Emmys 2009 open thread

I gave my Emmy predictions on Friday, and I'm going to be too tied up in writing my column (which has a deadline of about five minutes after the show ends) to live-blog during the show (though I may Tweet and/or make a few stray comments here). So consider this the place for you to discuss the awards as they happen, and I'll post a link to my column as soon as it's done.

UPDATE: My Emmy recap is up at NJ.com. Click here to read the full post

Emmy predictions 2009 - Sepinwall on TV

In the actual column from today's newspaper, I preview the Emmy awards and make my usual faulty predictions on the major categories.

One thing I will say, for "Mad Men" fans: AMC has chosen to air an original episode Sunday night, and it will be on in the same hour where the show is likely going to win for best drama (and when Jon Hamm and Elisabeth Moss could theoretically win acting awards), and if you have to choose between the live awards show or the filmed "Mad Men" episode, go with "Mad Men." It's the best episode of the season by a long, long measure, and one of the best episodes of the series to date.

Not that I'm into hype or anything. Since I've seen it in advance, and since I have to cover the Emmys for the paper (theoretically, my column will go up on the NJ.com blog within a half hour of the show ending), I'll be watching NPH and the Emmys. The rest of you, though, just stick with Sterling Cooper. Click here to read the full post

The official Emmy grousing thread

I'm on vacation, and hopefully doing my best to avoid all manner of entertainment news, so I have no idea who got snubbed in the Emmy nominations, who was a pleasant surprise, etc. But those of you who want to praise or complain about the nominations (which, in theory, should be available by now at the official Emmy site), have at it.

UPDATE: In a wi-fi/smart-phone world, it's hard to get completely disconnected, so I saw the full nominations list earlier today and have a few brief thoughts after the jump before I return to relaxing.

First of all, I never had any hope that "Battlestar Galactica" or "Friday Night Lights" had a prayer of any kind of serious nominations. The former is sci-fi, which the Emmys don't know what to do with. The latter is low-rated, films in a non-industry town (and therefore doesn't employ many Emmy voters) and features a cast that's terrific but too low-profile for anyone to notice. So their snubs, while irritating, weren't a surprise.

I probably shouldn't have gotten my hopes up for "The Shield," given that the Academy has for years acted like Michael Chiklis' win in the first season was the most embarrassing award they've given in the last 20 years. It's just a show they refuse to acknowledge the existence of, unfortunately, but the final season was so amazing that I briefly deluded myself into thinking Chiklis or Walton Goggins or CCH Pounder at least had an outside shot. Instead, bupkes. And that stinks.

Now, of the people/shows who I thought had a realistic chance at nominations but didn't, I'm disappointed about the lack of nods for Christina Hendricks, John Mahoney and "In Treatment" as a series. ("Big Love" and/or "Breaking Bad" appear to have taken its spot, and those shows are good enough that I can't complain too much. I'd take it easily over "House" or "Damages," on the other hand.)

On the pleasant surprise front, after I chose his picture as a sign of what I assumed would be a whole bunch of irritatingly predictable nominations, Jeremy Piven was snubbed. I'd like to think it was karma for me picking that photo (it'd be like a weatherman pre-taping a forecast for sunny skies and getting a torrential downpour instead), but I suspect Piven's abrupt departure from "Speed the Plow" (and the lame sushi excuse that went with it) had more to do with it. And his non-nomination hopefully clears the field for a long-overdue Neil Patrick Harris win. (Though, knowing the way the Emmy voters roll, it'll probably go to Jon Cryer or Kevin Dillon.)

Jemaine Clement getting a nomination for "Flight of the Conchords" was unexpectedly awesome, and while I still think it's fairer to nominate him and Bret as a team, if I had to pick one as even slightly funnier (or, at least, asked to carry more of the comedy on the show), it'd be Jemaine. And Aaron Paul is wonderful, and absolutely deserving of his nomination.

As for the people upset that "Family Guy" was nominated for best comedy when "The Simpsons" never has, keep in mind that "The Simpsons" annually submits itself only in the animation category, so it isn't eligible. (I'm on vacation and therefore don't want to take time looking it up, but I vaguely recall they submitted themselves for best comedy once or twice in the early years, were ignored, and went back to the animation categories for the rest of time. But it's entirely possible that they never bothered.)

Anyway, back to my book, then the swingset. Catch you all on Monday. Click here to read the full post

If I had an Emmy ballot

I want to thank the fine people of Throwing Things for pointing out that the big Emmy ballot of submitted performances is out, and therefore derailing my work for the last hour as I pored over the list and tried, as I did last year, to come up with five six nominees per category , based on where the actors submitted themselves. It's not as easy as you'd think. In some categories, the six picks were obvious, while in many others I either struggled to come up with six or struggled to pare it down to six.

