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
• 
Didn’t watch it, but considering that the airplane segment was almost certainly taped days if not weeks ago and the Kentucky crash happened only a few hours before the Emmys aired, did they really expect them to be able to throw up a new opening segment in that limited amount of time?
“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…”
This seems not at all strange, since Shalhoub’s performance is good, while the show has become a tedious parody of itself.
You can’t be serious. Someone’s actually crying ‘poor taste’ over the “Lost” parody (which I *did* see coming almost immediately)because of the Kentucky plane crash?? My eyes cannot roll far enough in my head!!!
“Didn’t watch it, but considering that the airplane segment was almost certainly taped days if not weeks ago and the Kentucky crash happened only a few hours before the Emmys aired, did they really expect them to be able to throw up a new opening segment in that limited amount of time?”
The expectation, with 20/20 hindsight, is that the producers–who were probably worried about a half million things before airtime–were supposed to be aware enough of possible hurt feelings that they should have dumped the entire opening. I mean, hëll, it’s entirely possible the producers didn’t even KNOW about the crash. They were prepping a live broadcast; they’re not reading or watching the news. If they did hear about it, it likely barely registered beyond, “Man, what a shame. Okay, now can we have all the original ‘Charlies Angels’ on their marks to rehearse the Aaron Spelling tribute?”
PAD
Y’know, there’s any number of things one can criticize the Emmys for….
You left out Colbert losing to the Copacabana.
Actually, Peter, I was wondering what you were going to say about them neglecting to have Jimmy Doohan in the Memoriam montage.
I live only an hour away from the crash site and I didn’t even make the connection till I read this blog.
It’s already been said, but the Emmys are such a huge production with a thousand things that could go wrong. It wouldn’t be hard to believe they — “they” being the producers, writers, etc. — were knee deep in rehersals. Probably had the set closed off so they could focus on the show, no news coming in or out of the place.
That’s not a crime.
“Arrested Development” not winning? Maybe.
Seriously, if the media is talking about this being offensive then it’s just them finding an “interesting” twist on the tragedy to squeeze some more “news” stories out of it. Since no terrorism is involved…and no one on the plane said they raped anybody with no proof…you get the idea.
Regarding the Conan O’Brien clip and the plane crash. I could not agree more with you PAD. I woke up this morning to the supposed negative reaction and couldn’t believe it. Are we to believe the family members of the crash victims had the time to care about the Emmy Awards? I’d say they had far more pressing matters on their mind. What a huge blow up over nothing. Will this even be remembered a year from now? I doubt it.
Speaking as someone who works in TV, I can honestly say that when something like the Emmys is prepping to air, that’s ALL the crew is paying attention to. That, and where’s lunch coming from? Even if someone DID know about it, which is entirely possible, they needed to put SOMETHING there, all the time had been put in to produce it, so they’re not going to let it go to waste.
I’ve never understood the nomination process. But then, I never understand those things anyway. Hugh Laurie deserved to win. But what do I know?
I’m with you Peter, I was thinking snakes as well, so congrats to Kathleen for being two steps ahead of us. Frankly, I think it’s a bit much to expect the network to pull the intro, which they had probably been working on for quite a long time, at considerable expense, when it’s unlikely they could have put something in quite literally at the last minute. And having watched it, I don’t think it’s in bad taste. What would have been in bad taste is if the flight attendant leaned over Conan and said, ‘Would you like some more champagne with your meal, Mr. Karr?’
Ironically, the first time I felt that a Lost reference was in bad taste was when I was flying to London a couple of years ago and while I was looking through the in-flight magazine, I noticed that they were showing the Lost pilot episode, which as everybody knows features some pretty intense scenes on the beach with lots of burning plane debris, wounded and dead passengers and so forth. I happened to mention to one of the flight attendants (British) that maybe showing that episode on a planeload of people, some of whom were probably nervous about flying, may not have been the most sensible idea. She looked at me as though I was crazy, although it soon became obvious that she had never even heard of Lost. Frankly, it didn’t bother me all that much, but I can’t help thinking there had to be a couple of first-time flyers who tuned in only to watch 20 or 30 minutes of crash-related death and destruction.
