Not to be outdone by the Producers Guild in any way besides money or influence, the Writers Guild met under a shroud of darkness and probably scotch to name their own picks for the year’s best television, according to minor, writerly concerns like “dialogue” or “story.” And as in the Producers Guild nominations, it was a good year for freshman contender Netflix, with the streaming giant-turned-burgeoning network picking up Best Drama nominations for both House Of Cards and Orange Is The New Black—the latter either not falling victim to the Producers’ strange, June-to-May eligibility period, or just being picked anyway by the writers, for whom time is perpetually a blur.
Still, other than the inclusion of Orange, the exclusion of Arrested Development, and a similar acceptance that Mad Men was on this year, producers and writers more or less agreed for once. Breaking Bad, Homeland, Modern Family, 30 Rock, and Veep were all nominated, with the few divergences being Parks And Recreation and The Good Wife—two shows that may not have the exciting “expenditure of money” that producers gravitate toward, but do have the “people saying well-chosen words” that writers enjoy.
In the episodic categories, Breaking Bad, Modern Family, and Orange Is The New Black dominated with multiple nods apiece, while this year’s animation competition amounts to a head-to-head showdown between The Simpsons and Futurama. And the Writers Guild list of best new series put Masters Of Sex and The Americans alongside those aforementioned Netflix shows, then added Ray Donovan on there—presumably because it needed a fifth, and what was it going to say? Betrayal? We’re not even sure that’s a real show. Anyway, here’s the complete list via TV Line.
DRAMA SERIES
Breaking Bad
The Good Wife
Homeland
House Of Cards
Mad Men
COMEDY SERIES
30 Rock
Modern Family
Parks And Recreation
Orange Is The New Black
Veep
NEW SERIES
The Americans
House Of Cards
Masters Of Sex
Orange Is The New Black
Ray Donovan
EPISODIC DRAMA
“Buried” (Breaking Bad), Written by Thomas Schnauz
“Confessions” (Breaking Bad), Written by Gennifer Hutchison
“Episode 101” (House Of Cards), Teleplay by Beau Willimon
“Granite State” (Breaking Bad), Written by Peter Gould
“Hitting The Fan” (The Good Wife), Written by Robert King & Michelle King
“Pilot” (Masters Of Sex), Written by Michelle Ashford
EPISODIC COMEDY
“Career Day” (Modern Family), Written by Paul Corrigan & Brad Walsh
“Farm Strong” (Modern Family), Written by Elaine Ko
“Hogcock!” (30 Rock), Written by Jack Burditt & Robert Carlock
“Lesbian Request Denied” (Orange Is The New Black), Written by Sian Heder
“Leslie And Ben” (Parks and Recreation), Written by Michael Schur & Alan Yang
“Pilot” (Orange Is the New Black), Teleplay by Liz Friedman and Jenji Kohan
ANIMATION
“A Test Before Trying” (The Simpsons), Written by Joel H. Cohen
“Game Of Tones” (Futurama), Written by Michael Rowe
“Hardly Kirk-ing” (The Simpsons), Written by Tom Gammill & Max Pross
“Murder On The Planet Express” (Futurama), Written by Lew Morton
“Saturday Morning Fun Pit” (Futurama), Written by Patric M. Verrone
“Yolo” (The Simpsons), Written by Michael Nobori
TALK/VARIETY
The Colbert Report
Conan
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart
Jimmy Kimmel Live
Portlandia
Saturday Night Live
DAYTIME DRAMA
Days Of Our Lives
General Hospital
The Young And The Restless