The39th Primetime Emmy Awards were held on Sunday, September 20, 1987. The ceremony was broadcast onFox for the first time, as the network premiered a year earlier from thePasadena Civic Auditorium inPasadena, California.

For the second straight year,The Golden Girls won thePrimetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series. The winner for thePrimetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series wasL.A. Law, which, for its first season, won four major awards, and led all shows, with 13 major nominations. The winner forOutstanding Drama/Comedy Special,Promise, set a new record, with five major wins. This record was tied byTemple Grandin in2010, but still stands for TV movies^[when?].The Tracey Ullman Show received three major nominations on the night, making it the first ceremony in which the networkFox received a major nomination. This was the only time thatHill Street Blues wasn't nominated forOutstanding Drama Series, in its seventh and last season; also, no male actors ofHill Street Blues were nominated (even with 20 previous nominations). OnlyBetty Thomas forOutstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series was nominated, and did not win, making her the only one in the cast to be nominated in all seasons.

NBC continued its dominance of the field, becoming the first network to gain over eighty major nominations (82). Its résumé was highlighted by gaining all five nominations forOutstanding Comedy Series. This had been done only once before (in1977, but with a field of only four shows), and has not been matched in either field since.

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Notes

• Emmys.com list of 1987 Nominees & Winners
• 39th Primetime Emmy Awards atIMDb

• Primetime Emmy Award ceremonies
• 1987 television awards
• 1987 in California
• September 1987 in the United States

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