Ritter Emmy Nod "Bittersweet"

For the 2004 Primetime Emmy Award nominees, Thursday was a day of early-morning email, happy surprises--and remembrance.

John Ritter's widow, actress Amy Yasbeck, called her late husband's nomination for 8 Simple Rules... "both beautiful and bittersweet."

"I am thrilled the Academy recognized John for his work on a show that meant so much to him," Yasbeck said in a statement.

Ritter's sentimental nomination for Lead Actor in a Comedy Series came on the strength of just three episodes.

The onetime Emmy winner, and now six-time nominee, fell ill on the set of ABC's 8 Simple Rules... last September and died hours later at a nearby hospital of a ruptured aorta. He was 54.

The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences said it didn't keep stats on how many stars have claimed posthumous Emmys. But it cited Colleen Dewhurst, who won two Emmys in 1991 following her death, as a recent such example.

Other nominee reactions:

Sex and the City siren Kim Cattrall was, as is the way, "very happy" for her Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series nod--her fifth career nomination. (She's never won.)

"I feel so blessed, about being a part of the show, then this nomination--the future is crazy and bright," Cattrall told E!

Sex good-girl Kristin Davis received a call of congrats on her first-ever Emmy nod (for Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series) from old Emmy vet Sarah Jessica Parker, a nominee again in the Lead Actress Comedy category.

With all four Sex stars nominated this year, Davis told the Hollywood Reporter she foresaw a red-carpet reunion for the recently deceased show's team.

"I think we all will be there," Davis told the trade paper.

Amber Tamblyn was "shocked" by her shocker of a Lead Actress in a Drama Series nomination for Joan of Arcadia--despite ample family preparations for the day's big announcements.

"I went into my dad's room and tripped over the phone wire 'cause he had dragged the phone through the hallway and into his room and put it on the chair right by his bed," the 21-year-old daughter of West Side Story great Russ Tamblyn told E!

Sopranos matriarch Edie Falco, a Lead Actress in a Drama Series nominee, called the show's continuing success "pretty crazy"--considering she initially figured the gig would last two weeks.

Whacked Sopranos moll Drea de Matteo was reduced to tears by her first Emmy nomination, for Supporting Actress in a Drama Series.

"If you thought Adriana cried a lot, you ain't seen nothin' yet, 'cause I'm cryin' like crazy now," the Joey-bound de Matteo said in a statement, invoking the name of her late character.

Mogul Donald Trump was relishing The Apprentice's nomination in the Reality-Competition Program category with, dare we say, wide-eyed enthusiasm.

Mogul Donald Trump was relishing The Apprentice's nomination in the Reality-Competition Program category with, dare we say, wide-eyed enthusiasm.

"As someone who is a big Emmy fan and who grew up watching the Emmys...to be nominated is just a great honor," the Donald told E!

Sean Hayes displayed Trump-like modesty in reacting to his fifth-career nomination for Will & Grace. (He's a onetime winner.)

"As an actor on Will & Grace, I feel so privileged to be surrounded by such an incredibly talented group of people," Hayes, tapped for the Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series race, said in a statement.

Emmy-less sitcom great Bob Newhart was "elated and humbled" by his fifth career nomination for what he joked to E! was his "first intentionally dramatic television appearance"--a three-episode stint on ER that earned him a spot in the Guest Actor in a Drama Series race.

James Spader, at work Thursday on Boston Legal, the ABC spinoff of The Practice, was "pleased" and "appreciative" of his first-ever Emmy nomination--a surprise Lead Actor in a Drama Series nod for the phased-out Practice.

Mary-Louise Parker was also before the cameras on Thursday, up in Canada for a Lifetime TV-movie shoot. She told the Hollywood Reporter her Great White North locale meant she was out of the Emmy loop when her nod for Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie, for Angels in America, came down.

"I just got this random email from my friend saying 'congratulations,' and I wasn't exactly sure what he was talking about," Parker told the trade paper. "Then I figured it out."

The "honored and happy" Meryl Streep, a nominee for Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie for Angels in America, along with costar Emma Thompson, said in a statement that she hoped the saga's Emmy success would "enable the piece to be seen by an even wider audience."

Janel Moloney of The West Wing told Variety she wasn't expecting much from the Emmys for her veteran show.

"It's the first and second years that shows get nominated," Moloney told the trade paper Thursday, "but this year, all over the [nominations] are these shows that have done great work consistently and for a long time, like The Sopranos."

As Moloney suggested, HBO's five-year-old The Sopranos was first among all dramas, with 20 nods; NBC's five-year-old The West Wing was second, with 12.

"I say it every year," says Sopranos soldier and Supporting Actor nominee Michael Imperioli, "we have to at some point win best show--it makes sense." To do so, The Sopranos will have to snap The West Wing streak of four consecutive Emmys for Best Drama.

Among the comedies, HBO's gone-to-rerun-heaven Sex and the City led the way with 11 nominations.

To make history, any, or all, of those shows will have to sport a pretty high batting average to break the record for single-season wins by a series, drama or comedy, set by The West Wing in 2000. (The show won nine Emmys that year.)

HBO's love-in-the-1980s epic Angels in America will need to convert at least 10 of its field-leading 21 nominations to establish the new standard for the miniseries. Roots remains the record holder, with nine statues in 1977.

Overall, HBO racked up an overwhelming 124 nominations for its shows. That's the most nabbed by a network since the L.A. Law-powered NBC ran the table with 148 in 1986, the TV Academy said.

According to at least one online oddsmaker, the odds are that HBO will convert its top nominations into top Emmy wins.

WageOnSports.com set its line for the Best Drama Series race Thursday with The Sopranos as the 3-to-2 pick. It also bestowed favorite status to James Gandolfini, an even-money bet for Lead Actor in a Drama Series, and Falco, a 6-to-5 pick for Lead Actress in a Comedy Series.

The site tapped Ritter as the favorite in the comedy actor series category, and Friends' Jennifer Aniston as his counterpart in the comedy actress race.

Fox's low-rated Arrested Development, once a candidate for cancellation, is now a 9-to-5 contender to take the Comedy Series category, WageOnSports.com said.

Arrested's Jeffrey Tambor told E! he hoped the Emmy spotlight would make the "much-praised and little-watched" series "much praised and much watched."

Of all the top nominees, Lead Actress in a Drama Series hopeful Mariska Hargitay, up for Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, is the longest of long shots to win, per the site. It set her chances at 10-to-1.

Talking to E!, the recently engaged Hargitay said she had other things--namely, a wedding--on her mind on Emmy nomination morning.

"The phone rang at 8:32 and it was my grandmother and she was so excited," Hargitay said.

The 56th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards, with host Garry Shandling, are scheduled to be presented Sept. 19 in an ABC telecast.