And the Emmy doesn't go to the Emmys Drawn-out telecast is just one problem facing ceremony in its 50th year

Television's trophy event, the Emmy Awards, turns 50 this year, and it seems like a half-century that people have been complaining about it. Granted, the Emmys do seem to have turned into a sick amalgam of a high school homecoming parade and "Groundhog Day." Every year, the same four or five shows take turns being crowned Best Drama or Best Comedy. HBO stacks the movie and miniseries categories. Dennis Franz has won Best Actor three times. But is that such a problem? Does anybody actually dispute that "ER," "NYPD Blue," "Law & Order" and "The X-Files" - all nominated four years running - are four of the top five dramas on TV? Aside from its fans, does anyone really mind that "Home Improvement" hasn't been up for Best Comedy since 1994? And doesn't every non-statuesque viewer rejoice when Franz takes home another statuette? So let's leave that non-issue aside and turn to the real problem with the Emmy Awards: the telecast. At four hours, the Emmys are longer than any program in any category that doesn't have the word "miniseries" in it. And this despite the fact that only a handful of the total number of trophies will be awarded Sunday night, beginning at 6 p.m. on KSHB, Channel 41. The "creative" Emmys already were handed out in a ceremony that was condensed to one hour and aired Friday on TV Land, a cable channel most Kansas Citians don't get. Imagine: 60 trophies in 60 minutes. Sunday's broadcast will hand out 28 trophies. You could give them all away in an hour and still have time for a rendition of "You're Checkin' in (A Musical Tribute to the Betty Ford Center)" from "The Simpsons," this year's winner in the best music and lyrics category. As for nominations, the other networks are fussing again over HBO. This time it's over HBO's decision to enter "From the Earth to the Moon" in the miniseries category instead of the drama series category. Twelve episodes of the $ 60 million Tom Hanks-produced space odyssey were made, more than the total output of some dramas last season. The networks claim HBO has an unfair advantage over them. Actors in HBO movies can swear and take off their clothes. HBO spends big bucks at Emmy time, loading up academy members' VCRs with fancy "for your consideration" videos. They have a point. In the miniseries category, for instance, my choice would be "George Wallace" for TNT, featuring Gary Sinise's stunning portrayal of the title character. But "Wallace" likely doesn't stand a chance against "From the Earth to the Moon." And HBO's crowd of nominees in the TV-movie category (this year three out of five, last year four out of five) always seems to be one too many. This year, the academy nominated HBO's dreary adaptation of "A Bright Shining Lie," a movie that managed to reduce Neil Sheehan's prize-winning book about military intrigues in the Vietnam War to a sordid tale of John Paul Vann's sex life. On the other hand, looking back over the HBO-winning films over the years, the academy has shown pretty good judgment. Past Emmys have gone to "Miss Evers' Boys," "Truman," "Indictment: The McMartin Trial," "And the Band Played On" and "Barbarians at the Gate." This year, if the voters choose wisely, they'll pick "Don King: Only in America" and reward Ving Rhames' thoroughly entertaining performance as the colorful boxing promoter. The drama and comedy categories each have one new nominee this year. "Ally McBeal" takes the place of "Mad About You" in Best Comedy, with Calista Flockhart nominated for Best Actress in a Comedy, a category with previous winner Helen Hunt and sentimental favorite Ellen DeGeneres in it. And "The Practice" makes the first of what could well be several appearances in Best Drama. Both shows are from producer David E. Kelley, who seems to be on track to succeed Steven Bochco as Emmy's darling. Kelley has already taken home plenty of hardware from his earlier series "Picket Fences."