Emmys '08

Random thoughts from last night's Emmy telecast...

In the past few year's the Grammy's have made me feel like I am out of touch, but for someone who watches a fair amount of television - and some of it "good" - it was a tad surprising that I only had first-hand experience with only 2 of 10 major drama and comedy awards (best show, leading and supporting acting):  Jeremy Piven for  'Entourage' and Dianne Wiest for 'In Treatment' - and interesting that they're both HBO shows.

Speaking of Piven, while I think he is great as Ari on 'Entourage'... but three wins in a row??  Seems a bit of overkill.  I would have loved to have seen either Rainn Wilson or even better Neil Patrick Harris take it this year.  Also, falling under "I love it/but really?!?" The Amazing Race won its 6th consecutive award for best reality series and remains the only show to have won an Emmy in this category.  I'd be willing to throw American Idol or Dancing With The Stars a bone for this one...

Speaking of reality, of course we were well aware that this was the first year that a host of a reality series go to take home an Emmy.  The 5 nominees were the hosts for this year's show -- and while an interesting idea -- I have to agree with pretty much everything I read this morning... painful... particularly the opening.  Though I loved how they announced the winner with the now inevitable "after the break" teaser.  I still question the need for this category... but I thought Jeff Probst was a deserving winner, even though, for me, the show is past its prime.  I was rooting for Tom Bergeron, who is terribly entertaining and embraces the cheese of this genre on Dancing... pretty much anyone other than Seacrest, who has somehow become an industry upon his own and raked in 10s of millions along the way.

Speaking of Probst, he was responsible for a pretty good "search hits" night/morning here at W&C - as dozens upon dozens of folks are looking to see him in some state of undress - which I actually do supply here and here. 

While we came up pretty empty on the drama and comedy awards, we were familiar with many of the winners in the miniseries and TV movie categories - very odd since we rarely watch either of those two things... but we did see the two big winners of the night... and again, both from HBO... John Adams (which we still have to finish!) and Recount. 

No surprise, that I loved the Josh Groban (pictured above) TV theme show medley -- even if it seems to be getting mixed reviews this morning.  Given that his music is so often serious, it was nice to see him loosen up and have some fun... and he pulled off some odd choices (Fresh Prince, South Park).  I guess I would listen to him sing the proverbial phone book, because I would certainly buy an album of him singing all these theme songs!

The whole set set-up leading into the presenters was odd... and occasionally just misleading.  The Desperate Housewives ladies posing like they were on Family Feud was pretty awful and only surpassed by the horrendous teleprompter lines they had to go through when it came around to presenting their award.  And if was I wrong to think there was going to be some kind of M*A*S*H reunion and not two cast members from Grey's Anatomy popping out of the tent ... or later from the same set, Kathy Griffin and Don Rickles, who thankfully mocked the whole presenter shtick.  One of the few "winners" with this gimmick, was Martin Sheen's return to the Oval Office (pictured above ) which again made me wistful for a now dormant faith in the political process..

Likewise, it was fun to see WJM set and the Mary Tyler Moore coming through the swinging doors - but I am not alone this morning in noting that the frail MTM really needs to wear sleeves. 

Instance #56 that I am losing touch with television: I was not even aware of a show called Breaking Bad for which Bryan Cranston won an Emmy for leading actor in a drama series.

I guess I will give 30 Rock yet another try this year.  Other than my previously (oft?)-noted dislike of Alec Baldwin and Tracy Morgan, everything tells me I should love this show... but I have started and stopped watching the show on two different occasions.  I do love Tina Fey... and by far, she had the best speech of the night (pictured above)... and the line of the night (I had immediately rewind and listen to it again):  "I thank my parents for somehow raising me to have confidence that is disproportionate with my looks and abilities.  Well done.  That is what all parents should be."   

And I also loved her hat-tip to  fellow nominee, Julia Louis-Dreyfus... with Fey noting that when she questions her own acting ability, her husband tells her to "just act like Julia Louis-Dreyfus" ... kudos to JLD for coming up with the spontaneous thumbs-up and facial reaction to that (pictured above)!

Comments

[Jeff]

I only ended up tuning in near the end (but did catch the Josh Groban medley on YouTube). The "reality-competition" and "reality" categories have always struck me as kind of strange and/or vague (which can be said for other categories too). How does one evaluate "The Amazing Race" (a feat of worldwide production and editing, but in essence, yes, a game show) with more conventional shows?

Then I started thinking, if "Antiques Roadshow" can be nominated as a "reality" program, then does that mean all instructional or educational programming can be considered "reality"? Then I realized there are daytime Emmys for that. Meaning we won't ever see, like, "This Old House" vying against Kathy Griffin. LOL.

I love "30 Rock"!

(Agreed re: MTM. Love her, but HD is not kind to aging arms.)

[Scott K]

I didn't watch 30 Rock either until this past summer.

When it debuted, it felt like NBC was forcing it on us - "You will like 30 Rock because we said so." I'm also not a fan of Alec Baldwin or Tracy Morgan so the show didn't appeal to me.

This summer though I started watching a few episodes on Hulu and like them. Since I also joined Netflix (free month), I used the "watch online" option to go back and see most of the first season.

I don't know if I'll commit to TiVo'ing it every week, but it is a very smart, well-written comedy. In many ways it reminds me of one of my other favorite comedies of years past, Arrested Development. 30 Rock is probably the best comedy on television right now and deserves its Emmys for writing, best comedy, and Tina Fey. Not sure about Alec Baldwin's Emmy worthiness though. He's good in the show, but I still don't like him.

[Scott K]

P.S. Please forgive my obvious typos in the previous comment. I didn't proofread before hitting the "post" comment button.