Monday, September 17, 2007

Ummm...

I'm feeling weirdly anti post-making this morning. So while I do other things, watch Sally Field's Emmy speech. I hope this is not a curse on Brothers & Sisters. Consider: Sela Ward's emmy for Once & Again stayed awfully lonely. I'm not comparing the shows ... just the actress win thing. Once & Again was among television's very finest ever. B&S is more of a 'finest currently' situation with a slight side order of guilt for enjoying it immensely despite its unarguable hysteria about itself and what you might be thinking about it.

And that's all I have to say about the Emmys because I don't watch.

20 comments:

Kamila said...

I loved Sally Field's victory and speech last night. She is a great actress with a fantastic performance on a good show.

I don't see the parallel between her victory and Sela Ward's. But, I totally agree when you say that "Once and Again" is one of the finest shows ever. "Gardenia" has got to be the best episode on a TV show ever.

Anonymous said...

bravo for sally - tying in motherhood and war - all very true....just wish she hadn't have stumbled and that Fox had not bleeped her. she is really terrific. wow - james spader wins over gandolfini, that was quite odd.

Anonymous said...

I second what kamila said - love Sally Field, love B&S and the speech was great.
I saw it live in Europe and it certainly wasn't censored here...

Anonymous said...

I wasn't sure what you were saying with the comparison with Sela Ward either. But Sela has several awards including a pair of emmy's and golden globe among others..emmy and golden globe for Once and Again. I agree that was a great show.

Anonymous said...

So happy for Sally Field and Brothers & Sisters. One of the only shows on tv I actually make sure not to miss week in week out.

Her speech was incredible - strong and gracious...up until the point she started screeching at the audience to shut up when they were rightly applauding her. And then she goes onto forget her closing line. Most other media-trained actresses wouldn't have let it show that they'd forgotten their speech's close and would've just ended it right there. Not Sally Field - she was always has to overegg it. I love her for being so unpolished and human.

NATHANIEL R said...

sorry should have been more clear. Both shows passed over for Best Drama Series but their headlining award magnet actress/mom wins in the inaugural season.

that's all

Anonymous said...

Ugh you don't do Emmy commentary. That sucks.

RahulB said...

Are we forgetting the most important win of the night?

30 ROCK winning best comedy!

Adam said...

I'm still at the point where 'Brothers & Sisters' seems to be a pretty mediocre show with pretty outstanding talent behind it. It's one of the better dramas on the networks right now, but I can't watch an episode without leaving mildly unimpressed. I was actually most excited about wins for Ricky Gervais, Kathy Griffin and 'The Sopranos'.

Anonymous said...

The similarity between Sela Ward and Sally Field is mainly in their shows being talky, family, "relationship"-y shows. That isn't a quality comparision ("Brothers & Sisters" isn't near the level of "Once & Again", and I fear might never get there), but the comparision is sound.

Sally Field was only telling the audience to shut up b/c she was afraid the music was about to play her off the stage. It wasn't a sign of disrespect to the audience.

Sally Field had one of the worst tapes in the group, so it's not a win that I can cheer for. But her speech slightly makes up for it, and a big screw Fox for butchering her speech the way that they did, and for one word ("goddamn")? Lame.

Even lamer is James Spader holding James Gandolfini's Emmy right now. Total bullshit. But that's the Emmys for ya.

Anonymous said...

Things that rocked:

*the 8 acting Emmys in the drama/comedy categories went to performers from 8 different shows (talk about switchin' it up - though the sopranos was NOT one of those lucky 8)
*the sopranos became only the second show in history to win best drama for its final season
*Late Show with Conan O'Brien's writing win (before last night his show had been Emmyless - whilst the daily show continues to win every other award out there)
*30 Rock!
*Jaime Pressly's win! and her speech!
*the 'in the round' presentation (though i know most didn't like it, i found it refreshing)
*Tony Shaloub NOT winning.

Things that sucked:

*ryan seacrest. (really? REALLY?)
*the amazing race now has FIVE Emmys (in a row) for Reality Competition Program (a category that is FIVE years old). American Idol should have at least one of those Emmys and we all know that Project Runway was robbed.
*James Spader. he has THREE Emmys for that character? honestly?
*censorship.

