The Wire, despite its status as one of the most critically esteemed series of the 21st century, was famously barely ever even considered at the Emmy Awards. Over its five seasons, the HBO drama received just two nominations (both for writing), neither of which resulted in a win.
So notorious is the Television Academy’s ignoring of The Wire that academy president and CEO Maury McIntyre brought it up unprompted in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter about the creation of the Legacy Award. The newly announced honor is a special Emmy that, starting this year, will be given annually to series that have made “a profound and lasting impact” on the medium and that remain relevant to the industry and the wider culture.
“Are we trying to correct The Wire? Is that what you’re asking?” McIntyre said with a laugh. “That was not necessarily the intent, but it obviously is something that we see as an opportunity. … We can certainly use this sometimes as an opportunity to rectify a wrong if we feel a show didn’t get the Emmy love that it should have. That wasn’t necessarily the impetus, but it’s a happy byproduct.”
The parameters of the award are fairly wide open, with a couple of notable exceptions: To be considered for the Legacy Award, a series must have run for at least five seasons and 60 episodes. That rules out a huge chunk of streaming shows (including the just concluded Stranger Things, which meets the five-season threshold but only produced 42 episodes during its run), which would seemingly encourage the academy committee that will vote on the Legacy Award to look farther back in TV history for most of its candidates. (A subset of the academy’s board of governors will determine the winner each year.) McIntyre also noted that the award could be given to a currently airing series.
In the spirit of McIntyre’s comment that the Legacy Award could be used to correct past oversights, here are 11 worthy candidates for the honor (and in discussions with fellow THR staffers, there could easily have been a couple dozen more). To narrow the field, THR considered only shows that meet the academy’s criteria and that won fewer than 10 total Emmys during their runs, none of which are for best series in their respective fields. Here they are, in chronological order.
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‘The Andy Griffith Show’
Image Credit: Everett The platonic ideal of the small-town sitcom and the show that kickstarted Ron Howard’s long career, The Andy Griffith Show was a top 10 series throughout its run in the 1960s. But it never won the Emmy for best comedy, nor was its title star ever even nominated. Don Knotts won five of the show’s six Emmys for his role as bumbling deputy sheriff Barney Fife; Frances Bavier (Aunt Bee) also won once.
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‘Dallas’
Image Credit: CBS/Courtesy Everett Collection Dallas didn’t invent the idea of a primetime soap, but it executed the format at a scale no such show ever had before (or, arguably, since). The show also leaned into serialized storytelling much more than most shows of its era, most famously in its “Who shot J.R.?” cliffhanger. While it would be difficult to argue for Dallas winning a best drama Emmy over contemporaries like Hill Street Blues or Cagney & Lacey, the show’s impact on TV as a whole is undeniable.
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‘Miami Vice’
Image Credit: Universal Television/Courtesy Everett Collection Michael Mann never directed an episode of Miami Vice, and — contrary to an oft-told story about its origins — the show didn’t result from NBC chief Brandon Tartikoff writing “MTV cops” on a piece of paper and passing it to series creator Anthony Yerkovich. But Mann — who as an executive producer was deeply involved in crafting the show’s visual style — Yerkovich, and the show’s creative team (Thomas Carter directed the pilot episode) put together a series that showed the cinematic possibilities of primetime TV, was notably darker than many other cop shows of its era and broke ground in its use of contemporary pop and rock music.
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‘The Larry Sanders Show’
Image Credit: Courtesy of Photofest Sex and the City and The Sopranos may have ushered in HBO’s golden era in the late 1990s, but The Larry Sanders Show set the template for what a premium cable series could be. The brilliant satire of late-night TV, starring Garry Shandling as the title character, combined razor-sharp writing and great performances that went well beyond surface level shots at Hollywood. It was the first cable show to be nominated for either best comedy or best drama series, which was seen as a big breakthrough at the time. A revote now might give it a best comedy win or two.
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‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’
Image Credit: HBO Curb is maybe the ultimate “almost but not quite” series of the 21st century at the Emmys. The comedy created by and starring Larry David racked up 55 nominations over its 12 seasons, including best comedy series nods in 11 of those 12 seasons — pretty, pretty good. But it only won two awards, for directing in 2003 (when it had four of the six nominations in the category) and editing in 2012. Show Larry would probably have a lot to say about that.
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‘Gilmore Girls’
Image Credit: Everett Collection The “lasting impact” part of the Legacy Award criteria is hard to argue with for Gilmore Girls. The mother-daughter dramedy has had a remarkable afterlife, where fans give it an annual viewing bump each fall on Netflix thanks to its cozy vibes (the streamer is also home to the follow-up miniseries A Year in the Life). Stars Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel reunited to present at the 2025 Emmys, but during the show’s original run — like all of its WB/CW network mates — it was all but ignored by the TV Academy. Gilmore Girls’ lone Emmy win came in 2004, for best non-prosthetic makeup in the “Festival of Living Art” episode.
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‘The Wire’
Image Credit: HBO As mentioned above, The Wire is the poster show for Emmy voters’ blind spots in this century. Speculation about why it was ignored included airing at the same time as The Sopranos, Deadwood and Six Feet Under on HBO; having such a large ensemble that no one actor was ever the singular focus of the show; shooting exclusively in and around Baltimore, far from the centers of the TV business; and having as its mission statement the exploration of failing institutions rather than following conventional heroes and villains. But when your show helps make stars of Idris Elba, Amy Ryan and Michael Kenneth Williams and elevates the profiles of Dominic West, Lance Reddick, Wendell Pierce and Clarke Peters — to say nothing of the writing, directing and other creative elements of the show — it’s safe to say it had a big impact on television.
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‘Parks and Recreation’
Image Credit: Ron Tom/NBC – Courtesy Everett Collection Moreso than The Wire, whose Emmy snubs were very well-documented over the years, it was a shock to discover that Parks and Rec never snagged an Emmy win. Maybe that’s because it did earn a number of high-profile nominations — two for best comedy series and seven (one for every season it aired) for star Amy Poehler, so she and other members of the show’s cast and crew were at least in the room (and on camera) at Emmy ceremonies during its run. But Parks and Rec happened to air at the same time Emmy voters were enthralled with ABC’s Modern Family and HBO’s Veep, which dominated the comedy categories in the first half of the 2010s, so it was shut out.
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‘Law & Order: SVU,’ ‘Survivor’ and ‘Grey’s Anatomy’
Image Credit: Virginia Sherwood/NBC; CBS; Anne Marie Fox/Disney Among current series, these three have some of the best claims to the Legacy Award. They’re all among the longest-running shows on TV and have been reliable hits for most, if not all of their tenures. It would be hard to find even the most casual TV viewer who doesn’t know about them. Grey’s Anatomy and SVU are regularly among the top streaming series as well. Yet none of them has ever won a series award in their current fields (though Survivor did win one for best non-fiction program/special class in 2001).