Offred’s story is still striking a chord. The 70th annual Writers Guild of America Awards took place over the weekend, and Emmy, Golden Globe, and DGA winner “The Handmaid’s Tale” took home two trophies: Drama Series and Best New Series. Women penned five of 10 episodes in the dystopian series’ debut season.
Tracy Poust and Jon Kinnally received the award for Episodic Comedy thanks to “Will & Grace” episode “Rosario’s Quinceanera,” and Kate Purdy’s writing for “BoJack Horseman” ep “Time’s Arrow” was honored in the Animation category.
Other women-penned winners include May Chan’s “An American Girl Story — Ivy and Julie 1976: A Happy Balance” (Children’s Episodic and Specials), about a Chinese-American girl negotiating her cultural identities, and Barbara Sepansky’s Flint water crisis drama, “Flint” (Long Form Original).
Tina Fey and her “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” co-creator and frequent collaborator Robert Carlock were honored with the Herb Sargent Award for Comedy Excellence. “We never made anyone who worked for us look at our genitals,” said Fey at the podium. The “SNL” alumna joked that they were being feted simply because they haven’t been accused of being serial sexual harassers. “If you have a meeting with Robert, when you get there he will never be just getting out of the shower,” she said. “That is just how low the bar is now,” alluding to the recent outpouring of allegations in Hollywood.
The “30 Rock” creator and star also found time to make a hilarious “Lady Bird” reference. She said that looking at the crowd of writers assembled before her reminded her of “how hard [she] worked to get out of this room,” as per Deadline. She recalled, “I had my teeth fixed, I had people shoot lasers at my face, and I did so many squats. Now, like ‘Lady Bird’ right near the end, I understand this room will always be the best part of me.”
Check out the female WGA winners in the TV and film categories below. List adapted from Deadline.
TELEVISION
DRAMA SERIES
The Handmaid’s Tale
Written by Ilene Chaiken, Nina Fiore, Dorothy Fortenberry, Leila Gerstein, John Herrera, Lynn Renee Maxcy, Bruce Miller, Kira Snyder, Wendy Straker Hauser, Eric Tuchman; Hulu
COMEDY SERIES
Veep
Written by Gabrielle Allan, Rachel Axler, Ted Cohen, Jennifer Crittenden, Alex Gregory, Steve Hely, Peter Huyck, Erik Kenward, Billy Kimball, David Mandel, Ian Maxtone-Graham, Dan Mintz, Lew Morton, Georgia Pritchett, Will Smith; HBO
NEW SERIES
The Handmaid’s Tale
Written by Ilene Chaiken, Nina Fiore, Dorothy Fortenberry, Leila Gerstein, John Herrera, Lynn Renee Maxcy, Bruce Miller, Kira Snyder, Wendy Straker Hauser, Eric Tuchman; Hulu
LONG FORM ORIGINAL
Flint
Written by Barbara Stepansky; Lifetime
COMEDY/VARIETY TALK SERIES
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
Writers: Tim Carvell, Josh Gondelman, Dan Gurewitch, Geoff Haggerty, Jeff Maurer, John Oliver, Scott Sherman, Will Tracy, Jill Twiss, Juli Weiner, Ben Silva, Seena Vali; HBO
COMEDY/VARIETY SKETCH SERIES
Saturday Night Live
Head Writers: Chris Kelly, Sarah Schneider, Bryan Tucker; Writers: James Anderson, Kristen Bartlett, Jeremy Beiler, Neal Brennan, Zack Bornstein, Joanna Bradley, Megan Callahan, Michael Che, Anna Drezen, Fran Gillespie, Sudi Green, Steve Higgins, Colin Jost, Erik Kenward, Rob Klein, Nick Kocher, Michael Koman, Dave McCary, Brian McElhaney, Dennis McNicholas, Drew Michael, Lorne Michaels, Josh Patten, Katie Rich, Pete Schultz, Streeter Seidell, Will Stephen, Kent Sublette, Julio Torres; NBCUniversal
EPISODIC COMEDY
“Rosario’s Quinceanera” (Will & Grace)
Written by Tracy Poust & Jon Kinnally; NBC
ANIMATION
“Time’s Arrow” (BoJack Horseman)
Written by Kate Purdy; Netflix
DAYTIME DRAMA
General Hospital
Head Writers: Shelly Altman, Jean Passanante
Writers: Anna Theresa Cascio, Suzanne Flynn, Charlotte Gibson, Lucky Gold, Kate Hall, Elizabeth Korte, Daniel James O’Connor, Dave Rupel, Katherine Schock, Scott Sickles, Christopher Van Etten, Christopher Whitesell; ABC
CHILDREN’S EPISODIC AND SPECIALS
“An American Girl Story — Ivy & Julie 1976: A Happy Balance” (American Girl)
Written by May Chan; Amazon
