The Mediocrity Awards
Posted by Maggie
August 28th, 2006 at 01:16pm
In All Things TV Special Events The Office
So the Emmys happened last night. Emmy voters seemed intent on awarding the 2nd-bests in every category — not the obvious incompetants, but not the truly deserving innovators, either. Best Actor in a Comedy: not the amazing Steve Carrell, and not the horrible Charlie Sheen, but the decent Tony Shalhoub. Outstanding Variety/Comedy show: not the inspired Colbert Report, and not the irritating Bill Maher, but the solidly excellent Daily Show. Reality Show: not the clearly superior Project Runway, and not the schlock-fest Dancing with the Stars, but the decently entertaining Amazing Race.
And then there were the tragedies, like Barry Manilow. Barry Manilow, people! Winning an Emmy! Over Stephen Colbert, David Letterman, Craig Ferguson, and Hugh Jackman! What kind of world are we living in?
The good news is that two TiFaux favorites — The Office and 24 — won the big awards. Yippee, or whatever.
Here is the point where I would put Conan's cute opening sketch, where he traveled through Lost, The Office, House, South Park, and Dateline's To Catch a Predator, but the nerds have abandoned me, and it's not on youtube yet as far as I can tell.
And, oh god, did everyone else catch the sappy and insipid trailer that NBC is running for The Office? It's all softly tinkling pianos, slow-mo shots of Jim and Pam, and fading in title cards that say things like "Last spring… we held our breath… for the greatest love television has ever seen… will they or won't they?" or something to that effect. I kept waiting for the joke. For the record-skipping noise, and then Dwight leans into the frame and says something about fire regulations or whose turn it is to change the urinal cakes. But that moment never came.
Bad move, NBC promo-maker. Bad move.
And finally, I was pleased to see that Ellen Pompeo appears to have finally eaten something, and is no longer on the verge of collapsing in on herself like a black hole. Still skinny, but not grossly so.
1. My hate for Gwyneth Paltrow has enveloped Blythe Danner as well. Stop giggling, woman. You’re like 60.
2. Whose idea was it for Ellen Pompeo to wear velvet? I heard it was 100 degrees on the red carpet (because Ryan Seacrest was bitching while not leering at Tyra’s rack). Was she trying to sweat off those recently reclaimed boobies, like wrestlers wearing plastic sweatsuits into a sauna in order to make weight? So not okay.
Emmy’s opening scene:
http://www.wwtdd.com/post.phtml?pk=1249