Shelly Altman (headwriter, “Y&R”) — Outstanding Writing Team

What do you think stood out this year to bring your team the Emmy award?

Well, we had an amazing year, but we told a really, really powerful story about the death of a child and all that entailed for the parents and the friends and the family. Many of our writers are parents themselves, and all of us really felt this. And a lot of our actors are parents as well, and I think it’s just really the human drama of it. It’s always great when you cry when you’re writing it, and I found myself sobbing while writing the story! It was just a very, very powerful story. And the actors were extraordinary in the roles this year. It was very impressive all around.

It must feel really amazing to write the material that then wins your actors Emmys, as well.

Oh absolutely.

They say it all comes down to the writing. You can be a great performer, but if the material isn’t good, then…

True, but as I’ve said, you can write great words, but if it then doesn’t translate, it’s meaningless. So we were very, very fortunate. And it is great, when you do have a great cast, you can write with the actor in mind. You write for the character, but you also know how it’s going to be played. And it was amazing: the directing, the producing, the acting, all of it really came together. It was great.