FRIENDS co-creators Marta Kauffman & David Crane have been named recipients of the Writers Guild of America, West's 2016 Paddy Chayefsky Laurel Award for Television Writing Achievement in recognition of their lifetime achievement in outstanding writing for television. The creative team of Kauffman & Crane will be honored at the WGAW's 2016 Writers Guild Awards West Coast ceremony on Saturday, February 13, at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza in Los Angeles.
"Marta Kauffman and David Crane have quietly and triumphantly created amazing television. From Dream On to
GRACE AND FRANKIE and Episodes, they have individually and in partnership raised the bar for smart, funny writing. And then there's Friends, whose cleverness of storytelling, clarity of character development, consistent wisdom and wit made it one of the most memorable television series in history - it inhabited our living rooms for a decade, and will inhabit the culture forever. We salute them for what they have done, and for raising the bar for the rest of us," said WGAW President Howard A. Rodman.
Longtime writing partners Kauffman & Crane are best known for creating one of TV's highest-rated and most popular series, the long-running hit sitcom Friends, which ran on
NBC from 1994 to 2004 and still airs in
Syndication around the world. During its decade-long run, Friends earned 63 Emmy nominations, including six for Outstanding Comedy Series, winning an Emmy Award in the category in 2002.
Kauffman & Crane also co-created the
KIRSTIE Alley-starring comedy Veronica's Closet (1997-2000), The Powers That Be, starring John Forsythe, David Hyde Pierce and Holland Taylor, and the much-beloved
HBO series Dream On (1990-1996), for which the pair shared an Emmy nomination (Outstanding Individual Achievement in Writing a Comedy Series), as well as earning them the 1993 CableACE Award for their episode "For Peter's Sake" (Writing for a Comedy Series). The series also earned them multiple CableACE awards for Comedy Series and several nominations for writing.
Beyond his work with Kauffman, Crane has co-created several other television series with partner Jeffrey Klarik, including the acclaimed
Showtime behind-the-scenes comedy Episodes, starring Friends alum Matt LeBlanc, and The Class, starring an ensemble which included Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Lizzy Kaplan and Jon Bernthal. For their work on Episodes, Crane and Klarik have received four Emmy nominations for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series in 2011, 2013, 2014, and 2015. Crane and Klarik also shared WGA nominations for Episodes in 2012 (New Series) and in 2013 (Episodic Comedy), as well as a 2013 BAFTA nomination for Best Situation Comedy and two Golden Globe nominations for Best Television Series - Musical or Comedy.
Most recently, Kauffman co-created Netflix's 2015 hit comedy series, Grace and Frankie, co-starring Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Martin Sheen and Sam Waterston, which explores how two women become unlikely friends after their husbands fall in love with each other. In conjunction with her production company, Okay Goodnight, Kauffman is developing We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves for
HBO and recently produced the critically acclaimed series Five for Lifetime Network, an anthology about the impact of breast cancer with segments directed by Jennifer Aniston, Demi Moore and Patty Jenkins, among others. Kauffman has been named one of the 25 Most Influential Mothers by Working Mother magazine.
Named after one of the most influential writers in entertainment history, the Paddy Chayefsky Laurel Award for Television Writing Achievement is the WGAW's highest award for television writing, given to writers who have advanced the literature of television throughout the years and made outstanding contributions to the profession of the television writer. Past Television Laurel Award recipients include Steven Bochco, Susan Harris, Stephen J. Cannell, David Chase, Larry David, Diane English, Marshall Herskovitz & Ed Zwick, Joshua Brand & John Falsey, Garry Marshall, and, most recently, Shonda Rhimes.
The Writers Guild Awards honor outstanding writing in film, television, new media, videogames, news, radio, promotional, and graphic animation categories. Competitive awards will be presented at both the Los Angeles ceremony at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza and the New York ceremony at the Edison Ballroom. The Los Angeles and New York ceremonies take place concurrently on February 13, 2016. For more information about the 2016 Writers Guild Awards, please visit www.wga.org or www.wgaeast.org.
For media inquiries about the 2013 Writers Guild Awards Los Angeles show, please contact Gregg Mitchell in the WGAW Communications Department at: (323) 782-4651 or email: Gregg Mitchell.
For media inquiries about the 2015 Writers Guild Awards New York City show, please contact Jason Gordon in the WGAE Communications Department at (212) 767-7809 or email: Jason Gordon.
The Writers Guild of America, West (WGAW) and the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) are labor unions representing writers in motion pictures, television, cable, digital media, and broadcast news. The Guilds negotiate and administer contracts that protect the creative and economic rights of their members; conduct programs, seminars, and events on issues of interest to writers; and present writers' views to various bodies of government. For more information on the Writers Guild of America, West, visit www.wga.org. For more information on the Writers Guild of America, East, visit www.wgaeast.org.
*David Crane Photo Credit: Courtesy of Showtime
*Marta Kauffman Photo Credit: Eric Charbonneau
Source: WGA West
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