As Tom O'Neill points out, the most obvious omission is Terry O'Quinn from "Lost," who won a couple of years ago and either forgot to submit himself again or decided he didn't care.

After the jump, my own picks, plus the toughest names I had to leave out of each category. Feel free to offer up your own, or simply heckle my choices.

Lead actor in a comedy

Alec Baldwin, "30 Rock"
Steve Carell, "The Office"
Zachary Levi, "Chuck"
Ken Marino, "Party Down"
Jim Parsons, "The Big Bang Theory"
Adam Scott, "Party Down"

Tough omissions: Bret & Jemaine from "Flight of the Conchords," maybe Zach Braff

Lead actor in a drama

Gabriel Byrne, "In Treatment"
Kyle Chandler, "Friday Night Lights"
Michael Chiklis, "The Shield"
Bryan Cranston, "Breaking Bad"
Jon Hamm, "Mad Men"
Edward James Olmos, "Battlestar Galactica"

Tough omissions: Hugh Laurie, Michael C. Hall, Damian Lewis, Jeffrey Donovan

Lead actress in a comedy

Toni Collette, "United States of Tara"
Tina Fey, "30 Rock"
Anna Friel, "Pushing Daisies"
Yvonne Strahovski, "Chuck"

Tough omissions: None. I couldn't come up with four from shows I watch where I like the performance enough. Amy Poehler was very good in a few eps of Parks and Recreation, but too broad in others, as they tried to find that character.

Lead actress in a drama

January Jones, "Mad Men"
Mary McDonnell, "Battlestar Galactica"
Elisabeth Moss, "Mad Men"
Jill Scott, "No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency"
Jeanne Tripplehorn, "Big Love"

Tough omissions: I would say Holly Hunter, except I stopped watching Saving Grace even though I like her performance. So I only have five, I think.

Supporting actor in a comedy

Donald Faison, "Scrubs"
Neil Patrick Harris, "How I Met Your Mother"
Chi McBride, "Pushing Daisies"
Tracy Morgan, "30 Rock"
Ray Wise, "Reaper"
Rhys Darby, "Flight of the Conchords"

Tough omissions: Scott Krinsky and Vik Sahay (if only I could nominate Jeffster! as a single entity), John C. McGinley, Brian Baumgartner (for the spilled chili scene alone), Martin Starr, John Krasinski (for the "send in the subs" scene alone), Ed Helms, Jim Gaffigan


Supporting actor in a drama

Justin Chambers, "Grey's Anatomy"
Jeremy Davies, "Lost"
Walton Goggins, "The Shield"
Michael Hogan, "Battlestar Galactica"
John Mahoney, "In Treatment"
Michael Emerson, "Lost"

Tough omissions: Josh Holloway, Aaron Paul, Vincent Kartheiser, Aaron Shaw, Bruce Campbell, Kevin McKidd, Taylor Kitsch, John Slattery

Supporting actress in a comedy

Lizzy Caplan, "Party Down"
Portia de Rossi, "Better Off Ted"
Rosemarie Dewitt, "United States of Tara"
Jenna Fischer, "The Office"
Cobie Smulders, "How I Met Your Mother"
Jane Lynch, "Party Down"

Tough omissions: Kristen Schaal

Supporting actress in a drama

Connie Britton, "Friday Night Lights"
Hope Davis, "In Treatment"
Alison Pill, "In Treatment"
CCH Pounder, "The Shield"
Dianne Wiest, "In Treatment"
Christina Hendricks, "Mad Men"

Tough omissions: Anna Gunn, Ginnifer Goodwin, Tricia Helfer, Adrianne Palicki, Katee Sackhoff, Chloe Sevigny, Amanda Seyfried, Chandra Wilson Click here to read the full post

Sepinwall on TV: Recapping the Emmys

My Emmy column is already up at NJ.com. By and large, I was pleased with the results, particularly in the final hour, and extremely displeased with the hosts. Click here to read the full post

Sepinwall on TV: Handicapping the Emmys

In today's column, I make my usual misguided attempt to predict who will win the Emmys, along with saying who I want to see win.

Feel free to use this post to discuss the show and the awards as they go along. I'll drop in to kibbitz when I have time during the telecast, but my primary focus is to get two different columns (one for the early edition, one for all the others) done for tomorrow's paper. I should have the final version posted by around 11:30 tonight. Click here to read the full post

Sepinwall on TV: Emmy nominations

The Emmy nominations are out, and I'm torn between outrage ("Entourage"? "Boston Legal"? Almost nothing for "The Wire" or "Battlestar" or "HIMYM"?) and contentment (lots of love for "Mad Men," plus a surprise Bryan Cranston nomination). The lead of my column:

It's nice to know that the Emmy voters all upgraded their cable package.

