And the Emmy goes to......

Sorry that I have been neglectful of my blog....I've been ill, so, let's just dive in shall we....The Emmy Award nominations were announced and it is my pleasure to announce that one of our/my favorite shows, "True Blood" has received a much deserved nomination for Outstanding Drama Series! Yay!


Since I have been gone and the Emmy's are coming up on August 29th, I thought I might devote my next few blogs to the nominees for the major categories....I mean really, truthfully, as much as it is sad to say...no one really cares who wins certain awards except for those in that field and their friends and families. Sorry, but it's true. So with that being said I'd like to start with the OUTSTANDING DRAMA SERIES.


Nominees: True Blood HBO, Mad Men AMC, Breaking Bad AMC, Dexter SHOWTIME, The Good Wife CBS, and Lost ABC.


This is quite the fierce category actually. I mean you have 4 cable shows going up against 2 network shows, one a fairly new show that is starting to catch on and another show that retired this year. It seems that most award shows tend to go towards sentimental favorites or the tried and true. The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences has a lot to consider when they put out these nominations. For instance, here is their schedule for this year. Please note the eligibility period.
2010 PRIMETIME EMMY AWARDS CALENDAR

June 1, 2009 ‐ May 31, 2010
Eligibility period Week of March 1
Online entry process begins. Rules and Procedures available at www.emmys.tv
April 16
Deadline to reinstate or apply for membership in the Television Academy and be eligibility to
vote in the primetime competition
April 30
Entry deadline for ALL entries that were originally presented 6:00 PM ‐ 2:00 AM,
June 1, 2009 ‐ May 31, 2010
June 4
Nominating ballots are posted on the Television Academy’s website
June 21, 5:00 PM
Deadline for returning the nominating ballots to Ernst & Young
July 8, 5:35 AM
Nominations are announced live from the Leonard H. Goldenson Theatre
Week of July 19
At‐home judging DVDs for Creative Arts Awards categories are mailed
Week of July 26
At‐home judging DVDs for Telecast Awards categories are mailed
August 10, 5:00 PM
Deadline for returning at‐home judging ballots for Creative Arts Awards categories to Ernst &
Young
August 17, 5:00 PM
Deadline for returning at‐home judging ballots for Telecast Awards categories to Ernst & Young
August 21
Creative Arts Awards and Ball
August 29
NBC Telecast and Governors Ball

Imagine having to go back in your mind and think of some of the shows you've watched. Which ones have made an impression? I mean there are literally tons of shows on the air at any one time. That is just for the nominations.   I find it very interesting that most shows being nominated for outstanding series or actors, actresses, etc....are for shows that are on cable. But the networks are still hanging in there. I mean, c'mon Lost made it in, the last opportunity for it to do so. Lost barely made it and with acting nods to boot! So kudos to May sweeps! 


OK, so opinions about the drama that deserves to win....That is really a tough one. All of these shows are excellent examples of what creative minds can come up with. Each show is unique and not necessarily formulaic. Some would say that I am "True Blood" all the way. But that is not necessarily true. I am really trying to be critical here and look at each of these shows on their own merit. Sure "True Blood" is special, it broke the "vampire show" curse. That has to mean something. Alan Ball has everything to do with that. What he did with Six Feet Under he has now managed to do with True Blood. He has created a compelling show with equally compelling characters. Because in the end most successful shows come from characters as much as any plot line. Characters that you love or love to hate. Characters with "rooting" value. But no other nods in any major category so.....it is not our year.


All of that being said I find cable shows to have the advantage because they can go places that other shows can't. Be it with sex, violence, language....you name it. So it kinda makes you wonder how fair of a competition one can have. So we are back to characters and what they do for a show as well as the writing and directing. Dexter is one that has been pretty consistent over the years with the exception of Season 2. This season's cliff hanger was insanely off the hook!!!!!! I mean who didn't scream at the TV?! Then you combine that with John Lithgow as the Trinity Killer, Arthur Mitchell.....I mean, wow! Michael C. Hall never fails to amaze me, more about him in the Outstanding Lead Actor in a drama category. 


To figure out what show could possibly win this category, you have to ask yourself...Did any actors from the show get acting nods? Writers? Directors?  It makes you wonder when a show, like True Blood, gets a nod for Outstanding Drama but yet no actor nods? So, sorry my Trubie friends we will not win this one. So that leaves Mad Men, The Good Wife, Dexter, Lost,  and Breaking Bad. So what should we use next, writing? Then that would only leave 3 shows: The Good Wife, Lost, and Mad Men. Now if we judge by directing then we have Mad Men, Dexter, Breaking Bad, and Lost. So Dexter and Breaking Bad are back in and The Good Wife is out.


