Dream Emmy Ballot 2013: Lead Actress in a Comedy

Laura Dern - "Amy Jellicoe", Enlightened
Zooey Deschanel - "Jessica Day", New Girl
Lena Dunham - "Hannah Horvath", Girls
Tina Fey - "Liz Lemon", 30 Rock
Sutton Foster - "Michelle ", Bunheads
Julia Louis-Dreyfus - "Selina Meyer", Veep
Amy Poehler - "Leslie Knope", Parks and Recreation

I hope to add to this later, but find comedy leads really difficult to write about for whatever reason. A cursory glance at last year's slate indicates a persistent issue there. I could not manage to narrow from seven to six.

Honorable Mentions: Courteney Cox, Cougar Town; Portia DeRossi, Arrested Development; Dakota Johnson, Ben and Kate; Mindy Kaling, The Mindy Project; Jane Levy, Suburgatory; Martha MacIsaac, 1600 Penn; Ashley Rickards, Awkward.; Krysten Ritter, Don't Trust the B* in Apt. 23; AnnaSophia Robb, The Carrie Diaries

Extra points to Robb for gamely taking on a role that might have had even more baggage attached than Mads Mikkelson in Hannibal.

I wouldn't be surprised to see: Jenna Elfman, 1600 Penn; Edie Falco, Nurse Jackie; Patricia Heaton, The Middle; Melissa McCarthy, Mike and Molly; Mary-Louise Parker, Weeds; Martha Plimpton, Raising Hope

For a second, I forgot what Melissa McCarthy's show was called and I almost typed The Heat. I'm not sure the distinction makes a substantive difference to the television academy voters, anyway.

Dream Emmy Ballot 2013: Supporting Actor in a Comedy

Adam Driver - "Adam Sackler," Girls
Alex Karpovsky - "Ray Ploshansky", Girls
Timothy Simons - "Jonah Ryan", Veep
Damon Wayans, Jr. - "Brad Williams", Happy Endings
Mike White - "Tyler", Enlightened
Rainn Wilson - "Dwight Schrute", The Office

Driver and Karpovsky were both standouts last year, and built on those established character traits with surprising emotional depth - Adam in coming to terms with the wreckage Hannah left behind her and Ray in feeling his heart leap forward and struggling to force the rest of him to follow. Simons took a lot of verbal abuse in the second season of Veep, ostensibly about Jonah but pointedly remarking on physical attributes. He is great at both the obsequiousness of a mid-level bureaucrat, but also at playing someone who wants to give as good as he gets but can't quite keep up. As much as Happy Endings was ever governed by story arcs, Wayans really shone in the stories following Brad's loss of his job, especially in the episode where he becomes Jane's "trophy wife." In an ideal world, Mike White would get just as much recognition as network-mate Lena Dunham for everything he put into Enlightened. While Tyler's dreams may not be as expansive as Amy's, White's performance shows us that they're still there. The failure of the backdoor pilot may have been the best thing to happen to The Office, as Rainn Wilson became the MVP of the show's final episodes. Without letting up on the characteristics that made Dwight such a standout character, the show rooted a happy ending in Dwight finally getting the branch manager position and marrying Angela. 

Honorable Mentions: Will Arnett, Arrested Development; Max Greenfield, New Girl; Bill Hader, Saturday Night Live; Tony Hale, Veep; Taran Killam, Saturday Night Live; Zachary Knighton, Happy Endings; John Krasinski, The Office: Jack McBrayer, 30 Rock; Chris Messina, The Mindy Project; Tracy Morgan, 30 Rock; Lamorne Morris, New Girl; Oscar Nunez, The Office; Nick Offerman, Parks and Recreation; Adam Pally, Happy Endings; Chris Pratt, Parks and Recreation; Jim Rash, Community; Reid Scott, Veep; Jason Sudeikis, Saturday Night Live; Matt Walsh, Veep; Luke Wilson, Enlightened

I wouldn't be surprised to see: Fred Armisen, Saturday Night Live; Ty Burrell, Modern Family; Charlie Day, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia; Peter Facinelli, Nurse Jackie; Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Modern Family; Brad Garrett, How to Live With Your Parents for the Rest of Your Life; Nolan Gould, Modern Family; Simon Helberg, The Big Bang Theory; Ed Helms, The Office; Justin Kirk, Weeds; Seth Meyers, Saturday Night Live; Kunal Nayyar, The Big Bang Theory; Ed O'Neill, Modern Family; Rico Rodriguez, Modern Family; Eric Stonestreet, Modern Family; Jeffrey Tambor, Arrested Development

I didn't watch Modern Family this season, so I don't have a specific opinion about it one way or the other. But it certainly wouldn't shock me if they just went all in, added the kids and filled the entire category with cast members from that show.

