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When I get back from vacation. Frankly, I usually find the Academy Of Television Arts & Science nods to be bone-headed. Is this year the rule, or the exception? What with NBC’s 30 Rock receiving 22 nominations, HBO’s Grey Gardens getting 17 , AMC’s Mad Men 16, and HBO’s Into The Storm 14?
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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I hope Michael Emerson wins it this time, he’s the main reason that S5 wasn’t a total snore.
David Duchovny is not the same after his sex addict condition… this thing is really going down his carrer.
What’s with people bashing Family Guy?! That show is HILARIOUS.
Agree with all of the above posters about what a travesty it is that THE SHIELD got left out. I’m still haunted – yes, haunted – by the scene in which Shane kills himself, followed by the reveal of his wife and child lying still and peaceful on the bed.
BIG BANG THEORY – if you haven’t watched it, you should. Very funny. Not necessarily Emmy-worthy though.
FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS – can a brother get a nomination pleas??? Such an excellent show.
MAD MEN – I don’t know…the first season was pure genius. But the second season really kind of dragged. You can argue that the character development was the story, but I just felt like very little actually happened. Feel like it might’ve hit its peak already.
tvwatcher, “The Big Bang Theory” is, IMHO the sharpest comedy writing since “Buffy The Vampire Slayer,” a show which will go down in history nas a classic.
On the other hand, except for Alec Baldwin, nothing on “30 Rock” is funny in any way, certainly far from memorable – name one thing that has entered the zeitgeist from the show – and Tracy Morgan is an embarrassing non-talent hack.
And Krakowski is utterly wasting the prime years of her career on that crapalalooza.
Once again, Hill Street Blues is overlooked – WTF – will somebody let this kid Bochco catch break!
If you need me, I’ll be at the track, I got MASH to place and All in the Family to show.
With no Friday Night Lights, no Shield, and only one for Rescue Me – I am embarrassed by my Academy. And while Sally Fields is a nice woman – can we all please recognize that there are many other women do far superior work than hers on B&S. Same for Sandra Oh on GA. And to get Matthew Weiner 4 noms in writing is an incredible oversight of a lot of fine writing on Breaking Bad, Rescue Me, and so many others. Matthew should be embarrassed but he won’t be.
The epic snubs of January Jones and Christina Hendricks on Mad Men were glaring…especially Jones who is getting a mountain of publicity and praise from critics for over a year now.
Both true blood and battlestar galatica were not nominated. Why do they have such a problem with Science Fiction and fantasy as genres?
Comment by akaison — July 16, 2009 @ 10:14 am
The Academy HATES Sci Fi.
They always have– remember, on the whole, these are NOT imaginative people.
Lost is the only SF series to ever win Best Drama.
Gillian Anderson is only 1 of 2 actresses to win for a SF series, The X-Files, 1997.
Before that, Lindsay Wagner, The Bionic Woman, 1977.
In the 40 years of Emmy, no actors.
Sci Fi does tend to win for best visual effects. Because usually that’s all that’s in the category. Except when Rome won in 2007 & Yo Yo Ma Inspired By Bach won in 1998.
Best buy tickets for the Saturn Awards if you want to see Sci Fi win anything.
Anna Paquin missing from the list is a crime too. She’s such a fabulous actress. The Golden Globes got it right when they chose her over Sally Field for her role in True Blood. True Blood has become a great tv show.
No Rescue Me, Breaking Bad or Damages in writing? What are they nuts?
The Shield is also remarkable. The Emmys are crazy! LOve Mad Men but these other shows are doing outstanding work too. So twisted.
Geez guys, why are you taking the Emmys sooooooo seriously???
It’s just like a high-school popularity contest…has NOTHING to do with quality, don’t ‘cha know? Chill…
I’m disappointed The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency got nothing significant. Both Jill Scott and Anika Noni Rose were pitch-perfect, the writing was subtle yet moving, and it looked beautiful. True Blood is just fantastic pulp television. And I just hope the three lead actresses on Big Love canceled each other out, because all of them are solid.
Family Guy‘s best years look to be behind it. It’s now the Seth McFarlane’s Strident Liberal Issues Cartoon: this week we promote atheism, next week we promote pot legalization, etc. It’s becoming the cruder socialist South Park, which would be forgivable if the jokes weren’t starting to fall flat.
I’m disappointed The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency got nothing significant. Both Jill Scott and Anika Noni Rose were pitch-perfect, the writing was subtle yet moving, and it looked beautiful.
Comment by Name — July 16, 2009 @ 8:07 pm
I couldn’t agree more. But the Academy would never honor a series that didn’t depict Africans (let alone African Americans) as anything but buffoons (That’s right, Tyler Perry, I f***ing said it!) or criminals (The Wire) or victims (The Corner) or both (The Wire & The Corner– there’s really not much else). Particularly in lead roles. They prefer their blacks in subordinate positions. You know, “the good kind”.
Maybe next year the non threatening, boring & bland “Hawthorne” will get a bone.
IF it doesn’t get canceled, thus further proving blacks can’t carry a series.
Damages should win Best Drama.
The Emmy Awards leaves out an entire genre of very high quality and very popular programming. That genre? Non-fiction/reality/documentaries in the crime, crime scene investigation, and criminal investigation genre. Has anyone ever seen Psychic Detectives, Body of Evidence, Haunting Evidence, The First 48 Hours, Lockup Raw, Forensic Files, or Cold Case Files nominated for any Emmy Award? No, and I’m not sure why that is.
