Ken reviews the 2017 Emmy Awards ceremony in his delightfully unique snarky (but accurate) way. Written and posted only hours after the annual self-love fest, Ken weighs in with his humorous take. Totally objective even though he’s bitter he didn’t win an Emmy this year. Also, the announcement of the Cheers script contest winner!
Off topic: On this day, 45 years ago, M*A*S*H premiered.
ReplyDeleteKen, you're mentioned a couple of times in this celebratory post from Mental Floss:
http://mentalfloss.com/article/68457/17-painless-facts-about-mash
45 years ago? Good Lord.
Ken, which episode was the script from??
ReplyDeleteI'm with you on Oprah, Ken. I never understood her appeal to begin with. Her show was a slightly milder Springer or Phil Donahue. Though I will admit, she's a decent actress in her limited TV and film roles.
ReplyDeleteJermaine Fowler's style is part of the trend I've watched over the past 20 years or so inside the fabulous, wonderful world of voiceover: Young voices, affected voices, street voices. In other words, not my voice. OK, I can live with that. I do what I do (annoying car-voice guy for accounts in Dallas, Chicago and other cities...) Maybe to get more gigs I should change my style and maybe my name, too.
ReplyDelete- Run DC-3 Flashmaster Ox
Can never understand why a winner's speech gets cut off. They WON! They are entitled to give a speech. Cut the irritating worthless adjective-filled blather between presenters talking about writing and directing and acting. We already know what all of that is. And who decided to add a talent-less voice over "artist" to the mix? Could barely understand what he was saying. Why talk if no one can understand what you are saying? Was he being funny? Not funny to me ... pathetic! But then I saw ... he's the star of some CBS show. Oh, that explains everything. A good reason for me to never watch his show. As for Colbert ... I like him. He's bright, can be funny. But again, why have a host who "disappears" for long stretches at a time? Bottom line---boring show. If I couldn't fast forward through the dull spots, I never would have watched it in the first place.
ReplyDeleteGood review and I agree with everything you said. Just BTW, Anna Chlumsky's last name is pronounced "Klumsky." (She went to the same college my daughter attends, so I gotta represent.)
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you about Jermaine Fowler and guess what:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.billboard.com/articles/news/television/7965993/2017-emmys-announcer-jermaine-fowler-comedian
Kill me now!
I like Oprah. Maybe it helps to be a woman, to understand the appeal of an overweight black woman who talked a lot about her struggles and feelings, as well as those of her guests. Also, she is famous and a billionaire - I assume that's why she was in the front row.
ReplyDeleteI was rooting for Better Call Saul to get some awards...maybe next year. I was glad to hear Margaret Atwood shoutouts, and for Donald Glover's wins. I agree that most of the acceptance speeches were quite good, and wish they hadn't cut off Sterling K Brown.
Sue in Seattle
The announcer was terrible - this was not the VMAs - totally ruined the show.
ReplyDeleteBitchy it was, that's for sure. 🙂
ReplyDeleteA partial list of people who were bumped (so to speak) from the Memorial reel (and bear in mind that Roger Ailes made the cut):
ReplyDeletePatricia Barry
Tammy Grimes
John Zacherley
Norman Abbott (director)
William Christopher
Bernard Fox
Ron Glass
Cecilia Hart (Mrs. James Earl Jones)
George S. Irving
Fritz Weaver
Van Williams
Dick Gautier
Michael Gleason (writer-producer)
Barbara Hale
Jeffrey Hayden (director/ Mr. Eva Marie Saint)
Gordon Hunt (director/ Helen's dad)
Patrice Munsel
Lawrence Montaigne
Don Gordon
Alec McCowen
Erin Moran
Clifton James
Dina Merrill Movie Star (that was for Mark Rothman)
Michael Parks
Elena Verdugo
Ty Hardin
Jack Imel (from the Lawrence Welk Co.)
