^{Credit: 20th Century Television} 

Doing research for my book, Bright & Shiny: A History of Animation at Award Shows, I came across numerous valuable research materials. Among the most fascinating finds were several Primetime Emmy submission ballots for Outstanding Animated Program. When voting for the Primetime Emmys is underway, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS) posts the submission sheets online for everyone to see. Once voting is closed and the nominations are announced, the submission sheets disappear from the ATAS website. Few have bothered to preserve these submission forms. After all, who cares what got submitted for Emmy consideration if it didn’t get nominated? Awards junkies like me, that’s who.

Outstanding Animated Program is an especially interesting category. Rather than submit an entire season to the Primetime Emmys, animated shows enter a single episode from the past year. These submissions are a reflection of what the showrunners believed was their best foot forward. Whether or not it resulted in a nomination or win, it’s worth considering every submission. That’s what we’re going to do in this ongoing series, Where’s My Emmy?, break down the animated shows that were submitted for Emmy consideration, yet didn’t get nominated. A special thank you to Julie Shore of the Television Academy for helping me track down this submission sheet from the 2006-2007 eligibility cycle.

Outstanding Animated Program (for Programming Less Than One Hour):

^{Credit: Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS)}

The Nominees Were…

Avatar: The Last Airbender: “City of Walls and Secrets”

Robot Chicken: “Lust for Puppets”

The Simpsons: “The Haw-Hawed Couple”

South Park: “Make Love, Not Warcraft” (Winner)

SpongeBob SquarePants: “Bummer Vacation” / “Wigstruck”

The Nominees Weren’t…

While The Simpsons remained an Emmy favorite, voters overlooked the other offerings from Fox’s Animation Domination block. Perhaps the most surprising omission was Family Guy, which was fresh off back-to-back nominations after coming back from cancellation. Family Guy first broke into this category seven years earlier with "Road to Rhode Island,” kicking off the “Brian and Stewie episodes” as fans call them. Yet, Emmy voters didn’t take to “Road to Rupert,” which sent the dog and baby on another adventure. Brian and Stewie settled for opening that year’s Primetime Emmy ceremony, singing a song about the garbage on TV.

Perhaps “Road to Rupert” split votes with Seth MacFarlane’s other show, American Dad!, which submitted “Lincoln Lover.” This episode sees Stan Smith enter the world of gay Republicans, making him question his own sexuality. Fox had two LGBTQ+ submissions with King of the Hill entering “The Peggy Horror Picture Show.” Peggy finds a “sole mate” in a woman named Carolyn, who also requires a larger shoe size. What Peggy doesn’t realize is that Carolyn is a drag queen. Likewise, Carolyn isn’t aware that Peggy is a Cisgender woman. While this leads to great comedy, the episode is also surprisingly sweet… and probably couldn’t be made today without attracting the anti-woke mob. Kathy Najimy chose the episode as her submission for voice acting Emmy consideration, but “The Peggy Horror Picture Show” sadly wasn’t declared Queen of the Hill.

Although South Park won the Emmy for "Make Love, Not Warcraft," Comedy Central failed to attain nominations for its other submissions. For its third season, the animated reality show Drawn Together submitted “Lost in Parking Space, Part 1.” Despite having South Park as a lead-in, that audiences never carried over to Drawn Together in terms of Emmy nominations. While Stephen Colbert has been an Emmy favorite for years, the Animation Peer Group didn’t take to Tek Jansen, a superhero who appeared on The Colbert Report in a series of animated segments. The shorts were produced at J.J. Sedelmaier Productions, the same studio behind Robert Smigel’s Saturday TV Funhouse on SNL. Fittingly enough, Colbert previously voiced Ace of The Ambiguously Gay Duo.

Kim Possible broke into this category four years earlier with its pilot, but it couldn’t replicate another nomination with its Season 4 premiere, “Ill Suited.” Voters also passed on Disney’s other offerings, which included American Dragon: Jake Long: “Homecoming,” The Replacements: “Halloween Spirits,” and Yin Yang Yo!: “Attack Of The Lesson” / “A Case Of The Evils.” Fellow “kids’ network” Nickelodeon had better luck with Avatar: The Last Airbender getting its first nomination and SpongeBob SquarePants on its fourth in the category. However, The Fairly OddParents couldn’t work its magic with “Timmy The Barbarian” / “No Substitute For Crazy.” Nicktoons Network also aired the only season of Edgar & Ellen, which entered its Valentine’s special.

