Hosted by Steve Allen
Dick Clark | Network NBC | |
Date September 7, 1980
(Ceremony)
September 6, 1980
(Creative Arts Awards) Location Pasadena Civic Auditorium, Pasadena, California | ||
The 32nd Primetime Emmy Awards were held on Sunday, September 7, 1980 at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium. The awards show was hosted by Steve Allen and Dick Clark and broadcast on NBC.
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The ceremony was held while a strike by members of the Screen Actors Guild was in progress; in a show of support for their union, 51 of the 52 nominated performers boycotted the event. Powers Boothe was the only nominated actor to attend; acknowledging his odd duck-type presence in his acceptance speech, he quipped, "this is either the most courageous moment of my career or the stupidest." (Boothe won for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Special, for his performance in Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones.)
For the second year in a row, the top series awards went to the same shows, Taxi and Lou Grant. Lou Grant was the most successful show of the night winning five major awards. It also received 14 major nominations, this tied the longstanding record for most major nominations by a drama series, set by Playhouse 90 in 1959.