Emmy snubbery?
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- September
- 20
I was disappointed with The Office’s overall showing at the Emmys, even if I found it hard to take issue with some of the perceived snubs it suffered. I mean, Rainn Wilson lost to Jeremy Piven and Steve Carell lost to Ricky Gervais. What am I supposed to say?
Sure, it was tough seeing Jenna Fischer lose out to Jaime Pressly, but it’s not like she lost to Kathryn Heigl. (Seriously? Kathryn Heigl?)
This guy, however, can’t believe best comedy went to 30 Rock, my other favorite show. He argues that since The Office won in 2006 and only got better the next season that it deserved back-to-back wins.
After last year’s victory in the Best Comedy category and coming off what most would consider an ever better season this year, The Office team had to expect to take home the Comedy Emmy once again.
I love The Office. I think it’s the best all-around show on TV. But 30 Rock was consistently funnier and deserving of Best Comedy honors. And I haven’t met a single die-hard Office fan who would say Season 3 was better on any level than Season 2. What I have heard asserted time and again, in fact, is that Season 2 might have been a perfect season of television. Splitting branches, dragging out the Jim-Pam angst, showing too much of the over-the-top Michael instead of the bufoonish-but-redeemable Michael all combined to make Season 3 less than a perfect follow-up to the brilliance of the show’s first full season.
And to show that I’m not just being disagreeable today, I want to agree with that writer’s colleague on another point about the show. In a Season 4 preview, this piece offers insights right from John Krasinski about where things are headed with Jim and Pam.
Krasinski says this…
“They’re so compatible for each other, I think it would be interesting to see, after all that pressure, what a relationship would be like,” Krasinski told San Antonio Express-News. “I feel like there would be some sort of awkwardness. There’s a lot of pressure … and I think both of those characters would feel that after a while.”
…and those are some good insights, but I liked this, from the writer, even better…
Viewers who are not familiar with The Office may not comprehend the importance of Jim and Pam (Jenna Fischer) getting together, but for those who have religiously followed the series, the new relationship is a big deal, considering the two characters spent three seasons treading that awkward space between friendship and romance.
In other words, they are the heart of the show. For the record, I’d say Steve Carell is the show’s soul. And funny bone. Rainn Wilson is the show’s creepy uncle; Angela Kinsey is its mean second-grade teacher; and Brian Baumgartner is its ne’er do well frat buddy.
In the end, the Emmys don’t matter. They didn’t save Arrested Development from cancellation and they weren’t needed to vindicate the brilliance of The Office. I hope the win gives a boost to 30 Rock, but that show will sink or swim on its own brilliance and NBC’s marketing budget.
Photos: The Office costars Angela Kinsey and Brian Baumgartner arrives for the 59th Primetime Emmy Awards Sunday, Sept. 16, 2007, at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson); Steve Carell and NBC co-chairman Ben Silverman arrive at the Emmys. The show won for comedy writing, but Carell lost out to Extras creator/star Ricky Gervais, who created the original Office, for outstanding lead actor in a comedy series. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)
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on Thursday, September 20th, 2007 at 12:21 pm by Brian Howard.
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Category: Angela Kinsey, Brian Baumgartner, Jenna Fischer, John Krasinski, Rainn Wilson, Steve Carell, The Office
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Clearly you haven’t even seen Katherine Heigl on television since you can’t even spell her name correctly. She is a fantastic actress – and very deserving of her award. In my opinion she has been the best actress on TV for the past two years..and her recent work in Knocked Up was also excellent.
You are absolutely correct. I was way off, and you called me on it. It’s Katherine Heigl. Good job catching that misspelling. Aside from the Grey’s Anatomy credits, though, I don’t know what you’re watching because Ms. Heigl is easily the most wooden, stilted and melodramatic actresses of the last 20 years. She’s not even the best supporting actress on her own show—that distinction obviously going to Chandra Wilson—let alone her Emmy category. I’ll agree Knocked Up was great, but she was about the 14th or 15th reason why.