I live in Kentucky. Lexington as a matter of fact. I can understand that in most places the news of a crash like this would be something that most would think of as a tragedy and then move along. My community is different.
This was not as simple as 49 lives being lost. This is about a community that is now mourning the loss of friends, family, and co-workers. This is a community where most of us either knew someone on the plane or we know someone that was a first responder to this horrible event. A large portion of this city has been impacted by this.
While most of you probably saw the news yesterday and then went about your daily routine, we sat transfixed on the television, talking to friends and family awaiting word on what went so horribly wrong. Something like this doesn’t happen here. Other places, yes, but not Lexington.
From the early waking hours until the beginning of the Emmy broadcast we had non-stop, local news covering this. No sooner had the local coverage ended than we are all hit with the image of the Lost parody.
I will go as far as to allow “for the possibility that maybe it just didn’t occur to the producers to make the connection.” I just ask that each of you try and understand the impact that this has had on my hometown.
Thank you for your time.
Brian
It reminds me of an incident mentioned in the book “Last Man Out” by Melissa Fay Greene. It told the story of the Springhill Mine Disaster in Nova Scotia in 1958. While people were working to retrieve any survivors, in the US, comedian Shecky Greene was told his spot on ED SULLIVAN would have to be cut in time. Greene improvised a skit about talking to a miner trapped in a cave-in. (He hadn’t heard of the disaster.) After the bit, Sullivan accused Greene of losing the Canadian audience for the show. Green never appeared on Sullivan again.
Maybe it’s just what I’ve been seeing, but all the people who have been claiming it’s in bad taste seem to be commentators on Fox News.
In other words, it’s being used as a handy excuse to bash Hollywood for being out of touch with common decency and mainstream American values.
Amazing how many people seem to be buying it. Because if it wasn’t this, it would be something else– “What? No one mentioned the troops in Iraq? Doesn’t anyone in Hollywood care about the troops?”
I wonder if the criticism would be there if the Lexington crash didn’t happen. A plane crashed in Russia just a few days ago. This falls under “if it doesn’t happen in America or to Americans, it doesn’t count” category”.
Personally I was a little uneasy with the plane sequence. I didn’t catch the Lost refrence right away and it reminded me of the thwarted terrorist plot. Once Conan washed up on the beach, all was well. Conan can’t replace Leno soon enough on the Tonight Show and I hope he gets to host the Emmys again. Far and away, he’s the funniest guy on late night TV. Only Colbert and Stewart come close.
Honestly, had this not occurred here I don’t think there would have been any comments made. Sadly, I think that you hit the point with the “if it doesn’t happen in America or to Americans, it doesn’t count” comment.
Ironically, while watching MSNBC yesterday I found myself getting annoyed at the lady interviewing people about this crash. She seem so much more focused on stirring up anger and blame over the crash than actually reporting what did happen and what was known at the time. I’m honestly getting more fed up with the media as each day passes. Give me Stewart and Colbert any day!
Yeah, this has been bothering me too since I first saw they were calling for NBC’s scalp. Oh crap, I just made a reference to American Indians in a non-pc way! Look out, I’m in for it now! Simply beyond belief…
In my opinion some people are looking for ways to be offended and jump at the littlest thing to come there way.
Nikki Fink is making a huge deal out of this. It’s ridiculous, though I can understand that people in Kentucky could feel differently. two of the people killed lived very close to my in-laws in Lexington.
Please, let’s not encourage the suits to be even more likely to slice and dice at even the possibility that someone might take offense. We’re heading for enough of a nerf world as it is.
I am sorry people are drawing a connection between the Emmy opening and the plane crash. It is a sad incident to be sure but, I am wondering what the proper response would be for us as a nation?
Should we have a national day of mourning? Maybe we can make Conan O’Brien apologize for his insensitivity in participating in such affront? I find myself rolling my eyes a bit here too.
What I can’t understand is, if someone is so terribly upset by this plane crash and find themselves preoccupied by the news regarding it, why are they watching the Emmys? If it affected the community so deeply why didn’t the local NBC affiliate just preempt the show? Seems to me if there’s a bone to pick with anyone that’s who it would be with.
