2003 Emmy Awards ..Who's Watching? (1 Viewer)

[Tino]

Owen

I figured I had that saying wrong but I knew someone would correct me. Thanks.I hate getting those things wrong!

BTW, did anyone else notice what Simon Cowell did to Paula Abdul???

As they were walking across the stage, they switched to a rear view and that's where Simon stuck his hand...right up Paula Abdul's ass.

And she didn't even flinch!

 

[Chris]

Actually, I thought the same about Cosby's comment. Cosby has donated more to more universities - especially black universities, then anyone going. His promotion of universities during his program and "Different World" meant a lot to smaller schools, and Cosby has worked tirelessly for the Negro College Fund.

Cosby has always voiced his offense with the way in which many black television shows portray their characters as ignorant, slang using fools, and pointed to many examples.. and Wanda's show isn't any better. Cosby's big example is how wealthy African Americans in those shows were always portrayed as sell-outs or in negative lights, when he wanted more african americans to be portrayed as successful, educated, and smart.

I thought the same, as I look around a lot of the programming geared at the african-american audience, it's really sad how little of it treats the characters with any respect and how poorly most of the characters are portrayed.. and how stereotypical, in a bad way, most of them are.

 

[Henry Gale]

I'd like to raise the level of the discussion for just a moment.
Could any kind soul provide me with 20 or 30 shots of Janel Moloney (Donna on The West Wing) approaching the stage?
This is for scientific research only. :b



I thought Wanda Sykes was an embarrassment.

 

[ThomasC]

Here you go, Jim:

http://www.users.muohio.edu/choongty/janel/

The first nine are about the same, they're frame by frame captures. I got tired of doing frame by frame captures, so you got the "best of" after that.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

And in regards to his promotion of education, what exactly did Sykes say or do that would make her sound or look uneducated or ignorant? An inconsistent comedian perhaps but certainly not ignorant.

I should know better than jump on such a sensitive topic as this, but God help me I'm stupid so I'm going to anyway.

While I would certainly agree with you that Sykes is not ignorant - the accent and the manner of speech are part of her act - she never the less does have that quasi-ebonics thing going on. It's part of what makes her material so funny, and what makes her routine work so well. Her stage act, in particular, where she's tackling all the stupid things that we do. But Cosby wasn't the person to go there with. Cosby's worked hard to battle negative stereotypes about African Americans and if he wasn't familiar with Wanda, I could easily see how he could think she was furthering those stereotypes for the cheap laughs. I thought his rebuke was a classy way of handling it.

That was only one of many awkward situations in the show where the cheesy scripted fare bumped up against the live aspect of the show. Whoever planned that segment obviously didn't understand the personalities involved. The best part of the show was when Dennis Miller was doing the looking back segment and he hit one that was particularly shocking to the crowd or whatever and he fires off, "Don't blame me, I'm only reading the prompter." It really showed just how badly staged the whole ordeal was.

Speaking of Fred Rogers, as sad as the death of John Ritter was, and as great it was to see him properly memorialized, I was upset to see that Mr. Rogers got neglected (except by Cosby). He was one of the great influences in my life and so many others, and really showed how great good television had the potential to be. Growing up, his show was a safe place; a haven against whatever else may have been bothering me. I know it was the same for innumerable others.

I was glad to see Daily Show take home the prize, and Taken get the miniseries win that it very much deserved.

While the nominations were piss-poor, the wins were surprisingly smart for the Emmys. I was impressed.

 

[Citizen87645]

I thought his rebuke was a classy way of handling it.

Classy would have been to share his convictions and feelings with Sykes personally and not rebuke her in front of millions of people. I'm sure Sykes can take it, but I definitely don't think it was classy.

 

[MickeS]

What's ignorant about the characters on "Wanda"? Whenever I've seen Wanda Sykes (on talk shows, stand-up, "Curb Your Enthusiasm), she's spoken with the same accent and voice. It seems to actually be how she speaks. Should she be criticized for that, and not for what she says?

 

[Dan Rudolph]

How you say somethign is a huge part of what you say, so in a word, yes.

As they were walking across the stage, they switched to a rear view and that's where Simon stuck his hand...right up Paula Abdul's ass.

I saw that. Maybe Ryan Seacrest was onto something when he was teasing Simon on his American Juniors appearance.

 

[Graeme Clark]

Funny how Cosby is always immitated speaking incoherent jibba jabba, yet won't tollerate any "ebonics"?

