Hollywood's Emmy Icons

Talk to anyone who works in television, and they'll likely use the word "family" to describe how it feels to create art for the small screen. They speak about the closeness of cast and crew; the enduring affiliation they feel with the network executives who first took a chance to greenlight their show; and, for a lucky few, the fraternal sensibility that grows from knowing they are part of one of the world's most exclusive and enduring clubs: Emmy winners. On these pages, THR salutes a rare selection of those in the industry who not only represent the best of the TV Academy's Emmy honorees but also have continued to shape and improve the medium since earning their first golden statuette. We celebrate the fabled television careers of sitcom darlings Mary Tyler Moore and Julia Louis-Dreyfus, rare comedy-drama crossovers Edie Falco and Bryan Cranston, three wily animators who reinvigorated (and made intensely more risque) the enduring genre of our youth, the man and muse behind TV's most groundbreaking and controversial variety show, three behemoth network chiefs who transformed the landscape forever and others whose work behind and in front of the camera changed a medium that in no way can be classified as small anymore.