AMC flying high with 20 Emmy nominations

By Ray Richmond

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - AMC's two-series, 20-nomination Emmy windfall Thursday has helped cement the buzz that's rapidly transforming it into the toast of television.

But it's instructive to note that a mere couple of years ago, this was exclusively a movie channel. And not its own movies, either.

Before it came to stand for the All-"Mad Men" Channel, AMC was short for American Movie Classics. Remember?

"Actually, the truth is that our core business is still movies," AMC executive vp and GM Charlie Collier said between hoots and hollers Thursday at AMC's offices in New York. "Really, what 'Mad Men' and 'Breaking Bad' represent are brand builders and calling cards that work great side-by-side with the best movie library in TV."

Yes, and HBO is just a movie network, too.

The AMC transformation began in 2006 with its first original project, the Western miniseries saga "Broken Trail," starring Robert Duvall and Thomas Haden Church. It hauled in 16 Emmy nominations last year, winning four (including best miniseries and lead actor for Robert Duvall).

AMC followed up with its first original series, "Mad Men" and "Breaking Bad." But what's most remarkable about the series is not the 16 nominations for "Mad Men" (including outstanding drama) and four for "Breaking Bad" (including lead actor for Bryan Cranston) but that the shows are on the air at all.

"Mad Men" -- which rolls out Season 2 on July 27 -- sleekly tells a story of early-1960s ad men in New York along with the cigarettes they chain-smoked, the booze they tossed down during working hours and, not least, the women they objectified with cavalier hubris. It's the kind of period piece that TV was not exactly clamoring to snap up; indeed, it was rejected sight unseen by HBO and languished for nearly seven years until AMC resurrected it.

"I think it shows what can happen when a network gives you a huge amount of creative freedom," creator/executive producer Matthew Weiner said. "For an artist, it's just a dream."

Then there is "Breaking Bad," the tale of a high school chemistry teacher dying of lung cancer who decides to become a crystal meth chef to earn a big-time financial score for his family before kicking the bucket.

"AMC took the kind of chance with our show and with 'Mad Men' that no other network was willing to," "Breaking Bad" creator/executive producer Vince Gilligan said. "It took a lot of guts. This network could have fallen flat on its face trying what it did."

The fact that neither "Mad Men" nor "Breaking Bad" generated better than lukewarm ratings numbers doesn't much deter the network, Collier insisted.

Next for AMC is the reinterpretation of the 1960s cult series classic "The Prisoner," a six-hour original miniseries project starring Jim Caviezel and Ian McKellen.

"It underscores our continuing commitment to quality on both sides of the camera," Collier said.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter