10 Emmy nominations for Modesto-set ‘American Crime’

The Modesto-set television series, “American Crime,” felt major Emmy love during Thursday morning’s 2015 nominations announcement.

The 11-episode ABC drama, which fell into the “limited series” Emmy category, dominated those nominations with 10 – including best limited series. Also nominated was creator and writer John Ridley, actor Timothy Hutton, actress Felicity Huffman, supporting actor Richard Cabral and supporting actress Regina King.

The show also gained nominations for casting, single-camera picture editing, sound editing and sound mixing.

“American Crime” was set in Modesto mostly in name only. While parts of the Ninth Street area were filmed and used for the show’s opening credits, the series was shot in Texas.

Ridley chose Modesto as the backdrop for his show – which delved into complex and timely issues including race, class, faith, addiction and sex following a violent attack on a young white couple in their home – because of its every-city quality.

“I wanted to set it in a place that was not a small town that had ‘small-town values,’ but at the same time was not a big city where things unfortunately sometimes go unnoticed,” Ridley told The Modesto Bee in March. “Modesto, for a show called ‘American Crime,’ was a place to me, to us, that could represent almost anywhere in America. It’s not a completely unknown place. As a city, it could take on – in all the good ways and all the complicated ways – how people in America think and feel now.”

While the Modesto-set first season of the “American Crime” anthology came to an end in May, the series will return for a second season, this time set in the Midwest. Hutton, Huffman, King and Cabral all are slated to return, all playing different characters in the next chapter.

This story was originally published July 16, 2015 at 5:01 PM with the headline "10 Emmy nominations for Modesto-set ‘American Crime’."