Monday, September 17, 2007

Spader? Spader!?!?!?!? SPAAAAAAADERRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!

Lots of Emmy chatter below, but my collected, semi-coherent (as I was writing and rewriting on the fly) thoughts on the whole shebang are in my Emmy post-mortem column.

37 comments:

Anonymous said...

I fully understand the win. Boston Legal is one of the greatest dramas on television. I mean, in its run up to this point, it manages to fill me with feelings of sorrow and dread whenever I watch it.

Gandolfini is good, but as far as heartbreaking sincerity and candor goes, he doesn't hold a candle to Spader.



In all seriousness, did the Hollywood elite just hate the ending of The Sopranos so much that this is how they're taking it out on Chase?

Anonymous said...

Best moment of the entire night: Kathy Griffin showing up to the red carpet pre-show with Steve Wozniak in tow, and Seacrest clearly not having a clue who he was. Bwah.

Donlee Brussel said...

Ryan Seacrest hosting the Emmys?

I haven't seen anything that good since Bush won the re-election.

Is Seacrest eligible next year to win an Emmy for having hosted the Emmys?

Anonymous said...

Well, despite the snubs, some annyoing wins, and FOX making the event more of a blunder than it should be, at least one good thing will come out of it...

Stephen Colbert ranting about how he lost to both Barry Manilow AND Tony Bennett. Good times are to be had, my friends!

dark tyler said...

did the Hollywood elite just hate the ending of The Sopranos so much that this is how they're taking it out on Chase?

That, and giving it an Emmy. :P

Bix said...

While Heigl wasn't the best pick at all, I don't think you can fault her for her performance this season. The irritating parts of Izzie came from the writing.

Is the part about Laurie being the choice to host only to be snubbed for his confusing Britishness true or a joke at Fox's expense?

Alan Sepinwall said...

Is the part about Laurie being the choice to host only to be snubbed for his confusing Britishness true or a joke at Fox's expense?

Sadly true, if the Tom O'Neill story is to be believed.

Anonymous said...

For a minute there, I thought Spader had been cast as Solid Snake in an MGS movie.

bill said...

Alan, having never watched "Grey's Anatomy" and having no idea what Heigl's career has been, I have a problem with this:

Getting it wrong: Voters who somehow selected Heigl -- whose character almost single-handedly wrecked this season of "Grey's Anatomy"

All that tells me is that you didn't like the character, not how well Heigl played the character.

Alan Sepinwall said...

I also have major problems with how she played the character. It was a terrible choice. Spader is at least interesting, even if he had no business beating Gandolfini or Laurie.

Anonymous said...

Alan, your article says that this was Spader's third Emmy win in a row. Kiefer Sutherland won last year so it's actually Spader's third in four years. Doesn't that make you feel better? :-)

Alan Sepinwall said...

Alan, your article says that this was Spader's third Emmy win in a row. Kiefer Sutherland won last year so it's actually Spader's third in four years. Doesn't that make you feel better?

Yes, because making easily-checkable errors (albeit on a tight deadline) always makes me feel better.

Off to fill out our corrections form. Sigh...

Anonymous said...

Sorry, man. Didn't mean to add to the misery that is your 2007 Emmys experience.

Alan Sepinwall said...

It actually had dawned on me as I was stuck in traffic this morning, but then I blanked again until you reminded me. (I didn't get a lot of sleep last night.) No worries.

Matt said...

It seems like Heigl's win was largely due to episode choice. She chose the episode where Izzie gives bone marrow, where she gets to show a lot of range, while Griffiths inexplicably picked an early episode before Berlanti came in and worked his magic, and Wilson picked an early episode she didn't do much in. Oh made the right episode choice (she went with the one where she sells out Burke), though.

Anonymous said...

I didn't watch the show, but I was happy to learn that "30 Rock" got the comedy award.

Does anyone know which episode Neil Patrick Harris submitted? I was a bit disappointed that he didn't win last night, but I don't get HBO so I have no way to compare his work to Jeremy Piven's.

Matt said...

NPH submitted "World's Greatest Couple" (Barney and Lily move in together), while Piven submitted "Manic Monday" (the one where Ari has to fire an agent). Another example of perfect episode selection by the winner, and less-than-perfect selection by the other comeptitor.

Anonymous said...

Actually, Griffiths submitted the episode where she learned of her husband's infidelity and confronted him about it. It was a great submission, but inexplicably not enough.

Matt Zoller Seitz said...

An interesting bunch of awards, Alan; with the conspicuous exception of Spader, who's good but definitely in the "winning again because he's a winner" category now, it seemed like most of the major categories went to people/shows that were creatively interesting. (Yay, "Broken Trail.")

Do you get the impression that as influential and widely watched as "The Sopranos" is, some sectors of the awards-giving body have never entirely warmed to it? I was rather stunned that it faced such an uphill battle this year, considering that the second half of the sixth season (particularly the finale) generated more water cooler arguments about TV, drama and the artist's prerogative than any American feature film released this year.

Anonymous said...

Another correction (though this one's on the AP):

As you know, Ricky Gervais, not Steve Carrell, won Best Lead Actor in a Comedy. Maybe the AP scribe was watching the ceremony with the sound down.

Anonymous said...