I think someone else nailed it perfectly, “if it doesn’t happen in America or to Americans, it doesn’t count.”
I didn’t catch all of the skit but, I did see Conan make his way through South Park which I found gut-bustingly funny, as well as the dateline bit which was dead on.
No one is calling for a national day of mourning or any such garbage. Take this for a moment and pretend that it happened in Chicago, LA, or New York. How many of you can honestly say that there would not have been a light bulb go off in someone’s head to at least warn the local affliates?
Why would someone watch the Emmy’s after this? Have you ever heard of taking your mind off things and trying to move forward? After watching this unfold all day long, most people here that did not lose a direct family member wanted to take a break. To have this come on directly after our local coverage faded to black was unsettling. As for our local affiliate preempting the show, the news coverage had been nonstop since 9am that morning at the least. 10 hours of live coverage was enough, especially since all the information that could be relayed thus far had already been given. For the record, the local NBC affiliate has gone on record stating that had they been aware of the clip they would have joined the show “in progress.”
Nevermind the “if it doesn’t happen in America or to Americans, it doesn’t count” philosophy. It almost seems like it’s been changed to “if it doesn’t happen in a large American city, it doesn’t count.”
I’d rather crash on onto the Lost island than Hicktown, KY, that’s for sure. Peter’s right, this is much ado about nothing.
Jim Jackson said:
“I’d rather crash on onto the Lost island than Hicktown, KY, that’s for sure.”
You’re a true humanitarian.
re: The plane crash — This is the first I’ve heard of any controversy whatsoever.
re: “Monk” — Tops the list of shows I wanna wanna WANNA like but don’t. It’s the epitome of the “lazy” mystery show, featuring annoying tics such as:
1) Writer takes advantage of an Amazing Race-style “Fast Forward.” You can either cleverly work a way to tie a suspect to the crime scene, or you can simply have the murderer _happen_ to be wearing a 25th class reunion pin with the name of the college on it and it _happens_ to fall off during the murder without him noticing it and the investigator _happens_ to have seen that pin on another guy who _happens_ to…
2) A murder scheme that can’t possibly fail, unless…well, no, it can’t possibly NOT fail. A murder plan should not involve installing a 40-pound garage-door opener in the victim’s living room, nor trusting to luck that you’ll be able to break back in and remove it before the cops arrive, nor keeping your fingers crossed that the cops will fail to notice the brand-new 1″ steel lag bolts sticking out of the ceiling.
This does not describe a Cunning Plan.
3) The investigator keeps his brain in power-save mode until about ten minutes before the end. The mystery is effectively at an end once a neighbor idly mentions to him that the missing man’s wife was seen — hey, amusing story, Detective…you’ll get a kick out of this — walking out of a forest carrying a shovel and an empty sack. If this information is revealed in Act One, then the show needs to end roughly five minutes after.
4) Murder absolutely makes no sense. When you’re the Party’s presumptive Presidential nominee and an old college roomate threatens to release a 25-year-old tape in wich you drunkenly made racist comments…sure, go ahead and kill him. You’d almost be silly _not_ to. But when the person in question was a campus nurse and your worry is that she _might_ remember having briefly treated your wife 25 years ago and that she _might_ be able to recall word-for-word a letter that she had glimpsed…I have to say that murder might be overkill.
Columbo (the original series of movies in the Seventies, not the Nineties revivals) still represents the gold standard of TV mysteries. We saw the whole crime right in the first act, o’course. But with rare exception, they were always good kills by people who clearly didn’t intend to ever go to the gas chamber, or Crimes of Passion committed by people who don’t lie very well.
It was all about watching the crime and the criminal unravel. And Columbo was King of the “Gotcha.”
Brian: “No one is calling for a national day of mourning or any such garbage. Take this for a moment and pretend that it happened in Chicago, LA, or New York. How many of you can honestly say that there would not have been a light bulb go off in someone’s head to at least warn the local affliates?”
It would depend on how many of them could “honestly” say they’ve worked in broadcasting, which I can.
The problem is that people tend to see what is on television or hear what is on the radio and subconsciously believe that the content springs into being, fully formed, at the moment it is broadcast. The fact is, creating a program for radio or, especially, for television, is a pressure-cooker the likes of which most people don’t experience in their daily lives.
