After Emmy drama riches, can AMC get comedy gold with ‘Lucky Hank’?
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AMC has been a big Emmys player in drama races for more than a decade. This year, however, perhaps “Lucky Hank” can get Emmy voters laughing and land some comedy nominations for the basic cable network.
For three decades now, HBO has consistently racked up big Emmy nomination hauls. More recently streamer Netflix has given the premium cable outlet a run for its money. But if you look solely at the drama races, you should not discount the success of AMC. In the past 15 years, AMC has won Best Drama Series six times (four for “Mad Men,” two for “Breaking Bad”) from 19 nominations. That’s the same number of wins as HBO over that period of time.
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AMC has also won five Emmys for Best Drama Actor (five for Bryan Cranston from“Breaking Bad” and one for Jon Hamm from “Mad Men”) from 19 nominations. That is more wins than any other network in that time. Together since 2007, AMC has received 34 Emmys from 242 nominations for various drama series.
Yet it has nothing for a comedy series. This is for the simple reason that AMC has not had a comedy series in contention. When a “Breaking Bad” spin-off focused on the comic relief Saul Goodman was announced, many speculated this might mark AMC’s foray into comedy. But, “Better Call Saul” took an endearingly tragic take on the sleazy lawyer’s beginnings. So the show has been a mainstay in the drama categories.
It only seems fitting that AMC’s first comedy entrant on the Emmy ballot stars the man who played Saul Goodman, Bob Odenkirk. The show “Lucky Hank” is about an English department chair going through a midlife crisis at an underfunded college. Playing Hank’s wife is Mireille Enos, who received an Emmy nomination for the AMC drama “The Killing” in 2011. The series is based on the 1997 novel “Straight Man” by Richard Russo. It has been adapted by Aaron Zelman and Emmy-winning producer from “The Office,” Paul Lieberstein. Being well received by critics, perhaps “Lucky Hank’s” mix of comedy and heart could put it in good stead to break comedic Emmy ground for AMC.
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