The second season of HBO’s riveting drama series Boardwalk Empire has yet to debut (insiders say the second season’s premiere date will be announced very soon!), but the show is off to a good start in 2011.

On Thursday morning, July 14, in Los Angeles, the Emmy nominations were announced, including 18 noms for Boardwalk Empire, the first season of which kicked off in September 2010.

Actually, HBO in general had an incredible morning, picking up an unheard of 104 total nominations for its programs, which also include the popular miniseries Mildred Pierce and the original TV movies Cinema Verite and Too Big to Fail.

The Los Angeles Times‘ blog reports that the television entity with the second most total nominations is CBS, with 50, followed by NBC with 46. The A&E channel’s original series Mad Men also did well at this morning’s nominations announcement event in California — an annual early-morning ritual on the West Coast — picking up 19 total nominations.

Meanwhile, as HBO’s Boardwalk Empire team has been preparing for the sophomore season debut this fall — last year’s premiere happened on Sunday, September 19, at 9pm (EST), following the final episode of the 2010 season of the premium cable channel’s True Blood series. If HBO sticks with the plan to have Boardwalk Empire air in the same time slot as True Blood — the second season of which just debuted a couple Sundays ago in the 9pm (EST) time slot — then it’s very possible Boardwalk Empire will resume its 9pm time slot on HBO in mid-to-late September, following the end of the current season of True Blood.

In related news: Although the cast, crew, publicists and everyone involved in the HBO show Boardwalk Empire have been guarded about what to expect in the popular drama series’ — set in Atlantic City during the early 1920s — a teaser trailer has been released.

Check out the latest interviews, articles and news items related to Boardwalk Empire on Atlantic City Weekly’s “Boardwalk Empire Notes” page, which is always updated. Recent items include “Battling Booze,” a fascinating and exclusive interview with actor Anthony Laciura, who plays Nucky Thompson’s butler in the show,  as well as Part 1 and Part 2 of Atlantic City historian Allen “Boo” Pergament’s story on the Atlantic City Boardwalk — and all the piers, grand hotels, shops and other long-gone places on the famed wooden way — that used to be.

Finally, actor Vincent Piazza (who plays Lucky Luciano in Boardwalk Empire) will be hosting the party at Caesars’ Dusk nightclub this Saturday, July 16, featuring music by DJ Sat-One.

Click here to read an interview with Piazza published in Atlantic City Weekly a few days before the Sept. 19 premiere last season.

Click here to find the 13-episode “Atlantic City History: Conversations & Storytelling” web video series, inspired by HBO’s Boardwalk Empire series, and featuring  conversations on six selected topics between Atlantic City historians Vicki Gold Levi, All “Boo” Pergament, Pinky Kravitz, Ralph Hunter, Jim Waltzer and Israel Posner.

Watch them at your leisure prior to the season two premiere to brush up on your local history.

It would certainly be welcome for HBO to release the first season of Boardwalk Empire on DVD prior to September, so that fans can brush up on the intricate show, but there has been no information pertaining to a possible release date for such a set. However, we’re taking a stab in the dark and predicting that Season One will be available on DVD and Blue Ray in time for the holiday shopping season.

Tags: boardwal, Boardwalk Empire, lucky luciano, steve

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 14th, 2011 at 12:01 pm and is filed under Atlantic City Miscellany, Awards, Celebrity Interview, Gossip, Local News, Media, National News, Politics, Television, history, nightlife. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.