For most of the broadcast, AP had Carell as the winner. They didn't correct until the show was over or nearly over. I'd thought Gervais won, but we had to keep checking and the whole thing led to a lot of confusion among me and my editors -- always fun on deadline.

Alan Sepinwall said...

Do you get the impression that as influential and widely watched as "The Sopranos" is, some sectors of the awards-giving body have never entirely warmed to it?

Absolutely. Again, this was only the second time ever that the show won for best drama. It lost four times to West Wing, and last year to 24.

I think there's definitely some professional resentment at work here, a feeling among the voters -- the overwhelming majority of whom work in network TV -- that it's not fair for their work to go up against Chase's when he only has to do 13 episodes a year (or every two years), that he can do 60 minute episodes with no commercial interruptions and have no restrictions on content, etc.

It hasn't hurt the show in a lot of individual categories -- witness the numerous writing and directing wins over the years, or acting trophies for Falco, Gandolfini, Joey Pants, Imperioli, Drea de Matteo, etc. -- but the big prize was elusive for most of its run.

Taleena said...

I would have watched the emmys for the first time if I had been offered a chance to see Hugh Laurie's funny musical comedy but I would plan to never run across Seacrest. Oh well, I Tivo'd the Burn Notice Marathon and can catch up on my Bruce Campbell viewing.

Anonymous said...

My favorite part,

aside from Katie Heigl (and her mom) (yeah Izzie is written terribly, but I saw a scene just this week - a wordless scene - which my brother said should get an Emmy. She does her best with what she gets IMO, and Sandra and Chandra already have won awards - Ellen and Patrick never will, oddly. They just don't live up to Leading Actor. So I was just happy to see someone from Grey's win an Emmy)

and Sally Field (I didn't hear the audience member, but I thought of it)

was Tina Fey's commercial

I also loved the rant on the crawls and singing network bugs. FX is the worst - theirs have *sound*

There was a fantastic send-up of this on MAD TV when Neil Patrick Harris was on. Perhaps it's on Youtube?
-Pam

Anonymous said...

I have long given up hope of the Emmys having any merit, or awarding people the statue who really deserve the statue (see lack of Lauren Graham; not to be even nominated, ever. See lack of Friday Night Lights nominations. See all the awards Tony Shalub won.) But then 30 Rock goes and wins and Tina Fey gets to accept an award and then I do a little happy dance, because that show DID deserve it, and I still can't believe it beat out Ugly Betty, which makes my teeth itch, it's so bad. And yay to Terry O'Quinn! I think that's about it though.

And I have to agree that Katherine Hiegl is a massively overacting scene-chewer who was the least deserving of all the nominations. But she sure brings the pretty.

Anonymous said...

and to ooda -- Boston Legal is wonderful. It should have won instead of Spader (except that *House* really should have won)

they should have had Hugh host: it's the only time he'd have been on that stage, since he presented with Zach Braff two years ago

-Pam

Unknown said...

The worst thing about having Seacrest host is that it probably got Billy Bush thinking, "Hey, I could do that!"

Anonymous said...

I didn't mind Katherine Heigel...I hate Izzie and think her co-stars (or Rachel Griffith) deserved it more, but I have seen worse people win.

I haven't, however, seen a worse Emmy show. Seacrest made me want to cringe every time he showed up. And a round? Whose idea was that? II first thought they were going to turn the stage throughout the show, which would have at least caused amusement. But putting people in the back? It is almost mean.

Anonymous said...

"lack of Lauren Graham"

Lauren Graham doesn't deserve an Emmy nomination because she submits the stupidest episodes--this year she submitted the pet funeral episode rather than the "I Will Always Love You" episode, for Pete's sake.

Sleepyhead said...

Am I the only one who thinks that Heigl essentially won for "Knocked Up"? Being in the #1 movie and on lots of magazine covers right around voting time works wonders.

Laurie being passed over for hosting is a travesty. Bring me the head of Mike Darnell!

Anonymous said...

I agree, Sleepy. While the TV industry blanches* (with some justification) at the idea that film is the superior medium, they sure are eager to throw Emmys at movie actors who "slum" by doing TV.

*RIP, Brett Somers.

Anonymous said...

While some of the awards were fun - 30 Rock, Elaine Stritch presenting, for the most part the production value of the show was awful. Just awful.

Anonymous said...

The worst thing about having Seacrest host is that it probably got Billy Bush thinking, "Hey, I could do that!"

That would be the suckiest suck to ever suck--and last night was pretty sucky already!

Anonymous said...

Pam, it was that I was also being a bit sassy because I really wanted Gandolfini to win.

I don't hate Boston Legal, as it does what it does well, but I still harbor resentment to it for being considered a "drama".

Actually, on a deeper level, it's probably my resentment over Dexter manifesting itself in other forms.

Todd said...

Sopranos also lost to The Practice in its first season, which sort of made me ghoulishly hope Boston Legal would win to complete the symmetry.

For some reason, Neil Patrick Harris switched his submission to the "Showdown" episode where he goes on Price Is Right. "World's Greatest Couple" was a better choice.

Anonymous said...

Anyone know what Alan Taylor (thik that was his name--Soprano's director) said in his acceptance speech?

Anonymous said...

Anyone else get the idea that the in-the-round setting was a form of punishment? Star control? Making the audience lit up and visible, like a panopticon, controls their support of the speeches and people they'd like -- content more liberal than News Corporation likes....