20 years ago at the Emmys: A former winner breaks a streak and Maggie Smith is a no-show

20 YEARS BACK
LEAD ACTRESS

This year, the Emmy Awards reaches its diamond anniversary with the 75th iteration of the show airing on Sept. 18. And while much remains unknown about who will be taking home the prizes that night, it’s worth taking a look backward — to where the Emmys (and TV) were 20 years ago. In 2003, there was no official ceremony host — just the third time ever in the show’s history. Instead, 11 comedians appeared as presenters, telling jokes that included the well-populated California governor’s race (135 candidates!) and a smooch between Garry Shandling and Brad Garrett that riffed on the Madonna-Britney Spears buss at the MTV Video Music Awards a few weeks earlier. But who were the real winners of the night? Let’s take a look at some of the nonkissing women getting attention that night.

Family ties: Edie Falco picked up her third and last lead actress in a drama series Emmy for her work as Carmela Soprano on “The Sopranos” (her in-show husband James Gandolfini also won for actor in a drama series that same night). “There are so many people to thank, and there are people I’m going to forget, so I won’t mention anyone,” she said onstage. “Thank you, though.”

Falco’s win interrupted the streak of juggernaut Allison Janney, who’d won for playing C.J. Cregg on “The West Wing” (NBC) three years in a row — twice as supporting actress (2000, 2001) and then as lead actress (2002); Janney would go on to win for a fourth and final time for the role in 2004. Also in the running: Frances Conroy, on her second of four ultimate nominations for playing Ruth Fisher on “Six Feet Under” (HBO); and Marg Helgenberger, who’d won a supporting actress Emmy in 1990 for “China Beach” and was nominated twice for lead actress for playing Catherine Willows on “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” (CBS).

A Perfect square: Debra Messing won the lead actress in a comedy series Emmy for the first time for her role as Grace Adler on “Will & Grace” (NBC), which made the series just the third TV show to have all credited actors win Primetime Emmys for their work. (The others? “All in the Family” and “The Golden Girls.”) “I’m not going to be funny, I’m just going to be earnest,” said Messing as she accepted the award.

She beat out four other veteran comedians for the prize: Jennifer Aniston, who’d won for playing Rachel Green on “Friends” (NBC) the previous year; Patricia Heaton, who’d won as Debra Barone in “Everybody Loves Raymond” (CBS) in 2000 and 2001; Jane Kaczmarek, who ultimately earned seven nominations — with no wins — for playing Lois on “Malcolm in the Middle” (Fox); and Sarah Jessica Parker, who would earn the Emmy the following year for Carrie Bradshaw on “Sex and the City” (HBO).

British invasion: This is the year Maggie Smith initiated her tradition of winning Emmys, but not showing up to claim them. She won for the first time for the role of Emily Delahunty on HBO’s TV movie “My House in Umbria,” and avoided attending the other three times she would win in the coming decade — each time for “Downton Abbey.”

She bested fellow Brits Helena Bonham Carter, who’d starred as Ingrid Formanek in “Live From Baghdad” (HBO) and Helen Mirren, who appeared as Karen Stone in “The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone” (Showtime). Mirren also had a supporting nomination for “Door to Door” (TNT) — and lost that as well. Smith’s other competition included Americans Thora Birch, earning her first nomination for playing Liz Murray in “Homeless to Harvard: The Liz Murray Story” (Lifetime) and Jessica Lange as Irma Applewood in “Normal.”