Ray Richmond is contributing to Deadline’s coverage of TCA

Kurt Sutter, the sometimes volatile showrunner of the FX biker drama hit Sons of Anarchy, acknowledged this morning during TCA a panel that his angry tweets taking the TV Academy to task for shutting his show out of the Emmy nominations was “more about my bad relationship with my father than they are about the actual nominations.” Sutter had taken to Twitter on July 14 in the immediate wake of the noms announcement and wrote, among other things, “The worst part about not getting an Emmy nod — (wife) Katey (Sagal) promised me a threesome if she won. Now I have to settle for me, her and the shaved bunny.” And: “The worst part…is all the wasted blowjobs I gave at the Academy picnic. My breath still smells like sour ammonia.”

This morning, Sutter observed, “If any of you want to lay me down on a couch and get me to open up about that afterward, I gladly will.” Afterward, Sutter declined the couch part but elaborated, “To me it was a very sardonic response and it was done making fun of the whole process. My part in it is that I should have realized that because of my past comments about the Emmys, (whatever I tweeted) would be taken in light of that…Most of the Academy members are just slobs like me and work long hours. It’s not like they all get together and say, ‘Let’s not recognize Sons.’ I don’t think there’s any sort of agenda.” But Sutter concluded, “I don’t ultimately regret anything I say or do.”

The panel itself traversed how Sons of Anarchy would be evolving in the new season premiering on Sept. 6, and the hiring of respected veteran producer-director Paris Barclay as a series producer. Barclay noted, “You only maybe get two or three chances to find a show where the passion is as good as the writing is as good as the cast. I’ve been lucky to have a couple, and this show has that nexus.” He also called Sutter “one of the three greatest living writers of television along with Aaron Sorkin and David Milch.”