Writers Guild of America Awards 2008

61st WGA Awards
Presented by the Writers Guild of America, East and the Writers Guild of America, West

February 7, 2009


Best Adapted Screenplay:
Slumdog Millionaire


Best Original Screenplay:
Milk

The 61st Writers Guild of America Awards honored the best film, television, and videogame writers of 2008. Winners were announced on February 7, 2009.[1]

Contents

Nominees

Names in bold denote the winners.

Film

Best Adapted Screenplay

Best Original Screenplay

Best Documentary Feature Screenplay

Television

Dramatic Series

Title Writers Network
Dexter Scott Buck, Daniel Cerone, Charles H. Eglee, Drew Greenberg, Adam E. Fierro, Lauren Gussis, Clyde Phillips, Scott Reynolds, Melissa Rosenberg, and Timothy Schlattman Showtime
Friday Night Lights Bridget Carpenter, Kerry Ehrin, Brent Fletcher, Jason Gavin, Carter Harris, Elizabeth Heldens, David Hudgins, Jason Katims, Patrick Massett, Aaron Rahsaan Thomas, and John Zinman NBC
Lost Carlton Cuse, Drew Goddard, Adam Horowitz, Christina M. Kim, Edward Kitsis, Damon L. Lindelof, Greggory Nations, Kyle Pennington, Elizabeth Sarnoff, and Brian K. Vaughan ABC
Mad Men Lisa Albert, Jane Anderson, Rick Cleveland, David Isaacs, Andre Jacquemetton, Maria Jacquemetton, Marti Noxon, Robin Veith, and Matthew Weiner AMC
The Wire Ed Burns, Chris Collins, Dennis Lehane, David Mills, George Pelecanos, Richard Price, David Simon, and William F. Zorzi HBO

Comedy Series

Title Writers Network
30 Rock Jack Burditt, Kay Cannon, Robert Carlock, Tina Fey, Donald Glover, Andrew Guest, Matt Hubbard, Jon Pollack, John Riggi, Tami Sagher, and Ron Weiner NBC
Entourage Doug Ellin, Jeremy Miller, Ally Musika, Steve Pink, and Rob Weiss HBO
The Office Steve Carell, Jennifer Celotta, Greg Daniels, Lee Eisenberg, Brent Forrester, Dan Goor [1], Charlie Grandy [2], Mindy Kaling, Ryan Koh, Lester Lewis, Paul Lieberstein, Warren Lieberstein [3], B.J. Novak, Michael Schur, Aaron Shure, Gene Stupnitsky, and Halsted Sullivan NBC
The Simpsons J. Stewart Burns, Daniel Chun, Joel H. Cohen, Kevin Curran, John Frink, Tom Gammill, Stephanie Gillis, Dan Greaney, Reid Harrison, Al Jean, Billy Kimball, Tim Long, Ian Maxtone-Graham, Bill Odenkirk, Carolyn Omine, Don Payne, Michael Price, Max Pross, Mike Reiss, Mike Scully, Matt Selman, Matt Warburton, Jeff Westbrook, Marc Wilmore, and William Wright Fox
Weeds Roberto Benabib, Mark A. Burley, Ron Fitzgerald, David Holstein, Rolin Jones, Brendan Kelly, Jenji Kohan, Victoria Morrow, and Matthew Salsberg Showtime

New Series

Title Writers Network
Breaking Bad Vince Gilligan, Peter Gould, Patty Lin, and George Mastras AMC
Fringe JJ Abrams, Jason Cahill, Julia Cho, David H. Goodman, Felicia Henderson, Brad Caleb Kane, Alex Kurtzman, Darin Morgan, J.R. Orci, Roberto Orci, Jeff Pinkner, and Zack Whedon Fox
In Treatment Rodrigo García, Bryan Goluboff, Davey Holmes, William Meritt Johnson, Amy Lippman, and Sarah Treem HBO
Life On Mars Josh Appelbaum, Andre Nemec, Scott Rosenberg, Becky Hartman Edwards, David Wilcox, Adele Lim, Bryan Oh, Tracy McMillan, Sonny Postiglione, Phil M. Rosenberg, and Meredith Averill ABC
True Blood Alan Ball, Brian Buckner, Raelle Tucker, Alexander Woo, Nancy Oliver, and Chris Offutt HBO

