Friday, August 3, 2001
All about Emmy - THE COMMENTARY
By Joseph Planta
VANCOUVER -- A few weeks ago, the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences -- the parents of a prize they call Emmy -- doled out this year’s edition of Emmy nominations. This will be the third year, in this space, I’ve dissected Emmy’s goings-on. (It’ll also be my eighth Emmy show over all, which is in itself an achievement, if not disgusting.) The Emmy’s honour the best in television and like any award they sometimes fail in actually doing so. Some will note that 3rd Rock From The Sun kept winning Emmy’s when it was clearly bad, whilst Buffy, The Vampire Slayer would go perpetually unnoticed. Everything from our favourite sitcoms, dramas, miniseries’ and television movies are honoured in a gamut of categories from costumes to acting; direction to musical composition. Some will call the entire exercise a meaningless game of self-adulation and self-congratulations. Perhaps it’s all that, yet we’re all drawn.
The real television hits, judging from the nominations received, are The Sopranos and The West Wing. They’re good shows and well deserving of their nods. Critics on the other hand will say something like Buffy or Gilmore Girls or Six Feet Under are equally deserving. I guess that’s why we’ve got critics. Nominated for Best Drama this year are: ER, Law and Order, The Practice, The Sopranos and The West Wing.
The Sopranos has been on the air for three years now. Ever since it’s first episode, it’s been hailed as the greatest series on the air, if not one of the greatest in the annals of television history. All the other nominees for Best Drama have won the top prize. The Practice won during Tony Soprano’s first season, while the White House dudes took the Emmy last year. This year’s got to be the year The Sopranos win, or else...
On the sitcom ledger, Will and Grace (last year’s best comedy) is up for 12 Emmy’s followed by Frasier which is up for 11. Frasier has made Emmy history as through it’s first five years of existence, it won the best comedy award. Only in the last two years (Ally McBeal and last year’s win by Will and Grace) has the coveted best show prize not gone to Frasier. Surprisingly while critics say it’s past its prime, it’s still nominated. This year for Outstanding Comedy Series, the nominees are: Everybody Loves Raymond, Frasier, Malcolm In The Middle, Sex and The City and Will and Grace. Frasier’s inclusion is mind boggling, but it’ll be a tough year nonetheless. Sex and The City hasn’t been earning the raves it has in season’s past; seasons when it did deserve to covet this award. Raymond is funny, but some will say Malcolm is funnier. Yet, Malcolm is still quite fresh. Will and Grace on the other hand wasn’t so good this year, but it did win last year. Emmy, you see, has a repetitive way of doing things.
The Late Show with David Letterman is up for multiple Emmy’s. In it’s category of Variety, Music or Comedy Series, it’s perennial competitor, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno is absent. Letterman, The Chris Rock Show, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher and Saturday Night Live are nominated for an award that Dave has won three years in a row.
This year I don’t think it unfathomable that Letterman will win again. Though, Jon Stewart’s program is quite funny and earning lots of attention within the business. Also, don’t count out SNL. It hasn’t been nominated in this category in the 8 years I’ve been following the Emmy’s, so this return nomination could spell a possible win.
Billy Crystal’s television movie 61*, about the baseball season when Roger Maris hit 61 homers, is the top movie nominee this year. Crystal, himself is nominated for producing the picture, while BC native Barry Pepper is nominated for a leading actor prize for portraying Maris. 61* is up against fellow HBO pictures Conspiracy, For Love of Country: The Arturo Sandoval Story and Wit. The latter starred Emma Thompson, who’s nominated for acting in the Mike Nichols produced film which is an adaptation of the hit Broadway play. The other nominee in the category of Outstanding Television Movie is Neil Simon’s Laughter on the 23rd Floor. It happens to be produced by Simon himself, which could bring some clout come voting time.
The miniseries on the life of Judy Garland, Life With Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows, is the top miniseries draw of the season. With more nominations than the other nominees, it could be a shoo-in for the Outstanding Miniseries prize. Along with Garland, Anne Frank, Armistead Maupin’s Further Tales of The City, Horatio Hornblower and Nuremberg are also nominated.
Another notable nominee is Steve Martin for hosting the mother of award shows, the Oscars. His turn as host of The 73rd Annual Academy Awards is nominated against Barbra Streisand’s concert Timeless, Ellen DeGeneres and her special Ellen DeGeneres: The Beginning, David Letterman, SNL’s Will Ferrell and Whose Line Is It Anyway? performer Wayne Brady. Eclectic doesn’t nearly do justice to the Emmy category of Outstanding Individual Performance In A Variety or Music Program.
The Emmy’s are Sunday, September 16, 2001. Ellen DeGeneres is slated to host.
- 30 -
Questions and comments may be sent to: editor@thecommentary.ca
An archive of Joseph Planta's previous columns can be found by clicking HERE .