The Humanitas Prize is an award for film and television writing, and is given to writers whose work explores the human condition in a nuanced and meaningful way.
[1] It began in 1974 with Father Ellwood "Bud" Kieser—also the founder of Paulist Productions—but is generally not seen as specifically directed toward religious cinema or TV.
When establishing the Humanitas Prize, Kieser determined that the writer was the source of the most humanizing values in any program and should therefore be the focus of the awards.
Although lists of Humanitas Prize winners for television categories often tell only the name of the program, the award is made to the writers of specific episodes, and more than one episode of a given show may be among the finalists in any given year; similarly, reports on the film categories often give more prominence to the film's title, but the award goes to the writing staff.
"[4] The most wins—four—by any single program was for writers of the TV series M*A*S*H: Larry Gelbart, 1976; Alan Alda (with James Jay Rubinfier), 1980; and the team of David Pollock and Elias Davis in 1982 and 1983.
Writers who have won three times include Aaron Sorkin (for The West Wing and Sports Night), David E. Kelley (Picket Fences, The Practice), David Milch (Hill Street Blues, NYPD Blue) and Marshall Herskovitz (thirtysomething, Once and Again, and the telefilm Special Bulletin).
[8] In season 4, episode 19 of Boston Legal, Carl Sack, played by John Larroquette, stated, "Well, there goes my Humanitas Award," after a long rant against organized religion.