Speaking of specials, He’s A Bully, Charlie Brown was the Peanut franchise’s last to have direct input from Bill Melendez, who died in 2008. The ballot included a few other standalone submissions, such an adaptation of the one-shot comic book The Amazing Screw-On Head. There was hope this 22-minute special would pave the way for a series, but Screw-On Head never made it beyond the pilot stages. Equally obscure was Thugaboo: A Miracle On D-Roc’s Street, a Christmas special from the Wayans Brothers. Still not as obscure as Ms. Rabble, a webisode series from animator Frank Chindamo with SNL’s Victoria Jackson voicing the titular character.

Robot Chicken got its first nomination in the category for “Lust for Puppets,” but the Emmy gods didn’t shine the light on Adult Swim’s other stop-motion submission, Moral Orel: “Praying.” Beyond this adult-oriented block, Cartoon Network blanked with Class of 3000, The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, My Gym Partner’s a Monkey, and Squirrel Boy all failing to secure nominations for their respective submissions. Cartoon Network had better luck in Outstanding Animated (for Programming One Hour or More) where it took up three of the four slots…

Outstanding Animated Program (for Programming One Hour or More):

^{Credit: Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS)}

The Nominees Were…

Camp Lazlo: “Where's Lazlo?” (Winner)

Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends: “Good Wilt Hunting”

Hellboy Animated: Sword of Storms

Secrets of the Deep

The Nominees Weren’t…

While Cartoon Network made up most of this soon-to-be-discontinued category, there wasn’t room for five of their TV movies: Billy & Mandy’s Big Boogey Adventure, Operation: ZERO (Codename: Kids Next Door), Superman: Brainiac Attacks, Teen Titans: Trouble In Tokyo, and Tom and Jerry: Shiver Me Whiskers. Just as Fairly OddParents fell short in the other animation category, Butch Hartman’s other show, Danny Phantom, couldn’t bust into the (Hour or More) race with the special episode “Reality Trip.” Thugaboo also missed its second shot with the special Sneaker Madness. Discovery Channel got nominated for Secrets of the Deep, but not Prehistoric Park: T-Rex. Finally, there was Queer Duck: The Movie from former Simpsons showrunner Mike Reiss.

With only four nominees and thirteen submissions overall, the (Hour or More) category was on the verge of being retired. Outstanding Short Form Animated Program was about to be born, however. More on that in the next edition of Where’s My Emmy, which will dive into the 2008 ballot.

Eligible Animated Shows That Weren’t Submitted:

Aqua Teen Hunger Force: One of Adult Swim’s flagship shows, Aqua Teen Hunger Force aired most of its fourth season during this eligibility cycle. This run of episodes included the fan-favorite “Handbanana.” Even if Aqua Teen had been submitted, it was always unlikely voters would go for an episode where a dog repeatedly rapes Carl. It’s funnier than it sounds.   

Celebrity Deathmatch: After a four-year hiatus, this stop-motion satire returned for its fourth and fifth seasons. Although both were eligible under this cycle, no episodes were entered. Not a huge loss, as fans generally found these seasons disappointing. This can largely be attributed to the absence of creator Eric Fogel, who was more interested in working on Starveillance. That similarly-themed celebrity send-up wasn’t submitted at the Emmys either.

Happy Tree Friends: This ultra-violent cartoon started as a web series, but 13 TV episodes aired on the now-defunct G4 network in late 2006. Despite not competing for an Emmy, the season finale, “Double Whammy, Part 2,” was recognized at the Ottawa International Animation Festival.

Metalocalypse: The heavy metal Adult Swim series could’ve submitted an episode from its first season. It might not have been pushed for Emmy consideration, but Metalocalypse was among the earliest shows to put animation studio Titmouse on the map.

The Venture Bros.: Another Adult Swim show, this comedic homage to Jonny Quest didn’t enter any episodes from its second season. The Venture Bros. eventually started submitting for Emmy consideration, yet never achieved a nomination.

Stay tuned for the next installment of Where’s My Emmy? when we’ll get into the 2008 submission ballot.