Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series The Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series is an annual award given to the best television comedy series of the year. From 1960 to 1964, this category was combined with the Comedy Specials (one time programs) category so that both type of programs competed for the same award during those years. "The Flintstones" and "Family Guy" are the only animated series to be nominated for the award. Outside the Big Three networks (ABC, CBS and NBC), Fox has won this award twice, with "Ally McBeal" and "Arrested Development", cable network HBO has
Modern animation in the United States over a decade. In 1987, "The Simpsons", an animated short cartoon segment of "The Tracey Ullman Show", debuted. Matt Groening's creation gained its own half-hour series in 1989, the first prime-time animated series since "The Flintstones". Although 70 percent of the first episode's animation had to be redone, pushing the series premiere back three months, it became one of the first major hit series for the fledgling Fox network. "The Simpsons" caused a sensation, entering popular culture and gaining wide acclaim for its satirical handling of American culture, families, society as a whole, and the human condition. The show has