Emmy Noms: My Take

(image via here)

It's like my birthday! Why, you ask? No, it isn't my birthday.... but the Emmy nominations were just announced! I'm not crazy enough to wake up at 8:30 just to watch Joel McHale and Sofia Vergara announce them live, but it was the first thing I did when I got up.

And how did things pan out for my favorite shows? Not too badly! Here are some of my personal highlights and lowlights:

YAY: 30 Rock and Modern Family got the Best Comedy nod!

BOO: So did The Office, Glee, Nurse Jackie, and Curb. I guess I can't complain about Curb because I've heard it's very funny, but seriously, Emmy people? Parks and Recreations was deemed by many a critic to be the best of the NBC Thursday line-up this year. And while I disagree in favor of 30 Rock, P&R > The Office this year. And what about Community? Sure, it wasn't stellar this season, but it was better than Glee, which is a clever and innovative show, but not nearly as funny as it needs to be to get a Comedy nod.

YAY: Alec Baldwin was nominated!

BOO: No Joel McHale? No Community love AT ALL? Especially when you evil Emmy producers had him announce the nominees next to Sofia, who was nominated herself and had her show nominated! It was incredibly awkward near the end of the announcements where the big producer guy told Sofia she got a nom and then turned to Joel and was like "I'm sorry you didn't get nominated, but you've very talented blahblahblah." Joel, if you need a hug, I'm here for you.

YAY: Chris Colfer, Ty Burrell, Eric Stonestreet, and Jesse Tyler Fergueson got Supporting Actor nominations! Gotta love all the Modern Fam love!

BOO: No Nick Offerman for the stellar Ron Swanson? Or Aziz Ansari for the lovable doofus Tom Haverford? Or, speaking of lovable doofuses, Chris Pratt for Andy? Danny Pudi for the best character ever, Abed? Danny Glover for the consistently funny Troy? Jack McBrayer for Kenneth the page? Ah, screw it-- there were too many potential nominees this year.

YAY: I can't complain about the Supporting Actress choices-- especially Jane Lynch, Jane Krakowski, Kristin Wiig, Julie Bowen, and Sofia Vergara.

BOO: Wait, yes I can-- no Aubrey Plaza for the dead-pan yet poignant performance as April this year? WTF?

YAY: Can I get a "Hell yea" for the Guest Actor noms? Burt Hummel, Bryan Ryan, Drew Baird, Frank Dunphy and (especially) Devin Banks? HELL YEA!

BOO: I don't care about that Nurse Jackie guy... I would gladly replace him with John Oliver AKA Professor Duncan. Ah well, you can't win 'em all. EDIT: Wait. Just realized something. No Michael Sheen as Wesley Snipes?!?! What the what? He was better than Jon Hamm/Drew Baird! Wow, that's really upsetting.

YAY: Guest actress noms-- yay for Elaine Stritch, Tina Fey, Betty White, and Kristen Chenoweth!

BOO: No Elizabeth Banks for Avery Jessup? I guess I can't really complain about Julianne Moore-- that Boston accent murdered her chances.

YAY: Did you know Psych got nominated?!?! I know, I can't believe it! Granted, it was for Oustanding Music Compositon for a Series.... but hey, baby steps!

So there's my take on the nominees this year. Overall, a solid list with some glaring oversights (P&R and Community). Leave your opinions below!

Surprise!

So I'm watching the 30 Rock season 3 episode "Cutbacks," and what little background gag do I see?

Let's zoom in a little, shall we?

It's the Dwight bobble-head in Kenneth's apartment! How funny is that? Makes sense too, because Kenneth is a TV nut!

Found any fun background gags in your favorite show recently?

An Amazing Discovery

I rarely watch commercials when I'm consciously watching TV. But when I put Friends on in the background just for noise, I'm too lazy to fast forward over the commercials. Thank goodness for that, because it led to my newest discovery.

You know that "TLC: Tender Loving Caltrate" commercial? Kinda cheesy, nothing memorable. Here it is to refresh your memory:

See who that is? The lady playing the daughter at the end? It's Ellie Kemper, Erin from The Office!

Cool, huh? No? Ok then.... never mind.

TV Connection: Blonde Bombshells

I'm finding so many TV connections these days, I should just start my own TV show that's just cliché after cliché after cliché. It will revolve around a suave, sarcastic 30-year old male and his friends, Sassy Black Woman, Lovable Geek, Stupid Womanizer, and Normal Girl, who he constantly flirts with.

Anyways, back to my most recent tv connection. This one is between The Secret Life of the American Teenager, Glee, and The Office. A blonde super-religious woman who doesn't believe in premarital sex (Grace/Quinn/Angela) has sex and suffers through the consequences (father's death/pregnancy/dumped by fiance and lover)

BONUS: Two of these people (Quinn/Angela) cheated on their good-hearted but naive boyfriends (Finn/Andy) with their true loves (Puck/Dwight).

EXTRA BONUS: Two of these people (Grace/Quinn) were cheerleaders. And wore their uniforms to school like everyday. Seriously, do they have five of the same cheerleading dress, do they do their laundry every night, or are those dresses reeaallly dirty?

Ah well. Any other examples from other shows? I think this one is a pretty good one!

Mind. Blown.

Ok, so if you've watched the last episode of The Office then you know that

***SPOILER ALERT FOR PREVIOUS EP***

Michael is dating Pam's mom. So I'm watching "Chair Model," an episode from last season, and everyone has to write down someone to set Michael up with, because Michael is... well, desperate and pathetic. Anyway, Jim is writing someone down, and the convo goes like this:

Pam: Who are you putting down?

Jim: Oh, you don't know her.

Pam: Who is it?

Jim: You're mom.

Pam: [laughs] Yea, whatever.

Of course Jim is joking, but STILL! Major, most likely unplanned foreshadowing!

And if it was planned, the writers of The Office have proven themselves even more amazing than I previously thought.

:(

So I'm flipping through Tivo, and I have like 12 Office episodes that recorded last night. YAY.

No, wait.

BOO.

THEY LIED.

It's not Office. It's all baseball!

It says "The Office"-- it even says the episode name and description.

But alas.

No Jim.

No Pam.

Not a single Dwight.

Just sports.

Blegh.

Another TV Similarity

While watching the "Succession" episode of 30 Rock, I realized something two great TV losers, Liz Lemon and Michael Scott, have in common:

They both put sugar in their scotch before drinking it (or Splenda, in Michael's case). Genius or uncouth? You be the judge.

I noticed something...

The majority of shows that I watch (the majority in this case being Ugly Betty, The Office, and 30 Rock) have at least this one thing in common:

At the beginning of the series, the female protagonist always has a lousy long-term boyfriend. Am I right or am I right?

Pam and (well, fiance) Roy (total dbag) from The Office

Betty and Walter (how annoying was he?) from Ugly Betty

Liz and (though they weren't together in the pilot) Dennis (what a tool!) from 30 Rock.

But the real question is WHY do writers do this? It may be to give the viewers a template of "Look how bad this guy is..." and then later, when they dump him and get a new boyfriend, "Look how far she's come!" Or maybe it's because it adds instant plot lines when a show is getting started.  

Any ideas? Sound off in the comments!