My Emmy Party

One of my three favorite nights: The Oscars, the Tonys and ...The Emmys. Tonight it was the Emmy. I always feel sad that I don't have an Emmy party to go to. I went to an Oscar party once and it was great fun. Walt sits and watches the Emmys with me, but he doesn't know most of the shows, even the ones he watches, and it's no fun when you have to explain why you're cheering for this or that person, or identify people in the audience.

But I decided to "blog the Emmys" as I have done in the past and set my laptop on the kitchen table so I could watch on the big TV. During the first commercial break, I decided to check in with Facebook and lo and behold my friend Jennifer, in Colorado, had posted a comment about the first award. I couldn't get the chat function of Facebook to load, but we kept writing notes back and forth through the entire show and it was so much fun! The next best thing to having an Emmy party. Looking at the whole thread of conversation I see that we wrote nearly 200 messages!

So here are my (edited) notes on the show. I was looking forward to Jane Lynch hosting. I have liked her even before Christopher Guest discovered her. She's beautiful, she's funny and she's clever and I thought she would do a great job. Sadly, I think it was only ho-hum. I don't know how much control she has over things, but I didn't think the opening segment was a home run (though bits of it were nice, like having Leonard Nimoy as head of Television, and the business with Mad Men). I thought the musical group, the Emmytones were a bust throughout the show.

COMEDY AWARDS
So nice to see Julie Bowen (Modern Family) win an award, even tho she beat out both Lynch and Betty White. I thought for a minute that her boobs were going to fall out of her dress, but her acceptance speech sounded just like her Modern Family character.

And it was nice that her co-star Ty Burrel also won, which set off so many wins for that show that Lynch started calling it the Modern Family awards show.

By 30 minutes into the show, I was texting to Jennifer that it was seeming tired. Much more low key than the Ricky Gervaise of last year (which is maybe a good thing!)

Charlie Sheen as a presenter?? Whoda thunk. He did give a nice speech eating humble pie. He looked almost sincere.

I loved that Jim Parsons of Big Bang Theory won. He has one of the quirkiest characters on TV and he does it so well.

The announcement of the women nominees for best actress in a comedy was great. Sophia Vergara, the presenter, was not funny at all, but when Amy Poehler jumped up and went onto the stage when her name was announced, and then all the other nominees did too, even though some looked a little unnsure of whether they should or not. It was such a great moment that the audience gave them a standing ovation. And then best of all, Melissa McCarthy of Mike and Molly (a show I have not seen) won the award. Jennifer, her wife, and I, all of whom are people of size, said simultaneously "The fat girl won!" We were very happy about it.

The same thought occurred to me that has before...these are all actors, used to speaking into microphones. The mics are positioned so that almost everyone can be heard from where they stand (the only exception being Peter Dinklage, winning for supporting actor for Game of Thrones, who is a "little person.") Why does everybody feel the need to lean over or lean in to speak into the mics?

Thrilled, of course, that The Daily Show won for best writing and best comedy show, though not surprised when Saturday Night Live took the award for best directing--I suspect there is more directing in that show than on The Daily Show.

REALITY SHOW
Amazing Race won again. No surprise. I would have been happy with that, Project Runway or Top Chef, but I don't see where American Idol fits in the category.

DRAMA
It was only at the end of the show that I realized something odd. NO cop show was even nominated in the drama group and Mariska Hargitay was the only actor in a crime drama nominated and she didn't win. Very strange, after all the clips of the two NCIS shows and pre-show publicity showing Mark Harmon. But no NCIS, Criminal Minds, Bones, CSI, Law & Order, White Collar, The Closer or any other crime drama. Not one nomination.

However, I was just thrilled that awards went to Friday Night Lights for best writing and to Kyle Chandler for best actor. His acceptance speech was just as uncomfortable as Coach Eric Taylor, his character in the show.

I had never heard of the show Justified, but I have seen character actress Margo Martindale in many shows over the years and am just so happy she won (another "fat girl") She gave a lovely emotional speech and trembled noticeably through the whole thing.

Most of the rest of the awards didn't interest me because I hadn't watched most of the shows. I was happy for Julianna Margulies' Good Wife win, though I would have preferred Connie Britton, who played the wife on Friday Night Lights.

I think it was Mildred Pierce for which Kate Winslet won. I didn't see the mini series (I think we were in China), but I just loved how sweet and effusive her acceptance speech was. I especially loved her thank you to her mom. Paul was supposed to thank his mom when he won his Emmy, but had to go and die before he had a chance.

Lots of nominations and awards for shows I never saw, so I ended up cooking dinner toward the end of the show.

The In Memoriam montage was nice and I guess that was the 4 Canadian Tenors who sang "Halleluia." The song always reminds me of The West Wing because the first time I heard it was in that show.

Jennifer missed some of the "Emmyage" (as she called it) because she had to take her dog for a walk, but I kept up a running commentary on the awards she missed so she could catch up when she got back.

So it was a fun night and it was fun chatting with Jennifer throughout and, all things considered, I enjoyed the show, even if it was a little low key for my tastes.