Cast of Glee, courtesy Fox Networks
So Glee cleaned up on nominations for the Emmy Awards, which were announced this morning. The show raked in 19 nominations, the second-highest number for the year.
Most of the nominations were the usual suspects. HBO picked up a boatload again, including 24 for miniseries The Pacific (the most for a single show), and another 15 for the most excellent movie Temple Grandin.
But the Glee nominations excite me on a number of levels. While the show can be somewhat problematic in terms of inappropriate content, it still manages to be more life-giving than not.
I especially liked the story thread in which young Kurt and his father Burt face Kurt’s homosexuality. The acting is superb (who knew Mike O’Malley, as Burt, had it in him?). But it’s the writing that makes this so strong. It’s surprising, it’s tender and it’s real. Burt is a real man, and clearly has issues with gays. Yet, he finds a way to accept his son as he is, not as he wants Kurt to be. Now, there’s some amazing healthy parenting.
Still, what sets Glee apart from all of the other shows on TV is that it’s a musical. People sing on this show. Really sing. And dance. Which means it’s different from anything else currently on TV. I was perusing the Emmy nomination stats and noticed a couple things.
The record number of Emmy wins for a series in the same year was nine Emmys for The West Wing in 2000. The show also holds the record for the most Emmys won for a show in its first year. The West Wing was the drama about staffers in the White House starring Martin Sheen as the president of the U.S. What I remember most about the show when I first saw the pilot was that it was unlike anything else on TV at the time.
Desperate Housewives received 15 nominations its first year on TV, and won 6 – and it was unlike anything else on TV at the time.
Are we seeing a pattern here?
Shows that play it safe are not going to be remembered. Shows that take chances and do something different and do it well, they’re gold.
A couple other notes, both Adventure Time (on Cartoon Network) and Kick Buttowski (Disney XD) are nominated for best animated short form program. Nick News With Linda Ellerbee is up for Non-Fiction Children’s program for her look at kids with living with cancer.
Dancing With the Stars heart-throb Dereck Hough is nominated twice for best choreography, once for that incredible Futuristic Paso Doble he did last fall and the Quick Step he did this past spring with Nicole Scherzinger to Anything Goes, and the other nomination he’s sharing with Chelsea Hightower for the paso doble they did with Mark Ballas playing Malaquena on the guitar.
I giggled when I saw that Patrick Stewart got nominated for his supporting role in Hamlet (on PBS). Given how badly David Tennant over-acted on that one, it just made Stewart look better and better.
Finally, while I’m not big on reality programming, can’t help but be pleased that only one of the six shows nominated for best Reality Program is one I don’t like. Not that I have anything against Kathy Griffin or My Life on the D-List, but I really can’t stand those fly-on-the-celebrity-wall shows. The other nominees are Antiques Roadshow (PBS), Dirty Jobs (Discovery), Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution (ABC), MythBusters (Discovery) and Undercover Boss (CBS).
You can see the whole list of nominations here.
