The Emmy Nomimations Are In, As Always, There Are Hits And Misses

posted by Matt on July 17th, 2008 in Television

And The Nominees Are... This morning, Kristin Chenoweth and Neil Patrick Harris, announced this year’s nominations for the 60th Annual Emmy Awards. As always, everyone has opinions and thoughts as to what calls were great and which ones were not so great.

Rather than fight the natural order of life and keep quiet. We thought we’d supply a list of what we felt were hits and misses with this year’s nominations.

HIT: Props for realizing how great the [adult swim] show Robot Chicken is by giving it a nomination for Outstanding Animated Program. Even better that their Star Wars-themed episode, which highlighted the show’s creators and their own geekiness was the standout show.

MISS: While talking about Outstanding Animated Program and Star Wars. The Family Guy’s nominated episode, “Blue Harvest” which spoofed the same subject matter was unnessesarily long, overall unfunny, and boring.

MISS: Too many nods for the HBO mini-series John Adams. They seem like pity votes for a once great network and the standard for original programming. HBO has struggled the past few years trying to find shows to replace juggernauts The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, and Sex In The City. More shows like Curb Your Enthusiasm and Flight Of The Conchords and less John From Cincinnatti and John Adams could be a good start.

HIT: Showtime is red-hot with Dexter, Weeds, and Califorinication. The Academy was on the mark in recognizing these shows.

HIT: 30 Rock dominating the nominations. To quote Tracey Jordan, “Live every week like it was Shark Week!”

HIT: No one seems to be watching Friday Night Lights so maybe an Emmy for Cast In A Drama Series will give the show a solid 3rd season and more importantly, viewers.

HIT: The Academy nailed the mark for the Outstanding Comedy Series with 30 Rock, Curb, Entourage, The Office. It gets a partial MISS for putting Two And A Half Men in place of the better deserved How I Met Your Mother or Flight Of The Conchords.

MISS: Lost is such a safe bet for Outstanding Drama even though it’s coming off one of it’s most sucktacular season and probably not worth the nod. And I’m exactly who in the Boston Legal camp knows, but that relationship is being milked as hard as possible to keep getting the Outstanding Drama nomination.

HIT: 30 Rock nearly sweeping the Guest Actor In A Comedy award.

MISS: For not giving JB Smoove anything in the Guest Actor In A Comedy category. His portrayal of Leon Black in Curb Your Enthusiasm was by far the best comedic performance of the year – “You got long balls Larry!”

MISS: Ryan Seacrest was nominated for…well anything.

MISS: No Larry David nods for Best Actor In A Comedy!?

HIT: Thank you for giving Mary-Louise Parker and Tina Fey nominations for Lead Actress In A Comedy. Funny, pretty and talented women are sometimes hard to come by and there are a few out there right now.

HIT: While on that subject, for honoring Sarah Silverman for her skit “I’m F*ing Matt Damon” and not her own show (it’s really not THAT funny) was a good call. Amy Poehler securing the first supporting-actress nom for Saturday Night Live since 1978 when both Jane Curtain and Gilda Radnor were nominated and Radnor won. It’d be a bit bittersweet if Poehler were to follow in the footsteps of Tina Fey and leave SNL to take part in the spinoff of The Office as it’s been rumored.

MISS: I think it was a requirement that your show already had to be cancelled to get the Original Title Theme Music nomination. We’re looking at you Kid Nation, Canterbury’s Law and Pirate Master. Of which, only Nation saw a complete season run while Law was cancelled after a handful of episodes and Master was cancelled after only one.

HIT: It’s fitting there were only 3 nominations for Grey’s Anatomy (two in the same supporting actress category) because it was a mediocre season to say the least.

HIT: The 3-way slugfest between Entourage’s Jeremy Piven, The Office’s Rainn Wilson and HIMYM’s Neil Patrick Harris for Supporting Actor In A Comdey shoud be fun to watch.

MISS: Not a single nomination for Rescue Me or It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia has me thinking FX put all their rescourses behing promoting Damages. I’ll say it now – Denis Leary was robbed.

HIT: Multiple nominations for Brothers & Sisters. One of the most solidly casted, written, and acted series on tv at the moment.

HIT: The multiple nominations for The Colbert Report and The Daily Show. Because during an election year, there’s no better block of programming to watch that can at the same time educate, inform, and totally shred the political process.

MISS: Who’s actually watching Mad Men enough to give it all these nominations? I’m definitely not watching it and I watch everything…including Ice Road Truckers.

What do you think? View the complete list of nominations and give us a shout.