Just my two cents – happy that my favorite shows (Arrested Development, Daily Show, Amazing Race) all won. I watched Angels in America; didn’t care for it all that much; but it was an acting tour-de-force, so I’m not surprised that it swept everything. But I’m glad to see that Mary Louise Parker can open her mouth when she speaks; apparently she only talks through gritted teeth when she’s acting.
From the red carpet: who was that woman in a tutu with a microphone, and why is she yelling at me?
I don’t care who wins, since the odds are ten to one that I’ve never seen them, but the show itself should be fun to watch.
Shandler had been a good host in the past, but this year he was totally unfunny. It could have been because the show was in total chaos. It gave the impression at least that the director was drunk, the backstage area impassible, and the technical personnel on strike.
Whoever came up with the idea for the staged “impromptu” backstage bits should be processed into a red carpet.
I didn’t watch it, but I’m stoked Arrested Development won so much stuff (Comedy Writing, Comedy Directing, and Best Comedy Series, along with Casting and at least one more.)
Even though ratings were bad we got picked up for another season and won some sweet awards. Let’s hope the Emmy buzz and pending DVD release recruits some new viewers.
Aw, I liked them. Especially the bit with Ray Romano. I’ve always hated the Larry Saunders show, but I thought Garry was pretty toned down last night.
Isn’t this the second year in a row Ellen had to follow some incredibly sombering moment? I think last year she had to follow the dead people.
I didn’t have any horses in any of the races, either. I don’t understand, though, why there’s a Reality category and not a Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Horror category. Since someone opened the thread, here’s everything I’ve been dying to tell people:
Sharon Stone and William Shatner made a disturbing combination. Same for William Peterson and Dennis Franz.
Mariska Hagrity looked awful. Apparently she has good friends in Hollywood, though.
Amber Tamblyn’s face at the camera when her name was announced was hilarious.
I want to sleep with Barbara Walters. I’ve never felt this way before about her. I can’t explain it.
Marlo Thomas was classy.
Meryl Streep was way classy. I didn’t care much for “Angels in America” either, but she was a diva in every respect. Take that, Nicole Kidman!
I love (Mos Def?) saying who the hell is Elaine?
I felt sorry for William H. Macy.
I’m sorry to see the trend for anorexic actresses returning (if it ever left). Every single woman I saw onstage looked like they were going to blow away or collapse into a pile of sticks.
Ellen looked very good in an open-necked, swarthy tux.
I found it slightly annoying that, ten or so years after “Angels in America” was banned in my home town (Charlotte) for having homosexual content, in a huge scandal that caused the schools and museums to lose funding and half the councilmen to lose their jobs, the history of the play was hardly mentioned. I’m glad the writer can kiss his husband in front of 50-some countries, but he, of all people, should remember how hard it was to get to this point.
Along those lines, I liked the mild Iraq/Osama jokes. I’m glad they weren’t cut out completely, and I’m glad there was no Michael Moore-esque screaming. The one that sticks out is Garry’s, “I didn’t prepare anything on Iraq. I didn’t think we’d still be there.”
I liked Donald Trump, but I felt sorry for him having to be on his best behavior. I really don’t think that’s his crowd. Did anyone else notice they stopped cutting away to him after he lost?
I found the Daily Show stuff anti-climactic. It’s been the year of Jon Stewart, so I’d seen it all before. Still, on stage with the rest of his people, he’s really short! :eek:
I’m torn about the music. On the one hand, I liked how the shorter speeches made people say cleverer things, rather than thanking 600 people. On the other hand, it was friggin rude. I prefer my Emmy shows to run 3:30-4 hours. When it ended exactly on time, I thought, “That’s it?”
It was Chris Rock who asked “who is Elaine Stitch” (yes, mispronouncing it like that.)
It’s not just Jon Stewart who’s short. Every time an actor walked in front of the models who brought out the Emmys, you could still see everything from the model’s noses on up. Even Mischa Barton towering over her O.C. chums was dwarfed by the models.
OK, just checked IMDb. Mischa Barton is 5’8". Jon Stewart is 5’7". High heels are amazing things.