Dream Emmy Ballot 2012: Supporting Actress in a Comedy

Anna Chlumsky - "Amy", Veep
Eliza Coupe - "Jane", Happy Endings
Cheryl Hines - "Dallas Royce", Suburgatory
Zosia Mamet - "Shoshanna Shapiro", Girls
Aubrey Plaza - "April Ludgate", Parks and Recreation
Casey Wilson - "Penny", Happy Endings

Chlumsky ably navigates between "high-strung" and "manic," a distinction that helps keep Veep from being too broad. I'm sure every Happy Endings fan has different favorites among the show's ensemble, and as someone who's kind of both a control freak and a total mess, mine are Jane and Penny. Coupe sells Jane's image of a world on which she can impose order without making her too draconian and Wilson sells Penny as an romantic and an optimist without making her seem naive. Hines' performance rests right in Suburgatory's sweet spot, with a perfect balance of the kind of superficiality the show sends up (with varying degrees of success) and the heart that shows that it's not all just silliness. Mamet, too, was distinctively, delightfully silly, but also undercut Shoshanna's superficiality by showing the fear driving her insecurity about falling behind her peers in gaining life experience. Plaza shows April growing into a more considerate adult without making it feel like a loss of her distinctive personality.

Honorable Mentions: Vanessa Bayer, Saturday Night Live; Sufe Bradshaw, Veep; Elisha Cuthbert, Happy Endings; Jemima Kirke, Girls; Jane Krakowski, 30 Rock; Diane Ladd, Enlightened; Busy Phillips, Cougar Town; Retta, Parks and Recreation; Naya Rivera, Glee; Maya Rudolph, Up All Night; Miriam Shor, GCB; Hannah Simone, New Girl; Allison Williams, Girls

Particular props to the ensembles of: Community (Alison Brie, Yvette Nicole Brown, Gillian Jacobs); Suburgatory (Carly Chaikin, Ana Gasteyer, Allie Grant)

I Wouldn't Be Surprised to See: Mayim Bialik, The Big Bang Theory; Julie Bowen, Modern Family; Kathryn Joosten, Desperate Housewives; Cloris Leachman, Raising Hope; Jane Lynch, Glee; Melissa Rauch, The Big Bang Theory; Eden Sher, The Middle; Catherine Tate, The Office; Sofia Vergara, Modern Family; Betty White, Hot in Cleveland; Kristen Wiig, Saturday Night Live

Dream Emmy Ballot 2012: Supporting Actor in a Comedy

Adam Driver - "Adam Sackler", Girls
Donald Glover - "Troy Barnes", Community
Max Greenfield - "Schmidt", New Girl
Bill Hader - "Various roles", Saturday Night Live
Danny Pudi - "Abed Nadir", Community
Reid Scott - "Dan", Veep

As much as Lena Dunham obviously shapes the tone of Girls, Driver represented an important aspect of the show in bringing so much oddball energy to bear as a romantic lead truly unlike any other on television. Troy and Abed's relationship formed such a significant through-line for this season of Community that I might venture to say that they functioned more as leads than Jeff did, but not so much so that it seems like category fraud. Both Glover and Pudi grounded Community's wide-ranging universe in real-world emotions in showing Troy grappling with the way he wants and needs to change in growing older, and in recognizing at the same time that there are aspects of Abed's personality that resist that same kind of change. (Also, Troy's reaction to the troll doll when he returns to the apartment in the relevant timeline in "Remedial Chaos Theory" may be my favorite scene of the whole year. I kept that episode on my DVR for months just so I could watch it if I was in a bad mood.) It's repetitive and reductive, but also true to call Greenfield a scene-stealer. I'll also say that he benefitted the most from the New Girl writers shaping the characters as they got to know their actors better, revealing a sweet, somewhat fussy heart underneath Schmidt's player facade. It says "various roles," but in terms of more-or-less single-handedly keeping his show from teetering off the edge into cultural insignificance it might as well say "Stefon" next to Hader's name. Not only funny, but consistently funny on a show that tends to run recurring characters into the ground. It always seems easier to say someone's a charming asshole than to authentically represent one in the flesh, but Scott was more than up to the task of making it clear why Dan is indispensable to the people he works for, as well as why they hate themselves a bit for relying on his particular mode of doing business.

Honorable Mentions: Mark Deklin, GCB; Josh Hopkins, Cougar Town; Jake Johnson, New Girl; Luka Jones, Best Friends Forever; Taran Killam, Saturday Night Live; Bobby Moynihan, Saturday Night Live; Jim Rash, Community; Jeffrey Tambor, Bent; James Van Der Beek, Don't Trust the B---- in Apt. 23; Brian Van Holt, Cougar Town; Mike White, Enlightened; Luke Wilson, Enlightened

Particular props to the ensembles of: Happy Endings (Zachary Knighton, Adam Pally, Damon Wayans, Jr.); Parks and Recreation (Jim O'Heir, Nick Offerman, Chris Pratt); Veep (Tony Hale, Timothy Simons, Matt Walsh)

I wouldn't be surprised to see: Fred Armisen, Saturday Night Live; Ty Burrell, Modern Family; Chris Colfer, Glee; Kevin Dillon, Entourage; Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Modern Family; Neil Patrick Harris, How I Met Your Mother; Jack McBrayer, 30 Rock; Tracy Morgan, 30 Rock; Ed O'Neill, Modern Family; Jeremy Piven, Entourage; Andy Samberg, Saturday Night Live; James Spader, The Office; Eric Stonestreet, Modern Family; Jason Sudeikis, Saturday Night Live; Rainn Wilson, The Office