The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (ATAS) is known primarily for bestowing Emmys, the top awards for television. These are peer awards, selected by vote of members of the Academy--the people who work in the television industry. In addition to presenting this most public face of the television industry in an annual award ceremony, the Academy also engages in a number of other educational and public functions.

The Academy was founded in 1946 in Los Angeles by Syd Cassyd, a trade journal writer who recognized the need for a television organization similar to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Cassyd and a group of associates held several exploratory meetings, then decided they needed a major television industry figure to support the project. They succeeded in interesting ventriloquist Edgar Bergen, who became the Academy's first President in 1947.

One of the earliest activities of the new Academy was to establish a creative identity (and a degree of publicity and prestige) for the developing television industry by presenting awards--the Emmys--in recognition for outstanding work in the medium. Originally, the awards were to be called "Ikes," an abbreviation for the television iconoscope tube. Because "Ike" was so closely associated with Dwight D. Eisenhower, however, the group decided on "Emmy," a feminine form of "Immy," nickname for the television camera image orthicon tube. A contest was held for the design of the statuette and the winner was Louis McManus, an engineer, who used his wife as the model for the winged woman holding up the symbol of the electron.

In the first year of the award Emmys were presented in only five categories. And because television did not yet have a coast-to-coast hookup, they were given only to Los Angeles programs and personalities. Shirley Dinsdale (and her puppet Judy Splinters) was the Most Outstanding Television Personality and Pantomime Quiz the Most Popular Television Program. By the second year any show seen in Los Angeles could receive an award and New York-based personalities such as Milton Berle and Ed Wynn were winners.

At this point there was more backstage intrigue in the Academy than on-stage. In 1950, Ed Sullivan, host of Toast of the Town, produced in New York, initiated a rival TV awards program, but these lasted only until 1953. No awards were presented in 1954 (the only year there have been no Emmys), because the Los Angeles group had decided the show had become too expensive. By 1955, however, the television networks were interested and the Emmys were broadcast nationally for the first time. Sullivan, realizing the Hollywood-based Emmys were a success, became upset and called together New York's television leaders. They demanded and were granted a New York chapter of the Academy. They then asked for another Academy, with equal "founding chapters" in both New York and Hollywood. Thus, in 1957 a newly-formed and newly-named National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) was created with Sullivan as the first President.

The animosity between the East and West coasts continued. In the early years, New York had the upper hand because the networks were based there and much early live dramatic programming, as well as news and documentaries, emanated from the east-coast city. From 1955 to 1971, the Emmys were simulcast with cameras cutting between New York and Los Angeles, often creating technical blunders that left screens blank for several minutes.

By 1971, however, Hollywood was firmly established as the predominant site for television program production. New York was no longer producing the live drama, and, although the east coast city was still the seat of news and documentaries, the audiences tuned in to the Emmys to see Hollywood stars. In addition, the Emmys were growing in number and the telecast in length, so in 1973 and 1974 the news and documentary categories were removed from the regular show (now produced totally in Hollywood) and given their own telecast. Ratings were low, however, and the show was dropped.

During this period, other cities such as Atlanta, Chicago, and Cincinnati organized Academy chapters. Hollywood producers resented the fact that Academy members, scattered throughout the country, all had equal votes in determining the Emmy awards. From their beginning, the Emmys were conceived as peer awards, and the powerful Hollywood community hardly considered a camera person in Cincinnati to be a peer. New York, however, sided with the smaller chapters.

In 1976, the Hollywood chapter of NATAS decided to split from that organization. A year of lawsuits followed but the end result was two Academies--the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) comprised of New York and outlying cities and the Hollywood-based Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (ATAS). NATAS would bestow daytime, sports, news, and documentary Emmys and ATAS would oversee prime-time awards, using its Hollywood member base as voters.

The two Academies remain separate, although from time to time they hold talks regarding reunification, and ATAS has indeed helped NATAS produce the Daytime Emmy Awards. When those prizes first aired nationally in 1991, they achieved higher ratings than the primetime awards. During this period, ATAS was having its own problems with the primetime show. For many years the telecast rotated sequentially among ABC, CBS, and NBC. When the upstart FOX network went on the air, it offered the Academy more money for the telecasts than the other networks had been paying, and from 1987 to 1992 the Emmys were shown exclusively on the new network. Ratings plummeted, largely because FOX programming did not appear on local stations throughout the entire country. Eventually the Academy returned to the "wheel" concept with FOX as one of the participants.

ATAS's membership is based on peer groups--writers, art directors, performers, sound editors, production executives, etc. Each peer group establishes its own requirement for membership, usually defined in terms of the number of shows or number of hours of television the person has to his or her credit. The Board of Governors is composed of two members from each peer group.

Voting for primetime Emmys is also conducted on the peer group basis so that only members of the music peer group vote for awards involving music, directors vote for directing awards, etc. Some "Best Program" awards can be voted on by much of the membership. Individuals may nominate themselves for awards and producers may nominate individuals or programs. All nominated material is then judged by panels of peers who come together to watch all the nominations in a particular category. Their votes are tabulated and the winners are announced, either during the on-air telecast or at a luncheon ceremony. In general, the awards that the public is most likely to find interesting (performers, outstanding shows, directors) are presented during the prime time telecast.

While the Emmy Awards are the most visible of its projects, the Academy undertakes many other activities including:

· sponsoring a paid student internship program through which outstanding students from around the country spend eight weeks working with Hollywood professionals.

· conducting a contest for student TV productions with the winners receiving cash sums.

· inducting outstanding industry professionals into a Hall of Fame.

· holding an annual Faculty Seminar in which college teachers come to Hollywood and are introduced to people and ideas related to TV programming.

· hosting luncheons and meetings at which people from within and without the industry share ideas and information.

· participating, with UCLA, in overseeing a television archives.

· publishing Emmy, a magazine devoted to articles about the TV industry.

In 1991 the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences moved into new headquarters containing office and library space as well as a state of the art theater in which to screen television materials and hold large meetings.

-Lynn Gross