The nominations of years past would have you believe that every member of the television Academy subscribed only to the broadcast networks and HBO. If a performer or show from a non-HBO cable channel slipped into the major nominations, it was almost a shock.

But the 2007-8 Emmy nominations feature three cable shows - FX's "Damages," Showtime's "Dexter" and AMC's "Mad Men" - duking it out for Outstanding Drama Series, the first time any non-broadcast, non-HBO show has cracked this category, let alone three of them.

To read the full thing, click here. For a complete list of nominees, click here. (For a slightly shorter list, in order of importance, click here.) And after the jump, some other Emmy thoughts I didn't have room for in the column:

-Despite the gag-inducing self-congratulatory repeat nods for “Entourage” and some other Emmy faves, I have to applaud the voters for controlling their kneejerk reflexes with some other series that had terrible seasons. Only two minor nominations (including a very deserving one for Charles Durning) for “Rescue Me,” and only a handful of nods (notably for Chandra Wilson, Sandra Oh, and not for best drama) for “Grey’s Anatomy.”

-On the flipside, despite what was considered by many to be a bounce-back year, none of the “Desperate Housewives” stars got a nomination.

-Though HBO didn’t crack the best drama category for the first time since ’98, it was nice to see “In Treatment” get four nominations – in particular, to see Glynn Turman get recognized for his extraordinary guest star turn as Blair Underwood’s dad. The guest star categories are usually dominated by movie stars, so it’s nice to see a character actor get a nod for something so great.

-“Family Guy” made the top 10 for Outstanding Comedy Series but couldn’t crack the final list, meaning (according to Tom O’Neil) no animated series has been nominated here since “The Flintstones” in 1961.

-Only one nomination, for casting, for “Friday Night Lights” season two.

-I figured my beloved “Flight of the Conchords” would be too weird for the Emmy voters, but at least it got writing and directing nominations, plus two song nominations, for “Most Beautiful Girl (In The Room)” and “Inner-City Pressure.” They’ll have a tough road ahead of them, as Sarah Silverman’s “I’m (Being Intimate With) Matt Damon” is also in the category.

-Only two nods – one of them the deserving but predictable one for Neil Patrick Harris – for “How I Met Your Mother.” Sigh...

-Given that Michael Angeli is widely-reviled by “Battlestar Galactica” fandom, I wonder how the fans are going to react to an Angeli script (“Six of One”) being the one to crack the drama writing list. As “Mad Men” (either the pilot or the season finale) will almost certainly win this category, I guess it’s a moot point.

-The “Extras” finale, which I loved, got submitted as a movie and wound up getting nominations in all the right categories: best movie, writing, directing, plus acting nods for Ricky Gervais and (especially) Ashley Jensen.

What do you think? Click here to read the full post

It's a beauty way to go

So I'm back from four days in Montreal and trying to figure out what was the most quintessentially Canadian moment of the trip: 1)Getting into an argument with a native about the merits of the Montreal bagel, which ended with me saying I'd never been a fan and the native saying, "Well, it was nice talking to you"; 2)Attending a family gathering where the word "Cheesebagel" was uttered at least 41 times in 10 minutes (my wife lost interest in counting after that); 3)Going to a Canadian mall, where I spent half the visit scouting potential locations for a Robin Sparkles concert; or 4)Idly channel-surfing and coming across a CBC documentary about Bob and Doug McKenzie, of "Great White North" (via "SCTV") fame.

So, while I resist the urge to put on a toque and call everybody a hosehead, here's some of what I missed while I was away:

• The Screen Actors Guild contract elapsed at 12:01 a.m. on Tuesday without a SAG strike, or even a strike authorization vote. The public version of the SAG/AMPTP negotiations in some ways sounds just as ugly and childish as the WGA/AMPTP negotiations (mainly from the studio side, both times), but another strike would have been devastating for the TV business (as it is, I don't think it'll ever totally recover from the effects of the WGA/AMPTP impasse), so I'm somewhat relieved.
  
• The lack of a strike also means that the Television Critics Association press tour is definitely on, so I'll be heading out to LA on Monday and will be blogging round the clock for a couple of weeks.
  
