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Wednesday, September 1, 2010

A Few Thoughts about the Emmys

The opening, in which Jimmy Fallon, members of the cast of Glee, Tina Fey, Joel McHale, and Jorge Garcia (amongst others) sang and danced their way on stage to Springsteen's Born to Run was pretty awesome.


Once again, clips of the nominated performers work were left out. I know this cuts down on the show's running time, but I could do with less presenter banter and more snippets of nominated work. 

Amongst the nominees for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy, there was a 5-in-6 chance that an actor from a show I watch and enjoy would win. The odd man out? Jon Cryer, from the TV cancer that is Two and a Half Men. Thankfully, he didn't win (the award went to Eric Stonestreet (Cam) of Modern Family).

My favorite joke: last year's host, Neil Patrick Harris, before presenting an award, "I would like to thank the Academy for allowing a gay man to host the Emmys two years in a row. Congratulations, Jimmy, you’re doing a great job.'' *rimshot*


Haha! The juggernaut that is The Amazing Race has finally been stopped! After winning in every year of the Best Reality Show award's history, it finally lost. The fact that it lost to one of the few reality shows I watch is just icing. And I've admittedly been saying this through much of the current Top Chef season, but while on stage receiving the award, Padma sure seemed drunk. 


If I didn't have a man-crush on him before, I definitely do now. George Clooney was great, between his appearance in the pre-filmed Modern Family bit (in which he appeared as the new love interest in each of the three family units) and his acceptance speech for a humanitarian award, in which he struck the right note between self-deprecating, humble and appreciative while putting forth a call to action that was direct without being too preachy. 


I've heard nothing but good things about it, but I've only watched a few episodes of Breaking Bad. Damn, that show is intense. By all accounts, though, Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul deserve their awards.

Sorry, Emily Deschanel, but your sister is just way more attractive.


Okay, so here are my problems with the In Memoriam segment this year:
  1. The producers continue to insist on sticking a musician on stage, drawing attention away from the montage of people who passed away in the previous year. 
  2. This time, that musician was Jewel. 
  3. The ceremony is divided into five parts: comedy, reality, variety, drama and miniseries/movie, with the best comedy and best drama awards saved for the end. Instead of placing the In Memoriam segment during one of the logical category breaks, they stuck in the middle of miniseries/movie awards, making it feel like an out-of-place afterthought. 
Mad Men won Best Drama again...shocking.

I thoroughly enjoyed the old TV theme songs the orchestra played throughout the evening as walk on/walk off music, as well as Jon Hodgman's made-up color commentary as winners made their way to the stage. Could have done without the Twittered presenter introductions.

11 comments:

  1. honestly, i didn't even know i missed the emmy's.
    yeah, i'm totes in the loop...

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  2. Eh, you didn't miss much, especially if you don't watch any (or many) of the nominated shows.

    We always DVR it so we can fast forward through the acceptance speeches from people we don't care about and the segments about stuff we don't watch, like most of the TV movie and miniseries awards (since we don't have HBO and all the good stuff in those categories are on HBO).

    This is was an odd year for us, in that a lot of the major awards went to shows we actually watch and enjoy.

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  3. I love George Clooney. I want to hate him but again, still love him. Sigh.

    I stopped watching award shows a few years ago and I really don't miss them. Although I love the highlights. I'm the person checking the ET website the day after just to see who won, who fell, what everyones wearing, etc. I do miss the dead people montage though. It's my favorite and I always cry. I hate crying.

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  4. Found your blog over at Hannah Kincade's! This looks like a fun place to be.

    I have too short of an attention span to watch the Emmy's, Oscars, and any other type of award show. Although I heard Jimmy Fallon was great!

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  5. @Hannah: I always like the dead people montage too (but then, I like most any montages), though I've hated them lately, because both the Oscars and the Emmys for the last few years have done that annoying thing where they have someone singing a sad song on stage during the montage.

    The cameramen don't seem to know what to do, so sometimes you get an oddly framed shot of the singer and the montage in the background, or they cutaway to the singer, and I'm like "I don't care about stupid Jewel! Just focus on the montage!"

    @Julie: Welcome! And thanks for checking us out.

