Emmy Award

Television Academy

The 33rd Primetime Emmy Awards

September 13, 1981  •  Pasadena Civic Auditorium  •  Hosted by Johnny Carson

8
Hill Street Blues wins
3
Taxi wins
Hill Street Blues won Outstanding Drama Series in its very first season
Isabel Sanford — first Black woman to win Lead Actress Comedy Emmy
Vanessa Redgrave won Lead Actress Limited for Playing for Time amid political controversy
Drama
Outstanding Drama Series
Winner
Hill Street Blues
NBC — Season 1, first of four consecutive wins
Dallas
Quincy M.E.
Lou Grant
The Gangster Chronicles
Lead Actor — Drama
Winner
Daniel J. Travanti
Hill Street Blues — as Capt. Frank Furillo
Ed Asner — Lou Grant
Karl Malden — Streets of San Francisco
John Forsythe — Dynasty
James Garner — Bret Maverick
Lead Actress — Drama
Winner
Barbara Babcock
Hill Street Blues — as Grace Gardner
Tyne Daly — Cagney & Lacey
Veronica Hamel — Hill Street Blues
Linda Evans — Dynasty
Stefanie Powers — Hart to Hart
Supporting Actor — Drama
Winner
Michael Conrad
Hill Street Blues — Sgt. Phil Esterhaus
Supporting Actress — Drama
Winner
Nancy Marchand
Lou Grant — Margaret Pynchon (4th and final win)
Comedy
Outstanding Comedy Series
Winner
Taxi
ABC — Season 3, third consecutive win
Barney Miller
M*A*S*H
The Associates
Soap
Lead Actor — Comedy
Winner
Judd Hirsch
Taxi — as Alex Reiger
Alan Alda — M*A*S*H
Robert Guillaume — Benson
Jack Klugman — Quincy M.E.
Carroll O'Connor — Archie Bunker's Place
Lead Actress — Comedy
Winner
Isabel Sanford
The Jeffersons — as Louise Jefferson — first Black woman to win Lead Actress Comedy Emmy
Katherine Helmond — Soap
Cathryn Damon — Soap
Polly Holliday — Flo
Linda Lavin — Alice
Supporting Actor — Comedy
Winner
Danny DeVito
Taxi — as Louie De Palma
Supporting Actress — Comedy
Winner
Eileen Brennan
Private Benjamin — ABC
Limited Series & Movie
Outstanding Limited Series
Winner
Shogun
NBC — Richard Chamberlain epic set in feudal Japan
Masada
Beulah Land
Moviola: This Year's Blonde
Lead Actress — Limited/Movie
Winner
Vanessa Redgrave
Playing for Time — CBS — played Fania Fenelon, a Jewish musician who survived Auschwitz by performing for the Nazis