Give me my Immy
October 10th, 2009 by Richard MacPhersonThe Emmys, a feminization of the word immy (imagine orthicon tubes) have come and gone with familiar faces taking the statue. The award, a winged woman holding an atom, is pretty hefty according to the diminutive Kristin Chenowith.
Host Neil Patrick Harris, decked out in a white tuxedo and matching ivory colored lavaliere lapel microphone, gave the show tons of charm. His breezy tour of the sideways letter “S” set started off the evening like a segment of Better Homes and Gardens.
Presenters entered behind sliding screens of their images and soon the stars were collecting their prizes. Glen Close, Alex Baldwin and Tina Fey all came forward to the acknowledgment of the crowd, again. It would be better if recipients could win this thing once. Let anonymous actors have a chance. Seriously, once they’ve given you Miss Emmy, you should leave television and go on the road reviving the once honorable tradition of dinner theater. Where else do we once get to see stars in person? And they always have a great buffet.
Did we have to see Tina Fey on the john? And what about that despicable cartoon sequence where that strange looking child beats the dog into a pulp in the bathroom? One actor called most of his roles plumbing jobs and he knew what he was talking about.
We seem to have gone from the comic to the crass in search of a laugh. And while there are certainly well done dramatic productions on the tube, the plethora of reality shows drown out the dramas.
When the award went to Mad Men, one of the accepters mentioned a bygone era of TV and how today what can be watched is just as good. Well to paraphrase Senator Lloyd Bentsen, I’ve seen the golden age of television and this isn’t it.
October 20th, 2009 at 4:49 pm
What else can be said, we like trash, we are a bored society.
October 31st, 2009 at 3:51 am
You absolutely could not have said this better. Trying to find much of anything to watch on television these days takes a real effort. If what's out there today is entertainment, then it's a very sorry commentary on society -- because some people actually watch it and think it's OK. In quoting someone who really WAS on two funny shows in the past, and had others of his own, the problem today with comedy is that there's no creativity. Shows are relying on vulgarity instead of there being believable characters in the shows. HUGE difference. One works, the other is a tragic sense of misplaced attempts at humor -- which fail.