Episodic Drama

Title Series Writers Network
"Don't Ever Change" House Doris Egan & Leonard Dick Fox
"Double Booked" Burn Notice Craig O'Neill & Jason Tracey USA
"Gray Matter" Breaking Bad Patty Lin AMC
"Pilot" Breaking Bad Vince Gilligan AMC
"Pilot" Eli Stone Greg Berlanti & Marc Guggenheim ABC
"There's Something About Harry" Dexter Scott Reynolds Showtime

Episodic Comedy

Title Series Writers Network
"Believe in the Stars" 30 Rock Robert Carlock NBC
"Cooter" 30 Rock Tina Fey NBC
"Crime Aid" The Office Charlie Grandy NBC
"Crush'd" Ugly Betty Tracy Poust & Jon Kinnally ABC
"Succession" 30 Rock Andrew Guest & John Riggi NBC
"Vote for This and I Promise to Do Something Crazy at the Emmys" My Name is Earl Greg Garcia NBC

Long Form - Original

Title Writers Network
An American Crime Tommy O'Haver & Irene Turner [4] Showtime
"Pilot" Fringe JJ Abrams, Alex Kurtzman & Roberto Orci Fox
Recount Danny Strong HBO

Long Form - Adaptation

Title Writers Network
Generation Kill "Episode 6" Teleplay by Ed Burns, Story by David Simon & Ed Burns, Based on the book by Evan Wright

"Episode 7" Teleplay by David Simon, Story by David Simon & Ed Burns, Based on the book by Evan Wright

HBO
John Adams Episode 1 "Join or Die" Teleplay by Kirk Ellis, Based on the book by David McCullough

Episode 2 "Independence" Teleplay by Kirk Ellis, Based on the book by David McCullough

HBO
The Memory Keeper's Daughter Teleplay by John Pielmeier, Based on the book by Kim Edwards Lifetime

Animation

Title Series Writers Network
"Apocalypse Cow" The Simpsons Jeff Westbrook Fox
"The Debarted" The Simpsons Joel H. Cohen FOX
"E Pluribus Wiggum" The Simpsons Michael Price FOX
"Homer and Lisa Exchange Cross Words" The Simpsons Tim Long FOX
"Life: A Loser's Manual" King of the Hill Dan McGrath FOX
"Strangeness on a Train" King of the Hill Jim Dauterive FOX

Comedy/Variety (Including Talk) Series

Title Writers Network
Late Night With Conan O'Brien Writers Mike Sweeney, Chris Albers, Jose Arroyo, Dan Cronin, Kevin Dorff, Daniel J. Goor, Michael Gordon, Berkley Johnson, Brian Kiley, Michael Koman, Brian McCann, Guy Nicolucci, Conan O'Brien, Matt O'Brien, Robert Smigel, Brian Stack, and Andrew Weinberg NBC
Late Show With David Letterman Head Writers Eric Stangel, Justin Stangel, Writers Michael Barrie, Jim Mulholland, Steve Young, Tom Ruprecht, Lee Ellenberg, Matt Roberts, Jeremy Weiner, Joe Grossman, Bill Scheft, Bob Borden, Frank Sebastiano, and David Letterman CBS
Real Time With Bill Maher Written by Scott Carter, Adam Felber, Matt Gunn, Brian Jacobsmeyer, Jay Jaroch, Chris Kelly, Bill Maher, Billy Martin, and Danny Vermont HBO
Saturday Night Live Head Writers Seth Meyers, Paula Pell, Andrew Steele, Writers Doug Abeles, James Anderson, Alex Baze, James Downey, Charlie Grandy, Steve Higgins, Colin Jost, Erik Kenward, Rob Klein, John Lutz, Lorne Michaels, John Mulaney, Simon Rich, Marika Sawyer, Akiva Schaffer, Robert Smigel, John Solomon, Emily Spivey, Kent Sublette, Jorma Taccone, Bryan Tucker, Additional Sketches by Robert Carlock NBC
The Colbert Report Head Writers Allison Silverman, Tom Purcell, and Rich Dahm, Writers Bryan Adams, Michael Brumm, Stephen Colbert, Rob Dubbin, Glenn Eichler, Peter Grosz, Peter Gwinn, Barry Julien, Laura Krafft, Jay Katsir, Frank Lesser, and Meredith Scardino Comedy Central
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Head Writer Steve Bodow, Writers Rory Albanese, Rachel Axler, Kevin Bleyer, Rich Blomquist, Tim Carvell, Wyatt Cenac, J.R. Havlan, DJ Javerbaum, Rob Kutner, Josh Lieb, Sam Means, John Oliver, Jason Ross and Jon Stewart Comedy Central

