Will Sylvester Stallone land an Emmy nomination for ‘Tulsa King’?

Ray Richmond
·4 min read
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It will likely surprise precisely no one that Sylvester Stallone doesn’t boast a particularly impressive personal awards history given that he once starred in an Academy Award Best Picture winner (“Rocky,” 1977) and his films have collectively earned more than $4.5 billion in box office worldwide. While he has three Oscar nominations to his credit – two for writing and starring in “Rocky” in 1977 and a supporting nod for “Creed” in 2016 – along with Golden Globe and Critics Choice triumphs for “Creed” in ’16, the overwhelming majority of his awards attention has come by way of the Razzies.

Maybe it’s time for Stallone to receive a little more respect.

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Paramount+ plans a healthy Emmy campaign for season one of its nine-episode streaming mob-themed dramedy “Tulsa King,” which stars the 76-year-old Stallone in his first foray onto the small screen. In the show that premiered last November, he portrays Dwight “The General” Manfredi, a Mafia capo who recently got out of prison and is sent to Tulsa, OK to establish criminal operations there. It was created by Taylor Sheridan (“Yellowstone”) and run by Terence Winter, the latter of whom opted to leave the show ahead of production on season two over creative differences with Sheridan.

SEE‘Tulsa King’ showrunner Terence Winter on writing for Sylvester Stallone: ‘I had his voice in my head’

Reviews of the show were decidedly mixed upon its premiere, but you might say there was grudging respect for Stallone’s performance. One critic noted, “In between moments of somewhat cartoonish violence, Sly’s wisecracking about a world that is unfamiliar in just about every way allows this to tick along nicely.” Another observed, “The combination of (Sheridan, Winter and Stallone) absolutely should not work, but like peanut butter, Nutella and bacon, ‘Tulsa King’ is messy and terrible for you but also delicious.” A third, while calling the show “a clumsy misfire,” also noted, “When the show works, it works precisely because of Stallone’s charming, if characteristically mannered, performance. Stallone’s range is as compact as ever, but he navigates it with the precision of a contortionist trapped in a box.”

Paramount+ has announced that it’s submitting “Tulsa King” for Emmy consideration as a comedy, with Stallone put up as lead comedy actor – meaning he’ll be competing with people like Jason Sudekis (“Ted Lasso”), Bill Hader (“Barry”), Jeremy Allen White (“The Bear”), Donald Glover (“Atlanta”) and Steve Martin and Martin Short (“Only Murders in the Building”) rather than Adam Scott (“Severance”), Brian Cox and Jeremy Strong (“Succession”), Jeff Bridges (“The Old Man”) and Pedro Pascal (“Th Last of Us”). At this early date, he ranks 14th on the Gold Derby combined list.

Several more of the show’s players will be submitted for comedy series supporting, including Andrea Savage, Martin Starr, Jay Will, Dana Delany (a two-time Emmy winner for “China Beach”), Annabella Sciorra and onetime “Doogie Howser, M.D.” regular and “Sopranos” semi-regular Max Casella.

SEESylvester Stallone (Tulsa King)

Again, to date, Stallone’s primary awards attention has come from the Razzies, for which he is The King. He has received some 35 Razzie nominations to date and won the Worst Actor award four times, more than anyone else: “Rhinestone” (1984), “Rambo: First Blood Part II” and “Rocky IV” (1985), “Rambo III” (1988) and “Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot” (1992). And that doesn’t even count his wins for Worst Actor of the 1980s and Worst Actor of the 20th Century. He also has the most Worst Actor nominations of all time (15). As my colleague Daniel Montgomery points out, Stallone is basically the Meryl Streep of the Razzies.

But with “Tulsa King,” Stallone mow has an opportunity to put himself on the Emmy map and leave the Razzies in the rearview mirror.

PREDICT the 2023 Emmy nominees through July 12

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