• Tom O'Neil remains on top of all things Emmy, and for the most part, the news out of the nomination screenings has dashed whatever optimism I had when the comedy and drama series semi-finalists were announced. Two spies on the drama series nominating panels said that the panelists (most over 50, as per usual) hated "The Wire" and "Dexter" and ate up "Boston Legal" and "Damages." Nobody from "The Wire" made any acting semi-finalist list, and most of the "Lost" cast was shut out, with the exception of Naveen Andrews and Michael Emerson (but not Henry Ian Cusick or Jorge Garcia) in drama supporting actor. No Connie Britton, even though she submitted herself as a drama supporting actress this time; no January Jones, either (though Christina Hendricks and John Slattery both made the first cut). The news is a little better elsewhere, as Elisabeth Moss and Mary McDonnell (who chose a relatively skiffy-low episode in "Faith") allegedly made the lead drama actress top 10 list, along with another favorite of mine, Jeanne Tripplehorn, and I'd be happy with almost any combination of the lead drama actor semi-finalists (with the exceptions of Denis Leary, Patrick Dempsey and, just because I know he'll win if nominated, James Spader). I still figure the actual nominations will largely consist of the usual suspects.
• With AMC doing relatively well (so far) in the Emmy process (Bryan Cranston even made the top 10), the channel is expanding its original drama series output with a remake of "The Prisoner." At the risk of having my TCA membership revoked, I have to admit that "The Prisoner" is one of the few shows from the cult classic canon (say that five times fast) I've never seen even a second of, so I don't have much to offer on the casting of Jim Caviezel in the Patrick McGoohan role, or Ian McKellen as Number Two. Instead, I'll just point to my friend Phil's column suggesting other shows that might be appropriate to remake, given our shaky times.

I have a whole lot of advance TV to watch between now and when I head out for press tour -- most of it pilots for shows that will be paneled at the tour but won't be premiering for a while (like HBO's "True Blood") -- so I don't know if/when I'll be able to catch up on the handful of shows I missed while I was in the mother country. I'll do what I can. Click here to read the full post

Emmy series top 10 lists released

Tom O'Neil at GoldDerby.com got his hands on a list of the top 10 finalists for the comedy and drama series Emmy nominations. (The actual nominations will be announced on July 17). The list, and my thoughts on it, after the jump...

So, here it is:

TOP 10 COMEDY SERIES FINALISTS
"Curb Your Enthusiasm"
"Entourage"
"Family Guy"
"Flight of the Conchords"
"The Office"
"Pushing Daisies"
"30 Rock"
"Two and a Half Men"
"Ugly Betty"
"Weeds"

TOP 10 DRAMA SERIES FINALISTS
"Boston Legal"
"Damages"
"Dexter"
"Friday Night Lights"
"Grey’s Anatomy"
"House"
"Lost"
"Mad Men"
"The Tudors"
"The Wire"

So, the good:

• "The Wire" cracked the top 10, which now gives me false hope that it could actually get a nomination.
  
• In fact, four of the five shows I would pick for the best drama on TV this season got nominations: "The Wire," "Lost," "Mad Men" and "Dexter." For that matter, I wouldn't be upset with a "House" nomination.
• "Flight of the Conchords" cracked the top 10.
  
• "Family Guy," which, as O'Neil notes, was submitted there after the producers found out they could separately submit a special episode in the animated series category, made the first cut. I'm not the hugest fan, but at least it demonstrates some outside the box thinking.
  
• "Heroes" and "My Name Is Earl," two shows that made the top 10 last year (with "Heroes" getting a nomination) but were quite lousy this year ("Heroes" especially) didn't even make it this far.
  

The bad:

• No "How I Met Your Mother" on the comedy list, while "Entourage" appears to have a lifetime Emmy pass despite being neither good nor anything resembling an actual comedy.
  
• "Battlestar Galactica" -- the final show I'd have on my own Best Drama nominees list -- continues to get snubbed, no doubt because no one in the Academy can imagine a sci-fi show be award-worthy.
  
• "Boston Legal" likely also has a straight-ahead pass for a nomination, probably at the expense of "The Wire."
  

Thoughts? Click here to read the full post

Emmys: Heigl won't be on anybody's ballot, but who'd be on mine?

The above is a picture you won't see again this fall, as Katherine Heigl's name wasn't on the list of performers who submitted themselves for Emmy consideration this year. When Emmy maven Tom O'Neill asked Heigl's people why she didn't put herself up, she replied:

"I did not feel that I was given the material this season to warrant an Emmy nomination and in an effort to maintain the integrity of the academy organization, I withdrew my name from contention," she tells Gold Derby. "In addition, I did not want to potentially take away an opportunity from an actress who was given such materials."

As if the "Grey's Anatomy" set weren't an already awkward place, that next meeting between Heigl and Shonda Rhimes -- whom Heigl just accused of not giving her anything award-worthy to play -- is going to be just splendid, don't you think?

