2015 Emmy Nomination Thoughts: Diversity, Genre-love, Snubs and More

Thank you to the TV Academy for holding off on nominations until 8:30 this morning, rather than doing the normal stupid thing and announcing at 5:30 a.m. PT.

That means that I'm still chewing over this year's nominations, but predictably they got a lot right and a lot wrong and that's just how these things go.

I've got 20 observations on trends, surprises and snubs. Or at least I've got 20 observations so far. I'll probably keep adding to this story as I remember or notice things.

Check 'em out below...

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Debriefing from the 2008 Emmys

[Yeah, I know. It's already a bit late in the game for Emmy analysis, but Nikki Finke has been promising *her* analysis for around 20 hours and she didn't blog or tweet on every second of the show and also review it last night.]

It's instinctive to want to complain about the Emmys, especially since the telecast is being general acknowledged as one of the worst broadcasts in recent award show history. And the Emmy show was, indeed, uncontestably awful, horribly paced, bloated to the extreme and full of easily mockable moments.

But the awards themselves? Well, if you happen to believe that "Mad Men" was probably last year's best television drama and that "30 Rock" was among the top three TV comedies, how can you possibly complain? Or how much?

I'll give it my shot after the bump...

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The Emmys Happen, So I React

Ugh. I suppose I have to talk about the Emmys, don't I? Grumble. That's the problem with serving so many darned masters.

Want some Emmy coverage?

Check out my Zap2it feature story on host Ryan Seacrest HERE...

Then check out Zap2it's minute-by-minute coverage of the ceremony (I wrote the second half, with Rick Porter doing the first half) HERE...

Then check out some basic post-Emmy award analysis HERE...

And finally, if you're *really* bored, check out a story on Emmy Dark Horses I wrote for the LA Times' award site The Envelope. Yeah, my picks were almost all wrong (I got Sally Field, at least) and they misspelled my last name (We work for the same company, guys!!!!), but it's HERE...

Is that not enough? Fine, then... Follow through after the bump for my thoughts on the show itself including the show's Five Most Awkward Moments. Hopefully I'll be short and sweet, but probably (knowing me) not...

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The Emmys were just a little bit too amateur hour this year. The cross-promotion of FOX shows was just a little bit too ham-handed. The attempts to recapture previously appealing Emmy moments were just a little too forced (sorry Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert). The Theater-in-the-Round format made the whole thing just a bit too much like a Dane Cook comedy tour.

And overseeing the whole thing was Ryan Seacrest. As much as I joke about Seacrest all through "American Idol" season and as much as I lament the continued absence of Brian Dunkleman, Seacrest is a fine reality TV host. I've watched enough of "The Contender" or "On the Lot" to know that Seacrest may not be Jeff Probst or Phil Keoghan, but he's sure better than Sugar Ray Leonard and Arianna Costa. But Seacrest isn't the man you want to host an award show of this caliber, not when you have Conan O'Brien, Ellen DeGeneres, Hugh Laurie, Stewart and Colbert and at least a dozen other superior candidates sitting in the crowd. Although Seacrest swore up and down to reporters that he'd leave the comedy for the comedy pros, he actually tried selling punchlines and not just the lame one-liners he does on "Idol." Pacing the stage and clapping his hands together, Seacrest did something that all-too-closely resembled a monologue, only it wasn't funny. The biggest laugh came from the awkwardness of Seacrest's interaction with former alleged flame Teri Hatcher. Yawn.

That wasn't even *close* to being the most awkward moment of the night, the moment that had me shaking me head in shame for most involved.

Top Five Awkward Moments (in no particular order)

1)Opening "Family Guy" song, when Stewie and Brian sing about Isaiah Washington and the director cuts to T.R. Knight. Ugh.

2)The announcer pronounces Katherine Heigl's last name "Hi-Jel." Now that's just ridiculous, for a show of this stature, for an announcer to mispronounce an eventual winner's name, to mispronounce the name of a woman who starred in the year's biggest comedy hit. But things got worse first when the camera caught Heigl telling her co-presenter that her name had been pronounced wrong and then when she went up and, before doing her presenting duties, corrected the announcer. Discretion is just the better part of valor.

3)The way the FOX promo department kept running the same ads calling "K-Ville" a landmark show. Well, I guess with "Nashville" already done, they really really need to make something succeed.

4)The whole event was feeling amateurish and then Robert Duvall, one of the greatest actors EVER gets on stage to accept the first Emmy of his career. He talks for 20 seconds and the music begins playing. That's bad, but surely they have some place better to go, right? Wrong. It's Seacrest talking to a blogger in the crowd. And then he makes a lame-o Vanessa Anne Hudgens joke. I'm all for people passing around her nudie pictures like dirty, dirty currency, but did we really need to make jokes about her humiliation on a widely watched award telecast? Boo.

5)The standing ovation for CurrentTV. A bunch of Hollywood fakes applauding for the recognition of a cable network they've never watched just because Al Gore happens to be in the house. The same Al Gore whose wife would have put most of them out of business for being smutty? Yeah. Good times.

5a)Those three technical glitches where the audio cut out and the camera went up to the rafters. If they were actually glitches, they're awkward. If they were FOX's way of censoring people who said naughty words, they were just sloppy.

Awards I'm Happy About: "30 Rock," Jamie Pressly (even if Jenna Fischer deserved to win), Thomas Haden Church (finally getting the Emmy he deserved for "Wings")

Awards I'm Less Happy About: The Pivs? Again?!?! Spader? Again?!?!? "The Amazing Race"? Again?!?!?

Anyway, I've now written much too much about the 59th Primetime Emmy Awards.