I thought it odd that they chose to recognize Danny Thomas and the St. Jude Hospital’s…a perfectly worthy cause, but jeez–he’s been dead for 20 years. At this point, it’s kind of like giving an award to Andrew Carnegie. (and I’m sure 75% of the audience was saying “hey! It’s Rachel’s Mom!”)
Meryl Streep always dresses weird but gives great speeches.
I thought the music was incredibly rude. The first words out of Jon Stewart’s mouth were acknowledging that someone was telling him to ‘wrap it up’. :rolleyes:
And, as usual, the best part of the show was the writing/variety show nominations. Conan’s “songs of the '70s” and Letterman’s celebrity mug shots cracked me up.
Elaine Stritch was fricking batshit crazy up there, as was Allison Janney inviting all the other nominees in her category to join her onstage and extending a special invite to Mariska Hargitay because they were “both wearing such beautiful green dresses.” I was so confused.
Who was the woman on the red carpet wearing what looked to be a suede tube top and loincloth?
I bought the story that she and Mariska were good friends, and that Janney had perhaps offered to give her the statue. Props to Mariska for just sucking it up and going on stage, in order to stop Janney’s babbling, which was probably embarassing.
I was hoping to hear some gossip on what went down, though. But I don’t know where to get Hollywood gossip.
But at least Ving gave his award away. Janney seemed to be having second-thoughts. And if there was a Least Deserving Winner last night, it was her: her part’s not even a Lead, and she’s won 4 times now in that role–enough already!
MLParker was hot and Arrested was an incredible surprise. Glad to see Stewart rake in a few well-deserved ones as well, though it must’ve sucked being a non-Angels TV movie/mini-series this year. Props to a few sentimental Frasier and Sex votes–they both did have great kick-offs (though I found both also overrated)
And James Spader deservedly breaks Gandolfini’s streak, while David Chase breaks West Wing’s ludicrous headlock on the Drama category.
Overall, not bad, though Shandling (whom I usually like) was dismal.
Why couldn’t they just go over their time slot for five minutes to let James Gandolfini say what he had to say. There is nothing on at 11pm on abc. They would of got more ratings and we would not have to watch them speed through the last 30 minutes of the show.
I’ve got to say I’m very pleased that Sarah Jessica Parker and Cynthia Nixon won for Sex and the City (best. show. evar.).
As for Kelsey Grammar, thank God Frasier is finally over. I am so sick of that pompous ass. He’s worse than Frasier in real life. The show was great, but he makes me ill.
My thoughts exactly, especially considering Pacino rambled on and on and on and I don’t think a single person has a clue what he said, nor did anyone care. The funniest was the Arrested Development writer who, when the “getyourassoffthestage” music started, threatened to sing the rest of his speech along with the music. Very funny, and too bad he didn’t really do it!
I have never found Shandling funny in the past, and this year’s Emmy show proved to me once again he is simply not funny. And he admits it took him months to write those lame “jokes”…at least he could have pretended he just wrote them on the limo ride to the show. That’s what they sounded like to me.
I had it on but didn’t really watch it because my TV was all screwy. I was most annoyed that Kelsey Grammer won and John Ritter didn’t. Come on Emmy voters, Ritter’s dead! If they wanted a sentimental favorite you can’t get more sentimental than that. I also get annoyed when I see people win year after year who really just keep doing the same thing and it isn’t all that special. It’s not like his character grew or changed that required stretching his acting chops. He’s been the same since the beginning of the show. Same goes for Allison Janney and anyone else who’s won more than once, like David Hyde Pierce. Peter Boyle should have won supporting comedy actor.
As awards shows go, I thought this one was pretty well-done. I liked the fact that the control room was totally visible, the upper level of the stage. I liked Shandling, and I usually don’t. (But I wasn’t crazy about the “real people” brought out to announce a category. That took up too much time that could have been better used by long, rambling, uninteresting thank-you speeches.)
I understand the need to limit what winners say, but I think they chose an unfortunately short time before the music intruded. And previous writers have alluded to the fact that the music intrusion was not applied equitably.
We could use more thank-you speeches like Meryl Streep’s (or the Hurwitz guy from ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT).
I was just glad Jennifer Aniston didn’t win.
But why wasn’t SIX FEET UNDER nominated in any category? That’s some of the finest acting and writing on television, IMHO.