Meanwhile, the complete list of submitted performers has the usual interesting tidbits about what genres and categories certain shows and people were submitted in. (Keep in mind that the studio and/or producers choose comedy vs. drama, while it's up to the actors themselves to declare whether they think they're a lead or supporting actor.) Matt at Throwing Things has a break-down of some of the more noteworthy decisions, and so after the jump I'm going to do something simpler: based on where people were submitted, I'm going to pick my ideal Emmy nominees in the series acting categories.

First up, I have to say that this isn't as easy as you'd think. Yes, I have an advantage over your average Emmy voter in that I actually watch most of the shows up for consideration, but there are categories where I was hard-pressed to come up with a list of five names (for lead comedy actress, I just gave up), and in others there were at least 10 people who immediately went onto my must-list. So we'll just take it category-by-category, as I try to explain how I got here:

Lead actor in a comedy series

Because there are so few traditional comedies on TV these days -- it seems like half the submitted shows are hour-longs that just have some comedic elements -- there aren't a lot of comedy leads, period, let alone award-worthy ones. Alec Baldwin ("30 Rock") is my obvious choice as the winner, and I'd have to put Steve Carell ("The Office") on any ballot, if only for his work in the season finale (he was quite great for most of the season, in fact). Beyond that? I thought about old pros Brad Garrett and Kelsey Grammer (the latter all but guaranteed of a nomination, because he's popular, because he just had a heart attack and because, even though "Back to You" wasn't much, he's great), and other usual suspects like Larry David ("Curb" was terribly uneven and he wasn't close to the funniest performer this time), Jason Lee, Zach Braff, etc., before finally settling on Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement from "Flight of the Conchords," who were so unusual and funny (and you can't nominate one without the other), plus Zachary Levi, who had to do a lot of heavy lifting on "Chuck" and rarely seemed to break a sweat.

Lead actress in a comedy series

Again, can we just pass on this one? Tina Fey ("30 Rock") is the only submitted performer I can endorse wholeheartedly, and I felt okay about choosing Christina Applegate ("Samantha Who"), who's great on a show that doesn't really deserve her. Unless the rules required me to fill out a full five names, I'd be done after that, but if forced to, I guess I'd add Anna Friel from "Pushing Daisies," Mary-Louise Parker from "Weeds" (the show annoys me these days but at least she's interesting on it) and, just because it would amuse me and make some people's heads explode, Miley Cyrus from "Hannah Montana."

Lead actor in a drama series

Such a strong category that I could come up with two completely separate ballots where I wouldn't feel the least bit self-conscious about including anybody. The five who didn't quite make the cut: Kyle Chandler ("Friday Night Lights"), Tim DeKay (who was one of the two reasons I watched "Tell Me You Love Me," a show I otherwise despised), Damian Lewis ("Life"), Edward James Olmos ("Battlestar Galactica") and Dominic West ("The Wire"). I really can't give you a good reason to exclude any of them, except that the next five were just a tiny bit better: Gabriel Byrne ("In Treatment"), Bryan Cranston ("Breaking Bad"), Michael C. Hall ("Dexter"), Jon Hamm ("Mad Men") and Hugh Laurie ("House").

Lead actress in a drama series

It's all-cable here: Ginnifer Goodwin and Jeanne Tripplehorn from "Big Love" (a show I have issues with, but where the performances by several of the actresses, notably these two, are brilliant), Holly Hunter from "Saving Grace" (like "Samantha Who," a performance better than the show probably earns), Ally Walker (the other reason I stuck it through "Tell Me You Love Me") and, my favorite, Mary McDonnell from "Battlestar Galactica."

Other than Hunter, I would be stunned if any of these people were to get an actual Emmy nomination.

Supporting actor in a comedy series

God, there's a lot of good talent here that I couldn't find room to include, whether it's people being hilarious in tiny roles (Leslie David Baker, Rhys Darby) or more multi-layered performances that didn't have the best material this year (Donald Faison, John C. McGinley, John Krasinski). I have to go with Jim Gaffigan (who single-handedly elevates "My Boys" from amusing time-waster to something I really look forward to), Neil Patrick Harris (hilarious and well-rounded on "How I Met Your Mother"), J.B. Smoove (painfully funny in almost every second of "Curb" screen time), Rainn Wilson (who even got some dramatic notes to play after Dwight got dumped on "The Office") and Ray Wise as the perfect Devil on "Reaper."

Supporting actress in a comedy series

The "Saturday Night Live" actors are now eligible in these categories, and so I have to give some love to the current cast's MVPs, Kristin Wiig and Amy Poehler. Jenna Fischer didn't have anything as blatantly award-baiting on this season of "The Office" as she did last year but was still splendid, as was Angela Kinsey, who's become sort of the first among equals of the show's actors not in the opening credits. For the last slot, I'll go with Dana Delany, who, outside of one or two episodes, didn't have a ton of funny things to do on "Desperate Housewives" but was the best (and at times, only) reason to watch it this year.