I was working for a public radio station as an announcer, newscaster, and reporter when Nixon died. Our traffic manager (the person responsible for creating the schedule for everything that goes out on the air) put the wrong satellite channel in the program log. When I punched it in, instead of getting live NPR coverage of Nixon’s funeral, I heard Jimmy Hendrix’s rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner.
Yikes.
I had no idea if that was what was supposed to happen. So rather than switching to fill music or something, I let the program run while I checked the computer that was hooked into the network from which we could get live program updates.
I realized it was indeed an error and found the correct satellite channel for NPR’s coverage of the funeral. I ran back to master control and switched it.
And about two minutes thereafter, some jáçkášš called and started ranting about how it’s “not for nothing that NPR is known as ‘National Pinko Radio.'”
I shut him down, hard. I explained to him that broadcasting doesn’t merely “happen,” but is instead the product of a number of people working in tandem to do real things that occur in real time. Sometimes mistakes occur.
The lesson: not everything that is done is done to you. Sometimes things are done that have nothing to do with you.
Brian, it’s entirely possible that if a plane crashed in LA or NYC, someone might have been more likely to make the connection, because those cities are hubs of the entertainment industry. It would hit closer to home for people involved in the Emmy Awards. But that wouldn’t prove there is a bias against small cities. Sometimes circumstances are just circumstances.
Anyway, the bottom line is, yes, I can “honestly” say that people working furiously to put together a live broadcast were probably so focused on getting the program ready for air that they may not have made such a connection. It’s unfortunate, but does not represent some grand Problem That Needs to be Addressed.
Brian: “Why would someone watch the Emmy’s after this?”
Probably because they enjoy them, and because they recognize that what happened was an unfortunate coincidence, and not a display of insensitivity.
Brian: “Have you ever heard of taking your mind off things and trying to move forward? After watching this unfold all day long, most people here that did not lose a direct family member wanted to take a break. To have this come on directly after our local coverage faded to black was unsettling. As for our local affiliate preempting the show, the news coverage had been nonstop since 9am that morning at the least. 10 hours of live coverage was enough, especially since all the information that could be relayed thus far had already been given. For the record, the local NBC affiliate has gone on record stating that had they been aware of the clip they would have joined the show ‘in progress.'”
I’m sure they would have. And had Conan O’Brien and the writers, directors, and producers of the Emmys been able to predict that such a tragedy would occur on the day their program was to air, they would have chosen to create a different sketch.
I didn’t see the Emmys myself, but knowing what I know of broadcasting, I have to believe the sketch in question was written and rehearsed well in advance. They couldn’t be expected to know that a plane would crash on the day of their show.
And, again, given the number of things happening at breakneck speed during the preparation for, and execution of, a live show, I can honestly believe the people involved were so focused on what they were doing that they never made a connection between their sketch and the tragic plane crash that took place that day.
Brian: “Nevermind the ‘if it doesn’t happen in America or to Americans, it doesn’t count’ philosophy. It almost seems like it’s been changed to ‘if it doesn’t happen in a large American city, it doesn’t count.'”
Brian, I live in Upstate New York and I can tell you that the story got a lot of coverage where I live.
It may sound cold, but news is a numbers game. If a commuter flight had crashed in NYC, I don’t think it would have been given any more or less coverage. If a jumbo jet carrying 400 passengers crashed in flames, that would have gotten more coverage, not because of a bias against big cities, but because a larger number of people were involved.
The phrase “bias against big cities” in my last post should have been, “bias in favor of big cities.”
“No one is calling for a national day of mourning or any such garbage. Take this for a moment and pretend that it happened in Chicago, LA, or New York. How many of you can honestly say that there would not have been a light bulb go off in someone’s head to at least warn the local affliates?”
Right here. I’ll say that. Short of the plane crashing into the theater where the Emmys were taking place, nothing would have distracted from prepping the show for air.
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.
The producers were prepping a show to entertain people in the 49 states that had not experienced a plane crash that day. If the plane had crashed in LAX I’m betting it would have gone out exactly the same.
