Who is Don Mirscher? The executive producer of the Emmys, who apparently took exception to another year of criticism for the egregious omissions of this years nominations. No “best series” for “The Good Wife.” No “best actor” for James Spader. Most shockingly, no best actress for Tatiana Maslany.
What was his excuse?
““The Emmys are not a popular choice award. The Emmys are an industry award. The Emmys are determined by the men and women who create television. That’s why for those of us who are lucky enough to win an Emmy, it means a lot because it’s our competitors and our peers that have given that to us. I think the way it’s set up and the way it’s going to work again this year is that the nominations came from people in the industry who make the product. How many people watch a particular product I don’t think is as important as the quality of the product, and that’s been reflected in the nominations that you’ve seen four days ago.”
Here’s why this excuse is idiotic.
It IS a popular choice award. The fact that the popularity choice is being rendered by people in the industry doesn’t make it any less so. Popular series get paid attention to; less popular series are ignored. Maslany wasn’t nominated because far fewer people watch “Orphan Black” than the other nominated series. Spader was ignored because…I dunno, they’re dûmbáššëš.
But oh my God, they have to limit the number of nominations because…well, I don’t know why, exactly. The Academy award doubled the number of nominated films and that didn’t cause the Oscars to collapse. Why couldn’t they have said, “You know what? We need another space or two in these categories because we can’t ignore Maslany and Spader; they’re just too good.”
Sorry, can’t do that. Because they’re professionals, don’t’cha know. And you and I and the other non-voters, the ones who they actually fall over each other to get us to watch their programs, we’re fine when it comes to making shows for us. But when it comes to expressing opinions, we should keep our mouths shut and leave it to the pros.
This is the exact kind of pig-headed thinking that will likely continue to screw Andy Serkis of an Oscar nomination next year when he gets once again overlooked for his brilliant work as Caesar in “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.” Any person with a brain knows that that’s Serkis acting up on the screen. But to the professionals, he’s just a special effect and nothing more.
Idiots.
PAD
• 
This is why I don’t bother following most shows like this anymore. They get to a point where they take themselves too seriously. Popularity does not always equal quality, but far too often events like this reach a point where they almost treat popularity with fans as a handicap.
If Professionals came to the same conclusions as the Popular consensus, that what would we need a Critic Class for, you ignorant plebian.
Now get back to your idiot box and like something other than what we like, so we can continue to be superior.
Are there any Hee Haw reruns on tonight?
What do mean about Serkis. It makes perfect sense that he’s not eligible because his face and body have been put through extensive digital manipulation. Normal actors that get nominated don’t ever use prosthetics or extensive makeup and they definitely never use cgi to even tweek their appearances…
Oh, wait!
Correct me if I’m wrong, but it’s not Mirscher’s call, it’s the call of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, the body that hands out the Prime-Time Emmys.
I didn’t say it was his call, I said it was his excuse. I see no reason to skip commenting on it simply because he doesn’t have the final say.
PAD
Yet another reason to ignore and/or not care about the Emmys, Oscars, Tonys, VMAs, CMAs, Nickelodeon’s Kids’ Choice, etc….
For the first time, I actually tried to look over the complete list of Emmy noms. I was scratching my head when I saw categories where 3 of the 5 or 6 people nominated were all from the same show/movie.
It makes me wonder if only a handful of shows are being watched by the voters; Orphan Black is obviously not among them.
But I must admit, I did give up when they got into the “Best Caterer” categories.
According to one article I read, Orphan Black gets about 500,000 viewers an episode, so likely no one in the industry is actually watching Tatiana Maslany’s work that actually has a vote.
I’ve never paid any attention to the Emmys (and thus didn’t learn about Dr. Horrible’s interruption of same until some time afterward, when I saw it online). Or any other awards show, for that matter. But I agree that Tatiana Maslany deserves a best actress nomination, at the very least.
I’ve no idea which actresses have been nominated and don’t have any interest in looking them up (because, again, I don’t care about the Emmys), but Maslany brilliantly pulls off playing several distinct individuals. Each with her own voice, mannerisms and body language. She doesn’t just play one character, as most actors and actresses do. How could they not have nominated her?