Supporting actor in a drama series

Oy. I could fill this with nothing but people from "Lost" and "The Wire," and I still would have too many names (and that's even though certain "Wire" actors like Clarke Peters didn't even bother to submit their names, no doubt knowing their award chances were lost causes). Plus, if I just went with those shows, I'd be leaving out John Slattery's brilliant, oily work on "Mad Men." In an attempt to spread the wealth while also recognizing as much great work as possible, I'll fill out the category with Jorge Garcia and Michael Emerson as my token "Lost" choices, Andre Royo as the lone "Wire" representative (with great apologies to Wendell Pierce and Michael K. Williams), and Michael Hogan and his amazing acting eye from "Battlestar Galactica."

(Other names briefly considered: the men of "Friday Night Lights," Justin Chambers from "Grey's," Blair Underwood from "In Treatment," Robert Sean Leonard from "House" and Scott Foley from "The Unit.")

Supporting actress in a drama series

Connie Britton ("Friday Night Lights") for the win, please. After that, some tough decisions. I thought about Sandra Oh from "Grey's" and Yunjin Kim from "Lost," but while they had some strong individual moments, they didn't register enough over the whole season. Also considered, then dismissed: Maura Tierney (who was great in the Abby-off-the-wagon arc on "ER"), Katee Sackhoff (who brought the crazy on "Galactica") and January Jones (I can never decide how much of what makes her "Mad Men" character work is her performance and how much is the hair, makeup and wardrobe). My other four nominees: Mia Wasikowska and Dianne Wiest (both superb on "In Treatment"), Tricia Helfer for "Galactica," and Amanda Seyfried as another of those great "Big Love" women.

But that's just me spit-balling. Give me a few weeks to really slave over the list and I could be talked into some major changes.

What do you think? Click here to read the full post

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. Click here to read the full post

Emmys open thread

I made my feelings on the Emmys pretty clear in Friday's column, but I'm professionally obligated to watch them. I'll be too busy writing my story for tomorrow's paper as I go (deadline about five minutes after the show ends) for any kind of liveblogging, but I'm going to open these comments up for y'all to snark and, on rare occasions, applaud as the show moves along. I'll try to weigh in if/when I can during the show, and will definitely have some things to say after I make my deadline.

Seacrest. Sigh...

UPDATE: Doing a fair amount of commenting now while it's still early and I don't have a column to worry about yet. Click here to read the full post

The Emmys always manage to disappoint

Technical difficulties continue to keep yesterday's column off of NJ.com for some reason, so I'm just going to post the whole thing here for now, with items on Sunday night's Emmys telecast, tonight's premiere of Fox's "Nashville" and last night's premiere of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia." (Feel free to use this post to comment on the episode, as I won't be doing anything separate for it). Last night's "Mad Men" was the first I watched live instead of on an advance screener, so I won't be reviewing it until sometime later this morning.

Column after the jump...

Even the cast of "Jersey Boys" serendading the cast of "The Sopranos" wouldn't be enough to get me to watch Sunday night's Emmy telecast if I wasn't getting paid to do it.

Sure, Sunday night's show (8 p.m., Ch. 5) will be the last real hurrah for the "Sopranos" cast and crew, who lead all series with 15 nominations. And, sure, the "Jersey Boys" -- or, at least, the touring company -- will be on hand to present a Four Seasons-style musical medley tribute to Tony and Paulie Walnuts.

But even by the silly, narcissistic standards of Hollywood awards shows, the Emmys have rendered themselves irrelevant, year after year, first with nominations that often leave out the best shows, then with awards that go to the least likely, least deserving finalists. If a great show gets some recognition, I consider it either an accident or a sign that the show or performer was so popular that even the ostrich-heads in the TV Academy heard about them while they were enjoying their time in the dirt.

This year's list of nominations completely ignores "The Wire," which is neck and neck with "The Sopranos" as the greatest drama in TV history. It all but ignored the best show on network TV, "Friday Night Lights," not to mention HBO's brilliant "Deadwood," no doubt because the latter aired last summer and the voters have the attention span of a 10-year-old with a Pixy Stix habit. Also no love for the likes of "Battlestar Galactica," "Dexter" or "The Shield," all while giving multiple nominations to name-brand shows like "Grey's Anatomy" and "Entourage" that had seasons even their fans were hard-pressed to defend.

The Emmys have reached guilty-until-proven-innocent status with me. I am fully prepared to see James Spader and William Shatner hit the stage ahead of more interesting winners, to see Mariska Hargitay get another statuette, to see "Two and a Half Men" beat out both "The Office" and "30 Rock" for best comedy, etc., etc., etc.