Jimmy Doohan wasn’t in the “In Memoriam” last year?
PAD
Here’s a little known broadcasting fact. If there is a commercial airliner crash resulting in fatalities the networks and local stations pull all airline advertising for that day. The reason is to prevent exactly what happened with the Emmy’s. Plus, you don’t want to run an American Airlines spot right after an AA plane crashes (ovbiously), but you also don’t want to run a United spot because that will look like “we’re safe, fly us instead”.
I don’t blame Conan or any of the producers directly involved with the telecast. Like PAD said, they were so busy they probably didn’t even know about the crash. However there are many other so-called producers that never stepped foot near the ceremonies that should have had the sense to add 2 and 2 together to realize how much this would hurt part of their audience.
And think about this. If the plane crash that involved Ðìçk Embersol in Colorado (and killed his son) happened the day NBC was broadcasting the Emmy’s, do you think they would have gone with the skit?
And of course, NBC buckles and apologizes….
http://www.suntimes.com/output/television/cst-ftr-emmy29.html
The mind boggles.
NBC has nothing to apologize for as far as I’m concerned. People really need to get their priorities straight here. What happened in KY was a tragedy, but let’s not take it out on NBC who would have had less than 12 hours to change a key portion of the Emmy show.
Jeff in NC: “If there is a commercial airliner crash resulting in fatalities the networks and local stations pull all airline advertising for that day.”
Completely different situation, Jeff. The commercials to be aired are all “in the can” (i.e. ready for broadcast) way ahead of time. In that case, someone merely goes through the program log, identifies the airline commercials and arranges to have something aired in their place.
Live shows are nuts. Sometimes changes are made minutes before said changes hit the airwaves.
Jeff in NC: “However there are many other so-called producers that never stepped foot near the ceremonies that should have had the sense to add 2 and 2 together to realize how much this would hurt part of their audience”.
That statement indicates to me you have never worked in network television. I have a friend who was a producer for CBS News, and is now a producer for Oprah Winfrey.
I can tell you with authority that in some cases the people who “don’t set foot” near the production don’t review every inch of footage to be broadcast. It’s entirely possible that as long as Conan’s sketch made it past Standards and Practices, the producers who “don’t set foot” near the stage were satisified.
I also think we as a nation are too ready to be hurt at a moment’s notice. It is unfortunate that a sketch about a plane crash aired on the day of an actual plane crash. As callous as it sounds, however, people need to learn to distinguish between true malice and unfortunate happenstance.
When my grandfather died, someone tried to make a joke — a lame and somewhat insensitive joke — about the circumstances surrounding his death. It was a rare lapse on her part. This woman is one of my best friends, and I knew dámņ well that she was just trying to make me laugh. I could see by the look on her face that she realized she put her foot in it. I simply let it go, didn’t even acknowledge it. After all, as soon as she learned of my grandfather’s death, she came to my cubicle (we work together) to hug me. The next day she brought me brownies to cheer me up.
Jeff in NC: “And think about this. If the plane crash that involved Ðìçk Embersol in Colorado (and killed his son) happened the day NBC was broadcasting the Emmy’s, do you think they would have gone with the skit?”
There’s not much to think about there, Jeff. That would be a tragedy that touched someone who works for the network airing the Emmys. Real close to home. That would have been an easy connection to make, as there probably would be poeple working on the show that knew Ðìçk or his son.
It’s bad enough that a real tragedy occurred, folks. There’s enough real heartache and gut-wrenching pain to go around for the people who are mourning the dead. I submit that there is no reason to compound that by looking for excuses to be upset, when there are enough real reasons to be upset to go around.
>I can’t help thinking there had to be a couple of first-time flyers who tuned in only to watch 20 or 30 minutes of crash-related death and destruction.
Shades of AIRPLANE! For those who didn’t see it, the movie has a wonderful bit where, during a rather turbulent part of the flight, the passengers are ‘treated’ to film clips of test aircraft crashing.
>I think that you hit the point with the “if it doesn’t happen in America or to Americans, it doesn’t count” comment.