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My 2007 Emmy Nominations Rambling

Here's a fun little game if you want to know why I can't bring myself to care about the Emmys: I want you to go to the official nomination page and do a word search for either "The Wire" and "Wire."

See? Wasn't that fun? So much for the Emmys, eh?

If, of course, you still care about an organization that last year lauded Ellen Burstyn for 20 seconds of screentime and a bad accent, follow through after the bump for a typical amount of ranting and raving...

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I'm Happy About...

Hugh Laurie's failure to secure a best actor nomination last season was one of the more peculiar gaffes in recent Emmy memory. Even if "House" occasionally stumbled this year, particularly in the arc featuring David Morse (somehow Emmy nominated for that work), Laurie's work never faltered and in addition to playing his usual cycles of drug addition and misanthropy, he had fantastic arcs of internal conflict as well.

I'm glad to see the Academy finally understanding that Steve Carell's work on the office isn't being done in a vacuum. Rainn Wilson was an obvious and deserving supporting nominee -- yes he plays his part to the back of the auditorium, but that's exactly what a supporting performance is supposed to be. And Jenna Fischer deserves to win purely for her five second reaction shot at the end of the finale. Maybe next year John Krasinski and Melora Hardin can get their nominations?

I'm even happier to see Neil Patrick Harris get his due for his "How I Met Your Mother" work. This feels like a gateway nomination to perhaps get overall acceptance of the show next year? It's still a shame that Kourtney Kang couldn't get a nomination for "Slap Bet," the season's best overall piece of traditional comedy writing.

Somehow Mary-Louise Parker wasn't on the board last year for "Weeds." Very odd. Glad to see that rectified this season and glad to see the series get a well-deserved outstanding comedy nomination. I'd have thought Justin Kirk was a worthy comedy supporting actor candidate, but I guess we need to keep recognize Jeremy Piven for doing the exact same thing over and over again on "Entourage."

Speaking of "Entourage," that's good nomination for Kevin Dillon, even though the Johnny Drama character has had a really spotty assortment of episodes this season. Actually, I don't think "Entourage" was really deserving of that comedy series nomination for last season and I'd have gladly replaced it with "HIMYM."

But good for "30 Rock" and all of its various nominations! I thought the pilot was mediocre, salvaged mostly by Alec Baldwin's performance, but as the season wore on, I began to appreciate everything else about the show, particularly Tina Fey's subtle work -- since when does the Academy honor SUBTLE? -- in the lead.

Oh and I'm also relieved that the Academy punished "24" for a season that went beyond self-parody at certain points. Kiefer Sutherland's work never faltered, though, so I can't entirely begrudge that grandfathered nomination. But Jean Smart? Yeah, she got nominated last year, but her performance this season was one hammy episode in which she committed an act of violence that FOX promised would be the most shocking moment in "24" history and yet was never mentioned again for the entire season. Weird.

I'm Unhappy About...

The first observation, the one that all of my critical peers will probably also be making today, is that "Friday Night Lights" got jobbed. From what I can see, network TV's best drama received exactly two nominations, including one for Peter Berg's work on the pilot. While that's two more nominations that "The Wire," that's still pathetic. Kyle Chandler, Connie Britton and the writing staff deserve better. I think the absence of technical nominations is rather stunning, honestly. Cinematography? Editing? Sound design? We're talking location shooting with sports action here. Give it up from "Friday Night Lights," kids. It's well-established that Emmy nominations don't mean a darned thing to viewers, but giving the show its due couldn't have hurt NBC's promotional cause.

Really, there's nothing to be said about "The Wire." Michael K. Williams, I'm feelin' you, man. But "The Wire" was always ignored. Why did the Academy forget about "Deadwood"? Actually, they didn't. The show earned six technical nominations. But where's previous nominee Ian McShane? Where is the always deserving Robin Weigert? And where, most criminally, is Gerald McRaney, whose villainous George Hearst was a career-revitalizing revelation?

I was glad to see "Dexter" get a nomination for its main title design. Well deserved. But where did the rest of the show's nominations go? Where, mostly, did Michael C. Hall's lead actor nomination go?

Lots of second tier and mid-tier nominations for the ever-erratic "My Name Is Earl." And good to see a nomination for Jaime Pressly as supporting actor. But did anybody see the episode where the cat-allergic Randy dated a cat woman? If you saw that episode, tell me how Ethan Supplee gets left off the final ballot. Seriously.

Lorraine Bracco? Really? I know this was the last season for "The Sopranos" and we want to do our part to send that show off to heaven with a bang, but what did Dr. Melfi do this season? And what did Lorraine Bracco do? It's not that she hasn't deserved nominations in the past, but this year I'd make pleas for Weigert, Adrianne Palicki, Aimee Teegarden, Lisa Edelstein, the gal who played Snoop on "The Wire," Elizabeth Mitchell, Sarah Paulson, C.C.H. Pounder, et al.

There are also shows that you just can't expect Emmy voters to remember. It's good to see a visual effects nomination for the first episode of "Drive," but what about some editing nods? And how about tech nods for the pilot for "The Nine"?

And thus, Kristen Bell ends her three seasons on "Veronica Mars" without an Emmy nomination. That's not surprising, but it isn't right. That's still better than Lauren Graham ending her seven season run on "Gilmore Girls" without an Emmy nomination.

In its first season of operation, The CW picked up a single Emmy nomination for sound editing on "Smallville." Huzzah.

If You're Betting: Yeah, you could put a few bucks on "The Sopranos" in just about every category, but if I were wagering my own personal fortune, I'd put ever cent on Helen Mirren in the lead actress, miniseries movie category. I love that her competition there includes Queen Latifah.

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