The last straw was when Emmy historian Tom O'Neill posted a report on his Web site, GoldDerby.com, that Fox executives debated between two choices to host the telecast: "American Idol" emcee Ryan Seacrest and "House" star Hugh Laurie. In one corner was Seacrest, who's good at keeping a live telecast moving, but whose speciality is facilitating performances by other, more talented people -- a skill that's not as essential on a night that's all about people giving soul-deadening speeches thanking their business managers and attorneys. In the other was Laurie, who in addition to being a deserving Emmy nominee for best actor in a drama is a gifted musician and an experienced, hilarious sketch comedian, the exact sort of guy who could liven things up in between the attorney-thanking.

Guess who Fox chose?

As if it wasn't bad enough that the people who vote on the Emmys can't be bothered to choose the right nominees and winners, now we find out that the people who run the Emmy telecast can't even be bothered to choose the right host.

So I'll be watching on Sunday night, but only out of obligation to you fine readers. My professional motto is "I watch so you don't have to." Keep that in mind, do something else with your Sunday night and pick up a paper Monday morning to keep your aggravation at a minimum. And if the "Jersey Boys" medley is any good, it'll be on YouTube.

(No) Music City

Basic cable spent all summer cleaning the networks' clocks, both in terms of ratings and quality. While the networks tried and failed with one new reality concept after another ("Pirate Master," "On the Lot"), cable scored with the kind of scripted product that used to be the networks' bread and butter: sitcoms (TBS' "Bill Engvall Show" and "My Boys"), dramas (TNT's "The Closer" and "Saving Grace," not to mention AMC's brilliant "Mad Men"), even made-for-TV movies ("High School Musical 2").

So I suppose it's appropriate that the the first new network show of the season would be an MTV-style "docu-soap" from the people who unleashed "Laguna Beach" and, by extension, "The Hills," upon an unsuspecting populace. If the competition's beating you at your own game, maybe it's role reversal time.

"Nasville" (9 p.m., Ch. 5) follows a group of easily defined types around the country music capital: the privileged rich girl (Terry Bradshaw's daughter Rachel), the privileged rich guy (trust fund player Clint, the obligatory villain), the has-been (Matt, who once had a song that got radio play and now struggles with dive bar gigs), the rising star (Chuck, on the cusp of a big record deal) and a literal coalminer's daughter (Mika, new in town from rural Kentucky).

Though all but clint are trying to make it as country singers, the music is really just an excuse to throw together a bunch of attractive young people for the usual partner-swapping and catfights. Rachel, you see, has a boyfriend -- whom she dumps, by phone, with a crib sheet of excuses on her lap -- but has a crush on Clint, only he's hot for Mika, only Matt has a thing for Mika, only... you know where this is going before it even starts. Reality TV began as an unpredictable alternative to all the clichés we got from the scripted shows, but now it's become another form of comfort food for its audience.

Also predictable -- and making shows like this largely critic-proof -- is the way you know going in whether you'll like it or not. If you don't mind how contrived so much of it is -- how, for instance, Matt and Mika are "introduced" to each other by their landlord without either one bothering to say, "Hey, you have a camera crew following you, too! Awesome" -- or how shallow the entire Clint/Rachel/Mika love triad seems to be, you'll be fine. If not, don't even bother.

Still somewhat cloudy

"You guys are the most horrible people alive!" a guest start tells the main characters of FX's "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" early in the show's third season.

The comedy wears that description like a badge of honor. No amount of bad behavior by its anti-heroes -- three lunkheads who own a Philly bar, plus a sister and a non-biological father (or is he?) -- is too foul, too appalling, too offensive in the quest for a good joke.

Unfortunately, the focus too often is on the degree of outrage and not the degree of funny. The two can go hand in hand, as evidenced by "Curb Your Enthusiasm," but season three of "Sunny" features a lot of yelling and not a lot worth laughing at. The characters are interchangeable in their awfulness, behaving in whatever way serves the joke instead of letting the jokes be defined by their behavior. And the frequency of the shocks becomes wearisome after a while; I laughed when one character was told he was an abortion survivor ("I had an abortion! It just didn't take!") but could barely muster a raised eyebrow by the time two characters were being manipulated into incest to claim their share of an inheritance.

Sometimes, extremes aren't necessary. Maybe for season four they should just try to be among the most horrible people alive.

Click here to read the full post

Why I hate the Emmys, part 841

Just finished my Emmy column, and my bosses said it was cool to post it at the tour blog. It largely duplicates stuff that's being discussed in the lower thread, but feel free to comment in either thread. Click here to read the full post

Not that the Emmys really matter, but...

