Welcome to the very first official Fun TV Fact, where interesting information about TV are posted and some TV questions are answered.
The Emmy Awards will be presented in September, so the first fun TV facts will be about the prestigious TV award, its history, winners, and not so winners.
The Emmy Awards are the biggest honor in television. They are the equivalent to the Academy Awards (for film), the Tony Award (for theatre), and the Grammy Awards (for music). TV fans probably watch the Emmy ceremony every year, but do you know why is it called “Emmy”?
The name history starts with the design of the statuette. After 47 rejected designs for what was to become the Emmy® statuette, Academy members in 1948 selected a design by engineer Louis McManus , a winged woman holding an atom. But how would they call it?
According to the official Emmy site, “Academy founder Syd Cassyd suggested “Ike,” the nickname for the television iconoscope tube. But with a national war hero named Dwight D. “Ike” Eisenhower, Academy members thought they needed a less well-known name. Harry Lubcke, a pioneer television engineer and the third Academy president, suggested “Immy,” a term commonly used for the early image orthicon camera. The name stuck and was later modified to Emmy, which members thought was more appropriate for a female symbol.” Source
Now that you know why is it called “Emmy”, do you have a favorite moment from the Emmy awards? What do you expect for this year’s ceremony?