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Emmys: It's a wrap
Photo credit: getty images
Welcome to my post-game Emmys wrap.
Biggest surprises:
expected eight. 3.) Only one Bush reference and no Obama ones (unless I missed). Whatever happened to politics at the Emmys? Same with cursing - no bleeps. (I guess 'cuz Sally Field didn't get to make a speech.) 4.) Silverman's mustache - she forgot to shave, AGAIN. 5.) I'm thinking...I'm thinking…oh yes, that the show still couldn’t wrap by 11, even with the pre-taped segments. But no big deal either.
Biggest non-surprises: 1.) NPH's white dinner jacket, thus rendering our host a somewhat in-character version of
Barney Stinson. 2.) Toni Collette's victory - at least to those who saw her performance in "United States of
Tara"
3.) Opening song number, mimicking Oscar open. 4.) Fact that show sailed past 11. 5.) Fact that show sailed past eleven even with some of the awards pre-taped.
What-Were-they-thinkings... 1.) Airing one of those "Family Guy" Stewie-beats-stuffing-out-of-Brian bits that were produced for the Internet and ran over the summer. too strange and too not-funny... 2.) The inside joke of "Dr. Horrible's Sing-along Blog." Was good but only half the audience probably understood what was going on, and I'm not talking about the TV audience which was completely in the dark. 3.) Opening number, not terrible, but..."Don’t Put Down the Remote," with lines like "thank God, the boob tube doesn't rhyme with Tony Shalhoub," probably shoulda lasted five seconds not three minutes.
And the Winners Are: 1.) Neil Patrick Harris: A very good choice for host and handled the whole affair with the appropriate degree of brevity and efficiency. He didn't get in the way, ever, but handled the job as an MC should, with just the right amount of on-screen time, and when he got it, didn't diminish that time.
2.) The Pre-taped bits. A success, I'd say, in general. Audiences at home - or at least me - hardly if at all noticed that some of these awards had been pre-taped. It felt seamless, even though this aspect of the show was one of the real controversies of the night. Which ones were taped earlier in the afternoon - so that the live portion could move along? Per my memory, that moment later in the night when Matthew Weiner got best writer/drama was. This was a hugely controversial part of this year's ceremony, but a tempest in a teapot in retrospect. 4.) Fact that "Family Guy" didn't win. Sure - I would have loved the moment, when Seth McFarlane got up on stage. I could have even used a lede I wrote for the paper story (so that I could get it done on deadline, by 11): "Family Guy?"
"Family Whhaaa?!"
The Emmys needed a jolt, not a heart attack.
Last night, the biggest upset in the history of the Emmys took place. An animated comedy about the rudest, crudest family in TV sitcom history won best comedy.
Welcome to the brave - and scary - new world of the Emmys.
Yes, it would have been fun to get to that brave, scary new world of the Emmys, just before eleven but..."FG" didn't actually deserve to win, needless to say, and there's still no good or logical reason why "The Simpsons" has been overlooked in the category forever.
5.) The genre split. I think this did work, and work reasonably well. The show bookended the night with the most important categories, comedy and drama, and there really is no reason too jumble everything together. This may well be one of those innovations that stick around next year.
Tags: emmys , neil patrick harris , mad men , 30 rock , kanye west , sarah silverman , family guy , tony shalhoub
