Here are some excerpts from a great pre-Emmy article. You can read the whole article here.

Look no further than this year’s nominees for lead actor in a miniseries or made-for-TV movie: They have a total of 26 nominations among them — and only one, Matthew Perry, is below the age of 50 (he just turned 38).

As for Perry, it’s significant that he has escaped the shadow of his “Friends” alter ego, Chandler Bing, to earn an honor for such a serious role, portraying a small-town teacher who embraces the challenge of working in an inner-city school. “Matthew had read a lot of scripts by the time he’d gotten around to ours,” says “Ron Clark Story” executive producer Brenda Friend. “He wanted to distance himself from Chandler and that association and was looking at a bunch of things to take his career to the next level. We were fortunate that he chose us. He turns in phenomenal work that very much would justify an Emmy.”