So my prediction IF we do not use the acting category would have to be LOST as it is the last time it can be nominated or Mad Men, which has won before.


OK now if we go with the acting nods then the show with the most acting nods, this includes guest actor/actress, then we are REALLY close between Mad Men and The Good Wife with Lost nipping at their heels.


So there you have it....a VERY close race no matter how you look at it. I'm going to say that it is a 3-way (if we go by acting) between Lost, Mad Men, and The Good Wife. Hey, I didn't say who I thought would win....I'm not a psychic.....just a viewer who would vote for ALL of these shows to win, like the kids in soccer who ALL get trophies for participation.

But, if you were to ask me who I thought SHOULD win,  my personal choice would have to be Dexter. But that's just me....I like the show, so shoot me! LoL

 See ya later with more nonsensical ramblings about who is going to win the Emmy Award for.....Outstandingness in something! :)

Stunt Casting? For Real!

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OK I think that most of us are aware of the concept of Stunt Casting. Just in case you are unfamiliar with the concept, let me explain. In short, stunt casting is when you get a, usually, big star to guest on your show. Now many times Stunt Casting is done during sweeps with the idea being that more people will turn in to see said "star" on the show. Can't say that it doesn't work. But the flip side of stunt casting is when it is done to "save" the show. It also can mean that the show is thisclose to "jumping the shark". 

With that in mind it came as a shock to me that as show such as "GLEE" would be stunt casting, not just anyone, but an Academy Award Winning Actor, Javier Bardem. Now I would expect a singer on this show. One of my favorite stunt casting done on this show was Neil Patrick Harris, I mean he's an actor and a singer, in case you didn't see some of the awards shows this past season. Apparently Mr. Bardem watching the whole first season of Glee in one night and said, "Hey, I want to be on that show". So he contacted Ryan Murphy, the co-creator, and according to Entertainment Weekly, it's a done deal! Thankfully it seems that he is going to be helpful to Artie, the kid in the wheelchair, so we won't be seeing the scary bad haircut guy that won him the Oscar! Whew!

I cannot talk about stunt casting without mentioning the greatest stunt casting of all time. I'm talking about Elizabeth Taylor on General Hospital. She appeared as Helena Cassadine and came to put a curse on Luke and Laura at their wedding. It was a BIG DEAL back in those days to have a star of her caliber on a daytime soap. It even made the cover of major magazines.    

Of course since that time there has been a multitude of stunt casting, believe it or not many of them have been on Soap Opera's. Back in the day Carol Burnett played a decent roll on All My Children. And General Hospital as a major role for Ms. Taylor, but she also appeared on All My Children as a "scrubbing woman". One Life to Live used to be the king of stunt casting. Sammy Davis Jr. played a character that appeared many times over the years. One Life to live now boasts the majority of musical groups that appear on soaps. Now if you want to call One Tree Hill a nighttime soap then you can count Kevin Federline as a stunt casting, but then again he also appeared on CSI. This was of course back when he was relevant. His actor left alot to be desired, but of course all he was required to do was to be a "thug" and he seemed pretty good at acting life a self-centered thug, not sure if that was good acting or if he was being natural.


Normally the best stunt casting comes when the "star" has a character created FOR them, rather than them appearing as themselves. I'll give you an example of that later.


I have to mention 2 guest starring gigs, both Law and Order:SVU, that were amazing and made you forget that it was the "star" on the show. It was just great acting. The first was the "Fonz" Henry Winkler and the second was Robin Williams, whose character was totally playing psychological games with Christopher Meloni's character of Elliott. Robin William is really great at playing creepy. I remembered how good after watching that episode.


The best stunt casting recently was probably not intended to be a stunt casting. That was the pivotal role John Lithgow played in this past season's Dexter, on Showtime. His portrayal of the Trinity Killer was top notch as always. Left us with a hell of a cliffhanger as well. Great "casting" there.

 I have to say that 2 of my favorite stunt castings appeared on the same show, "Friends". They were masters of the Stunt Cast and none of these were jump the shark moments. I mean come on, we had Bruce Willis and Alec Baldwin! In a longer term arc we had Giovanni Ribisi and Tom Selleck! And two of the funniest stunt castings were Brooke Shields and Julia Roberts. Wait, I can't forget Jean-Claude Van Damme....oh yeah and wait what about the great casting of Reese Witherspoon as Rachel's sister. Looks like I could go on and on. 


