Anyone who knows me, knows that I love nothing more than an awards show. Although the older I get, the less of an event it has become, but ohhhh...The Emmys. Television's big night. All the shows that I don't watch getting tens upon tens of nominations. That is a whole other story. This year the fantastic Neil Patrick Harris (NPH) hosting. Should be a wonderful show, right?
Well, from the get go there were controversies a-brewing. The memoriam segments caused a ruckus because Corey Monteith, who OD'd on drugs and alcohol, was being given a special nod, while others, such as, Jack Klugman who spent much of his career in one hit after another was lumped together with all the deceased talent of the year. Okay, okay, I thought let's take a wait and see point of view. Give them a chance. With NPH leading the charge, it will work.
Okay, gang, I gave it a chance. I watched the show in its entirety and can deem it the worst produced Emmy show in history. First of all, NPH is beginning to believe his own press. He came off smug and narcissistic, which I don't think he is, but he did here. I hope that worm isn't turning. Maybe he's gotten just too cool to host. He needs a breather; we need a breather. The truth is hosting is a terribly difficult job and few are able to keep the audiences attention and keep the pace going. NPH has always been very good, but he hit the wall. The opening was irritating from the get go with all the past hosts "acting" like they were hosting, supposed to be hosting, snubbed for hosting, etc. It was not funny and totally a clunker.
The first award was given and it went to Merritt Weaver for her role in Nurse Jackie. She is well deserving, but better yet, had the best and quickest speech of the night. That was almost the highlight. That was about 10 minutes in, which left 2 hours and 50 minutes and then some to fill. And fill they did, but with what? Elton John was trotted out to sing a new song he has coming out to "honor" Liberace. It was a dirge, had no relationship to Liberace, and stretched it to fit in the segment without success. Even the audience members looked like they had to force smiles and appreciation. I mean, really, you have Elton John and he sings a song that no one knows and probably won't ever hear again! Good plan. I think a lot of people clicked over to NFL football.
It was the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. They gave it its due and showed the famous clip of Walter Cronkite's announcement, which then segued into the 50th anniversary of the Beatles on Ed Sullivan. What a fantastic event to honor. So what did they do? They brought out lovely, American Idol, Grammy Award winning, country star, Carrie Underwood to sing a Beatles song. The producer, Ken Ehrlich managed to make Carrie Underwood suck. It was the wrong song choice (Yesterday), the wrong arrangement, the wrong performer, and another dirge like performance. Wrong, wrong, wrong! Should have had the Fab Faux sing. Could have only been better and they could use the national exposure.
I'm not even sure where we are in the evening. The awards get handed out with little fanfare and excitement. NPH or someone in his camp thought it would be a good idea to put a big production number at the half way point. It was cheesy and if they were going for camp, didn't hit it at all. The dancers were completely the Dean Martin Show cheese ball but it's 2013. All white dance corps. Again, it's 2013. So now we get through that dull number and we get some more awards. Finally, get to the choreographers award. Seriously? There's an award for best choreography? Didn't know since the June Taylor Dancers. So there are 5 choreographers from So You Think You Can Dance and 1 choreographer from Dancing With the Stars. NPH made a big deal that this year they get to receive their Emmy live on TV and choreograph another big production number showing each of their talents. OMG! It was horrible. And the Emmy goes to....Can you guess? If you were a betting man, who would you put your money on?? Derek Hough one for Dancing With the Stars. It was so predictable.
Did anyone else think that it was weird that the director kept showing Scott Bakula? Was his mother the director? Couldn't they find someone else to show? Clearly, they couldn't go back to Kevin Spacey. He didn't want to have the camera on him, surprise, surprise. I can go on and on. I am sure that I missed things too. Seriously, the awards themselves seemed incidental. Another waste of air time. Ken Ehrlich better re-examine what the viewing audience wants or the Emmys will be in jeopardy of getting tossed to The Learning Channel.
Sidebars: The Voice begins its 5th season tonight. James Spader is back on prime time tonight at 10pm in The Blacklist. Even if the writing is bad, he is always worth watching. Here's to hoping it's a winner. Toni Collette and Dylan McDermott have their season premiere opposite James Spader in Hostages. Can't tell at all what it's about from the promos. We shall see. It's the DVR'd show of the night. There are many other premieres this week. I say give every show a shot and then delete. I love the new television season. Always have; always will. Hope springs eternal.
And again, don't forget to order your copy of Neil Sedaka: A Rock and Roll Survivor. It's a great read by a great writer.
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@DianaPodolsky
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