LOVED Katherine Heigl's mouthing of the word "shit" after her name was called - followed by the producers unsuccessfully choosing a new camera angle to cover it up (wasn't a fan of her win though - all 5 other nominees were more deserving, imo).

Glenn Dunks said...

Thankfully the network that aired the emmys down here edited it down into a one and a half hour package (and 20 minutes of that was red carpet, another 10 was Ray Romano's horrible routine at the start) and only about 45 seconds of it was Ryan Seacrest! We got Sally Field uncensored so that was pretty awesome.

"Sally Field had one of the worst tapes in the group, so it's not a win that I can cheer for."

But we need to remember that voters may also watch the series when it's actually on tv and were judging her based on the series as a whole (which makes more sense to me that voting based on one episode out of 22 or however many).

Jamie Pressley's speech was nice.

Elaine Strich proving that they'll give an emmy to her for doing jack all. The guest star categories are such a crock year in year out, with giving awards to people who appear on multi-season plotlines and nominating famous people 100% of the time.

30 Rock isn't screened down here, but considering multiple emmy wins didn't help Arrested Development - one of the very best shows of the last decade - I can't see it helping 30 Rock.

Anonymous said...

But we need to remember that voters may also watch the series when it's actually on tv and were judging her based on the series as a whole (which makes more sense to me that voting based on one episode out of 22 or however many).

That's not how the Emmys work. These voters rarely watch any television b/c they are too busy making it. "Brothers & Sisters" isn't a popular show with the Academy either. She won b/c she's Sally Field. Her tape was one of the worst in the group, and it helped her that there were no real frontrunners. I'd venture that Field's tape was one of the first episodes that most voters had ever seen of this show.

Anonymous said...

Sally Field is always acting ... on the screen or in person...I cannot see her with 2 Oscars and some Emmys!

Glenn Dunks said...

anon 11.01 are you an Emmy Academy member then? Considering the eight acting emmys all went to people from eight different shows and the Best Drama and Best Comedy winners didn't win one acting award shows that nobody has a clue what they're doing. I'm sure there are PLENTY of non-working members of the academy (this is the television industry after all). If they were merely voting for the name they would like to see on stage most then surely it would've been Falco, right? Her show has ended and she'd get a big ovation and it'd be a big moment, unlike Field who will surely have at least a few more years to prove herself.

NATHANIEL R said...

the academy here is just like every other group of people: some people will vote responsibly, some won't.

i imagine that most members have tv shows that they watch every week... just as almost all regular people with televisions have shows that they watch every week...

this explains for example why THE WEST WING won for so many years. It was a show they actually watched in large numbers because they liked it and not just to screen a few hours of programming before voting on something.

Anonymous said...

Re: "anonymous" not seeing sally w two oscars. I actually think she was one of the best BA's of all time in "Norma Rae" hands down. Then she won for "Places in the Heart" - also very very good....best of the three farm women (Spacek / Lange)that year. She certainly clearly deserved her Emmy back in the 70's for "Sybil"....hold your water! I think she's great. I saw her in "The Glass Menagerie" two years ago @ the kennedy center - just wonderful. Unfort for her I think she still has minor vestiges the Gidget/Nun perception looming. Too bad she was not cast in "Doubt" - to update her nun persona.

However - please don't get me started on that horrible "Steel Magnolias"...Weezah! Yuck to all of them, except Dolly, of course.

Then...not that this has anything to do w/ anything, but where / when is the start of "Project Runway"??? I've been waiting & waiting; haven't seen any promos. Love Tim Gunn - but that new show of his is pretty not- good.

Anonymous said...

The Emmys aren't based on a season's worth of work, which was my point. If they voted for seasons instead of the tapes, then the winners wouldn't have been like this either. With Sally Field, I doubt they even watched her show. The show wasn't well-received, and it's not one of the shows that's really on their radar to watch (not like "Sopranos" or "Grey's Anatomy"). They were voting name recognition for Field, b/c her tape wasn't good. If they were voting by the "season", then the Emmy should have been Kyra Sedgwick's.

Anonymous said...

I would have voted for carmella. I also think it's a major shame Lorraine Bracco & Aida Turturro have been passed over so many times. Even though I watch Bros & Sisters, I think it's pretty schlocky. One of those guilty pleasure type things.

Glenn Dunks said...

The Emmy should have gone to Sedgwick, whether they were watching the season or just the screener tapes.