Boy, I’m glad I’m not reviewing the Emmys this year. Because if you say anything even remotely critical or snarky about anybody or any show or any horribly embarrassing comedy bit these days you’ll be branded a racist. So I’ll just say Glenn Weis proposing to his girlfriend was a great moment and why we tune in for these live events. Betty White is a national treasure. Beau Weaver did a great job as the announcer. I was happy that they managed to include Thad Mumford in the In Memoriam section (my tribute to Thad posts tomorrow). And I cheered when my next door neighbor won an Emmy. Other than that – ugh! (Am I allowed to say ugh? Am I offending anyone if I say ugh?)
As a man who is partially Native American, "Ugh" is offensive to my people, whichever Nation I belong to.
ReplyDeleteSuggest "AAGH" or "Auggh!", if Charles Schulz's copyright has lapsed.
I am VERY MUCH kidding and you didn't miss much.
It was very heavy on the SNL cast (current and previous). And the skits were SNL throwaway skits. Various members came out numerous times.
ReplyDeleteSeriously, the Maya/Fred Emmy-Trivia recurring skit was never funny (despite Maya and Fred trying). It took up so much time (and yet they forced the winners to speak for 30 seconds or less).
The diversity skit could have been funny but it was a knock on any straight white men which was 30% of the audience. Insulting.
The Proposal was GREAT television.
While we've enjoyed the Marvelous Mrs Maizel, we've never laughed out loud.
It's a dry darker comedy...
what's insulting is that hollywood is all talk about diversity. but that's enough for them to pat themselves on the back without actually having to do anything about it.
Deletetheir vendetta against network broadcast -- namely THIS IS US -- is appalling.
ReplyDeleteNot to mention multi-cam sitcoms. Network comedy can be good TV, too.
Deleteexactly! and those are actually funny. and people actually watch them.
DeleteEmmy ratings were down 10% from last year, according to the Wrap. I go there to comment, noting most of the viewers never have seen these series -- and there already are more than 170 comments, full of right-wing talking points about "libs" and the "Democrat Party." Sigh.
ReplyDeleteNo you may not say ugh. Only Native Americans are allowed to say "Ugh". You are only allowed to refer to it as the U-word.
ReplyDelete“Ugh.” Really? Pissed off.
ReplyDelete#MeTarzan
Who is your next door neighbor?
ReplyDeleteWe need more awards shows.
ReplyDeleteYour failure to congratulate the numerous British winners is racist. Numerous.
ReplyDeleteThe Bears-Seahawks game was pretty good (better if you're a Bears fan), and Better Call Saul was excellent. Sounds like I didn't miss much.
ReplyDelete" Because if you say anything even remotely critical or snarky about anybody or any show or any horribly embarrassing comedy bit these days you’ll be branded a racist."
ReplyDeleteDid some critic mention something and received a lot of flak for it? Or is this just in general?
So happy Bill Hader and Henry Winkler won! Perhaps next year "Barry" will knock off "Mr. Maisel" (in the Emmy competition -- not the characters.)
ReplyDelete"Mrs. Maisel." Oopsie.
DeleteJeez, you'd think "you can't say anything nowadays without getting called a racist" would set off your own internal alarm, and it's disappointing here because I know from everything I've read here that Ken's not "like that", at all. I understand that Ken takes care to put out his own take before reading others, so he may not have seen that everybody thought the scripted material was mostly quite weak this year. No problem with criticizing it.
ReplyDeleteBeyond that, I really wonder how cute the live proposal seemed to all the other winners who, from the sound off it, were allotted 45 seconds to give their speeches.
By the way, serious question -- Michael Douglas (who has had esophageal cancer) sounded shaky. Did they digitally clean up his voice for Ant-Man and the Wasp?
Betty White sounded drunk. She should have stayed home.
ReplyDeleteStuttering is not how someone sounds when they are drunk. She is 96!You could see in her eyes that she was frustrated with her words not coming out properly. However, stuttering did not take away from what she said, which was clearly something she had to memorize.
DeleteThat is what age does to you: you're not as quick. She still was alert enough to look at someone to help her walk. Let's hope you're active enough and alert enough to remember that when you reach that age :)
I saw Betty at a "Hot In Cleveland" filming nearly four years ago, and at 92 she was still sharp. I'll gladly give her the benefit of the doubt now that she's 96.
DeleteIt was an unbelievable display of futility in comedy. Awful idea to give Lorne Michaels the keys. Awful choice as hosts. Those two can barely pull it off on SNL with the comforts of a desk, a comedic graphic and those smug smiles. But as hosts of The Emmys? No.
ReplyDeleteThe overuse use of the SNL cast never paid off in laughs, and made me think, Wow, the SNL season premiere is gonna suck if the cast and writing staff have been focusing on THIS turd all month.
The only thing I liked was the nominees were announced quickly in video packages rather than via two presenters. But then they roll out two presenters to do a bad skit anyway. So, "ugh," indeed.
In summary: Awful.
PS - It's time to stop making Maya Rudolph a thing.
Maya and Fred are about to have a show and now I won't have to bother to watch it.
ReplyDeleteSeriously that was stupid. And the rest was marginally better than Weekend Update which I usually turn off.
I used to complain about cable and now I have to complain about streaming. I don't watch this stuff. Would have been nice if Sandra Oh won though
I infer that your view matches mine: that the "we're done" bits -- which appear to have been *trying* to be ironically self-deprecating about how much work we have yet to do -- both didn't land, and weren't funny enough (which aren't quite the same thing, at least to me).
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, the proposal was great, and if any nominee had dark thoughts about available time, I'm betting they didn't even mention them to their actual friends.
