The 2004 Emmy Discussion thread (1 Viewer)

[Seth--L]

Nothing for Curb Your Enthusiasm.

 

[Michael Ballack]

Someone's going to get whacked for cutting of my main man Tony!

 

[Rob Speicher]

Yep yep. It's too bad Curb had to go up against it, but I would have been happy with either of those shows winning.

How did The Daily Show do this year?

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Won both catagories it was nominated for.

 

[Chris]

They were real time nazis this year, everyone was cutoff almost immediately at 25 seconds, when the music started.

 

[ScottR]

I'm so glad The Amazing Race beat the Apprentice. Donald Trump is so used to getting everything he wants, and he was telling everyone that his show had the Emmy in the bag....ha!

 

[Seth--L]

Eh, Curb deserved major recognition. I don't think I've laughed so hard since middle seasons of Seinfeld. The survivor episode was unbelievably brilliant.

 

[Don Black]

I was pretty disappointed by Pacino's speech. I also noticed that the director didn't dare cut him off ... although perhaps he should.

SJP's speech started out badly but ended fun and sincerely. Kristen Davis' tears were rather touching.

A good night for Frasier... and a great way to cap the series. It kind of made up for how the show got lost in all of the Friends buzz last season.

The two real people gag was great! The guy was amazingly composed and poignant with his words.

Shandling started out badly but pulled it off in the end.

Mary-Louise Parker looked even more stunning than normal (as did Teri Hatcher and Kathryn Morris).

 

[Patrick Sun]

I had to do a double-take to realize that was Kathryn Morris when I turned back to the Emmys during a commercial on Sunday Night football on ESPN. Kathryn looked muy caliente tonight!

 

[Mikel_Cooperman]

Horay for Arrested Development. Hopefully it will gain the viewers it needs to stay on a few more years.
I was also very happy that Meryl got it. Loved her speech too. Was happy Angel's in America swept the Awards as well. Hope Bush was watching.

I was a bit disapointed that Angel wasnt in the series that concluded their last season. No clips of Drew Carrey either which was weird because it was a hit for ABC for a long time.
Did I miss John Ritters picture in the "In Memorium" Clips?

 

[Peter Kim]

Strange...if they showed it, I missed it too. I know Kelsey paid homage to John after winning best actor in a comedy series (in which John was nominated) just prior to the In Memorium.

 

[JayDerek]

didn't they show Ritter's clip last year? I thought he passed away right before the Emmy's last year?

~Jason

 

[Michael Harris]

I am happy that "The Daily Show" won yet again. I was upset reading Tom Shales in this morning's "Washington Post" when he remarked:



Shales just doesn't seem to like "The Daily Show". In a loving profile of Bill Mahr, he referred to Stewart's show as "overrated" and also wrote last year that it did not deserve to win.

I wonder who he was rooting for. Of the nominees, I only saw "Chappelle's Show" as the only other possible winner. Sorry but SNL, Leno, Letterman, etc just don't have that edge anymore.

 

[Michael Reuben]

There's one other factor: HBO supports shows they believe in even if the ratings aren't huge. I don't always like the shows, but I respect HBO for the way they support creative people. Major networks used to do that (a classic example was NBC's commitment to Homicide), but now it's a thing of the past.

I don't think it's unfair. It is and should be a wakeup call to the networks.

M.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I don't think the networks have an economic model that supports that any more. With a subscription model, ratings don't matter quite as much; as long as people keep subscribing they can do what they want. The more fragmented television becomes (and HBO's a big part of that), the less chances the network can afford to take. The exception this year is ABC, whose ratings are so low anyway that they can afford to take chances on shows like Lost and Desperate Housewives.

 

[Michael Reuben]

You're probably right, but since that economic model is delivering them a steadily declining number of viewers, something has to change.

M.

 

[Lew Crippen]

True, things are not equal—but (censorship excepted) I am not sure that things are unfair. To begin I agree with Michael in that HBO demonstrates a commitment to their programming that the networks lack (and some used to have). Fox, for example ahs plenty of quirky, creative shows that they cancel at the first sign of viewer disapproval—but I digress—let’s look at some of your points and compare both traditional networks and HBO.

Season Length True, a television season is 22 episodes (in most cases) but Emmy rules state only that a series must have 13 episodes in order to be nominated. Plus, it is not clear that it is an advantage to have fewer episodes, rather than more. Remember that even though the series gets the nomination, the awards are based on single shows. One would think that at least one of a 22-season episode would be as good as one of a 13-episode run. And the larger number of episodes gives the producers a greater number of episodes from which to choose. And of course in the mini-series categories, it is a wash. Don’t forget that the less than 13 episode series are not eligible for series nomination.

Tight Budget It is not at all clear to me that network shows have tighter budgets. Some of the HBO series have large budgets, but then too, so do some of the network shows. The West Wing, for example is an extremely expensive show. Both Friends and Frazier are also quite expensive, just on the salaries of the actors. Crub Yr Enthusiasm is an example of a nominated HBO show, that is extremely low budget. As is Real Time with Bill Maher

In the end, the budgets of network shows are determined by the advertisers and the rerun possibilities, for which the networks and studios can get real money by selling to other markets—HBO budgets are based on how much (and how many) people are willing to pay to subscribe to HBO. I would not think that HBO has an unlimited pot of gold to pour into something like Angels in America, which surely did not have wide popular appeal. It would be pretty hard to imagine that very many people signed up with HBO because of that one mini-series.

Censorship Constraints Here I think that there is a real advantage for HBO. But don’t forget that some of the censorship of the networks is self-imposed, not mandated by the FCC. I don’t think that any network would have taken a chance on a mostly downbeat show about a dysfunctional family running a mortuary, for example (leaving aside the somewhat graphic sex and language). The freedom cuts both ways. I’m sure that there are people who don’t have HBO because of the amount of incredible language on some of their shows, Deadwood the latest and most notable example.

Commercial Breaks There may be a very minor advantage here for HBO, but if you watch carefully, there are places for commercial breaks in many of the HBO shows. They just don’t happen on HBO (or are quite so obvious). I’ve seen HBO developed shows in other countries, where commercials were inserted into the middle of the shows.

Network Interference This is self imposed. The networks could decide not to interfere. HBO could decide to interfere, just as you believe the networks do. They just choose not to do so.

Creative Breaks This too is self imposed. Neither David Chase nor anyone else gets to take a break when they have a production schedule to meet. The fact that David Kelly (for example) decides to produce and write so many shows is his own choice. I’m not sure that network producers have any more or less demanding schedules than Chase. After all, someone still has to develop new shows for HBO just as they do for the networks. The beast is hungry.

 

[Tony Whalen]

Am I the only one who finds Gary Shandling terribly UNfunny? Didn't enjoy him at all...

...and William Shatner got an Emmy! Will wonders never cease?

...oh, and Teri Hatcher and Mary-Louise Parker... yowza!

 

[Michael Reuben]

For those who are wondering: Mary-Louise Parker's figure changed with motherhood. I believe it was in her Golden Globe acceptance speech that she thanked her son for her boobs (her word, not mine).

Fortunately for those of us who love theater, she's back on Broadway this season. Where she truly belongs.

M.

 

[Jordan_E]

Shatner won an Emmy?! Why do I find that incredibly cool?