There’s only one logical answer.
Bizarro #1 is secretly controlling the Emmys.
“Tatiana Maslany am brilliant actress, therefore am not qualified for Emmy nomination” is no doubt what he told his staff.
Rick
It’s worth noting that neither Hugh Laurie nor Jon Hamm has won an Emmy award.
When Aimee Mann was nominated for a best song Oscar, she reportedly said, “I’d like to win, but that would mean I suck.”
The problem with Hugh Laurie not getting an Emmy win was after about the fourth season of House, the show was on autopilot and because something you watched out of habit rather than true desire to see what was coming up next.
This is the exact kind of pig-headed thinking that will likely continue to screw Andy Serkis of an Oscar nomination next year when he gets once again overlooked for his brilliant work as Caesar in “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.” Any person with a brain knows that that’s Serkis acting up on the screen. But to the professionals, he’s just a special effect and nothing more.
Ceaser’s performance does not belong to Serkis alone. It’s a collaborative effort between Serkis and an army of character animators at Weta Digital. Without their efforts, Serkis’ Ceasar would look as natural as the pure-mocap human characters of POLAR EXPRESS.
Serkis angered the VFX community by claiming sole credit for the performance of Ceasar, prompting a response by Randy Cook. Serkis is now giving more credit to the animators who helped bring Ceasar to life.
I can only shrug about this. The Emmys, and the Oscars have long ceased to be about what’s best, and became about what makes Hollywood feel good. The Oscars, for example, primarily nominate movies and performances no one ever saw, and then they bemoan the fact no one watches them any more. When they announced they were widening the slate, I knew what we would get – namely more movies hardly seen by anyone. And after that, we’re almost guaranteed to sit through a lecture somewhere along the line over some perceived societal ill. While I’m all for movies that speak to the human condition, there’s really no appreciation for the medium as a form of escape.
The Emmys are better in that they recognize different categories like drama and comedies, but I still have little interest in watching people self-righteously pat themselves on the back.
What should the Oscars be nominating? Transformers? The Hunger Games? Your definition of “movies no one ever saw” notwithstanding (quite a lot of people see them, actually), do you really think box office draw should be a factor in the nomination process?
Boy, this is a tough one for me. Andy Serkis does amazing work, there is no question about it. He and Doug Jones seems to be in categories of their own; when they portray a character you can tell the difference, even under layers of either makeup prosthetics or CGI pixels.
But…especially in the case of Serkis, I can see how it might be difficult to ully assess how much is from him and how much is from the skills of the VFX people. Take that same mo-cap performance and put it in the hands of the folks who do the Sharknado movies and we probably would not be talking academy award.
Me, I’d nominate him both as acknowledgement of his skills and a nod to the future, but I can’t condemn folks in the community for not taking that step. Certainly a special oscar award would be well deserved.
Is it time for a new category? Something between acting, makeup and FX? Best character special effects?
Take that same mo-cap performance and put it in the hands of the folks who do the Sharknado movies and we probably would not be talking academy award.
If by “the folks who do the Sharknado movies,” you mean the owners of Asylum who insist on $100,000 budgets and one-month schedules, I agree.
If by “the folks who do the Sharknado movies,” you mean the seasoned VFX artists dealing with Asylum’s impossible deadlines and budgets, I disagree.
Is it time for a new category? Something between acting, makeup and FX? Best character special effects?
It’s not as well-known as the Oscars, but the Visual Effect Society Awards does offer categories for best animated character.
Jennifer, that’s really my point, even the exact same people who can do great work and make a mo-cap performance look awesome, could produce sub par work if under impossible deadlines.
Which implies that a lot of the greatness of Serkis’ performance is out of his hands.
The Academy is unlikely to give awards to actors if they feel that the quality of the performance is so dependent on the budget of the film and the tweaking of unnamed dozens of VFX people.
But dámņ, the guy deserves something. Best animated character is an intriguing category, though I wonder how they figure out who gets the credit.
Best animated character is an intriguing category, though I wonder how they figure out who gets the credit.
