38th Primetime Emmy Awards

|+ {{sronly|Programs}}

• The Golden Girls (NBC)
• Cheers (NBC)
• The Cosby Show (NBC)
• Family Ties (NBC)
• Kate & Allie (CBS)

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

• Cagney & Lacey (CBS)
• Hill Street Blues (NBC)
• Moonlighting (ABC)
• Murder, She Wrote (CBS)
• St. Elsewhere (NBC)

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

• Peter the Great (NBC)
• Dress Gray (NBC)
• The Long Hot Summer (NBC)
• Lord Mountbatten: The Last Viceroy (PBS)
• On Wings of Eagles (NBC)

|+ {{sronly|Acting}}

• Michael J. Fox as Alex P. Keaton in Family Ties (NBC) (Episode: "The Real Thing")
• Harry Anderson as Judge Harry T. Stone in Night Court (NBC) (Episode: "The Wheels of Justice")
• Ted Danson as Sam Malone in Cheers (NBC)
• Bob Newhart as Dick Loudon in Newhart (CBS)
• Jack Warden as Harrison Fox Sr. in Crazy Like a Fox (CBS)

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

• Betty White as Rose Nylund in The Golden Girls (NBC) (Episode: "In a Bed of Rose's")
• Bea Arthur as Dorothy Zbornak in The Golden Girls (NBC) (Episode: "The Triangle")
• Shelley Long as Diane Chambers in Cheers (NBC)
• Rue McClanahan as Blanche Devereaux in The Golden Girls (NBC) (Episode: "The Way We Met")
• Phylicia Rashad as Clair Huxtable in The Cosby Show (NBC) (Episode: "Cliff In Love")

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

• Sharon Gless as Christine Cagney in Cagney & Lacey (CBS) (Episode: "The Gimp")
• Tyne Daly as Mary Beth Lacey in Cagney & Lacey (CBS)
• Angela Lansbury as Jessica Fletcher in Murder, She Wrote (CBS)
• Cybill Shepherd as Madelyn Hayes in Moonlighting (ABC)
• Alfre Woodard as Dr. Roxanne Turner in St. Elsewhere (NBC)

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

• Marlo Thomas as Marie Balter in Nobody's Child (CBS)
• Katharine Hepburn as Margaret Delafield in Mrs. Delafield Wants to Marry (CBS)
• Vanessa Redgrave as Richard Radley and Renee Richards in Second Serve (CBS)
• Gena Rowlands as Katherine Pierson in An Early Frost (NBC)
• Mare Winningham as Margaret Ryder in Love Is Never Silent (NBC)

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

• John Larroquette as Dan Fielding in Night Court (NBC) (Episode: "Best of Friends")
• Tom Poston as Clayton George Utley in Newhart (CBS)
• John Ratzenberger as Cliff Clavin in Cheers (NBC)
• Malcolm-Jamal Warner as Theo Huxtable in The Cosby Show (NBC)
• George Wendt as Norm Peterson in Cheers (NBC)

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

• Rhea Perlman as Carla Tortelli in Cheers (NBC)
• Justine Bateman as Mallory Keaton in Family Ties (NBC)
• Lisa Bonet as Denise Huxtable in The Cosby Show (NBC)
• Julia Duffy as Stephanie Vanderkellen in Newhart (CBS)
• Estelle Getty as Sophia Petrillo in The Golden Girls (NBC)
• Keshia Knight Pulliam as Rudy Huxtable in The Cosby Show (NBC)

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

• Bonnie Bartlett as Ellen Craig in St. Elsewhere (NBC) (Episode: "Haunted")
• Allyce Beasley as Agnes DiPesto in Moonlighting (ABC)
• Christina Pickles as Nurse Helen Rosenthal in St. Elsewhere (NBC)
• Betty Thomas as Sgt. Lucille Bates in Hill Street Blues (NBC)

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

• Colleen Dewhurst as Barbara Petherton in Between Two Women (ABC)
• Phyllis Frelich as Janice Ryder in Love Is Never Silent (NBC)
• Dorothy McGuire as Hester Farrell in Amos (CBS)
• Vanessa Redgrave as Sophia in Peter the Great (NBC)
• Sylvia Sidney as Beatrice McKenna in An Early Frost (NBC)