... after the jump are my very preliminary reactions to the nominations, having just rolled out of bed and skimmed and scanned the list:

• While "Heroes," "Ugly Betty" and "30 Rock" all did well and got major nominations, "Friday Night Lights" only gets nods for casting and directing. "Teen dramas" often have a hard time with the Emmy voters, but given the Academy's history as a supporter of brilliant but struggling series ("Hill Street Blues"), it seems a shame that the only rookies that got nominated in the big categories were either really popular or about the entertainment industry. (Not to take anything away from those three; "FNL" just needed it more.)
• "Boston Legal"? "Boston Legal"? Look, I've got nothing against Spader and Shatner, but for that show to be named one of the five best dramas on television when "Deadwood" can't get more than some technical nominations (apparently, the makeup artists and hairstylists have longer memories than the actors, writers and directors), when "Battlestar Galactica" still gets largely treated like a skiffy show and ignored (though I was pleasantly surprised by the writing and directing nods), when "The Wire" -- one of the best, if not the best, dramas to ever air on television -- can't get any nominations... ridonculous.
• Masi Oka gets a nod, which is cool, and there's nobody in the drama supporting actor category I'd automatically be inclined to kick out, but it's a shame that neither Dominic Chianese nor Vince Curatola got nominated.
• Neil Patrick Harris was another pleasant surprise, but other than that and a few technical nods, that was it for "HIMYM." Grrr...
• No Lauren Graham, for the last time.
• Alec Baldwin is a lead actor on "30 Rock"? Sure, why not.
• Jenna Fischer gets in! I have no doubt she submitted the season finale, and anyone who watches that final talking head interview and doesn't vote for her is a moron.
• I am totally okay with the writing nominations: the "Galactica" opening two-parter, the "Lost" finale and three "Sopranos": "Kennedy & Heidi," "The Second Coming," and "Made in America."

Talk amongst yourselves. I have to wake myself up and write a column about all this. Click here to read the full post

Fixing a hole

Movie award shows are cloning their way to extinction. There are so many critics groups, so many TV specials, that by the time the Oscars roll around, we already know not only who's going to win, but what they're going to say. (Someone needs to shackle Philip Seymour Hoffman to a chair, clip his eyeballs open, and make him watch that damn speech so many times in a row that he physically won't be able to utter those words in that order ever again.)

The Emmys have a different kind of duplication problem. There aren't that many TV award shows, but the nature of television means the same people and shows can be nominated -- and win -- year after year after year. The speeches may change a little, but the faces don't -- and some of those faces start to look embarrassed after a while. (Dennis Franz, Helen Hunt and Aaron Sorkin come to mind.)

A few years back, the TV Academy got rid of the blue-ribbon panels that voted on the winners. These panels would check into a hotel for two or three days and watch all the submitted tapes in a category. The idea was to guarantee that anyone voting had actually watched all the shows. The problem: the only Academy members who had enough free time to be on a panel tended to be older and/our out of work, and they gravitated towards older, safer shows and people (Tyne Daly, Candice Bergen).

So in 2000, the Academy decided to put voters on the honors system, signing people up for a particular category and letting them watch the screeners on their own time. And for the first few years, the new system worked, as Emmy newbies like Patricia Heaton and Allison Janney got trophies. But then they kept getting trophies, and getting trophies, ad nauseum.

The problem, it turned out, wasn't with the final voting process, but with the nominations. Nominations are open to the entire Academy, and no one has to sign an affidavit or pretend in any way that they've watched anything; they just have to scan a list of eligible nominees and check off five names per category. And since people in the TV business rarely have time to actually watch TV, it's all guesswork, based largely on name recognition and media hype. The nominees wind up being the same year after year, which makes it hard to shake up the winners.

But now, according to Variety, the panels are coming back, at a different point in the process:

Starting this year, a blue ribbon panel will ultimately decide the nominees for outstanding comedy and drama, as well as the key Emmy acting categories. By doing so, the org hopes to diversify who ends up getting honored.

Could work, but I have two problems. First, the new process will start off the same way the old one did: the entire Academy will be allowed to check off a list of the eligible names, and then the top 10 (for series) or 15 (for acting) will be shown to the panels to pare the numbers down to five per category. What are the odds a "Gilmore Girls" or "Veronica Mars," to name two recently snubbed shows, can make the cut to 15 or 10, much less to five?

Second:

There is some precedence: Blue ribbon panels already choose the nominees in the guest actor/actress and variety show performer categories.

The guest star categories are annually the worst sinners in terms of name recognition over talent. If you're a movie star slumming on television, or a TV icon coming out of semi-retirement, you're pretty much guaranteed a nomination, no matter how good or bad you were. So if these are the same people in charge of the larger process, the nominations could actually get worse, not better. Click here to read the full post