style was too rooted in the ‘90s? We mean, the only reason that “Ally McBeal” wasn’t included here is because of the proliferation of the Dancing Baby into the cultural ephemera.

If you were not conversant in television in the 1990s, you may be surprised to find out just how big “Northern Exposure” was. The show, a dramedy about a New York doctor having to practice in rural Alaska to pay off student loans, was a true phenomenon. “Northern Exposure” only won Outstanding Drama Series once, but it also won the Emmy for Best Drama Series! It missed glomming onto either the rise of DVDs or the rise of streaming, which may be why it has been forgotten across generations.

“Evening Shade” starred a proper former movie star! This was rare in the 1990s. Burt Reynolds, one of the biggest movie stars of the 1970s, was making a splash in moving to television. Indeed, the show that was almost like “Northern Exposure” but for football had two cast members win Emmys. One was Reynolds, who won Lead Actor in a Comedy Series. The other was Michael Jeter, who won Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series.

This is the first show on this list that was an Emmy winner that has not only been forgotten, but wasn’t a significant show in the ‘90s, either. “Gabriel’s Fire,” a serious drama, lasted only one season. However, Madge Sinclair and James Earl Jones both won Emmys for it. Oh yeah, this show starred the famous actor James Earl Jones. The story of “Gabriel’s Fire” is particularly weird. After one season, it was retooled, made lighter, and renamed “Pros and Cons.” Still, it only lasted one more season.

One more David E. Kelley show for you! This time around, we’re dealing with a medical drama. “Chicago Hope” was not remarkably different from the other medical dramas of the time. It was just fairly well-done. Unlike “Picket Fences” or “The Practice,” “Chicago Hope” didn’t win Outstanding Drama Series. Three different actors from the cast won Emmys, but with so many medical shows competing for attention, “Chicago Hope” has fallen by the wayside compared to, say, “ER.”

It kind of makes sense that "Thirtysomething" has mostly been forgotten. The show, which aired from 1987 through 1991, is emblematic of that era. After all, it’s about a bunch of Boomers who left the counterculture behind to become Yuppie thirtysomethings. Of course, at the time, making a show for well-off Boomers with disposable income made all the sense in the world. While the show’s Outstanding Drama Series win was in the 1980s, “Thirtysomething” had three acting wins in the ‘90s. Now it would be kind of exhausting to watch.

We’d say that, of course, a show set during the Vietnam War has largely been forgotten, but “MASH has been going strong for decades, and that was set during the Korean War. The medical drama ran four seasons, though, and it was popular at the time. It just wasn’t as heralded or beloved as “MASH.” In 1990, Marg Helgenberger (later of “CSI” fame) won Outstanding Supporting Actress, and then in 1992 Dana Delaney won for Lead Actress.

The Emmys love Sela Ward. She has won Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series twice, each for a different show. Only a handful of actors have won that award multiple times. The second time she won was for “Now and Again,” which has also been forgotten, but is a 2000s show. Her first win was for “Sisters,” which aired on NBC for six seasons in the 1990s. And yet, more people remember “Sister, Sister.”

With a name this evocative, how did “The Famous Teddy Z” get forgotten? Well, it was canceled with five episodes of the 20-episode run unaired, so that’d explain it. On rare occasions, a show that gets canceled still manages to win an Emmy, and this is one of those occasions. Alex Rocco won Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series, making him one of the rare people to win an Emmy after previously being suspected of a gang war murder.

(Yes, that's a young Jon Cryer, who played the titular Teddy Z. Shockingly, stills and promotional photos of the show of any usable quality are hard to come by)

Did you know Randy Quaid starred in a ‘90s sitcom? Indeed, he did! He also has an Oscar nomination for acting, but that’s not relevant here. “Davis Rules” is a generic sitcom, as it’s about a widowed father raising his kids. Does he have a wacky father of his own? You bet! Of course, that wacky father was played by the legendary Jonathan Winters, so Emmy voters were happy to reward him.

“Life Goes On” is another generic family story, with the newsworthy thing about it at the time was that one of the kids in the family, Corky, had Down syndrome. You can exhale, because actor Chris Burke does indeed have Down syndrome. This is a case where a change to the cast got it an Emmy. In the third season, Chad Lowe joined the show in a recurring role as Jesse, the boyfriend of the youngest member of the Thatcher family. For the fourth and final season, Lowe was moved to the main cast, and he went ahead and won a Supporting Actor in a Drama Series Emmy.

The Emmys loved Sela Ward, but they also seemed to like to stick it to Cybill Shepherd. Her most famous show is “Moonlighting,” and while she earned an Emmy nomination for that show, Bruce Willis won one. Then Shepherd was cast in a sitcom as the titular character. She was nominated for three Emmys for “Cybill,” but it’s Christine Baranski who won the Emmy for that show.

“I’ll Fly Away” is a Very Serious period drama about a housekeeper played by Regina Taylor getting involved in the civil rights movement in the ’50s and ‘60s in a fictional town in an unspecified Southern state. The show ran for two seasons on NBC, and then there was a TV movie on PBS to wrap the show up since it got canceled with unresolved storylines. So, you know, that was nice. In addition to a writing and a directing Emmy (not germane to this list), Mary Alice won for Outstanding Supporting Actress. She also has a Tony, which is cool.

Okay, Sela Ward has nothing on Tyne Daly. Daly has been nominated for 16 Emmys. She won four times in the ‘80s for “Cagney and Lacey,” including three in a row. Then, in the ‘90s, Daly was in the period drama “Christy,” set in 1910s Appalachia. “Christy” didn’t make a big impact, but Daly won an Emmy for Supporting Actress. Then she’d win another of those in 2003 for “Judging Amy.” Yes, Tyne Daly has six Emmys for acting.

“Schitt’s Creek” didn’t invent the idea of a Canadian show winning Emmys. “Road to Avonlea,” a CBC show that aired on the Disney Channel in the United States, aired for seven seasons and 91 episodes. Of course, if that doesn’t ring a bell, Disney retitled it “Avonlea,” retitled the episodes, and aired them out of order. And yet! The show was nominated for 16 Emmys in total and won four. That included a Lead Actor in a Drama Series award for Christopher Lloyd. That’s interesting, because Lloyd was a guest star on one episode.