GA receives VQT award...

08:41 PM ET 08/09/99
'Raymond,' 'The Practice' Honored
By DAVID BAUDER, AP Television Writer

NEW YORK (AP) _ Viewers for Quality Television saluted ``Everybody Loves Raymond'' and ``The Practice,'' but for the first time in four years the citizen watchdog group did not honor a network with one of its annual awards.

The 2,000-member organization named ABC's ``The Practice'' its best drama for the second year in a row. CBS's ``Everybody Loves Raymond'' won four awards, including best comedy.

The group skipped its Network Commitment to Quality award, which NBC has won twice and Fox picked up last year.

``It would have been a stretch to justify giving it,'' Dorothy Swanson, the organization's founder, said Monday, when the winners were announced. It was the first time since starting the network award that the group did not name a winner.

Viewers for Quality Television usually gives out its awards at a banquet around the time of the Emmys. This year it is forgoing the banquet and having members deliver the trophies.

Gillian Anderson of ``The X-Files'' and Dennis Franz of ``NYPD Blue'' were named top actors in dramas. Ray Romano and Patricia Heaton of ``Everybody Loves Raymond'' won top acting awards for comedies. Camryn Manheim and Steve Harris of ``The Practice,'' Doris Roberts of ``Everybody Loves Raymond'' and Peter MacNicol of ``Ally McBeal'' won supporting actor awards.

NBC's ``Will & Grace'' won the group's founders' award, which honors an individual or series that has made a significant contribution but received little recognition.