Techtite's TV Reviews!

"Okay; so maybe the winners deserved to win if the MVPs weren't even invited, but...why wasn't Lost invited, again?"

---from the review

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The Moments Worth Mentioning If Just In Sidebar. No review that fills just one web "page" can cover all the moments of a three hour awards telecast. Here's a handy dandy list of what people missed if they missed the Emmy's this year.

---Julia Lois Dreyfus' totally enjoyable speech, where she got so flustered that she almost forgot to "thank" her husband, who FYI is executive producer of her current comedy series.

---Tony Shalhoub came with his young daughter to the Emmys, and even "thanked" her during his speech, if just so the camera would get a good shot of her on national TV. Father daughter moments are so cool.

---Interestingly enough, while Megan Mullally would leave with one last Oscar after Will & Grace, Debra Messing lost, Sean Hayes lost, and as for poor "Will"; he wasn't even nominated. Ouch.

---As for the controversy about the opening shot of the Lost plane crashing: that's from the series premiere, guys. Like; the premiere airing two years ago. So now the reason Lost wasn't even nominated is because the very nomination was "inappropriate" to air due to a recent plane crash? Not too likely.

---In a "we mentioned it in the review but it was still one of the best moments": yes, the tributes to Dick Clark and Aaron Spelling were totally cool. 

The 58th Annual Emmy Awards

A Techtite Review

What if you had a party and forgot to invite the most popular guests? Would anybody come? Would it be as fun? The answers hide somewhere within this year's 58th Annual Emmy Awards. Yes, some acceptance speeches were fun, and the winners were the best possible, given the nominees made available (ouch...but true). Yet what sort of dingbat actually thought that the most recent, abysmally disappointing season of Sopranos was better than Lost? Do they even have television sets?

At least Emmy chose a good host this year. Conan O'Brien's opening shtick "within the nominees" was a riot, and one of the best such "host in the nominees" shticks I ever saw. From his plane trip straight to Lost island, to how the infamous hatch led to The Office(!), this was classic. They even had Conan placed into an episode of South Park. The resulting hilarity was so perfect, it's actually a shame we can't simply review these first six minutes themselves. Unfortunately this is a three hour telecast, so (darn it) we must quickly move on...

To be fair, the evening had its good moments. The most entertaining speech by far was by Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who was so flustered that she almost did the common acceptance speech snafu, of forgetting to mention a spouse for their support and so forth. Here she is on stage confessing that she knows she's forgetting someone in her speech, only to have the camera switch to her husband in the audience. As the shot of her husband apparently appears on the large monitors behind Julia, the audience has a mild laugh, only to have Julia jest, "I have no idea what just happened!" Then she finally remembers with a friend's help to thank her husband to the cheers of the audience. It loses something in the translation, but on TV it was golden. Not to belittle the moment but I'd dare say if The New Adventures of Old Christine has gotten this funny, I might actually start watching it again.

Poignant moments were equally golden. The tribute to Dick Clark was nice, especially Barry Manilow's rendition of the classic theme song to American Bandstand. We all have heard of how Barry delayed an important surgery so he could offer this Emmy night tribute, and he gave the moment his all. Emmy in turn gave its own "thank you" to Barry, who won an Emmy for "outstanding individual performance in a variety or music program," thanks to his music special earlier this year. In his acceptance speech, he said he'd bring the Emmy with him to the hospital as good luck.

There was also a special memoriam for Aaron Spelling. Other TV critics have said that having the original Charlie's Angels on stage together again was a highlight of the evening, though I'm actually surprised at how this trio was the highlight of a memoriam for a man who is responsible for, and I kid you not, 212 different productions. It's true that three other presenters were on hand to introduce the segment, including Heather Locklear, Joan Collins, and Stephen Collins. Yet out of 212 productions, this is surprisingly few people paying tribute to one of the kings of prime time drama series. There should've been a stage filled with stars from The Mod Squad, The Rookies, Fantasy Island, Family, The Love Boat, Hart to Hart, Dynasty, TJ Hooker, Beverly Hills 90210, Melrose Place, 7th Heaven, and Charmed, to name just a dozen. However, given the tabloid rumors of how they got along together, it is saying something when Farrah Fawcett, Jaclyn Smith and Kate Jackson agreed to stand together in memory of Spelling. He will be very missed.

As for the winners, many of them were well deserved. 24 won as Best Drama, and while I don't watch many sitcoms, I can see why The Office earned the Emmy for Best Comedy. Still, it is saying something when I tell you that while Kiefer Sutherland won for his work on 24 as Best Actor in a Drama, it would be Tony Shalhoub who would win Best Actor in a Comedy, for his title role in Monk. One may wonder why Monk didn't win for Best TV Comedy Series. It wasn't nominated. I'm just saying.

Therein was the core problem with this year's Emmy's; in order to make sure the underdog won from time to time ---if just for dramatic flair--- many of last season's fastest horses weren't even invited to the Emmy race. It's not the fact that Lost wasn't even nominated. The problem lies in what was nominated instead. Sopranos? Wasn't last season, well...garbage? As for Desperate Housewives; okay, so they wanted to bump the Housewives out of the running so they could break the "Seinfeld curse" and give Julia that Emmy. That was cute. Yet they didn't even nominate the series itself, just to give one last Emmy nom to Arrested Development. I've heard of a lot of people who have said they watched Housewives for an episode or two and couldn't see what all the fuss was about. I've been saying that about Arrested Development for three years.

You can forgive NBC for the obligatory homage to their fall lineup. It was even pretty inspired at times. Howie Mandell presents an award with Megan Mullally, and instead of opening the envelope, asks her to "choose" which briefcase holds the Emmy, a la Deal or No Deal. As for Matthew Perry and Tina Fey as presenters, um, I'm sure they're on hand for being part of Saturday Night Live and Friends, and not as a promotion for their upcoming NBC shows. Oh; who am I kidding. But nobody can blame NBC for a little publicity, and for the most part, such guests were the best presenters of the evening.

As a parting thought, I must admit that on the most part, it's amazing this year's Emmys worked as well as it did. Even better was how NBC has no animated series of its own, so thankfully there was no "Family Guy" clips in between each award. What was FOX thinking last year? No matter; NBC was thinking more clearly, and even when Emmy was not (Sopranos? For last season?!?), both NBC and Conan should be commended, for this highly entertaining evening. 

                                                                    ---Techtite

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