| Year |
Series |
Episode |
Winners/nominees |
Network |
1980
(33rd)
[6] |
| Tenspeed and Brown Shoe |
"Pilot" |
Stephen J. Cannell |
ABC |
| Little House on the Prairie |
"Second Spring" |
John T. Dugan |
NBC |
| Lou Grant |
"Blackout" |
Steve Kline |
CBS |
| "Brushfire" |
Allan Burns and Gene Reynolds |
| "Inheritance" |
April Smith |
| M*A*S*H |
"Dreams" |
Story by : Alan Alda and James Ray Rubinfier
Teleplay by : Alan Alda |
| Skag |
"Pilot" |
Abby Mann |
NBC |
1981
(34th) |
| Hill Street Blues |
"Hill Street Station" |
Michael Kozoll and Steven Bochco |
NBC |
| Hill Street Blues |
"Film at Eleven" |
Anthony Yerkovich |
NBC |
| Lou Grant |
"Campesinos" |
Michael Vittes |
CBS |
| "Strike" |
April Smith |
| M*A*S*H |
"Bless You, Hawkeye" |
Dan Wilcox & Thad Mumford |
| Palmerstown, USA |
"Future City" |
Ronald Rubin |
1982
(35th) |
| Hill Street Blues |
"The World According to Freedom" |
Michael Wagner |
NBC |
| Darkroom |
"Closed Circuit" |
Alan Brennert |
ABC |
| Fame |
"A Special Place" |
Parke Perine |
NBC |
| Hill Street Blues |
"Fruits of the Poisonous Tree" |
Jeffrey Lewis |
| Lou Grant |
"Review" |
Jeffrey Lane |
CBS |
1983
(36th)
[7] |
| Hill Street Blues |
"Trial by Fury" |
David Milch |
NBC |
| Cagney & Lacey |
"Jane Doe #37" |
Peter Lefcourt |
CBS |
| Hill Street Blues |
"Eugene's Comedy Empire Strikes Back" |
Story by : Steven Bochco, Anthony Yerkovich and Jeffrey Lewis
Teleplay by : Anthony Yerkovich, David Milch and Karen Hall |
NBC |
| "Gung Ho!" |
David Milch, Jeffrey Lewis and Michael Wagner |
| St. Elsewhere |
"Addiction" |
John Masius and Tom Fontana |
| Two Marriages |
"Pilot" |
Carol Sobieski |
ABC |
1984
(37th)
[8] |
| Hill Street Blues |
"Grace Under Pressure" |
Story by : Steven Bochco, Jeffrey Lewis and David Milch
Teleplay by : Jeffrey Lewis, Michael Wagner, Karen Hall and Mark Frost |
NBC |
| Cagney & Lacey |
"Victimless Crime" |
Peter Lefcourt |
CBS |
| Hill Street Blues |
"Death by Kiki" |
David Milch and Mark Frost |
NBC |
| "Parting is Such Sweep Sorrow" |
Story by : Steven Bochco, Jeffrey Lewis and David Milch
Teleplay by : Jeffrey Lewis, Michael Wagner, David Milch and Mark Frost |
| St. Elsewhere |
"Hello and Goodbye" |
John Masius and Tom Fontana |
| "The Women" |
Story by : John Masius and Tom Fontana
Teleplay by : John Ford Noonan |
| Trauma Center |
"Turnaround" |
Harry Longstreet & Renee Schonfeld Longstreet |
ABC |
1985
(38th)
[9] |
| Cagney & Lacey |
"An Unusual Occurrence" |
Georgia Jeffries |
CBS |
| Miami Vice |
"Brother's Keeper" |
Anthony Yerkovich |
NBC |
| Cagney & Lacey |
"Child Witness" |
Deborah Arakelian |
CBS |
| "Who Said It's Fair?" (Part II) |
Patricia Green |
| Call to Glory |
"A Wind from the East" |
Josef Anderson |
ABC |
| Hill Street Blues |
"Watt a Way to Go" |
Story by : Steven Bochco, Jeffrey Lewis and David Milch
Teleplay by : David Milch and Roger Director |
NBC |
| St. Elsewhere |
"Sweet Dreams" |
John Masius and Tom Fontana |
1986
(39th)
[10] |
| Moonlighting |
"The Dream Sequence Always Rings Twice" |
Debra Frank and Carl Sautter |
ABC |
| St. Elsewhere |
"Remembrance of Things Past" |
John Masius, Bruce Paltrow and Tom Fontana |
NBC |
| Hill Street Blues |
"Remembrance of Hits Past" |
Story by : Jeffrey Lewis, David Milch and Walon Green
Teleplay by : Walon Green |
NBC |
| "What Are Friends For?" |
Dick Wolf |
| Moonlighting |
"Every Daughter's Father is a Virgin" |
Bruce Franklin Singer |
ABC |
1987
(40th)
[11][12] |
| Cagney & Lacey |
"Turn, Turn, Turn: Part 1" |
Georgia Jeffries |
CBS |
| Moonlighting |
"It's a Wonderful Job" |
Debra Frank and Carl Sautter |
ABC |
| Hill Street Blues |
"Fathers and Guns" |
Story by : Jeffrey Lewis and Jerry Patrick Brown
Teleplay by : Jeffrey Lewis |
NBC |
| "More Skinned Against than Skinning" |
David Black |
| L.A. Law |
"Fry Me to the Moon" |
Jacob Epstein, Marshall Goldberg and David E. Kelley |
| "The Venus Butterfly" |
Steven Bochco and Terry Louise Fisher |
| Moonlighting |
"Atomic Shakespeare" |
Jeff Reno & Ron Osborn |
ABC |
| "Big Man on Mulberry Street" |
Karen Hall |
| St. Elsewhere |
"A Room with a View" |
Story by : John Masius, Tom Fontana and Channing Gibson
Teleplay by : Channing Gibson |
NBC |
1988
(41st)
[13] |
| thirtysomething |
"Pilot" |
Marshall Herskovitz & Edward Zwick |
ABC |
| "Therapy" |
Susan Shilliday |
| China Beach |
"Home" |
William Broyles Jr. |
ABC |
| L.A. Law |
"Full Marital Jacket" |
Story by : Steven Bochco and Terry Louise Fisher
Teleplay by : Terry Louise Fisher and David E. Kelley |
NBC |
| St. Elsewhere |
"A Moon for the Misbegotten" |
Story by : Tom Fontana, John Tinker and Channing Gibson
Teleplay by : Tom Fontana |
| thirtysomething |
"Nice Work If You Can Get It" |
Story by : Jean Vallely
Teleplay by : Paul Haggis |
ABC |
1989
(42nd)
[14] |
| TV 101 |
"Rolling" |
Karl Schaefer |
CBS |
| CBS Summer Playhouse |
"Elysian Fields" |
Joan Tewkesbury |
CBS |
| China Beach |
"Where the Boys Are" |
Alan Brennert |
ABC |
| "Xmas/CHNBCH VN '67" |
John Wells |
| L.A. Law |
"His Suite is Hirsute" |
Steven Bochco, David E. Kelley, Michele Gallery and William M. Finkelstein |
NBC |
| Star Trek: The Next Generation |
"The Measure of a Man" |
Melinda M. Snodgrass |
Syndicated |