Michael Crichton’s novel AIRFRAME (about an airliner accident) is peppered with factual events used to compare with the fictional one and at one point the central character refers to one famous U.S. airliner crash then sarcastically enquires whether anyone remembers another, bigger one with more fatalities which happened at about the same time. Oh no. It was in some foreign country and wasn’t on CNN so obviously didn’t matter.
>Please, let’s not encourage the suits to be even more likely to slice and dice at even the possibility that someone might take offense. We’re heading for enough of a nerf world as it is.
I’d be happy to donate to research to develop a ‘thick skin’ transplant. Too much of society suffers from the thin variety.
>Writer … simply have the murderer _happen_ to be wearing a 25th class reunion pin with the name of the college on it and it _happens_ to fall off during the murder without him noticing it and the investigator _happens_ to have seen that pin on another guy who _happens_ to…
Much as I am a fan of COLUMBO, one has to admit that the solution to the cases often hinged on such thin lines of logic or coincidences. Remember the maestro who was caught because he didn’t have a carnation on?
I did pick up the first three seasons of MONK on DVD (I rarely watch ‘live’broadcasts any more, too dámņ much clutter on screen) and though I obviously like it, calling it a “comedy” is a stretch. It has amusing bits, to be sure, but so did some episodes of BABYLON 5. Does that make *it* a comedy?
PAD said:
“If the plane had crashed in LAX I’m betting it would have gone out exactly the same.”
I’d take that bet. Sorry PAD, but it would have been a much bigger story. You even have poster’s here refering to the site as “Hicktown” KY. Bigger city = Bigger Story, people would refer to the actual airport “LAX” and not just “somewhere in Kentucky” I’d be surprised if they could tell you the city.
“If the plane crash that involved Ðìçk Embersol in Colorado (and killed his son) happened the day NBC was broadcasting the Emmy’s, do you think they would have gone with the skit?”
They may well have. It’s a matter of mindset. They might have been so locked into what they were doing that they didn’t really see the skit as being about a plane crash as much as it was about spoofing a hot TV show.
I’m a bit of a news nerd and have the news on over half the time I have the TV on. I saw the news about the crash all day. The last thing I was watching before the Emmys was CNN. What was the first thing that I thought when they were showing the skit? I, a big Lost fan, figured that they were about to spoof Lost. Conan staggering up out of the surf put me 100% into Lost mode and I didn’t even think about the plane crash aspect of it or about the days news. My mindset was about the Emmys and about the TV shows on that night’s Emmys.
Would my mindset have changed if the crash had happened in Virginia? I don’t think it would have. And I wouldn’t be asking everybody else to change their mindset even if mine was different.
Bill Myers wrote:
“That statement indicates to me you have never worked in network television. I have a friend who was a producer for CBS News, and is now a producer for Oprah Winfrey.”
You might have a friend that worked for CBS and now for Oprah (neither job having a thing to do with the operations side of network television), but I actually have a work ID card that says ABC. There goes your powers of deduction.
Yes, live shows are nuts. I’ve worked on hundereds of them (not counting newscasts). However the plane crash happened hours before. NBC news managed to even have it as their lede and it was all over their web site. Executives not knowing is no excuse. If a Master Control Operator can “simply go thru the log”, an Executive should be able to note that a skit about a plane crashing probably wouldn’t be a good idea on the day of a fatal plane crash. And on a show like this, executives from all levels know what every taped piece is because if something goes wrong, it could very well be their ášš on the line.
NBC was spoofing a show, not spoofing real life.
Deal.
The lesson: not everything that is done is done to you. Sometimes things are done that have nothing to do with you.
This couldn’t have summed up the point I was trying to make any better. The basis of the whole discussion is presupposing people consciously went out of their way to offend which is absolutely nonsensical. Nobody diminishes the loss of lives, just the indignation supposing the world revolves around a single event.
The lesson: not everything that is done is done to you. Sometimes things are done that have nothing to do with you.
This couldn’t have summed up the point I was trying to make any better. The basis of the whole discussion is presupposing people consciously went out of their way to offend which is absolutely nonsensical. Nobody diminishes the loss of lives, just the indignation supposing the world revolves around a single event.