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

• Roscoe Lee Browne as Prof. Barnabus Foster in The Cosby Show (NBC) (Episode: "The Card Game")
• Earle Hyman as Russell Huxtable in The Cosby Show (NBC) (Episode: "Happy Anniversary")
• Danny Kaye as Dr. Burns in The Cosby Show (NBC) (Episode: "The Dentist")
• Clarice Taylor as Anna Huxtable in The Cosby Show (NBC) (Episode: "Happy Anniversary")
• Stevie Wonder as himself in The Cosby Show (NBC) (Episode: "A Touch of Wonder")

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

• John Lithgow as John Walters in Amazing Stories (NBC) (Episode: "The Doll")
• Whoopi Goldberg as Camille in Moonlighting (ABC) (Episode: "Camille")
• Edward Herrmann as Father McCabe in St. Elsewhere (NBC) (Episode: "Time Heals, Part 2")
• Peggy McCay as Mrs. Carruthers in Cagney & Lacey (CBS) (Episode: "Mothers and Sons")
• James Stacy as Ted Peters in Cagney & Lacey (CBS) (Episode: "The Gimp")

| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{Award category|#EEDD82|Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program}}

• Whitney Houston – The 28th Annual Grammy Awards (CBS)
• Debbie Allen – An All-Star Celebration Honoring Martin Luther King Jr. (NBC)
• Patti LaBelle – Great Performances: "Sylvia Fine Kaye's Musical Comedy Tonight III" (PBS)
• Jon Lovitz – Saturday Night Live (NBC)
• Sarah Vaughan – The 28th Annual Grammy Awards (CBS)
• Stevie Wonder – An All-Star Celebration Honoring Martin Luther King Jr. (NBC)

|+ {{sronly|Directing}}

• The Cosby Show (NBC): "Denise's Friend" – Jay Sandrich
• Cheers (NBC): "The Triangle" – James Burrows
• The Golden Girls (NBC): "The Heart Attack" – Jim Drake
• The Golden Girls (NBC): "A Little Romance" – Terry Hughes
• Kate & Allie (CBS): "Chip's Friend" – Bill Persky

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

• Cagney & Lacey (CBS): "Parting Shots" – Georg Stanford Brown
• Amazing Stories (NBC): "The Mission" – Steven Spielberg
• Hill Street Blues (NBC): "Two Easy Pieces" – Gabrielle Beaumont
• Moonlighting (ABC): "The Dream Sequence Always Rings Twice" – Peter Werner
• Moonlighting (ABC): "My Fair David" – Will Mackenzie

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

• Love Is Never Silent (NBC) – Joseph Sargent
• Death of a Salesman (CBS) – Volker Schlöndorff
• An Early Frost (NBC) – John Erman
• The Execution of Raymond Graham (ABC) – Daniel Petrie
• Resting Place (CBS) – John Korty

|+ {{sronly|Writing}}

• The Golden Girls (NBC): "A Little Romance" – Mort Nathan and Barry Fanaro
• Cheers (NBC): "2 Good 2 Be 4 Real" – Peter Casey and David Lee
• The Cosby Show (NBC): "Denise's Friend" – John Markus
• The Cosby Show (NBC): "Theo's Holiday" – John Markus, Carmen Finestra and Matt Williams
• Family Ties (NBC): "The Real Thing, Part II" – Michael J. Weithorn
• The Golden Girls (NBC): "Pilot" – Susan Harris

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

• St. Elsewhere (NBC): "Time Heals" – John Tinker, Tom Fontana and John Masius
• Hill Street Blues (NBC): "What Are Friends For?" – Dick Wolf
• Moonlighting (ABC): "The Dream Sequence Always Rings Twice" – Debra Frank and Carl Sautter
• Moonlighting (ABC): "Twas the Episode Before Christmas" – Glenn Gordon Caron
• St. Elsewhere (NBC): "Haunted" – {{StoryTeleplay|s=John Masius and Tom Fontana|t=John Tinker, Charles H. Eglee and Channing Gibson}}

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

• An Early Frost (NBC) – {{StoryTeleplay|s=Sherman Yellen|t=Ron Cowen and Daniel Lipman}}
• Lord Mountbatten: The Last Viceroy (PBS) – David Butler
• Alex: The Life of a Child (ABC) – Carol Evan McKeand and Nigel McKeand
• Anne of Green Gables (PBS): "Part I" – Kevin Sullivan and Joe Wiesenfeld
• Dress Gray (NBC): "Part I" – Gore Vidal
• Love Is Never Silent (NBC) – Darlene Craviotto

|+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

|+

! Program !! Category !! Network !! Number of
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