As you can see the best stunt casting is the using of great actors playing good characters. Even if they're singers. One of THE BEST portrayals of recent times is one I NEVER expected to fly and it flew so well, they had the character back. Oh yes, I am talking about the surprise success of Britney Spears on "How I Met Your Mother"! Her character was crazy, not so hard to play I guess. In fact I would have thought it was fun to play, it certainly was fun to watch.

Now I have to get to the stunt casting of people pretending to be themselves. It's usually politicians, athletes, or singers that come in under this category. One of the best
examples of ridiculousness that results in some of this stunt casting is when you have someone like Snoop Dogg who is NOT an actor. Don't get me wrong, I love me some Snoop, I truly do. I think he is funny just being himself. But he, like many of his predecessors, is a fan of soaps which is why he has made repeat performance on "One Life To Live" where he plays himself and is a friend of a main character. I have a hard time with that one, it just looks silly. But, what can you do? When Snoop asks to be on your show, you say "when".


Now lately Snoop has become a fan of True Blood one of my most favorites shows. Now it would not do for him to be on this shows. Many have asked, including Lindsay Lohan, I know...ewwww.......Thankfully Alan Ball is a smart man and casts mostly unknown or little knowns for roles on the show. But Snoop has found a way to get in there! I present to you. "Sookie" Snoops ode to the show and his favorite human on it! See ya all later, I am thinking of stunt casting myself in my own life......save some Tru Blood for me!

Well, it's officially July..you know what that means...Big Brother 12

Mark you calendars Big Brother fans, July 8th is the premier of the 12th season of Big Brother. As has been the practice for the past few years the cast is full of attractive and mostly young players. Still not sure how I feel about that being on the higher end of the age scale. The way things have been going I could never be on the show. Though I did notice a 32 year old who "seems" to have hair plugs. The things you do to remain youthful I guess. And I have to admit that I feel like a very dirty old lady after spying hunky looking 24 year old college student Hayden from Tempe, AZ.  

Of course after the show starts he might turn out to be a douche. It's been known to happen....and besides he's young enough to be my son....but I can still look. However, if he turns out to be a jerk I will quickly turn on him. 

We also have the oldest contestant this season, a 40 year old (gasp!) sheriff from Texarkana. She is a cancer survivor who was fighting cancer along with her mom, while watching Big Brother, she promised mom that she would apply for the show when she got better. Daughter got better, mom did not. So there is a very sentimental contestant with rooting power.

Now I have to admit that I didn't watch all of the episodes of Big Brother last season. Too much going on in my life to devote the massive amount of time to this show. Seriously, this is the only show on TV that requires a lot of work to stay in the loop. I mean it's on 3 nights a week, but so was American Idol you might say. But there is also Showtime's BB After Dark which shows what goes on after the end of the episode you just watched. And then you have the Live Feeds that you have to subscribe to...or do what I used to do and go to the official Big Brother Message board and read the forums about the Live Feeds, they seem to be pretty accurate and give you a good idea of what is going on. Dedicated fans, those watchers. 

I also have to say that the last Big Brother turned me off with the return of Muscle Head Jessie. I truly could not watch this dumber than rocks guy hanging with other muscle heads that were barely as smart as the rocks. Seriously, it brought my IQ down a few points just watching them so I gave up and moved on.

This year will be a challenge for me since I no longer have TV, however I have been able to watch pretty much everything on Hulu and on tvshack.net so I think I'll be fine, IF the cast doesn't bore me too much. That is always a danger. I think about all of the seasons I've watched and only a few casts jump out at me, the one with the evil Dr. Will, Hardy, and the chick who became Will's girlfriend (can't remember her name). Chicken George, just because of the name...reminded me of "Roots", his silly tee shirts, and he was the oldest contestant. And of course my favorite Evil Dick. The tattooed winner who was reunited with his estranged daughter on the show, talk about drama. So we will see how this season goes. See if it can keep my interest.

As with every season of Big Brother there is a twist. Be it a mole or an ex-lover or a twin. This season it is called the Saboteur, a player who is playing NOT to win. Not only that but this player is playing to sabotage all of the other players. The player is there to wreck havoc on the group so let the drama ensue. Of course we all know that drama is Big Brother's bread and butter so this should be an interesting season. I will be making every effort to keep up, unless they bring muscle head Jessie back again, in which case you will find me in a corner with a bottle of Tequila trying to make it all go away!


If you want to meet the cast, click on this video.