Jeff: “You might have a friend that worked for CBS and now for Oprah (neither job having a thing to do with the operations side of network television), but I actually have a work ID card that says ABC. There goes your powers of deduction.”
Fair enough. I concede I made a bad assumption, based on flawed logic. I was wrong.
Jeff in NC: Yes, live shows are nuts. I’ve worked on hundereds of them (not counting newscasts). However the plane crash happened hours before. NBC news managed to even have it as their lede and it was all over their web site. Executives not knowing is no excuse. If a Master Control Operator can “simply go thru the log”, an Executive should be able to note that a skit about a plane crashing probably wouldn’t be a good idea on the day of a fatal plane crash.”
I disagree. I think busy people can be forgiven for failing to connect the dots between a breaking story and a sketch that was approved ahead of time. Particularly because that sketch was not intended to mock real tragedy, but to serve as the parody of a popular T.V. show.
Moreover, people are too eager to be offended these days. Did you read the anecdote I wrote above, about the friend who put her foot in her mouth the day my grandfather died? I chose not to dwell on it because I understood her intent. She has a good heart and meant no harm.
I think people need to realize that those involved with the Emmy Awards meant no harm, either. Let it go, Jeff in NC. The plane crash provided enough good reasons to be upset. Let’s not try to invent others.
My other thing with this, as someone else touched on above, is that this has been pretty much a case of manufactured outrage.
My understanding is that Drudge made a big stink about it Sunday night on his radio show and on his website. He used it to pound on the point that liberals, and those dirty, heartless, godless Hollywood liberals especially, just don’t care about the flyover states. They just don’t think that those conservative heartland people matter. That’s been more or less the talking point, with minor variations or additions, that I’ve been seeing and hearing from the various conservative talking heads on TV and radio since Monday morning.
It’s just a game to them. They’ve found a new piece to throw on the board and use in their attacks on their opponents and they grabbed and used it with unbridled glee. These radio show goons and the Fox News zoo jumped feet first on to the deaths of these people to grab it, wrap themselves up in it and use it to play their usual “culture wars” games. That, to me, seems to be something that should outrage the people in Kentucky more then a silly spoof of a TV show.
“I’d take that bet. Sorry PAD, but it would have been a much bigger story. “
Um, I do not know how it could have been any bigger. It was the most talked news item well into yestwerday morning-it was even a lead story on my local news.
I’m just curious – does this mean Lost should be pulled from airing every time a plane crashes?
And what should the Emmy-folk have done? It was a pre-taped skit that ran close to 10 minutes. Should they have just had Conan go out and say “sorry, the vast majority of people in this country, not to mention the rest of the world – we’re going to cut the traditional 10-minute funny opening out of our show, including the bit where we acknowledge something that has upset an awful lot of you – Lost not getting nominations this year – because there was a plane crash you may or may not have heard about.”
And then to what extend do we take stopping shows for tragedies? Who decides how big a tragedy it has to be in order to preempt a show?
Common sense says that you go with what affects the largest number of people. The Lexington crash is, of course, a tragedy, and one that deeply impacts the people living in that area – but I can guarantee you, unless someone in Seattle, Wa had relatives down there, it barely raised as more than a news blip on their radar. Why should the vast number of people living without affect of the crash have to be affected? I would very much like to know the logic behind this.
“I’d take that bet. Sorry PAD, but it would have been a much bigger story. You even have poster’s here refering to the site as “Hicktown” KY. Bigger city = Bigger Story, people would refer to the actual airport “LAX” and not just “somewhere in Kentucky” I’d be surprised if they could tell you the city.”
I’ll grant that if the plane crash had been a much bigger story, that someone at the Emmy’s would have been more likely to make a connection before air-time. Here’s where I step out on a limb because I didn’t see the show. From what I’ve heard the “Lost” piece had a pre-made airplane set and a pre-recorded bit with Conan on the Island. There is no way they would have had time to come up with anything else even if they had realized it. This is not even mentioning a possible six-figure sunk cost for what they’d already done. The only difference is that they might have made some sort of announcement about the crash at some point, but even that would have been seen as being in poor taste. Also, I heard that this was some sort of opening number so they couldn’t just not do anything there. So…the way I see it, they simply couldn’t have changed the thing on that short notice even if they had known about the crash.