Bill Dana
Stephen Furst
Skip Homeier
Red and Sonny West (Memphis Mafia alumni/stunt buddies of Bob Conrad)
William Woodson (you'd know the voice)
Harvey Atkin
Richard Anderson
Shelley Berman
Dick Gregory
Harry Dean Stanton
... and although the news was announced early in the day, attention should be paid to our current President's number one role model:
Rest In Peace - Bobby "The Brain" Heenan
(I cribbed this from Classic Images monthly column by Harris lentz; I freely cop to having made a few culls of my own - apologies if I skipped a favorite of yours.)
Enjoyed the podcast even though:
ReplyDeleteI watched zero minutes of the Emmys,
I watched very few of the nominate programs, and
I haven't even heard of many of the programs.
1)I thought Steven did a very good job. Yes, I didn't get the Westworld bit and the RuPaul bit was painful.
ReplyDelete2) Terrible job as an announcer. You hit it on the head though, Ken. Hollywood only seems to put up with stuff like this if it comes from African Americans. No other "minority" could get away with it.
3)Probably one of the funniest parts of the show was when Steven made a joke about Bill Maher using the N word and hearing Anthony Anderson laughing in the background for at least a minute.
4)What a terrible way to sell cars? Do they think anyone is tempted to buy a car now that the engines can be revved to imitate musical notes?
5) The awards were so predictable. I didn't know 90% of the shows or 95% of the actors but was sitting here predicting the winners. The only one that threw me was the award for "This is Us". It was easy to see that if a program was on regular broadcast TV it didn't stand a chance. If only broadcast TV could cuss, show topless people, and have constant gore.
Jermaine Fowler sounded like the black actress (can't remember her name) on Curb Your Enthusiasm.
ReplyDeleteCat
ReplyDeleteWhy do you want to torture yourself? I don't even want to know which script it was! Did you get all of the shows right? Congratulations to the winner!
Diane D.
2 things...
ReplyDelete1) While the Creative awards aren't shown on TV or announced on TV, the winners are shown during the commercial breaks at the Microsoft theater. No one in that elite crowd paid attention.
2) Since there is no television audience to speak of (another ratings low),they should let the winners talk. Who cares if it's holding up the folks in the theater from their parties. The rest of us just wait for the HOLLYWOOD & LEVINE podcast (and write-up).
I believe they neglected my FB friend Francine York, too.
ReplyDelete@The Bumble Bee Pendant: Letting the show run long is not a problem for people in the theater, it's a problem for the local affiliates who need eyeballs for their 11:00 newscasts. The stations will only tolerate so much overage, especially since they see no money from any of the extra ads the network might sell.
ReplyDeleteI was relieved to find out on Sunday night that William Christopher (who played Father Mulcahy on TV for 13 seasons), Richard Anderson (who had regular roles on TV from the 1950s to 1990s, including 100-plus episodes as Oscar Goldman), and Erin Moran (11 seasons on a #1 hit ABC-TV series) had not actually died last year.
ReplyDeleteCarrie Fisher did get mentioned, though, for the breadth of her memorable television work in ... well, I guess "The Star Wars Holiday Special"?
You review made me laugh so much. Yeah..I love Jessica Lange but yeah...I hate to admit you're right and also an Asian one...
ReplyDeleteBy the way, the autographed script is "Now Pitching...Sam Malone." Thank goodness for Ken's Instagram!
ReplyDeleteSo, we listen at work and our project team now looks forward to Ken's podcast review way more than the Awards Show itself. This hilarious edition did not disappoint. In particular, the objective, searing scorn dripping from the microphone every time the name 'Jermaine Fowler' was spoken--that was just a thing of beauty.
ReplyDeleteBut it wasn't all funny one-liners about aluminum dresses, and a total love-fest for Nicole Kidman. No, there were hysterical subtleties too. One such highlight was when Mr. Levine, at the end of the show, acknowledged his lovely spouse: "Again, thanks to my wife...uhhh...Debbie. Debbie! Nice job."
Our whole table collapsed laughing and the senior partner shot apricot danish out his nose. Now we have an office pool running on what the actress's name is. Unless that was in fact the real Mrs. L-- and in that case, we don't know what to think.
Thanks, Ken! You've elevated Awards Show Pod-Snarking to a fine Hollywood art form.