We all have to watch the Emmy Awards tonight to root for our locally made “Breaking Bad.”

The TV show on AMC has become must-watch TV for many of us because it’s just good TV. The show follows Walter White, played by Bryan Cranston, and his plans to have one last thrill ride — by making and selling drugs — before cancer kills him.

 So far, he’s beating the cancer, but the law is hot on his trail.

The show was nominated for five Emmy Awards, and three of the biggies will be awarded tonight.

The show is up for the granddaddy of them all, though, Outstanding Drama Series. Though it’s up against some tough competition with “Dexter,” “Big Love,” “Mad Men” and “House,” several oddsmakers give the show a chance at the big award.

Cranston won the Outstanding Lead Actor Emmy last year for his work on the show and was nominated again for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama this year.

Actor Aaron Paul, who plays Cranston’s in-over-hishead drug-selling accomplice Jesse Pinkman, was nomi nated in the Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama.

Already, the show is picking up awards, though. At last week’s Creative Arts ceremony, the show’s editor Lynne Willingham picked up her second Emmy for the show in Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Drama Series.

But there’s another reason to watch the Emmys.

Not many realize that one of the stars of “How I Met Your Mother” on CBS, and host of this year’s Emmy Awards show Neil Patrick Harris, is from Albuquerque. The La Cueva High School graduate got his start on the teen drama “Doogie Howser, MD” in the 1990s. But Harris has gained stature for playing conniving, horny ladies’ man Barney Stinson on “How I Met Your Mother,” one of the highest-rated comedies on TV. He’s been nominated for three Emmy Awards in the past, and this year could go home with one himself in the Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy category.

For more on “Breaking Bad,” visit www.amctv.com , then visit www.SaveWalterWhite.com , a Web page written by White’s TV son Walter White Jr. for the show.

The 61st Primetime Emmy Awards will be at 7 p.m. on Channel 13 tonight.

Receiving an honor

When James Hong was 19, he lost at a local talent show in Minneapolis. His comedy act bombed.

But, now, Hong is one of the most in-demand actors in Hollywood and has worked with all of the modern greats, from Groucho Marx to Jack Nicholson, Steve McQueen and Clint Eastwood and in more than 500 films and TV shows.

Hong will be in Albuquerque to receive an award from the Art Has Heart Foundation at a banquet on Sept. 28.

Hong at first gave up on show business to pursue a career as a civil engineer in Los Angeles after graduating from the University of Southern California. Though he liked engineering, his heart was in acting, he said.

“I was doing extras work and bit parts,” Hong said. “I took my vacation, then I took my sick leave, and then I ran out of sick leave and I had to make a decision.”

“My supervisor said ‘I hear you’re going to quit and go into show business. You’ve got a lifetime guaranteed job. Show business? Are you crazy,’ ” Hong said.

His supervisor didn’t want him to leave the job working on roads and drainage projects in Los Angeles County.

“I said, ‘Could you give me a year’s leave of absence?’ And my supervisor said ‘Yes,’ ” Hong said.

Of course, he never returned.

He ended up on Marx’s “You Bet Your Life.” “He gave me his cigar, and I did an impression of him,” he said.

He didn’t win the game show, but his quick wit on the show got him noticed.

Soon, he was getting roles in films like “Soldier of Fortune” and “China Gate,” making more money and having more fun than he ever did as an engineer.

His most notable roles have been since the 1970s, when he played eyeball designer Hannibal Chew in “Blade Runner” and, most recently, did the voice of Mr. Ping in “Kung Fu Panda.”

Though he’s played more than 500 parts, he said good roles are still tough to come by for Asian-American actors.

“I would have liked to have acquired more quality roles and better representations of the Asian-American,” he said, “More doctors and professional people. Ninety percent of the roles I play are subservient.”

In a “Seinfeld” episode, he played a waiter in a Chinese restaurant. In “Fantasy Island,” he played a butler.

“I did a lot of restaurant or laundry owners,” he said.

So, Hong was one of the founders of the East West Players, an L.A.-based theater troupe that encourages young Asian-American writing and performing talent. The goal is to provide more roles for Asian-American actors.

“I’ve been in the business 55 years, and I haven’t seen that much progress,” he said. “The younger people have to take over that role.”

The Art Has Heart Foundation banquet will be at 7 p.m. at Lin’s Chinese Buffet, 10100 Coors Blvd. Tickets are $25 or $50 at the door or by calling Bob Nuchow at 310-562-4578.