Emmy Nominations 2007

The 2007 Emmy nominations are out and that means the usual run of analysis – and that`s just for the actors who are feeling down on themselves for not being nominated and need their shrinks (Thank you; I`m here all week, try the veal, tip your waitresses well). But seriously folks, once the nominations are announced it is inevitable that people who write about TV, both the professional TV critics in the newspapers and magazines – because when was the last time you saw serious TV commentary on entertainment "news" shows like Entertainment Tonight – as well as amateurs with Blogs (like I don`t know...me) like to look at the nominations and tell the Television Academy where they screwed up. And this year – like most years – they did indeed screw up.

DRAMA SERIES
Boston Legal
Grey's Anatomy
Heroes
House
The Sopranos

Commentary: It`s not a horrible set of nominations, and the nomination of Heroes even throws a bone to Science Fiction fans. The thing is that it`s mostly a safe list with all the usual suspects. Snubs, you want snubs? Set aside Battlestar Galactica, which could probably put a nominee in most of the Drama categories and I'll prove it, how about these: Friday Night Lights, Deadwood, The Wire, The Shield, Rescue Me. In fact you could probably come up with a list of great shows that the PTC hates that would also be shows that would deserve to win here.

COMEDY SERIES
Entourage
The Office
30 Rock
Two and a Half Men
Ugly Betty

Commentary: I'm not really up on the current state of sitcoms, or comedy in general, but this at least seems to be a pretty good list with the exception perhaps of Two and a Half Men but that's just me. Trouble is that there are a couple of other shows that could probably qualify as well. They would be the departing King Of Queens,How I Met Your Mother and most importantly, Extras.

REALITY COMPETITION PROGRAM
The Amazing Race
American Idol
Dancing With The Stars
Project Runway
Top Chef

Commentary: All the usual suspects except for Survivor, which really deserves to be up there after their most recent season. I hate to say it (but of course I will), but I think that the domination of this category by my beloved Amazing Race will probably end after the lacklustre All-Star edition.

REALITY PROGRAM
Antiques Roadshow
Dog Whisperer With Cesar Millan
Extreme Makeover Home Edition
Kathy Griffin: My Life On The D-List
Penn & Teller: Bullshit!

No Commentary

VARIETY, MUSIC, OR COMEDY SERIES
The Colbert Report
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart
Late Night With Conan O'Brien
Late Show With David Letterman
Real Time With Bill Maher

Commentary: No real commentary except that notable by his absence it the jaw that walks like a man, Jay Leno and The Tonight Show. Someone has obviously gotten wise.

VARIETY, MUSIC, OR COMEDY SPECIAL
The Comedy Central Roast of William Shatner
The Kennedy Center Honors: A National Celebration Of The Performing Arts
Lewis Black: Red, White & Screwed
Tony Bennett: An American Classic
A Tribute To James Taylor (Great Performances)
Wanda Sykes: Sick And Tired

No Commentary

MINISERIES
Broken Trail
Prime Suspect: The Final Act
The Starter Wife

No Commentary

MADE-FOR-TV MOVIE
Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee
Inside The Twin Towers
Longford
The Ron Clark Story
Why I Wore Lipstick To My Mastectomy

No Commentary

ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES
James Gandolfini, The Sopranos
Hugh Laurie, House
Denis Leary, Rescue Me
James Spader, Boston Legal
Kiefer Sutherland, 24

Commentary: Okay, I said I could do this, so here goes – Edward James Olmos as Admiral Adama. In addition to my Battlestar Galactica snub, I`ll also add Ian McShane for Deadwood, Michael Chiklis for The Shield and Matthew Perry for Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. I know the show died an ignominious death but Perry was perfect as the cynical, sarcastic and troubled writer producer Matt Albie.

ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES
Patricia Arquette, Medium
Minnie Driver, The Riches
Edie Falco, The Sopranos
Sally Field, Brothers & Sisters
Mariska Hargitay, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Kyra Sedgwick, The Closer

Commentary: Katee Sackoff as Starbuck. Her scenes under the psychological torture from Callum Keith Rennie`s Leoben are absolutely chilling. A good list on the whole, particularly the nomination of Kyra Sedgwick. One big snub is Connie Britton as Tami Taylor in Friday Night Lights who provides humour and stability into what could be at best a weak supporting role if the show was really what people thought it was. The problem in this category is just how male-centered most TV drama is.

ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES
Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock
Steve Carell, The Office
Ricky Gervais, Extras
Tony Shalhoub, Monk
Charlie Sheen, Two and a Half Men

No Commentary

ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES
America Ferrera, Ugly Betty
Tina Fey, 30 Rock
Felicity Huffman, Desperate Housewives
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, The New Adventures of Old Christine
Mary-Louise Parker, Weeds

No Commentary

ACTOR IN A MINISERIES OR MOVIE
Jim Broadbent, Longford
Robert Duvall, Broken Trail
William H. Macy, Nightmares & Dreamscapes: From The Stories Of Stephen King
Matthew Perry, The Ron Clark Story
Tom Selleck, Jesse Stone: Sea Change

