While the 65th annual Emmy Awards took center stage this past weekend, another smaller, yet equally important awards show took place the previous Thursday night at the elegant Taglyan Center in Hollywood.
The 14th Annual Sentinel for Health Awards recognized 12 finalists from more than 70 entries submitted by networks and cable channels. Entries showcased a diverse range of topics such as alcoholism, post-traumatic stress disorder, drug addiction, depression, malaria, climate change and mental illness.
Thanks, Hollywood Health & Society
The forces behind the Sentinel Awards are minding the accurate information store, making sure television storylines inform, educate and motivate viewers to make choices for healthier and safer lives—instead of otherwise. The partners behind this movement are:
- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
- Hollywood, Health & Society (HHS), a program of The Norman Lear Center at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. Lear is the American television writer and producer who produced such 1970s sitcoms as “All in the Family,” “Sanford and Son,” “One Day at a Time,” “The Jeffersons,” “Good Times,” and “Maude.”
The envelope please
“Call Me Crazy” from Lifetime, “Grey’s Anatomy” from ABC, “Mary and Martha” from HBO and “Real Time with Bill Maher,” also from HBO all won Sentinel Awards. Here’s a complete list.
You already know that media can exert a powerful influence, delivering information to millions at one shot—but that information needs to be true and correct. HHS works to ensure that it is, by providing quick facts, briefings and consultations with experts, case examples, panel discussions about timely health issues, a quarterly newsletter with health updates called “Real to Reel,” and an expanding list of tip sheets written specifically for writers and producers.
HHS makes sure that storylines like “Second Opinion,” an episode that won for “Grey’s Anatomy,” get the facts straight about cyclic vomiting syndrome, for example.
It’s nice to know that someone is watching what we’re watching. And my thanks to Kate Folb, HHS acting director, for inviting me to share in this most excellent evening.