Emmy Ponderings

I've been waiting to talk about the Emmys because the nominations came out months before this weekend's awards and the nominee ommissions were more glaring than usual. For a complete list of nominations you can visit GoldDerby.com. Tomorrow I'll mention people who should have been nominated. But here are my musings on this year's nominees:

• Fantastic that Jeremy Piven was nominated for Entourage. But why supporting? That makes ab-so-lute-ly no sense. Everyone knows he's the heart of the show.
• Glad to see that Grey's Anatomy did so well: a best drama series nomination and props to Sandra Oh and Chandra Wilson for supporting nods.
• Rock on, Lisa Kudrow (The Comeback), Jean Smart (24), and Steve Carrell (The Office)--all under-appreciated actors.
• Nice that no one forgot about Peter Krause and Frances Conroy in the final season of Six Feet Under. They're up for actor and actress. And cheers to remembering Arrested Development up for best comedy.
• But I can't can't can't believe The West Wing get nominated as best drama for it's lousy final season. And Allison Janney might have had a great last episode, but she almost never on the show last season. Honestly, she could crap on the toilet for a whole episode and they would still give her an Emmy.
• How did Alfre Woodard get nominated for a ridiculous ridiculous role and performance on Desperate Housewives? And Stockard Channing got nominated for best actress in her Out of Practice show which had like 3 episodes before getting canceled!

The Emmys got a lot of (deserved) crap from critics for the crazy nominations this year. The judging system was changed, but the votes still seem arbitrary with people voting for shows or performances they have never seen. Probably the biggest uproar in the nominations has been Ellen Burstyn's supporting actress nomination for HBO's miniseries Mrs. Harris. Turns out Burstyn is only in the movie for a total of 14 seconds in an unnamed role. The people who voted simply saw her name and said, "Oh, Ellen Burstyn! I know her from movies. She must be good in this."