ISU professor emeritus nominated for national Emmy

ISU professor emeritus Mike Trinklein received an national Emmy nomination this summer for his PBS series Pioneers of Television.

"It's just an honor to be mentioned in same breath with the quality programs in our category," said Trinklein. Pioneers of Television was nominated in the Outstanding Nonfiction Special category along with productions from HBO, CBS and Pixar. Nearly six years in the making, Pioneers of Television is a 4-part series that melds new HD interviews with rare archival clips to offer a fresh take on TV's founding celebrities.

"The stars deserve all the credit for this nomination," Trinklein added. "Our hats go off to the people we interviewed; icons like Andy Griffith, Dick Van Dyke, Jonathan Winters, Mary Tyler Moore, Bob Barker, and Betty White.

Trinklein and production partner Steve Boettcher interviewed more than 100 celebrities for the series—including Merv Griffin's final interview before he passed away.

Trinklein taught television production at ISU from 1984-2004 before moving into full-time writing and producing. "I had dozens of students who showed more promise in their 20s than I ever did," Trinklein said. "The challenge was convincing them to move to Hollywood. Idaho kids tend to like Idaho."

Trinklein's wife, Lynne (an ISU graduate) is especially looking forward to attending the televised 60th Annual Emmy Award Ceremony Sept 21st. "Lynne hopes they seat us next to James Gandolfini of The Sopranos," Trinklein said. "But I had to tell her, he's one of the competitors." Gandolfini's HBO documentary on the Iraq war is one of the other five programs nominated in the same category as Pioneers of Television.

And although it sounds like a cliche, Trinklein is quite sincere when he says, "It's just an honor to be nominated."