The ratings were about the same as last year. So congratulations to the Chabad telethon.
In response to my comment about winner Jim Parsons I received a nice note from Dav
id Hyde Pierce reminding me that HE is the young David Hyde Pierce.MAD MEN’S Matt Weiner also emailed to say that his co-writer Erin Levy was being hugged by her father out of camera view and that’s why she lagged so far behind him bounding up to the stage. Thanks Matt. There should be walk-off music for winners who hug too long in the aisles.
The three-hour show finished on time although I’m sure the producers were worried that the minute they got off the air they’d realize, “Shit! We forgot to give out Best Actor”.
One reason the Emmys didn’t get stellar ratings is that a lot of people (most everyone I talked to) found themselves saying, “Who’s that?” fifty times during the broadcast. That’s the good and bad news of all the new faces now on the TV scene.
Jimmy Fallon generally got very positive reviews. Of course, after the year the five reality show emcees hosted, Manny Ramirez could do a better job.
How many A-list parties will Temple Grandin be invited to NEXT year? She’s this year’s Roberto Benigni.
What does the Academy have against serial killers?
Please Academy: no more lame bits introducing the accountants, don’t strive for class and elegance and then feature Kim Kardashian, don’t have washed-up pop stars sing their own dreary compositions for the “In Memoriam” feature. Think of the dear departed themselves. Do you think Soupy Sales would have okayed that Jewel song for his funeral?
I couldn’t tell. There’s a rumor going around that for the “In Memoriam” tribute they showed a shot of Fred Savage and identified him as Corey Haim.
BREAKING BAD won’t have their new season on the air soon enough to be eligible for next year’s Emmys. So Hugh Laurie will lose to Jon Hamm instead of Bryan Cranston next year.
The most beautiful girl of the night was never shown on camera. Brook Burke of (judging by the just-announced contestants) DANCING WITH THE FREAK SHOW.
How soon until the major networks dump the Emmys and they’ll start rotating between cable networks? So one year they’re on LOGO, then BOOMERANG, then the Home Shopping Channel.
Comedy writing staffs for every show spent at least two hours this morning ripping the shit out of every single person who won. An hour just on Julia Ormond alone. But all the winners were ingrates, lucky, talentless, undeserving, fat. All except Betty White. She'll be spared.
Thanks for all the nice comments on my Emmy review. It was much harder to write this year because the show wasn’t that bad. I think Fox has it next year so that shouldn’t be a problem. Tim McCarver will make the perfect host.
While the Corey Haim picture could've passed for a thinner Fred Savage, I think that was definitely Haim.
ReplyDeleteWhen they cut to commercial before the "In Memoriam" feature, my wife and I both thought they showed a picture of Fred Savage.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteBy this time next year, Manny Ramirez may be available to host it...
ReplyDeleteIt was a Corey Haim picture, but the "In Memoriam" people could have pasted a clarification under his photo, "Not Fred Savage."
ReplyDeleteJimmy Fallon was good, the musical number was funny.
A good Emmy show is when your picture doesn't pop up during "In Memoriam."
ReplyDeleteAt least he got into the Memoriam section, unlike David Mills (who won what, 2 Emmys and also co-created some of the best TV never to win one?)
ReplyDelete"One reason the Emmys didn’t get stellar ratings is that a lot of people (most everyone I talked to) found themselves saying, “Who’s that?” fifty times during the broadcast."
ReplyDeleteThat's what happens when an industry loses the ability to distinguish between good niche programming and good mainstream programming. MAD MEN's recent season premiere got up a whopping 2.9 million viewers. Yeah, I know the shows on more than once a week and blah, blah, blah, but a rerun of THE MENTALIST last week got 7 million viewers.
Mike
Next year's show on FOX just screams out for, "With your host, Glenn Beck."
ReplyDeleteC'mon Newscorp, unleash the crazy. You know you want to...
To be fair, anything that takes McCarver away from MLB coverage would be a good thing in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteRoberto Benigni is autistic? I had no idea.
ReplyDeleteWasn't the reality-show-hosted show in 2008?
I'm scratching my head over this Savage/Haim confusion. Even if there's a resemblance in that particular shot, are there really that many people out there who couldn't visually process both the photo and the caption (which read, you know, "Corey Haim") in those few seconds? Or did tons of people just assume the caption was a mistake?
ReplyDeleteRe: winners handing off the Emmy so they can fumble with their "thank you" lists: Who needs two hands to hold a slip of paper? I love how actors who can memorize long speeches, and sometimes entire plays, can't commit a handful of names--of people they actually know--to memory for one evening.
"The three-hour show finished on time..."
ReplyDeleteYou can't imagine how hard this show is to produce. The show air time is 3 hours but take away the commercials and the actual time to present the show is closer to two hours. The Grammy's present 9 awards and the Tony Awards 17 (give or take an award-- I can't recall the exact number). The Emmy Awards presented 27.