I suppose even the VES Awards do not always give full credit, since the nomination may not always list the full team responsible for the VFX. For example, Smaug won for “Outstanding Animated Character in a Live Action Feature Motion Picture,” yet his nomination lists only four people.
“I can see how it might be difficult to ully assess how much is from him and how much is from the skills of the VFX people.”
Since the DVDs of Andy’s work often have side by side comparisons of Andy in the suit on set and the finished product, it is very easy to see how much is Andy and how much is VFX. I don’t know exactly what rules the academy has in place as far as submissions go, but this may be the way to go about it.
Agreed about the often incomprehensible choices which make watching those awards shows something many would rather not do. Ironically, one of the worst omissions may have turned out to be a huge compliment.
Legend has it that the reason 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY didn’t get an Oscar nomination for costuming in the Dawn of Man sequence was that the Academy judges thought Kubrick had brought in real apes.
Honestly? I’m guessing it was just a made-up excuse on their part but, if it was true, and I was one of the ‘apes’, I’d rather a copy of a signed statement to that effect than the award itself.
I had read somewhere once that, for the Emmy’s, shows and actors had to submit themselves for nomination. I remember reading an interview with John Larroquette once, back during his Night Court days, that one year he wasn’t nominated for an Emmy because he had forgotten to ask whoever it was on the shows production staff who submitted the nominations to do so on his behalf. I don’t know if Emmy personnel then take that list and narrow it, or what.
After winning Emmys in 85, 86, 87 and 88, Larroquette requested that he not be nominated in 89.
At least according to his Wiki page.
I would bet that most people think Caesar is all cgi
I don’t really see the problem. The nominations are limited to six because… well, because that’s the way it is. Just like presidential elections are whittled down to two candidates, because that’s the way it is.
I’ve never understood the tendency people have to get worked up about awards shows that don’t affect them in the slightest. So The Good Wife wasn’t nominated. So what? It’s been nominated before. Clearly, though, the Academy members didn’t think the latest season was up to snuff compared to Breaking Bad, Mad Men, Downton Abbey, Game of Thrones, House of Cards, and True Detective. And it’s their right to think so. I don’t watch it, so I can’t comment on it, but I do know that those nominees seem to be the most widely acclaimed and discussed shows on TV, by both fans and critics. It’s a competition, and in a competition, contenders have to be eliminated.
As for James Spader, the Best Actor in a Drama category is incredibly strong this year. He wouldn’t have won anyway. But he’s won in the past, and his job isn’t in jeopardy because he failed to score a nomination, so who cares? I’m sure he’s okay with it.
I will come out reading like a troll, but I, for the life of me, can’t understand the 10 year old craze that James Spader is TV’s greatest actor. He always acts and looks the same! Alan Shore/Robert California/Reddington characters are the same, with different lines. He is usually good in movies.
Have you watched either show?
I wish Kaley Cuoco would get one for Big Bang Theory . Parsons seems to get nominated every year
I agree, she is the glue that holds the show together, the few episodes that she missed/barely appeared in due to injury are some of the weakest
Thank you for this post PAD. My wife and I were looking for something to watch and after reading this post we gave Orphan Black a try this weekend. We saw the first 5 episodes on Amazon Prime and we are hooked.
Same here (except I’m watching the DVDs). I just wish someone would shut Felix up. I hope he gets less annoying.
Every time Felix shows up I hope is the last time but he keeps coming back. He is really annoying.
Men in this show can’t keep their hands to themselves. Since the first episode almost every guy is grabing Sarah by the arm or the clones for one reason or another. Felix, the first time we see Art, Beth’s boyfriend, the husband of the soccer mom nosy neighbord, Thomas, etc. I wonder if there are pheromones in the clones or if they are just a-holes.
We finished season 1 and now we are trying to decide how to watch season 2, blu ray, itunes or amazon video. Amazon seems to be the cheaper option right now.
I had my character mix up. I was confusing Felix with Vic. Also this message was supposed to be a reply to RobertFuller and not a new message. I don’t find Felix annoying, he is just comedic relieve. Vic is the one I found annoying.
I think they’re both annoying.