Ah…award shows. You know I love them in a sick, sick way. I was actually moderately excited about the Emmys last night…that is until I watched the show. And no, I wasn’t thrilled about Seacrest hosting. (Seriously- WHY are they trying to make this kid a Dick Clark?) But I was interested and intrigued about the way the stage was set up in the round.
I should have known the evening was going to be a dud once I realized that virtually every woman there (at least most of the female cast of Grey’s Anatomy)had her hair styled the exact same horrible way: in a poof. I counted at least 5 actresses that had their hair curled, teased and then pinned under to create a sort of messy, poofy, bob. It just looked so heavy and uncomfortable.
Speaking of hair, not sure how she got it to look so thick and healthy, but Debra Messing’s hair looked a-mazing.
Really the fashion was pretty safe, well except for Minnie Driver’s dress color which was almost the exact color of the florescent Extra gum I was chewing (this photo does not do it “justice”.
The best dressed in my opinion was a stunning Ali Larter and a glittery Eva Longoria. I also really liked Rachel Griffiths.
So the show was just not a forward moving fun fest. I felt like opening with an odd cartoon number and then following with Ray Romano was awkward, made worse by the sudden and odd censored joke that had the telecast paused with a random top view of the inside of the theatre.
There were a couple of weird censored moments- instead of having a bleep button they had a kill button that immediately cut the feed. The worst was when Katherine Heigl won (yay!) and apparently she mouthed something that I imagine we all would when hearing that we had won a major award. But the trigger happy censors cut the feed and tv audiences were in limbo land for a few seconds. I thought this was so awful and tacky. Anyone that watches college sports can read the lips of players and coaches and blush, but no one ever stops showing the game.
Ryan tried to drive the show using the same sort of biting banter that he uses on American Idol, but it just felt so uncomfortable and mean spirited. In a sense I just felt like his hosting was in the way of the show.
The extra fluff in the show was torture: A cast of a Broadway show performing songs while a sloppy montage of The Sopranos sporadically shows (in between close ups of the Broadway actors lip-synching), Christina and Tony singing was sweet, but it was spoiled by having a clump of Vegas show performers flapping around them, an incredibly lame skit with Rainn Wilson and Kanye West- oy!
The best moment of the night was when Elaine Stritch went off script. She is a comedy gem and she was brilliant mocking the canned jokes that she was instructed to read off of the teleprompter.
Now comes the shocker. The show was so dull that I actually feel asleep before it ended. The last thing I remember is a string of acceptance speeches by people involved with the Sopranos. I don’t think having the show in the round did a service to the tv audience or the theatre audience. Instead I kept seeing the blurry face of Mariska Hargitay and feeling sad for her as she had to look at the backs of people’s heads all night.
Did any of you guys watch? What were your thoughts?
Who Wants to Know (sister site) 
Hands down the worst Emmys I have ever seen. The montage of topical clips with the political jokes by late night hosts ending with some sort of tribute to Tom Snyder??? It seemed so inappropriate. And all the really inappropriate older man young girl jokes????
The Jersey Boys montage stunk and was an ill fit with the Sopranos. I also couldn’t stand it being in the round, which is how everyone there very obviously felt.
I heard in Canada Sally Fields anti-war comments were not censored (go Canada). I adore Christina Aguilera and Tony Bennet but felt even their song was done very poorly.
And lastly, I am so sick of Ryan Seacrest and his constant need to exclaim he isn’t gay and make gay references, which are so old and irritating. He is a jerk.
I don’t think there were many surprises, awards-wise. Except for Sally Field? I didn’t see that one coming. The sappy speech, yeah. *eye roll* I thought the set was horrific, the Kanye West thing awful, Ryan Seacrest blah. John Stewart, Carell, and Colbert were the funniest bits.
My favorite dresses: Debra Messing, America Ferreira, Portia de Rossi, and whoever was wearing that fab green dress from the Soprano’s cast.
I blew thru it in quadruple speed on tivo in the am. What about Sally Field’s speech? It could have been so eloquent but she really stumbled on it.
I loved Steve Carrell. And I loved when colbert and jon stewart gave him the award! And I kinda liked the Kayne bit because I SO love that song!
Seacrest was awful. His opening monolgue was so bad that it was awkward to watch!
I thought that Helen Mirren looked amazing for a 62 yr old woman. I want to be her at that age.
What was wrong with Kate Walsh’s and Jolee Fisher’s hair? Those were the two that really just looked bad to me. The theater in the round just didn’t work for me but I am not an avid award ceremony watcher either. I probably watched more of the show last night than I usually do.
The cartoon at the beginning was interesting to watch but mean spirited which fits with those characters if you watch Family Guy. I liked the Wayne Brady bit with the guy from The Office but most of the other stuff came off blah. I missed Tony Bennet singing.
I think that overall the host should have been someone who could handle the theater in the round better, maybe Ellen or just about anybody else 🙂
Anyhow…enough rambling.
I want to know what flavor of Extra is that shade of yellow. (You introduced me to the watermelon, and I love you for it.)
I knew it was going to be bad when about thirty seconds into Seacrest’s opening Burtle and I both said outload, “STOP CLAPPING”. Obviously he was way nervous but dang the talk clap talk clap talk clap thing made it hard to floow what he was saying.
Needless to say I went to bed shortly thereafter.
Had I known Elaine Stritch was going to be on I would have at least recorded the damn thing. I am SO SAD I missed seeing her. I’m going to troll around Y0utube and see if anyone has it posted.
Oh and I kind of liked the set 🙂
I couldn’t watch, Seacreast is not funny, and I won’t watch anything that involves that moron Kanye West. I hate award shows in general, and I’m starting not to like celebs that much either.
It was so horrible..I actually turned it off. I don’t understand all the censoring lately, every where you turn something is being censored. By far the most horrible emmy’s 😦
I LOVE 30 Rock… was happy to see them win…