Comedy/Variety – Music, Awards, Tributes – Specials

Title Writers Network
2008 Film Independent Spirit Awards Written by Billy Kimball, Aaron Lee, Jennifer Celotta, and Rainn Wilson IFC/AMC
Jimmy Kimmel's Big Night of Stars Written by Jimmy Kimmel, Gary Greenberg, Molly McNearney, Bryan Paulk, Ned Rice, Jon Bines, Will Burke, Rick Rosner, Jake Lentz, Sal Iacono, and Tony Barbieri ABC

Daytime Serials

Title Writers Network
As the World Turns Written by Jean Passanante, Leah Laiman, Courtney Simon, Lisa Connor, David A. Levinson, Peter Brash, Richard Culliton, Susan Dansby, Cheryl Davis, and Leslie Nipkow CBS Daytime
One Life to Live Written by Ron Carlivati, Carolyn Culliton, Elizabeth Page, Aida Croal, Shelly Altman, Janet Iacobuzio, Chris Van Etten, Anna Theresa Cascio ABC Daytime

Children's

Episodic & Specials
Title Series Writers Network
"Elmo's Christmas Countdown" Sesame Workshop Written by Joey Mazzarino ABC
"Spencer's 18th Birthday" South of Nowhere Written by Arika Lisanne Mittman The "N"
"The Un-Party" Imagination Movers Written by Scott C. Gray & Rick Gitelson Disney Channel
Long Form or Special
Title Series Writers Network
"Polar Bears" The Naked Brothers Band Written by Polly Draper Nickelodeon

Documentary

Current events
Title Series Writers Network
"Bush's War: Part One" Frontline Written by Michael Kirk PBS
Depression: Out of the Shadows Written by Larkin McPhee PBS
"Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial" NOVA Written by Joseph McMaster PBS
"Rules of Engagement" Frontline Written by Arun Rath PBS
"The Medicated Child" Frontline Written by Marcela Gaviria PBS
Other than current events
Title Series Writers Network
Andrew Jackson: Good, Evil & The Presidency Written by Carl Byker PBS
"Kit Carson" American Experience Written by Michelle Ferrari PBS
"Secrets of the Parthenon" NOVA Written by Gary Glassman PBS
Episode Two: "The Best of Times, The Worst of Times (1924-1945)," The Jewish Americans Written by David Grubin PBS
The Truth About Cancer Written by Linda Garmon PBS

News

Regularly scheduled, bulletin, or breaking report
Title Series Writers Network
ABC Weekend News Joel Siegel, Karen Mooney, and David Muir ABC
"Up to the Minute" CBS News Matt Nelko CBS
Analysis, feature, or commentary
Title Series Writers Network
"Exonerated" 60 Minutes Tom Anderson and Jenny Dubin CBS
"Show Me the Love: Amazing Pen Pal Connection" Good Morning America Raquel Hecker ABC
"The Warren Buffett Challenge: Are the Rich Taxed Enough?" Good Morning America Lisa Ferri ABC
"Yankee Stadium and the New Gilded Age" Bill Moyers Journal Bill Moyers & Michael Winship PBS

Video games

Videogame Writing

Paul Selwin Civil Rights Award

References

External links