The Emmys just ended. Late. I was ready for them to wrap it up from the moment I saw the stage. For those of you who were otherwise entertained, this year the Emmys were done in the round. Like when you go to the theatre. Only this was an award show in the round. With cameras. From the looks of it, the cameras were in one spot and the only thing that was different from a regular stage show awards event was that a good one-third of the audience got to sit and watch the back end of the actors on stage. No matter how comely those rears are (hey, I’m talking to you Adrian Grenier), it just wasn’t a good idea. Didn’t anybody realize this BEFORE the little red lights on those cameras came on? I mean, the entire cast of UGLY BETTY was the backdrop. I wonder if their agents are going to ask for some coin for that performance – I would. Best comedy show used as a backdrop goes to….
There was nothing I liked about this year’s Emmy show. You heard me – nothing. Ryan Seacrest is a friendly enough guy, but as a host…not so much. It seemed that there was a lot of wasted time when he was trying to decide who he was on that stage. He referenced Johnny Carson, Ellen and others who had passed on hosting. Perhaps that list had seen the stage concept.
The nervous Nelly who was in charge of the panic button outdid themselves. Having worked in talk radio, the concept of a six second delay button is ingrained in my producer DNA. The button gets hit when a caller says one of George Carlin’s ‘words you can’t say on TV’. My particular button was, indeed, red and was called the panic button. During the Emmy ceremony, I counted at least three times when the person on stage suddenly and awkwardly cut to – well, I can’t tell you exactly what it was they cut to, because I just couldn’t make it out. Ray Romano was there (rambling on and on) and suddenly he wasn’t. I knew he wasn’t being cut for whining – that’s his shtick. Then Sally Field, during her acceptance speech, got the panic button treatment as well. This is what Sally was saying when she was cut off: “If mothers ruled the world, there wouldn’t be any god-damned wars in the first place.”
All this panic about words is because the FCC under its current direction is all hot and bothered that a ‘bad’ word might slip out and therefore ruin the impressionable minds watching a TV award ceremony after 10 pm on a Sunday night in the comfort of their own homes. Hooookay. The nervous Nelly who jammed that panic button must not be aware the Commission has ruled that god-damned is NOT a word subject to a fine.
In a year when fashion took a major leap forward, it saddens me to think the production of the show fell apart. Let’s be brutally honest here…the pre-Emmy arrival show was better.
It amazed me that the folks who contributed to the business and had died over the last year got what seemed to be a short changed segment that, if memory serves, wasn’t even introduced. The musical number by the one-and-only Tony Bennett and songstress Christina Aguilera was ruined by bad direction. This isn’t an episode of “24” calling for a shaky camera and abrupt cuts. It’s a musical number and I wanted to see them lip sync damnit! When the Jersey Boys rocked down the house with their tribute to the Sopranos, I wanted to see the Sopranos clips. Didn’t happen. The clips were on screens around the auditorium, but the director was too busy auditioning for an MTV music video to think about what he was really up to. I didn’t get to see Da Family and it saddened me.
As a matter of fact, a lot of what I wanted to see didn’t happen. At no time was there any viewer benefit in what they did to produce this show. And isn’t that what the whole point is? Get viewers across the country to get pumped at their favorites? Any answer other than “yes” will find you asked to be the panic button operator.
Touted as the first “green” Emmy show, I can only say that someone needs to ask for a rebate on that carbon credit they got.
