I was multi-tasking Sunday night, watching the Packers and watching the Emmys.
Which did I enjoy more?
Bad question.
Which did I dislike less?
Another bad question.
Both made for rather painful TV viewing.
About the Emmys--
LOS ANGELES -- The sleek '60s drama "Mad Men" made Emmy history Sunday as the first cable-only show to win a top TV series award, while the sitcom "30 Rock" and its stars Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin also emerged as winners.
I'm already bored.
If you're interested, here's the ACADEMY OF TELEVISION ARTS AND SCIENCES press release of the complete list of winners.
Frankly, I don't care. I watch the telecast as entertainment, not because I'm interested in the competition and the results.
This is the part of the show that interests me: watching the self-important, ego-poisoned stars look like fools as they pontificate on politics, taking themselves so seriously. They simply must express their political opinions to the audience. They must make a statement. They have to do it.
How courageous! How fearless! How selfless! How lame!
The telecast can be summed up like this: Recreate '68.
This year marked the 60th annual Emmy Awards, with a number of nostalgic pieces. Beyond that, it seemed to be caught in the 1960s.
It was very political. There was a Laugh-In reunion and Tommy Smothers was the man of the hour.
The Emmy telecast became a Leftist "get out the vote" rally and little anti-Republican zingers peppered the acceptance speeches.
As the evening progressed, politics went from having a cameo to a co-starring role.
"I really look forward to the next administration, whoever it is," Jon Stewart said as he accepted the best variety, music or comedy series award for "The Daily Show." "I have nothing to follow that. I just really look forward to the next administration."
Later, Stewart and Stephen Colbert, whose "The Colbert Report" won a writing trophy, teamed to present an award — and exchange banter in which they used a package of prunes as a metaphor for the upcoming presidential election.
"America needs prunes. It may not be a young, sexy plum. Granted, it's shriveled and at times hard to swallow. But this dried-up old prune has the experience we need," Colbert said.
It was just 5 minutes into the show when Howie Mandel, one of the evening's five co-hosts (all the Emmy-nominated hosts from reality shows), said, "This is not a bit, this is reality. We are on, like, Sarah Palin's bridge to nowhere. The government can't bail us out of this."
Palin was the only candidate I heard mentioned by name during the show.
The hosts were working without prepared material. It was a gimmick that didn't work, though mentioning Palin did get a response from the Leftist Hollywood audience. It was enough to keep them happy.
Naturally, the Hollywood libs adored the Stewart-Colbert bit.
Tommy Smothers received a commemorative writing achievement for his work on the cutting-edge and controversial "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour" from the late '60s — and turned serious.
"It's hard for me to stay silent when I keep hearing that peace is only attainable through war. And there's nothing more scary than watching ignorance in action," he said, dedicating his award to "all people who feel compelled to speak out, and are not afraid to speak to power, and won't shut up and refuse to be silenced."
The award to Tommy Smothers was really weird. Steve Martin, a writer on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, presented the award to Smothers.
Smothers was the hero, worthy of this special honor. Martin explained that 40 years ago, Smothers' name was left off the list of nominated writers because he was too controversial. The writing team for the show did win the Emmy, but Smothers never got his due as a writer. Thus, he was given the special Emmy.
Why did the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences wait so long to give him the award? Why now? It was as though Smothers had been blacklisted all this time and now he was finally emerging from the shadows. What a crock!
Although in his acceptance speech Smothers didn't mention President Bush or any candidate by name, it was obvious that he was speaking out against the Bush administration and John McCain.
It was a very strange staged event.
There was this anti-Bush, anti-McCain, anti-Palin, anti-Republican vibe running through the telecast.
Martin Sheen, who played a president on "The West Wing," lauded television for giving America a front-row seat to real presidential campaigns. Then he urged viewers to vote for "the candidate of your choice, at least once."
At one point, President Sheen lapsed into a very noticeable Kennedy-type accent. It was embarrassing.
The politics came in subtle and not so subtle ways, but there was always a sneering, anti-conservative bent to it.
Some quotes from Hollywood's best, but not all that bright:
HBO’s “John Adams,” which had 23 nominations, picked up a string of awards, including Paul Giamatti for lead actor in a miniseries. “I’m living proof, kids at home watching, that anybody can play the president.”
Laura Linney, who Giamatti described as his “fake wife,” and who won for best lead actress for playing Abigail Adams, offered a rare bit of partisan politics. “It will give me a reason to stop and pause and be so grateful and thankful for the community organizers that helped form our country,” she said, in a clear nod to Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama.
Executive producer Tom Hanks offered this: “The election between Jefferson and Adams was filled with innuendo, lies, a bitter partisan press and disinformation. How great we’ve come so far since then.”
Many of the winners used their time in the spotlight to urge people to vote.
When Jay Roach won an Emmy for directing Recount, he reminded viewers of the importance of voting in November because he predicted "it's going to get close again, this election." He wasn't urging people to get out and vote for McCain.
I wonder what makes these celebrities think that awards shows are the time and place to campaign and get political.
It could be a calculated move to get publicity.
If a star thanks Mom and Dad, that's forgettable. But if a star says something political, that will get noticed.
This is worth mentioning: During the "In Memoriam" segment, Tim Russert was shown. Tony Snow was not.
Also worth mentioning: The "In Memoriam" segment began with a clip of a young George Carlin as the Hippy Dippy Weatherman. He was the first person to be honored. The segment ended with another clip, this time of the old George Carlin doing a joke about how ridiculous it is to believe in God.
It's quite unusual to ridicule faith in a segment honoring the dead. I've never seen that before.
__________________
Tim Cuprisin's review of the Emmy telecast: "...much ado about nothing."
2 comments:
You didn't like the show or you found it boring and uneventful because it was giving a nod to the Democrats. Had it been leaning more to the Republicans, you would have probably thought that it was the best show in the city!
Try to be more objective in your potrayal because clearly your political affiliation has tained your ability to objectively comment on the Emmy's, among others.
Oh, Alex. You didn't read my post.
I wrote that I'm not interested in the winners. I like to watch the stars make fools of themselves. I don't expect them to be voicing conservative opinions in their acceptance speeches.
Although they did make fools of themselves, I still found the program very boring.
It was the lowest rated Emmys ever, in the history of Nielsen's people meter. That's pretty bad.
The fact is the Hollywood awards shows are always Leftist because Hollywood is Leftist. I don't think all awards shows are boring even though they're all populated with Leftists.
In my opinion, this year's show was boring. Based on the ratings, it appears that I'm not alone.
Post a Comment