Y’know, there’s any number of things one can criticize the Emmys for. The strangeness of nominating Tony Shalhoub for Best Actor in a Comedy, but not “Monk” for best comic series, even though he is the show; the utter bizzareness of nominating “House” for best dramatic series but not Hugh Laurie who, again, is the show. Ellen Burstyn being nominated for best supporting even though she only had fourteen seconds of screen time; nominating Alan Alda for best supporting and Martin Sheen for best actor even though Alda had far more screentime, and completely ignoring Bradley Whitford who was the pulse of “West Wing’s” last season. Strange strange strange.
But jumping on the opening sketch which depicted Conan’s plane taking a nosedive (was I the only one expecting snakes?) and his crash landing on the island from “Lost” because of the tragedy with the airplane in Kentucky…that’s really pushing it. People are howling about poor taste and insensitivity, and no one’s allowing for the possibility that maybe it just didn’t occur to the producers to make the connection. It sure didn’t occur to me. In fact, Kathleen was so ahead of the curve that the moment she saw him in the plane she said, “They’re going to spoof ‘Lost.'” (I was busy anticipating snakes, see above.) Hurley’s comment about how they weren’t invited was scathingly brilliant. I’m not trying to downplay the real life tragedy, but come on…should we also accuse the Emmys of not taking terrorism seriously because they spoofed “24,” or that they were dissing sick people because Gregory House was examining Conan? Maybe…*maybe*…the timing was regrettable, but it’s absurd that people are demanding apologies from NBC and the Emmy producers.
Please.
For me, what made the evening was the running gag with Bob Newhart…although, of course, that could be interpreted to be making fun of people on life support or people who have been trapped in disasters and suffocated.
PAD
• 
It is a shame that they didn’t have a delay or warning, becauise the Kentucky affiliate was upset and embarrassed. and in Kentucky it was probably major news
However, all in all, truthfully, I did not realize it.
For some reason, like PAD, my wife and I thought Snakes on a Plane (even though it is a movie but we just saw it that day). I never thought of the problem until the drudgereport the next day linked to the affiliate being upset.
“Spoken like someone who’s never actually worked on a live (non news related) TV broadcast. (or even on a taped one with a looming deadline).”
Spoken like someone who is not actually paying attention.
I was addressing the statement specifically noting that if this had been a crash in a “Big City” it would have been a bigger news story. My statement had nothing to do with whether or not it should have effected the broadcast of the opening of the Emmies.
“Easily, the Sunday morning talk shows would have been pre-empted and that would have been the main focus. Was it a lead story when a Russian plane when down a few weeks ago on your local news?”
Nope. But it did make the evening news. But I was specifically addressing this incident compared to “if it happened in a Big American City.” That was the primary scenario presented.
All that said and done..
I thought the opening clip was fantastic! The Hurley comment on the emmy’s.. the House comment, priceless. The timeout during the Office segment for him to do his monologue to the office camaras. Hilarious. And South Park..
If you hadn’t seen it.. go to Youtube.com and watch it right after you watch the cat drinking from the toilet.
PAD said: No one is diminishing the event would have had in Kentucky. Are *you* diminishing, perhaps, the impact that such disasters have on us here in New York when they occur? Do you think we are incapable of feeling your pain, so to speak? Or do you just assume that New Yorkers are so battle-hardened and emotionally scarred between the assorted plane crashes and toppling towers in our back yard that we simply are desensitized to tragedy or the impact it can have on people? If so, shame on you.”
No, not at all and I’m honestly shocked that my comment’s could be taken in that fashion. If that is how they came across than I want to say that I am sorry. I posted originally to give the other side to the whole discussion. Many of the things that are apparently being reported are NOT happening here. No one has asked that the Emmy’s be scrapped. It has not been reported here that anyone wanted the Emmy opening changed. No one has stated that it was a lampoon of the crash that occurred that morning. If that is how the BIG media is reporting it, well, frankly they are wrong.
The only thing that anyone has mentioned in the city where this happened is that it would have been nice to have had a warning go out to our local affiliate. Period. No one has been on tv blaming the “Hollywood Elite” or saying that they were laughing at “Hicktown, KY”, to quote a poster on this very board.
I also realize that it was fully unintentional and even stated in my original post on this subject that I can see how a connection by the producers was probably not even drawn. However, I will stand by my argument that if this happened elsewhere that connection would have been made. I honestly believe it to be true and in no way is that meant to diminish the impact of any such tragedy.
Speaking as someone who lives ten minutes from Kentucky and knows someone who could easily have been hit in that Lexington disaster… yup, yup, yup, it’s STILL just a pc overblow. Seriously. Did you read the recent Time article that gave you tips on how not to offend people of other faiths? I have to deal with my faith being ridiculed everyday. Ridiculous.
As for the Emmys… I only have Fox and PBS (pity me), but if Hugh Laurie didn’t win, justice was not done. Period. And Stephen Colbert could beat GW in the Republican race. And I want a Grimjack movie. That is all.
Best thing about the Emmys was “24” winning Best Drama because it is truly the GREATEST SHOW OF ALL TIME!
Seriously, I mean, look at this Emmy-winning clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8ba4VA0Qds
Now THAT’s quality TV, folks!
Sorry, your other examples don’t fly – for the simple reason that coverage of the airplane crash was being aired on every single local, network and cable news station as well as every American news web site. How the producers (or anyone) could have watched that opening segment and NOT thought of the plane crash is beyond me – it was the first thing I thought of when Conan started flying through the plane and it made me feel really, really uncomfortable and wondered “what they hëll were they thinking?”
So yeah, I think an apology, if one wasn’t already made, by NBC and the producers of the Emmys was warranted.
BarryDubya: “How the producers (or anyone) could have watched that opening segment and NOT thought of the plane crash is beyond me…”
Probably because the people closest to the show were busy producing the show and weren’t paying a lot of attention to the news, whereas the bigwigs that were more removed from the show had probably approved the sketch well in advance and were focusing on other things. It really doesn’t take much imagination to envision a scenario wherein something like this could happen as the result of something other than callousness or negligence.
It’s one thing for networks to pull airline commercials when there’s an air disaster. It’s quite another to ask them to scour every minute of program content to make sure it doesn’t have any parallels to the news of the day.
BarryDubya, don’t mean t’be rude, but just because it’s beyond you doesn’t mean it’s beyond the bounds of reality. It never hurts to step outside of yourself from time to time, and recognize that not everyone thinks and reacts as you do — and that that’s okay.