Milton Berle was the first Jewish person to win an Emmy Award in 1950. (Photo: Harry Warnecke/Wikimedia Commons)[Missing Credit]
Comedian Milton Berle (born Mendel Berlinger), the son of Polish and German Jewish immigrants, was the first Jew to win an Emmy in 1950 – just a year into the awards programme – for his vaudeville performance as the host of the comedy-variety show Texaco Star Theatre, taking home the since-defunct award for Most Outstanding Kinescoped Personality.
Gertrude Berg as Molly Goldberg from the television program 'The Goldbergs'. (CBS TV)[Missing Credit]
When the following year’s ceremony replaced the outdated award with categories for lead actors and actresses, Jewish powerhouse Gertrude Berg became the first ever recipient of the Emmy for Best Actress for her portrayal of Jewish matriarch Molly Goldberg in the radio-cum-TV show The Goldbergs. The series, which followed a Jewish immigrant family as they adapted to American life, was written by Berg – and it’s often credited as the first TV sitcom in history.
Host Sid Caesar stands still as Carl Reiner (left) and Howard Morris pull opposite ends of his necktie, in a promotional still for the TV comedy series, 'Your Show of Shows,' 1950s. (Photo by Gary Wagner/Getty Images)Getty Images
Sid Caesar, born Isaac Sidney Caesar to Polish Jewish immigrants, was the 1952 winner of the award for Best Actor for his sketch comedy series Your Show of Shows, and again in 1957 for his series Caesar’s Hour. Caesar, whose team of sketch writers included, at various points, Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner and Woody Allen, set the standard for much of TV comedy to come.
He told the JC in 2010: "Jews have a good sense of humour...We've been trodden down for a long time, thousands of years. So we've had to turn that around because if you take it all too seriously you're going to eat yourself."
Phil Silvers as Bilko in 'The Phil Silvers Show', whose name was changed to 'You'll Never Get Rich'. (Photo: CBS TV)[Missing Credit]
“The King of Chutzpah” Phil Silvers won the Emmy for Best Comedian – a since disused category – in 1956 for his role in The Phil Silvers Show, which won Best Comedy from 1956-58. The child of Russian Jewish immigrants, Silvers starred in the US Army sitcom as the opportunistic Master Sergeant Ernie Bilko, a role that turned him into a household name.
Barbara Bain in 'Mission: Impossible', 1969. (Photo: CBS TV)[Missing Credit]
Barbara Bain – born Mildred Fogel, another second-gen Russian American – won three consecutive Emmy Awards from 1967-1969 for her performance as Cinnamon Carter Crawford in Mission: Impossible, the original TV production which later inspired the films starring Tom Cruise.
Comedy writer Melvin Kaminsky – better known as Mel Brooks – earned an Emmy when his sitcom Get Smart won Best Comedy in 1969, and fellow son of Jewish immigrants Jack Klugman won in 1971 and 1973 for his role in The Odd Couple, a series written by Jewish playwright and author Neil Simon.
Jack Klugman (left) with Tony Randall in 'The Odd Couple' in 1972. (Photo: ABC TV)[Missing Credit]
Saturday Night Live, created by Jewish showrunner Lorne Michaels and home to many Jewish comedy writers since its inception, won its first of many Emmys in 1976.
Eddie Asner, pictured in 1977, won an Emmy for his role in 'Lou Grant'. (Photo: CBS TV)[Missing Credit]
Ron Leibman won Best Actor in a Drama Series in 1979 for his performance in the crime series Kaz, in which he plays the Polish American criminal defense attorney Martin “Kaz” Kazinski, and Eddie Asner, an actor raised in an Orthodox Jewish home by immigrant parents, won an Emmy in 1980 for his starring role in the dramatic series Lou Grant, playing the eponymous newspaper editor.
Andy Kaufman as Latka Gravas and Carol Kane as Simka Gravas in "Taxi," the three-time Emmy-winning series. (Photo: NBC TV)[Missing Credit]
From 1979-1981 the series Taxi – co-created by Jewish director and producer James L. Brooks of The Simpsons – won Best Comedy, and its Jewish stars Judd Hirsch and Carol Kane won Emmys for their roles in the show.
1980s-90s – Police procedurals and sitcom supremacy
Enter the era of Seinfeld and the rise of cable television, when sketch comedy shifted into situational comedy with an undeniably Jewish sense of humour.
The Golden Girls, created by Jewish TV writer Susan Harris, won best comedy from 1986-87, and Jewish actress Bea Arthur won Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series for her performance as Dorothy Zbornak in the acclaimed sitcom in 1988.
Bea Arthur in 'Golden Girls', for which she won an Emmy in 1986. (Photo: Crown Media US)[Missing Credit]
Jewish TV writers Edward Zwick and Marshall Hershkovitz were honoured when their series Thirtysomething won the Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series in 1988 – and the pair would go on to win more than a dozen Emmys for the series over its four-year run.