As for the presentation of the noms moving to video, that was a clear attempt to speed things up, but I don't think it won them much except to make the presenters look nearly useless, and on the latter grounds, I predict a revolt, moving that material back to the presenters live, next year.
I didn't watch the Emmys. However, while flipping through the channels I did catch one sketch with Michael Che...you know the one...It was sadly NOT funny. In fact, I wonder how many African-Americans may have found it offensive. Alternative programs weren't much better. I watched the "Manson" special on Fox. The so called "lost footage" was anticlimactic at best. Plus, they really didn't give us any fresh insights. It was just stuff we've all heard before. Finally, I'll allow you to say, "Ugh" if I can say, "Oy vey!"
ReplyDeleteM.B.
I still say that SNL has only been marginally funny only occasionally since 1979.
ReplyDeleteAnd, yes, Kevin, Maya Rudolph's 15 minutes have been up years ago...and she's hard af to look at.
Not nearly as much as Chevy Chase is!
Delete#oryourmom
Who was the neighbor who won, Ken? Please let us know, it's not good to bait us like that and leave the name out :)
ReplyDelete@Donboy: Please keep any ideological shaming to yourself. It's not meant for polite company. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteSean
Using the parlance of campus social justice warriors:
ReplyDeleteI'm triggered by the micro aggression of your use of "ugh" in what should be a safe space. It clearly connotes cis normative structures of oppression and their intersection with wealthy power elites.
This really is how they speak.
She was obviously heavily medicated.
ReplyDelete::: Friday Question:::
ReplyDeleteWhy do script slug-lines today indicate “day 1”, “day 2” and so forth? I don’t see them in older scripts (MTM, Bob Newhart, MASH) When (and why) did this become a thing?
What's your take on the "Reparations" Emmy segment?
ReplyDeleteI mean, sure, Marla Gibbs was great on The Jeffersons, and she was actually nominated like 5 times out of the shows 11 seasons. But, she never won, so it must be because she's an African-American, not that others were deserving.
As for Jimmie Walker and Jaleel White, I'm struggling to think of any actors who played such one-dimensional, over-the-top, or buffoonish characters who were nominated or won Emmys.
Honestly, I do not recall ever watching the Emmys
ReplyDeleteI've been taking a look at a recording. The opening number would be embarrassing as a high school play.
ReplyDeleteAs for Betty White, she's an inspiration to a lot of people. A friend in her 70s says that ageism is the last form of prejudice that is really still acceptable to everyone. And yet: sooner or later, unless you die young, it comes to all of us.
wg
Apropos of nothing, my wife is a nurse at U of M and they are probably going to strike soon. They wear red for solidarity, and while she is brilliant, she's not the pop culture maven that I am. I tried to make her familiar with the brilliant MASH episode Peace on Us because of the red theme-just thought you'd like to know that your work and Ken's lives on (has it really been 40 years?)
ReplyDeleteI didn't watch the telecast, but I find it ironic that the person who won for best direction proceeded to pull a move that probably caused headaches for his counterpart in the booth.
ReplyDelete“If you say anything even remotely........”. Norm McDonald almost lost everything overnight (recently) for indicating he felt a little sorry for people like Louis CK who lost absolutely everything overnight. In context it was not offensive to a rational person. A little later, he made a huge mistake—-he was trying to indicate someone was not very smart and in his sudden desperate need not to say retarded, he ended up saying Down’s Syndrome, which he felt horrible about. He apologized, but I don’t know if he is home free or not. What is the world going to be like without comedians? Because we are surely going to lose them all if this blog becomes an “unsafe” place.
ReplyDeleteBetty White was not heavily medicated. Just as your skin wrinkles and sags with age, so do all your tissues and organs, including your larynx. A friend recently developed a facial twitch caused by a blood vessel sagging and putting pressure on a facial nerve. Should they stay home and not subject young people to their age-related idiosyncrasies?
I agree with Wendy about Betty White. I also agree with a blogger on Deadline that the show was nothing but a long advertisement for streaming services and premium channels. I was happy that Henry Winkler won even though I think "Barry" is a bit uneven and a little too dark. I also think that most of the shows that won are just too depressing and, dare I say, unrealistic soap operas that only make me think of Knot's Landing; only with better dialogue and higher budgets.....and lots of magical profanity and nudity. I prefer the much less cynical comedy "Crashing" starring Pete Holmes. Meanwhile, Michael Che is being trolled by Vulture writer Megh Wright for either not seeing "Nanette" with Hannah Gadsby or not enjoying it because he believes that long gut-wrenchingly detailed stories about rape should not be counted as stand-up comedy but rather a one-person show ala Spalding Gray or Eric Begosian. And poor Franz Oz is being trolled by the entire LGBTQ community as being homophobic for saying Bert and Ernie were not gay. .....now dammit, where are my Marx Brothers boxsets??? Freedonia, here I come!!!!
ReplyDeleteDidn't watch. I just wanted to note that announcer Beau Weaver was the voice of Superman in the late-'80s Ruby-Spears Saturday morning cartoon series. That, I watched.
ReplyDeleteAs for Jimmie Walker and Jaleel White, I'm struggling to think of any actors who played such one-dimensional, over-the-top, or buffoonish characters who were nominated or won Emmys.
ReplyDeleteAgreed that Walker and White were not cheated back in the day. However...
Don Adams won three consecutive Emmys for playing Maxwell Smart.
John Ritter (Jack Tripper), Werner Klemperer (Colonel Klink), Ted Knight (Ted Baxter), and Michael Richards (Cosmo Kramer) each won Emmys for their performances.
Frank Gorshin (The Riddler) was nominated for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series.