34th Primetime Emmy Awards

|+ {{sronly|Programs}}

• Barney Miller (ABC)
• Love, Sidney (NBC)
• M*A*S*H (CBS)
• Taxi (ABC)
• WKRP in Cincinnati (CBS)

| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{Award category|#EEDD82|Outstanding Drama Series}}

• Hill Street Blues (NBC)
• Dynasty (ABC)
• Fame (NBC)
• Lou Grant (CBS)
• Magnum, P.I. (CBS)

| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{Award category|#EEDD82|Outstanding Limited Series}}

• Marco Polo (NBC)
• Brideshead Revisited (PBS)
• Flickers (PBS)
• Oppenheimer (PBS)
• A Town Like Alice (PBS)

|+ {{sronly|Acting}}

• Alan Alda as Hawkeye Pierce in M*A*S*H (CBS) (Episode: "Where There's a Will, There's a War")
• Robert Guillaume as Benson DuBois in Benson (ABC)
• Judd Hirsch as Alex Reiger in Taxi (ABC)
• Hal Linden as Capt. Barney Miller in Barney Miller (ABC)
• Leslie Nielsen as Lieutenant Frank Drebin in Police Squad! (ABC)

| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{Award category|#EEDD82|Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series}}

• Carol Kane as Simka Dahblitz in Taxi (ABC) (Episode: "Simka Returns")
• Nell Carter as Nell Harper in Gimme a Break! (NBC)
• Bonnie Franklin as Ann Romano in One Day at a Time (CBS)
• Swoosie Kurtz as Laurie Morgan in Love, Sidney (NBC)
• Charlotte Rae as Edna Garrett in The Facts of Life (NBC)
• Isabel Sanford as Louise Jefferson in The Jeffersons (CBS)

| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{Award category|#EEDD82|Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series}}

• Michael Learned as Mary Benjamin in Nurse (CBS)
• Debbie Allen as Lydia Grant in Fame (NBC)
• Veronica Hamel as Joyce Davenport in Hill Street Blues (NBC)
• Michele Lee as Karen Fairgate in Knots Landing (CBS)
• Stefanie Powers as Jennifer Hart in Hart to Hart (ABC)

| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{Award category|#EEDD82|Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or a Special}}

• Ingrid Bergman as Golda Meir in A Woman Called Golda (Syndicated)
• Glenda Jackson as Patricia Neal in The Patricia Neal Story (CBS)
• Ann Jillian as Mae West in Mae West (ABC)
• Jean Stapleton as Eleanor Roosevelt in Eleanor, First Lady of the World (CBS)
• Cicely Tyson as Marva Collins in The Marva Collins Story (CBS)

| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{Award category|#EEDD82|Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy or Variety or Music Series}}

• Christopher Lloyd as Jim Ignatowski in Taxi (ABC) (Episode: "Elegant Iggy")
• Danny DeVito as Louie De Palma in Taxi (ABC)
• Ron Glass as Det. Ron Harris in Barney Miller (ABC)
• Steve Landesberg as Sgt. Arthur Dietrich in Barney Miller (ABC)
• Harry Morgan as Sherman T. Potter in M*A*S*H (CBS)
• David Ogden Stiers as Charles Emerson Winchester III in M*A*S*H (CBS)

| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{Award category|#EEDD82|Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy or Variety or Music Series}}

• Loretta Swit as Margaret Houlihan in M*A*S*H (CBS) (Episode: "The Birthday Girls")
• Eileen Brennan as Doreen Lewis in Private Benjamin (CBS)
• Marla Gibbs as Florence Johnston in The Jeffersons (CBS)
• Andrea Martin as Various Characters in Second City Television (NBC)
• Anne Meara as Veronica Rooney in Archie Bunker's Place (CBS) (Episode: "Relapse")
• Inga Swenson as Gretchen Wilomena Kraus in Benson (ABC)

| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{Award category|#EEDD82|Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series}}

• Nancy Marchand as Margaret Pynchon in Lou Grant (CBS) (Episode: "Review")
• Barbara Bosson as Fay Furillo in Hill Street Blues (NBC)
• Julie Harris as Lilimae Clements in Knots Landing (CBS)
• Linda Kelsey as Billie Newman in Lou Grant (CBS)
• Betty Thomas as Sgt. Lucille Bates in Hill Street Blues (NBC)

| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{Award category|#EEDD82|Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or a Special}}

