The winners of the 66th Annual Peabody Awards were announced by the University of Georgia's Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication. The winners, chosen by the Peabody board as the best in electronic media for 2006, were named in a ceremony in the Peabody Gallery on the University of Georgia Campus.
"Return of the King," an especially provocative installment of the prickly animated series BOONDOCKS, is the first Cartoon Network program to win a Peabody. The episode imagined a reawakened Martin Luther King's reaction to contemporary phenomena from gangsta rap to the war on terror.
A Peabody will go to THE THREE AMIGOS HIV/AIDS PREVENTION PROGRAMME, a series of cautionary spots starring a trio of animated condoms. This whimsical PSA campaign with deadly serious intentions is available for telecast in 41 different languages.
Ottawa, Canada-based director/producer of THE THREE AMIGOS, Firdaus Kharas (www.kharas.ca) said, "I consider the Peabody Award to be the highest recognition for excellence in television. I am delighted that the efforts of the many volunteers who made this multi-lingual campaign possible are so highly recognized."
THE THREE AMIGOS has been used intensively in a wide variety of countries, ranging from liberal democracies to conservative theocracies, from countries in southern Africa where AIDS is rampant, to countries on the threshold of a possible AIDS crisis in Asia and Eastern Europe. Broadcasters have donated millions of dollars worth of free airtime to air the series, in some cases up to 20 times a day. Thousands of health clinics, hospitals, non-governmental organizations and universities across the world currently use the series. One PSA per language is streaming on THE THREE AMIGOS website, www.thethreeamigos.org.
The awards will be presented June 4, 2007, at a luncheon at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City. Sportscaster Bob Costas, host of HBO`s COSTAS NOW, will be the master of ceremonies.
"This year the Peabody Board reviewed an amazing array of outstanding material," said Horace Newcomb, director of the Peabody Awards. "The result is that our work becomes more difficult -- and more rewarding -- as creators and producers of electronic media develop more and more powerful, important, and engaging work."
The Peabody Board is a 16-member group, comprised of television critics, broadcast and cable industry exes and experts in culture and the arts, that judges the entries. Selection is made by the board following review by special screening committees of UGA faculty, students and staff.
The Peabody Awards, the oldest honor in electronic media, do not recognize categories nor is there a set number of awards given each year. Today the Peabody recognizes distinguished achievement and meritorious public service by stations, networks, producing organizations and individuals.
All entries become a permanent part of the Peabody Archive in the University of Georgia Libraries. The collection is one of the nation's oldest, largest and most respected moving-image archives. For more information about the Peabody Archive, a list of the winners or the Peabody Awards, visit www.peabody.uga.edu.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
