Hollywood hosted one of its favorite events this week. The annual Nighttime EmmyAwardsemanated from Tinseltown. If you watched, you were in the minority. Ten percent (roughly a million) fewer people than last year tuned into the program, reaching an all-time low in viewership. Some pundits opine that was due to NBC airing the show on Monday night against NFL football. Others thought it might have been due to the fact there was no marquee star hosting. (Those duties went to the Weekend Update guys from Saturday Night Live. Coincidentally, SNLproducer Lorne Michaels was in charge of the telecast. Huh. Go figure.)

Virtually no one connected with the show seems to think that the Emmys might have lost a little of their luster due to winners and presenters using the forum to inform everyone of their political leanings or the fact that many of the shows nominated aren’t watched by most people in the country.

From what I gathered from reports on societal-toned speeches, a lot of time could have been saved had someone just stood up in the opening minutes and said, “The President is a $##@%%%! His policies are %%$#&. And we don’t like his kids or his wife either.” But apparently more than a few had to expand on that theme. Or so I heard. I was watching a rerun of The Big Valley.

As for the winning shows, how many folks know the program Barry? If you don’t get HBO, forget it. You haven’t seen it. But “The Fonz,” Henry Winkler, finally won an Emmy for his supporting work on that show. He never won for his career-defining role, but maybe his current character has a better catch phrase than “AAAY!” The star of Barryalso won.

A Supporting Actress Award went to a woman on an Amazon comedy called The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. So did the leading actress statue. The writing and directing awards for comedy were awarded to that show too. (I have no idea who Mrs. Maisel is or why she is marvelous, but seemingly that is the case.)

I am obviously severely behind the times. I’m still laughing at The Big Bang Theoryevery week. And now Young Sheldon. As far as I could tell, they were nowhere to be found in a compilation of winners’ lists. Yet those shows consistently draw a couple million more viewers each week than watched the Emmys.

Something I found interesting in my research on the Emmysthis year is apparently there were several categories of awards that were given due consideration but didn’t make the cut. I can’t verify any of these as real, but some were definitely interesting.

For example, one award was possibly going to go to the show with the most lines by a lead actor with the phrase “Donald Trump is an idiot” per episode. I can’t believe that didn’t make the cut. Too many nominees? Perhaps.

Another award was originally slated for the female and male most likely to vote for a Republican. This didn’t make it because of a lack of nominees. Roseanne Barr and Tim Allen were the only two vote getters, and the determining board of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences thought that wasn’t fair. (Plus, they were afraid most of the audience would boycott the program.)

One really interesting category that missed the cut was TV personalities personally hosting the most undocumented refugees (originally illegal aliens) and their children in their guesthouses. (Again, interestingly enough, there was a lack of nominees for this category. You would have thought the Hollywood Hills would be full of them.)

Then there was best speech by a female lead at the Arizona border. Or the show most despised by “deplorable” Americans. And news program anchors shedding the most tears on election night 2016. (This award couldn’t be presented because it was a 30-way tie.)

Hollywood some day may realize a lot of people tune into awards shows to be entertained. Television is largely in the business of helping people escape from whatever is going on in their lives. It’s pretty easy these days to get enough politics on the airwaves from many other sources. Make me laugh, make me cry, but don’t raise my blood pressure. And it’s always been really fun to watch actors and actresses, who normally read lines that clever writers have written for them, get up in front of a live audience and not be able to put two words together cohesively.

This is just a suggestion, but “AAAY,” would it be so bad to return to Happy Days?

 

©MMXVIII. William J. Lewis, III –Freelance Writer