In 1992 the series Northern Exposure – about a New York City doctor, Joel Fleischman (played by Jewish actor Rob Morrow), who’s forced to work his medical residency in Alaska – won Outstanding Drama Series.
Seinfeld won the Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series in 1993, marking a win for creators Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld, whose unmistakably Jewish comedic voices have defined sitcoms for contemporary TV. Over the course of Seinfeld’s nine-year run it received 68 nominations and 10 Emmy awards, and it's widely considered one of the greatest American TV shows of all time.
The cast of the Emmy-winning "Seinfeld" show pose with the Emmys they won for Outstanding Comedy Series on September 19, 1993. From left to right: Michael Richards, Jerry Seinfeld, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Jason Alexander. (Photo: SCOTT FLYNN/AFP via Getty Images)AFP via Getty Images
Jewish stars swept the award for Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series from 1994-97; Dennis Franz won in 1994, 1996 and 1997 for his portrayal of Detective Andy Sipowicz in the police procedural NYPD Blue, while Mandy Patinkin won in 1995 for his portrayal of the surgeon Jeffrey Geiger in Chicago Hope.
2000s-now – Hollywood's new “Golden Age” and the rise of prestige TV
The early 2000s was a windfall season for Jewish actors and writers in television, many of whom helped usher in the era of “prestige TV” we know today: think high-quality production value, intricate storylines and auteur-driven cinematic quality.
The West Wing, created by Jewish screenwriter and film director Aaron Sorkin, took the Emmy for Outstanding Drama for four consecutive years from 2000-2004, and Lost, the enigmatic sci-fi series whose creators include Jewish producers JJ Abrams and Jeffrey Lieber, won in 2005.
Rick Clevland (left) and Aaron Sorkin with their awards for Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series for 'West Wing' at the 52nd Annual Primetime Emmy Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, 9/10/00. Photo: Kevin Winter/ImageDirectGetty Images
Jewish-led sitcoms continued to garner praise in the new millennium, with Will & Grace, created by Jewish TV producers David Kohan and Max Mutchnick, winning Outstanding Comedy Series in 2000, and actress Debra Messing winning an Emmy for her portrayal of the show’s Jewish lead Grace Adler in 2003.
Eric McCormack, Debra Messing, Megan Mullally, and Sean Hayes from 'Will & Grace' at the 52nd Annual Primetime Emmy Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, 9/10/00. Will & Grace won the award for Outstanding Comedy Series, Hayes won for Supporting Actor, and Mullally won for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series.Photo: Kevin Winter/ImageDirectGetty Images
Sex and the City, created by Jewish writer Darren Star, won Outstanding Comedy Series in 2001, and lead actress Sarah Jessica Parker, also Jewish, won an Emmy for her portrayal of the show’s iconic heroine Carrie Bradshaw in 2004. Sitcoms Friends, Everybody Loves Raymond and Arrested Development swiped the top comedy award in 2002, 2003 and 2004 respectively, proving Jewish-created comedies continued to rule the roost.
382260 05: Kristin Davis, Sarah Jessica Parker, Cynthia Nixon and Kim Cattrall star in the comedy series "Sex And The City" now in its third season. (Photo by HBO/Newsmakers)Getty Images
Modern Family, created by Jewish writer Steven Levitan, won Outstanding Comedy from 2010-2014, during which time the espionage thriller Homeland, based on the Israeli series Prisoners of War and developed by Jewish producer Howard Gordon, won Outstanding Drama Series in 2012.
385848 01: Cast members of NBC's comedy series "Friends." Pictured: David Schwimmer as Ross Geller, Jennifer Aniston as Rachel Green, Courteney Cox as Monica Geller, Matthew Perry as Chandler Bing, Lisa Kudrow as Phoebe Buffay, Matt LeBlanc as Joey Tribbiani. (Photo by Warner Bros. Television)Getty Images
From 2012-2017 Julia Luis-Dreyfus won Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series for her role in the HBO sitcom Veep, which also won Outstanding Comedy Series from 2015-2017.
Game of Thrones, as apt an example of prestige TV as any, won Outstanding Drama from 2015-16 and again from 2018-19, thanks in large part to its Jewish creators David Benioff and DB Weiss.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - NOVEMBER 25: David Benioff and D.B. Weiss Winner of the Founder award during the 2019 International Emmy Awards Gala on November 25, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images)Getty Images
The latest Jewish Emmy winners, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel for Outstanding Comedy Series in 2018 and, in 2020, Shitt’s Creek – for which Jewish comedian and writer Eugene Levy won best actor – bring us up to present day television, which still bears the hallmarks of the industry's earliest trailblazers.
From Sid Caesar’s slapstick sketches to Seinfeld’s witty dialogue to today’s streaming-era sitcoms, Jewish performers and creators have shaped television at every turn. As the Emmy spotlight falls once again on a new generation of Jewish nominees, it’s clear that Jewish voices remain central to the very best stories that television has to offer.
The Emmy Awards Ceremony will air on 14 September in Los Angeles.