I thought his comeback was funny, not because of anything he might of thought about stereotypes or what have you, but because Wanda was incredibly grating and unfunny.

Larry David was... exactly what I'd expect.

 

[Ric Bagoly]

Gandofini has won ENOUGH.

Herein lies the basic problem for me with the Emmys, the fact that there are NO LIMITS to how many times a show or performer can take a particular award. For years I tuned in hoping to see Rip Torn or Hank Kingsley get an Emmy for Larry Sanders, only to see it go to fucking David Hyde Pierce EVERY SINGLE YEAR. It's one thing if Gandofini wins the Emmy. It's another thing if a deserving winner like Kiefer cannot get his first because Gandofini is getting his 2nd or 3rd. There SHOULD be a limit on how many awards a performer could win for the same role, but we'll never see that because some people need to have their egos stroked, year after year after year...

 

[Lew Crippen]

IMO Ric, if anyone got screwed in that category, it was Peter Krause in Six Feet Under. His performance for me was far superior to any of the nominees this year.

But I really can’t get upset with a Gandofini win—it is not exactly chopped liver.

I do agree, BTW, with the supporting actors on The Larry Sanders Show not getting the nod. Kinglsey and Torn were very funny and sad.

 

[Daniel J.S.]

It's not so much that people need their egos stroked, it's that the voters are conservative and lazy; once they find a show or actor they like, they vote for them year after year, regardless of who else may be deserving. How else do you account for "The West Wing" winning four years in a row?

 

[Jeremiah]

I didn't think Wanda's skits were very funny, and I thought Cosby's line about "We speak english" was quite funny. Larry David was just Larry David, he appears to not like the spotlight on him. Wanda talking about Larry improving all of his stuff and than went on to say "I bet you wrote that speach huh." was very funny.

One thing though, why the heck did Bill Cosby have sunglasses on the entire time?

Everybody loves Raymond? C'mon.

Gandolfini's comment about Brad Garrett taking the heat off him was perfect.

 

[Jeremiah]

I don't care if an actor/actress wins 10 straight Emmy's as long as the deserve them.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

What's ignorant about the characters on "Wanda"? Whenever I've seen Wanda Sykes (on talk shows, stand-up, "Curb Your Enthusiasm), she's spoken with the same accent and voice. It seems to actually be how she speaks. Should she be criticized for that, and not for what she says?

I don't think so, personally, but maybe Cosby does.

 

[PhilipG]

How else do you account for "The West Wing" winning four years in a row?

IMHO it's been the best US show for four years in a row. I don't know, maybe all the Emmy voters are Brits.

 

[Yee-Ming]

Assorted comments/responses:-

I don't know anything about Wanda Sykes or her show, but I found her stuff irritating/annoying.

If the intention of the Emmys is to recognise the best work of the year, the fact that a person was considered best the previous year should be irrelevant, so if someone deservedly hogs the Emmy several years in a row for work on one show, why not? Tough break for other good contenders, sure, but there's only one winner.

Funny how NYPD Blue once totally dominated the Emmys, to the extent of monopolising almost all the writing nominations one year (was it 4/5 or 5/5? or was it directing?), and not having a single nom now. How about ER?

Similarly, where's Law & Order? And has either of the L&O spinoffs ever been nominated for anything? If not, strange, IMHO after watching just a few eps of L&O:CI (which recently started here), I find its plots very intriguing, and possibly worthy of a writing nod.

 

[Glenn Overholt]

If you thought that the first few eqisodes of CI were good, just wait a few weeks. They get even better.

Glenn

 

[Lew Crippen]

Similarly, where's Law & Order? And has either of the L&O spinoffs ever been nominated for anything? If not, strange, IMHO after watching just a few eps of L&O:CI (which recently started here), I find its plots very intriguing, and possibly worthy of a writing nod.

The writing is way too formalistic to win any awards. There may be clever plots and twists, but otherwise this is routine writing, the same week in and week out. These shows are all way too plot driven for anyone to win an acting award, other than perhaps the male detective in latest version (CI).

All just my opinion, of course—I have no real way of knowing why anyone votes the way they do.

 

[Karl_Luph]

How many people really watch The West Wing anymore? I watched the season premiere for NYPD Blues and once again, rock solid writing and performances from all the cast plus I saw a familiar actor (can't remember his name, very distinguished actor though) playing an attorney. I want to say he used to be on Law and Order perhaps. Isn't there a People's Choice Award Show for tv shows? I would think this kind of award would be more appreciated by the actor or actress.