If the producers try to shift more awards to the Creative Emmys (aka the Primetime Emmys ugly step sister) who ever gets left out screams bloody murder.
As a bonus the network will pick the host for you-- good if it's someone like Neil Patrick Harris or Jimmy Fallon-- death if it's not.
The producers try to keep the show from being an endless stream of talking but have almost no opportunity to inject pure entertainment pieces.
I've worked on the Emmys for the past several years and in my opinion Don Mischer and his team do an unbelievable job putting this show together. I hope they're back in 2011.
Guess I'm one of the few people who grew up watching Corey Haim (and Feldman)'s movies so I never even once thought of Fred. I only saw Corey.
ReplyDeleteFred should be ... proud? People remember him more than Corey?
captcha: fistin <-- when did it get dirty?
Next year's Emmy Awards -- please let it be hosted by Glenn Beck, Tim McCarver, and Stewie Griffin.
ReplyDeleteLet Manny Ramirez interview people on the red carpet -- he'll do the better interviews later in the broadcast, when he figures he's working on his next contract.
It’s the evolution of TV. TV starts were huge when you had three channels to watch. Everyone knew the stars. Today’s home visual media is dominated by hundreds of channels, thousands of youtube stars, hulu, Netflix, video games, MMOs – just the tip. My daughter let me know her favorite media personality is some guy named Shaycarl, and he’s only on youtube. I don’t know if the Emmy’s will always stay in the television box, but I think the world is changing. TV is turning into that thing the old people watch.
ReplyDelete" Max Clarke said...
ReplyDeleteJimmy Fallon was good, the musical number was funny."
The musical number was good. Unfortunately, Jimmy didn't go home when it was over, because he didn't do or say anything amusing afterwords. John Hodgeman's walk-up VOs were funnier than Fallon for the rest of the night.
Ricky Gervais was there. He should have hosted. He's funny!
I found Bryan Cranston's character on Malcolm in the Middle so annoying I've been unable to bring myself to check out Breaking Bad. Is it really that good? I also admit a bias against the idea that anyone could deserve an Emmy more than Hugh Laurie.
ReplyDeleteD. McEwan said...
ReplyDelete"Ricky Gervais was there. He should have hosted. He's funny!"
Ricky Gervais is funnier than just about everyone. The problem is that when you spread him thin enough to be everywhere he might be an improvement, what you end up with is the American version of The Office.
because I had the vision to never believe in me when everybody else did, said
ReplyDeleteThis was like the extra scenes selection on the DVDs. Blogger says, "Hey, I just found this scrap of notes on the night table, and today I can finally read what I wrote. So hey, what the hell......
Oh, I'm sorry, I just described my life.
Just remember, next year, if you can't say anything nice about anybody -- you too could be writing for late night comedy, instead of just for me and my ilk.
On the other hand, I sense we are the kind of ilk that understands being in (or I guess more properly, of) an ilk isn't necessarily as bad as it sounds.
+ Talk about your Colbert-Manilow moments. I may be remembering wrong, because it was 20 years ago, but my cousin was in a picture with Corey Haim, I think as one of three kids in a car on a road trip, and got 8th billing.
ReplyDeleteI miss David Hyde Pierce, I hope he will guest on a sitcom soon (The Big Bang Theory perhaps *wink, wink*). The last time I saw him on TV was when I was channel surfing and saw him guesting on The View!
ReplyDeleteAnd no Hugh Laurie will not lost to Jon Hamm but to Dustin Hoffman who will have HBO Drama Series in January titled "Luck"/ Too bad for Laurie he really deserves to win this year because he submitted the brilliant season 6 premiere episode *sigh*
Doc Leo - Yes, BREAKING BAD is that good.
ReplyDeleteInstead of Hal from MALCOLM IN THE MIDDLE, did you like Dr. Tim Whatley in SEINFELD? How about his five minute spot as Ericsson in BABYLON 5?
Gee Dr. Leo, I thought Cranston was absolutely brilliant on Malcolm in the Middle. In its initial years when it was a hit - Jane Kaczmarek was the one to capture all the critical acclaim but I thought Cranston was as good if not better.
ReplyDeleteTo me he was that rare comic performer who pushed things to the edge without losing his character's humanity - something I think few actors have the nerve or talent to pull off.
I have been really happy to see Cranston finally recognized for the great actor he is - although I think Jon Hamm should have won at least ONE Emmy by now.
To (finally) answer your question though - Cranston's performing style is very different in Breaking Bad than in Malcolm - you should definitely check that show out.