All those programs are, or were, among the finest shows ever put on television. That a number of these very good programs were replaced with shows like Rehab at the Hard Rock, Operation Repo, Speeders, The Principal’s Office, and other totally mindless, inane and often “scripted” shows aimed at an audience of pimply-faced, hormonally driven teenagers who are much too busy texting each other to sit through television programs aimed at them… and adults with the attention span of a two-year-old and the IQ of a kumquat.
Maybe the answer to why the Emmy Awards doesn’t recognize quality programming is that many of them are pimply-faced and hormonally driven teenagers themselves, either that or their adults with the attention span of a two-year-old with the IQ of a very dumb kumquat.
True Blood wasn’t nominated despite the hotness that is Anna Paquin because watching guys making out with guys makes straights barf.
I agree totally with those who commented on the omissions in the writing category: MAD MEN is good, but in no way does it deserve 4 out of 5:same w/30 ROCK–I mean, come on..in comedy, what about the writing on UNITED STATES OF TARA? or WEEDS? Or BIG BANG THEORY? on and on. I also am a fan of SONS OF ANARCHY, which was completely blanked–Katy Sagal is great in that show,and as good an actress as Cherry Jones is, Sagal should’ve been nommed in that category..And the best actress in drama–I like Mariska Hargitay, but come on already..how about some new blood, there?? Someone OTHER than Sally Field from Brothers & Sisters, maybe? Or, from Dexter, Julie Benz or Jennifer Carpenter??(not sure if they’d be considered lead or supporting, but..)
Also, United States of Tara i/m/o deserved a slot for comedy,(general) And USA–except for the ever-present (again enough already) Tony Shalhoub–nothing for BURN NOTICE, or IN PLAIN SIGHT..Surely if Simon Baker deserves a nod, doesn’t Jeffrey Donovan??!! It’s really ridiculous..
So, regardless of whether we’re taking them ‘too seriously’ or they’re just a popularity contest or not, it’s really too bad that so many deserving people in all categories were left out.
yes, and let’s not forget Jemaine Clement (yum) getting a nod for best lead actor…not that I think he’s a great actor, but he is damn funny and terribly adorable.
Really? “Psychic Detectives” deserves an Emmy? Really?
But on a more serious note… I’ve been watching reruns of West Wing on Bravo lately, and it merely serves to remind me just how far off the deep end NBC has managed to go. Will we ever see the return to quality network drama like that? Or will Dancing With Big Brother’s Biggest Bachelor Losers reign supreme for the long haul?
Every time my wife catches a minute of Biggest Loser, we find ourselves getting sucked into it’s holier-than-though message of hope and triumph of sprit. We get that tickle in our throats and heaviness of the eyes, and it reminds me of so many Hollywood blockbuster tear-jerkers that make me wanna pitch my forehead into a wall for getting suckered into their saccharin melodrama.
Mad Men is excellent writing (and a team sport, I assure you), deserving of a network voice. Too bad it’s being relegated to AMC — a network so devoid of vision and purpose, it’s truly shocking that they’ve managed to hold onto to it. There is the miniscule (talented yet powerless) group responsible for MM and BB, but That’s It.
Maybe it’s time for Jeff Zucker to suck it up and troll for talent in the Cable pool. If he’d just get his head out of his ass – and Ben out of the corner suite – there’d be hope for network TV once more.
and i see the acad found a way to get ricky gervais, chris rock and will farrell into a category the acad’s rules say no to. there aren’t supposed to be broadway shows or concert tours in the variety category. only specials/shows first created for tv. how desperate are these people! they ignoer rules after being lobbied by hbo to try and get stars on the primetime show, when they should be in a category that goes on the kiddie hour show a week before. does pia zadora get nominated by these guys, too?
The reason Family Guy is nominated and South Park isn’t is because of the Academy’s archaic rules. Animated shows aren’t allowed to compete for Best Comedy unless they forego competing for Best Animated Show. You have to choose one category. Why?
And it’s been tried a few times, but the animated shows never got nominated, so they gave up until Seth MacFarlane tried and succeeded. Don’t blame Seth. It’s the rules that need to change.
What you said about The Wire is complete bullshit and proof that you don’t know squat about it, so take your defective POV elsewhere!
What a yawner. I thought I was reading last years nominees. They are insane not to nominate RESCUE ME for writing, acting (Leary, Callie Thorne, John Scurti). Big deal they gave Michael J. a token nod.
Jim Parsons finally recognized for his talent. Yay!!
And network TV? don’t get me started……
well hurry up before none of us can read our computer screens due to seth mcfarlane’s head getting bigger by the second!
What you said about The Wire is complete bullshit and proof that you don’t know squat about it, so take your defective POV elsewhere!
Comment by Hey anonymous — July 17, 2009 @ 10:03 am
If you’re referring to what I said about The Wire being nothing more than another forum of racist stereotypes of criminals & victims that are perpetuated to make people like you comfortable, your empty defense merely substantiates my point.
How typical.
I’ll keep my 1st Amendment right where ever the f**k I want, thank you very much. Or do you think, along w/ my defective POV, I should take that to the back of the bus, too?
And as long as Nikki permits since it’s her blog, that tends to be right here.