    I have too short of an attention span to watch the Emmy's, Oscars, and any other type of award show.

    With the exception of the Oscars (which I adore) I don't think I'd be able to watch many awards shows without the ability to record them and then fast forward through all the commercials/boring speechs/etc.

    Although I heard Jimmy Fallon was great!

    I'm kinda hit or miss with Fallon (and I've never really watched his late show) but he did do a pretty good job. I was pleased.

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  6. Is there hopes Survivor will one day end, too?

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  7. @Alex: Ha! There was a point a few years back, after the initial Survivor fervor died down, that it seemed like maybe it wouldn't be able to continue to churn a profit, and thus was destined for cancellation.

    It must have settled into a steady level of (profitable enough) viewership after that, cuz now it seems like another Survivor season is as certain as death and taxes.

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  8. we took a break on Survivor, but now we've come back to it again and enjoy it

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  9. Late again...

    I really liked that opening too. Honestly, I was afraid they might be pushing it by focusing on such media darlings as Glee, Tina Fey, Jon Hamm, and Betty White — risking backlash or protests against the so-called intellectual elite (not everyone gets AMC, not everyone "gets" 30 Rock or even the now-ubiquitous Glee) — but then I realized that these were quality performers whom I'm thrilled to see getting the exposure they deserve and I shouldn't worry about it.

    And I hope that whoever hosts the Oscars this year has Scott Pilgrim low-res videogame graphics periodically showing the evening's "stats". 8^)

    Haha! The juggernaut that is The Amazing Race has finally been stopped! After winning in every year of the Best Reality Show award's history, it finally lost. The fact that it lost to one of the few reality shows I watch is just icing.

    Uh... You sure that wouldn't be Cake Boss? Actually, I don't watch either that or Top Chef, but Race is pretty much the only reality show I do watch. The others are Survivor on occasion and Last Comic Standing when they air it. While there are social aspects of Race and especially Survivor (it being part of the game), I still find the challenges — or in the case of Comic, the performances — the compelling part and I'd probably chew through my own wrist to get to the remote if handcuffed to a chair in front of non-competition reality shows like Jersey Shore or Pampered Bi— uh, Real Housewives.

    I loved that Modern Family video as well, including George Clooney's cameo, and also admired his acceptance speech. My feelings for him might lean more towards "bromance" than "man-crush" — not that he ain't handsome — but running in his lane must be exhausting. I still think he'd have been a formidable Batman with a different movie around him; Jon Hamm is exactly what Bruce Wayne looks like, but Clooney is pretty darned close, and both have the acting chops to pull off a very faithful adaptation of the comics' traditional dark but not entirely humorous persona.

    Yeah, Breaking Bad can be hard to watch but it's so worth it.

    Likewise agreed on much else: the Deschanels (Emily is great on Bones, however), the "In Memoriam" segment (you left out the fact that it made the miniseries/movie segment that much longer, although maybe the idea was to break it up), John Hodgman (I'll have a link to the text of his voiceovers on my blog soon), the Twitter intros.

    VW: cathopi — A flexible tube 3.14159 cm. in diameter inserted for bladder relief.

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  10. Yikes! Sorry... It kept telling me that my comment was too large, and it didn't show up right away, so...

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  11. @Blam: Honestly, I was afraid they might be pushing it by focusing on such media darlings as Glee, Tina Fey, Jon Hamm, and Betty White — risking backlash or protests against the so-called intellectual elite (not everyone gets AMC, not everyone "gets" 30 Rock or even the now-ubiquitous Glee)

    I was kind of apprehensive too, but by the time Hurley showed up, I was enjoying it too much to worry.

    And I hope that whoever hosts the Oscars this year has Scott Pilgrim low-res videogame graphics periodically showing the evening's "stats"

    Ha! That would be awesome.

    I still think he'd have been a formidable Batman with a different movie around him

    Agreed; there's nothing about him that suggests he was the problem with that movie. Give him a real director with a real script, and he would have made a good Batman.

    John Hodgman (I'll have a link to the text of his voiceovers on my blog soon

    Awesome! I'm looking forward to that.

    Yikes! Sorry... It kept telling me that my comment was too large, and it didn't show up right away, so...

    No worries, it's all good now.

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