Cranston was great when given the chance for his time in Malcolm in the Middle, and especially where physical comedy is involved. There is episode one about competing with one of those "dance dance" machines - incredible. Plus he doesn't just react, mug, or make mocking noises - he has a range of emotions in one episode. So not TV today. Shocking how different he is in Breaking Bad. So I am now waiting for the mash-up vid of Cranston's roles, something like "Breaking in the Middle"
ReplyDeleteIf you really want to make fun of the Emmys, I strongly recommend getting your hands on a ticket so you can get an eyeful of the various hiccups as the night goes on.
ReplyDelete(Is there a rule that you won't put the award winners on screen so everyone behind the first ten rows can actually see them say their thank yous?)
And I am very sorry to say so, because I adore Mr. Laurie and look forward to his winning an Emmy some day, but the S6 premiere's poor man's Cuckoo Nest was not the way to go.
Thanks Ken, the reviews of the Emmys are always better - almost everything else than the actual Emmys is - but still the networks don't learn.
ReplyDeleteIt is of course too long due to too many awards to give, that's one thing. But also audiences want to view the drama of seeing winning or losing this from people THEY THINK they KNOW. Today we're treated like shareholders at a corporate convention. The corporate version who has to bring on teams, lawyers, consultants, exec producers and must thank producers, agents, lawyers and so many of these no-names thinks they really need to tell their kids watching to go to bed or other such personal insights. Recordings of the old awards ceremonies prove it wasn't always like that. It was brief. So what kills the awards is that which made the networks to begin with - it's corporates trying to talk to themselves (my agent, producer, lawyer, sponsor, our network "comedian/talkshow host", our shareholders, our corporate synergy and so on" rather than audiences, period.
And Fallon is just lamely able to manage some impressions but not ideas - a perfect example of the bloated era after 90s indie Conan.
I can't take any awards show seriously that would ignore Hugh Laurie for six freaking years in a row. Every week, the guy plays the most interesting, complex and intelligent character on TV. He's giving both the best dramatic and best comedic performance on TV simultaneously. He's doing it while reeling off impossible medical jargon in a flawless foreign (to him) accent, and he's playing someone who's both crippled and drug-addicted. If he were doing it in a movie, those last three things alone would force them to invent new categories of Oscars for him. Then throw in that on some episodes, he occasionally juggles and plays multiple musical instruments. And in his copious spare time, he directs and writes critically-acclaimed novels. What the hell else do they want him to do, tap-dance?
ReplyDeleteIt seems as if there's some unspoken resentment against him in Hollywood. It's been particularly noticeable in "Entertainment Weekly," where it took them several years even to deign to mention that "House" was on the air. I still remember the year he won the Golden Globe for best actor on TV, and I couldn't believe they didn't even mention him in their annual "Entertainers of the Year" double issue. Are they just pissed off at him for being British and making American actors look lazy?
Can't wait to hear Tim McCarver emote about how Hugh Laurie's portrayal of House is "Way too deep!"
ReplyDeleteA very exciting moment that I'm not gonna miss. ;-)
ReplyDeleteI love how actors who can memorize long speeches, and sometimes entire plays, can't commit a handful of names--of people they actually know--to memory for one evening.
ReplyDeleteI would assume they do that so as to look modest - 'I really didn't think I'd win, I don't even really have a speech prepared'
I love Hugh Laurie and agree he's deserving of every accolade out there. But Emmy doesn't exactly "ignore" him. He's been nominated 4 times. His peers must not have a problem with him--he's won the SAG award twice. Now Lisa Edelstein--she's definitely been ignored!
ReplyDeleteAs for Bryan Cranston, I first saw him on an episode of DIAGNOSIS MURDER and thought, "Who is this guy? He's good." Was quite surprised by his comedy chops in MALCOLM, and he's just stunning in BREAKING BAD. If he hadn't won 3 Emmys in a row for it, we'd all be saying we can't take seriously any awards show that ignores Bryan Cranston for 3 freaking years in a row. :)
OK, Sephim and bee, I'll force myself to give Breaking Bad a look. I'm sure the producers, cast, crew, sponsors, etc. are all heaving a sigh of relief.
ReplyDeleteBee, re: Cranston and Malcolm, I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree. And no, Sephim, Tim Whatley didn't do much for me, but I thought Cranston was OK in Little Miss Sunshine. (He was in that, wasn't he?)
Agree with Pat Reader about Hugh Laurie and jbryant about Lisa Edelstein, but also with anonymous that I'd have submitted something other than the S6 premier episode. I'd have to go through the whole season again to say what.
One fast note on your Emmy article, Ken-- while it was funny, insightful and showed a multiplicity of otherwise unavailable perspectives, it was apparent that not once did you mention MY NAME.
ReplyDeleteThat I am in radio, not TV, is a small detail, easy enough for a professional writer to wrangle, I think, and, might just get your blog from right here ...to up there.
--Bobby Ocean
I wish DHP could come on Big Bang once as on of Sheldons relatives...that'd be hillarious!
ReplyDelete