Seeking good to reward

It began back in 1974, a low-key award ceremony no bigger than a Shriners convention held at the Sportsmen's Lodge in the San Fernando Valley. Back then, the Humanitas Prize quietly honored television screenwriters who managed to do good while also doing well. Small cash prizes were handed out to reward scripts carrying progressive messages felt to advance mankind's self-understanding and somehow encourage the golden rule: love thy neighbor.

This year, Humanitas' 30th anniversary may be best remembered as something of an annus horribilis. Though there was good work to celebrate on Thursday -- when Steven Knight's feature film "Dirty Pretty Things," Tony Kushner's adaptation of "Angels in America" for HBO and Barbara Hall's TV drama "Joan of Arcadia," among others, were recognized -- to hear it from some in the industry, Humanitas' goal has never seemed more at odds with Hollywood's commercially minded operating principles.

"It's been a hard year for the prize," said Father Frank Desiderio, president of the Humanitas board of directors, who acknowledged that submissions in many of the award categories dropped significantly in 2004.

"Reality television is pushing sitcoms and made-for-TV movies off the air, there's no governing body encouraging children's television to have a pro-social message, and action movies are pushing the more humanistic movies to the fringe."

Humanitas began in an era best remembered for giving rise to socially redemptive yet entertaining fare such as "MASH" and "All in the Family." Over the next three decades, the prize -- the brainchild of a charismatic and well-connected Roman Catholic priest turned television producer, Father Ellwood "Bud" Kieser -- grew to include feature film, indie movie and children's categories.

Along the way it became, with the Oscar, Emmy and Writers Guild of America awards, one of screenwriting's more prestigious prizes.

The big picture

The difficulty in finding Humanitas-worthy scripts reveals just how marginalized entertainment that explores positive depictions of human relationships has become.

"The Humanitas problems reflect the problems of the screenwriting community in general," said Barbara Hall, one of the award's television trustees, who, recusing herself as a judge this year, won in the 60-minute category for the pilot episode of "Joan of Arcadia." "Dramatic and comedic programming are down. Reality programming is up. It's a very different market -- and medium -- than in years past."