'Sons of Anarchy' Kurt Sutter Talks Emmy Snubs and Season 4

Kurt Sutter, left, and Paris Barclay

BEVERLY HILLS – Sons of Anarchy creator Kurt Sutter didn’t take the Emmy bait during the show’s question and answer session at the Television Critics Association press tour Saturday morning. He was rather philosophical about his latest middle finger (on Twitter) to the Television Academy for failing to recognize the show or its cast.

“My tweets are more about my bad relationship with my father than they were about the actual Emmys,” he explained. “If any of you want to lay me down on a couch and talk about that I will gladly open up that can of worms -- and probably pay you.”

PHOTOS: The Quotable TCA: TV Press Tour Eavesdropper

Last year, Sutter vented his anger at the Television Academy’s failure to recognize the show in its second season in his somewhat infamous “dirty-faced outlaws” blog.

This year, series star Katey Sagal, Sutter’s wife, won the Golden Globe for best actress in a drama. But she was not nominated for an Emmy.

The day before the nominations were announced last month, Sutter predicted on Twitter that Sons of Anarchy would again be overlooked. When it was, he took to Twitter again.

PHOTOS: Highlights at TCA

“If my mom and dad were alive, this Emmy snub would kill them,” he Tweeted. “That’s not true; they were too old to understand my show. Just like the academy.”

After the TCA session, Sutter explained that it was “a sardonic response."

"And it was really making fun of the whole process. I don’t regret anything I say or do," he said. "I should have realized there was history, so I protect myself and the show so that it’s not ripped out of context.”

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Sons of Anarchy has been FX’s highest-rated series ever. And the show heads into its fourth season with Paris Barclay onboard full-time as a director and executive producer. Barclay (In Treatment, NYPD Blue) has directed several episodes of Sons. And Sutter said he has been trying to get him to join the show full time since season one. But Barclay was busy with other projects, specifically HBO’s In Treatment.

“You only get two or three chances to find a show where the passion is as good as the writing and as good as the cast,” said Barclay. “Kurt cajoled me. He bought me an expensive dinner.”

“It’s a hard position to fill,” said Sutter. “Putting someone in that position and giving them the authority and the trust and the creative freedom, I knew it had to be somebody of Paris’ caliber who knew the show. I had tried to get him for season three. We continued to whittle away at him and we broke his spirit.”