TV Review: NBC's 'Emmy Awards'
NBC’s telecast of The 62nd Primetime Emmy Awards aired Aug. 29 at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT. The following are reviews from TV critics around the Web, compiled by B&C:
“Ambitious, energetically hilarious, and, most important, almost seamlessly constructed, this year’s telecast actually did what the Emmys are supposed to do — celebrate television.” — Mary McNamara, Los Angeles Times
“The entire evening felt uncomfortably rushed and flustered, as if the producers were so afraid of even momentarily losing our attention, they were determined to have something spinning, flashing, bouncing, sliding or shifting every second.” — Robert Bianco, USA Today
“It was a refreshingly light and speedy night that got a little manic at times. And that was a smart tempo. ” — Alessandra Stanley, The New York Times
“NBC also clamped a fairly strict time limit on acceptance speeches, with the promise that longer-winded winners could go backstage and keep talking to nbc.com forever if they were so inclined… It had the unintended side effect, however, of pretty much eliminating any “moments,” those bizarre winners’ remarks that make viewers spit out a collective, “Huh?” You don’t want a lot of those. You also don’t want to spend the whole show taking a leisurely cruise through the last year of TV. But it’s too bad to lose all of that, which more or less happened Sunday night when the producers pressed the pedal to the metal.” — David Hinckley, NY Daily News
“The 2010 Emmy awards broadcast was a night of refreshing twists and unexpected surprises, the biggest of which, perhaps, was the 2010 Emmy awards broadcast.” — James Poniewozik, TIME
Auth commented:
That marketing team Ganis and Sherak is back it. They have their preosn now administrating over the academy Dawn Hudson who thinks the show is going to get better by hiring a new talent/coordinating producer.But of course! It's going to be younger and cooler just like the Independent Spirit awards (you know, the one that gets done in a tent in Santa Monica and is seen by 800,000 activity-less souls on a Saturday night in February.The Oscars is going to be reinvented in one move! Of course it is. Yea.Beat.Isn't it?Unfortunately, the executive producers conceive the show and book the talent and the talent team makes sure that the talent is on time, has what they need and walks away saying how wonderfully they were treated by the Academy. One job is showmanship; the other is logistics. There is talented producing and then there is talent relations.And for the academy to make the mistake of thinking that its hired preosnnel (i.e. Hudson) know how to produce? Hmm, that's a real, real slippery slope. Sounds like the way studios execs feel about directing. The way networks feel about writing. Oh, the irony: the academy now has an administrator who thinks sheâs the second coming of Irving Thalberg. And the board lets her behave that way?Institutions and administrators who run them should stick to their mission, particularly when itâs an artistic institution. The board has the artists, and they pick the show's producer because by and large they are the storytellers. But for the administrator to dictate who the executive producers have to work with? It's just bad, well, administrating.And it ainât gonna make the show one bit better. Itâs just gonna piss off a lot of talent for âfixingâ a component of the Oscars â talent coordination â that was never broken.For 38 (THIRTY EIGHT!) years the reputation of the academy has been beautifully protected and enhanced by Danette Herman. She is the pro. She is the adult in the room. No chaos. No drama. Every A-lister in town has worked with her for years and years. More importantly, every A-lister's publicist has, too.And on the biggest, most important night of the year for movie stars, do top publicists want their talent in the hands of Danette Herman or someone who's recent credits include: the Scream Awards, Rockin' New Year's Eve and the crass, knock off awards that are the Globes and the AMA's, and who first called herself a talent producer in (stand by, checking IMDB)⦠2003.On the day of Gil Catesâ passing, we now see that the Academy has lost a great talent in Gil, but also a heck of a lot of class. His, and Danette Hermanâs.