• Penny Fuller as Mrs. Kendal in The Elephant Man (ABC)
• Claire Bloom as Lady Marchmain in Brideshead Revisited (PBS) (Episode: "Sebastian Against the World")
• Judy Davis as Young Golda in A Woman Called Golda (Syndicated)
• Vicki Lawrence as Thelma "Mama" Harper in Eunice (CBS)
• Rita Moreno as Rosella DeLeon in Portrait of a Showgirl (CBS)

|+ {{sronly|Directing}}

• One Day at a Time (CBS): "Barbara's Crisis" – Alan Rafkin
• M*A*S*H (CBS): "Picture This" – Burt Metcalfe
• M*A*S*H (CBS): "Pressure Points" – Charles S. Dubin
• M*A*S*H (CBS): "Sons and Bowlers" – Hy Averback
• M*A*S*H (CBS): "Where There's a Will, There's a War" – Alan Alda
• Taxi (ABC): "Jim the Psychic" – James Burrows

| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{Award category|#EEDD82|Outstanding Directing in a Drama Series}}

• Fame (NBC): "To Soar and Never Falter" – Harry Harris
• Fame (NBC): "Musical Bridge" – Robert Scheerer
• Hill Street Blues (NBC): "The Second Oldest Profession" – Robert Butler
• Hill Street Blues (NBC): "The World According to Freedom" – Jeff Bleckner
• Lou Grant (CBS): "Hometown" – Gene Reynolds

| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{Award category|#EEDD82|Outstanding Directing in a Limited Series or a Special}}

• Inside the Third Reich (ABC) – Marvin J. Chomsky
• Brideshead Revisited (PBS): "Et in Arcadia Ego" – Charles Sturridge and Michael Lindsay-Hogg
• Mae West (ABC) – Lee Philips
• Skokie (CBS) – Herbert Wise

|+ {{sronly|Writing}}

• Taxi (ABC): "Elegant Iggy" – Ken Estin
• Barney Miller (ABC): "Landmark, Part III" – Frank Dungan, Jeff Stein and Tony Sheehan
• M*A*S*H (CBS): "Follies of the Living - Concerns of the Dead" – Alan Alda
• Police Squad! (ABC): "A Substantial Gift" – Jim Abrahams, David Zucker and Jerry Zucker
• Taxi (ABC): "Jim the Psychic" – {{StoryTeleplay|s=Holly Holmberg Brooks|t=Barry Kemp}}

| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{Award category|#EEDD82|Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series}}

• Hill Street Blues (NBC): "Freedom's Last Stand" – {{StoryTeleplay|s=Michael Kozoll and Steven Bochco|t=Steven Bochco, Anthony Yerkovich, Jeffrey Lewis and Michael Wagner}}
• Hill Street Blues (NBC): "Personal Foul" – Steven Bochco, Anthony Yerkovich, Jeffrey Lewis and Michael Wagner
• Hill Street Blues (NBC): "The Second Oldest Profession" – {{StoryTeleplay|s=Michael Kozoll, Steven Bochco and Anthony Yerkovich|t=Steven Bochco, Anthony Yerkovich and Robert Crais}}
• Hill Street Blues (NBC): "The World According to Freedom" – Michael Wagner
• Lou Grant (CBS): "Blacklist" – Seth Freeman

| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{Award category|#EEDD82|Outstanding Writing in a Limited Series or a Special}}

• Bill (CBS) – {{StoryTeleplay|s=Barry Morrow|t=Corey Blechman}}
• Brideshead Revisited (PBS): "Et in Arcadia Ego" – John Mortimer
• Oppenheimer (PBS): "Part V" – Peter Prince
• Sidney Shorr: A Girl's Best Friend (NBC) – Oliver Hailey
• Skokie (CBS) – Ernest Kinoy

|+Networks with multiple major nominations"Major" constitutes the categories listed above: Program, Acting, Directing, and Writing. Does not include the technical categories.

|+Programs with multiple major nominations

|+Networks with multiple major awards"Major" constitutes the categories listed above: Program, Acting, Directing, and Writing. Does not include the technical categories.

|+Programs with multiple major awards