The crash was a great tragedy. The fact that people in the country were offended by it is regretable. But I don’t think for a moment that there the machinery of the Emmy’s could have been stopped or diverted after the news of the crash broke.
Bill, we agree. NBC meant no harm, but caused harm anyway. Even if the harm was to a fairly small handful of people, mostly in the area of the crash, they still caused harm. Your friend made an innappropriate statement and appologized. NBC made an innappropriate choice (in my mind) and has appologized. I will say that what NBC should have done is to alert the local stations that there was a skit at the beginning of the broadcast involving a plane crash. This way, local stations could choose to join the show in progress after the skit.
Can your friend get me tickets to Oprah’s “Favorite Things” show? I’ve asked our sales dept. and they tell me that if they had tickets, they would use them. ; )
“And think about this. If the plane crash that involved Ðìçk Embersol in Colorado (and killed his son) happened the day NBC was broadcasting the Emmy’s, do you think they would have gone with the skit?”
Yes.
PAD
Jeff in NC, I never said my friend apologized. That’s because she did not. She didn’t need to, because I didn’t make an issue out of her remark.
My friend did not cause me “harm” any more than NBC caused anyone “harm.” It is alarming to me that today we consider it a “harm” to stir up unpleasant emotions.
Life isn’t pretty, and we’re going to experience things that provoke negative emotions within us. There is no way to sanitize the world in order to prevent that, and if there was, I’m not sure that I’d want to live in such a sanitized world.
Emotions are touchy, unpredictable, irrational things. But we have rational minds that allow us to choose how to respond to those emotions. We can recognize their value, place them in their proper context and experience the value of having them. Or we can blow them out of proportion and ask the world to worship at the altar of our sensitivities. I prefer the former way of living with emotion, myself.
I’d say NBC more issued a statement than an apology. Look at what they said:
”In no way would we ever want to make light of this terrible tragedy,” NBC said. ”The filmed opening during the Emmy telecast was meant to spoof some of television’s most well-known scenes. The timing was unfortunate, and we regret any unintentional pain it may have caused.”
That’s pretty much what everyone here has been saying. That it was obviously a “Lost” spoof rather than something aimed at the plane crash in KY. I used the word “regrettable” about the timing instead of “unfortunate,” but it’s the same sentiment. And I’m sure they do regret that people are pained about it, although they did emphasize that it was unintentional. If they said, “Rest assured we’re going to get to the bottom of his and fire the people responsible,” *that* would be overkill. But they didn’t.
PAD
**Um, I do not know how it could have been any bigger. It was the most talked news item well into yestwerday morning-it was even a lead story on my local news.**
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?
Kelly asked:
“I’m just curious – does this mean Lost should be pulled from airing every time a plane crashes?”
No. The plane crash was in the pilot episode (er…well, that’s what it’s called!), and in all the promotions. It is a part of the show, and it’s not shown happening every week. If the crash had happened on the same day as the premiere of “Lost”, there would have been a disclaimer at the top of the show warning viewers, much like there is now on any show that shows some kind of terrorist attack.
“Why should the vast number of people living without affect of the crash have to be affected? I would very much like to know the logic behind this.”
Since the cause of the crash was human error, the plane taking off on the wrong runway, this effects anyone that flys.
//Um, I do not know how it could have been any bigger. It was the most talked news item well into yestwerday morning-it was even a lead story on my local news.//
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).
Regarding Jimmy Doohan Emmy Memoriam omission: Oops. I mistakenly thought Doohan had passed away this last year. Since I’ve had twin children, my memory for events and timelines has gotten more screwy than normal. Plus, I think the recent talk about Shatner’s roast, and his apparent reconciliation with Doohan – Wonder if there’s any truth to that – made me think about Doohan’s passing as more recent. Sorry.
Waitaminnit – I didn’t see the Emmys (I’m boycotting them until [i]Battlestar Galactica[/i] gets a nomination), but in [i]Lost[/i], didn’t the plane crash into an ocean?
And this was supposed to have something to do with a plane crash in Kentucky?
Not a lot of oceans in Kentucky, last I checked…