No Commentary

ACTRESS IN A MINISERIES OR MOVIE
Queen Latifah , Life Support
Debra Messing, The Starter Wife
Helen Mirren, Prime Suspect: The Final Act
Mary-Louise Parker, The Robber Bride
Gena Rowlands, What If God Were The Sun

No Commentary

SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES
Michael Emerson, Lost
Michael Imperioli, The Sopranos
T.R. Knight, Grey's Anatomy
Terry O'Quinn, Lost
Masi Oka, Heroes
William Shatner, Boston Legal

Commentary: A real surprise to see another nominee from a Science Fiction series. Galactica snub: could I suppose be James Callis as Gaius Baltar, the Quisling-like puppet president the Cylons had running New Caprica, but my personal preference is for Michael Hogan as Colonel Tigh, a man who lost his eye, his wife and his humanity over the course of the season – and that was before we found out he was a Cylon. Other snubs would have to include Gerald McRaney in Deadwood, and Zach Gilford as Matt Saracen in Friday Night Lights as a kid who has been forced to step up both in football and in life and is thoroughly overwhelmed by it. Another great supporting turn comes from Steven Webber as network executive Jack Rudolph in Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip. The role is totally unlike anything we ever associate with Webber based on shows he's done before, a man who has to hold his personal preferences in check for the business realities inherent in his job.

SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES
Lorraine Bracco, The Sopranos
Rachel Griffiths, Brothers & Sisters
Katherine Heigl, Grey's Anatomy
Sandra Oh, Grey's Anatomy
Aida Turturro, The Sopranos
Chandra Wilson, Grey's Anatomy

Commentary: My Galactica snub in this one is really big – Tricia Helfer as Six. The nature of the Cylons means that Helfer has to play a number of different characters who just happen to share a body "model", and sometimes she has to play them in the same scene! Otherwise, do we really need three actresses from Grey's Anatomy?

SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES
Jon Cryer, Two and a Half Men
Kevin Dillon, Entourage
Neil Patrick Harris, How I Met Your Mother
Jeremy Piven, Entourage
Rainn Wilson, The Office

No Commentary

SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES
Conchata Ferrell, Two and a Half Men
Jenna Fischer, The Office
Elizabeth Perkins, Weeds
Jaime Pressly, My Name Is Earl
Holland Taylor, Two and a Half Men
Vanessa Williams, Ugly Betty

Commentary: I guess I'd have tried to find a place to nominate Alyson Hannigan from How I Met Your Mother. The woman has a quality about her that's hard to explain but I love it.

SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A MINISERIES OR MOVIE
Edward Asner, The Christmas Card
Thomas Haden Church, Broken Trail
Joe Mantegna, The Starter Wife
Aidan Quinn, Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee
August Schellenberg, Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee

Commentary: Nothing really except to note that Augie Schellenberg has been a fixture in Canadian TV and radio acting for a couple of decades now.

SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A MINISERIES OR MOVIE
Toni Collette, Tsunami, The Aftermath
Judy Davis, The Starter Wife
Samantha Morton, Longford
Anna Paquin, Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee
Greta Scacchi, Broken Trail

No Commentary

GUEST ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES
Tim Daly, The Sopranos
Christian Clemenson, Boston Legal
John Goodman, Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip
David Morse, House
Eli Wallach, Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip
Forest Whitaker, ER

Commentary: Wow! I'm shocked that the Academy has seen fit to nominate the two performances from Studio 60 that immediately sprung to my mind; Goodman as the Judge in Pahrump who provided a sane voice for the people who didn't like the values promoted by the fictional Studio 60, and Eli Wallach as the elderly comedy writer who was blacklisted in an earlier period where the arts were under attack. Galactica snub: Carl Lumley from the episode Hero in which he plays a pilot who escaped years of Cylon captivity and suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

GUEST ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES
Kate Burton, Grey's Anatomy
Leslie Caron, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Marcia Gay Harden, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Elizabeth Reaser, Grey's Anatomy
Jean Smart, 24

Commentary: Compared with last season, Jean Smart's role isn't as pivotal as it might be. Interesting, and vagely shocking, that except for Smart the nominations all come from just two series and those are broadcast series. As for Galactica this one is hard. The nature of the series is such that it's difficult to introduce a guest performer – the fleet is large but the show focuses almost all of the action on Galactica, and it's not as if you can suddenly introduce a new Cylon model. Worst of all, Academy rules now require that nominees in this category submit a paper copy of their on-screen "guest starring" credit. Still, using the old criteria of six or fewer episodes, I'd suggest Kate Vernon as Ellen Tigh, whose love for her husband led her to prostitute herself to Brother Cavil, and eventually to betray the Human resistance on New Caprica, which led to her death.

GUEST ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES
Beau Bridges, My Name Is Earl
Martin Landau, Entourage
Sir Ian McKellen, Extras
Giovanni Ribisi, My Name Is Earl
Stanley Tucci, Monk

No Commentary

GUEST ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES
Dixie Carter, Desperate Housewives
Salma Hayek, Ugly Betty
Judith Light, Ugly Betty
Laurie Metcalf, Desperate Housewives
Elaine Stritch, 30 Rock

No Commentary

The Emmys air on Septenmber 16. I hope to start running polls on some of the categories starting tomorrow. I just have to work out the schedule and maybe look for a new polling service.