Emmy Passes Up Britney for… Actresses
Ted and Barney weren’t the only ones to give Abby the receptionist the brushoff.
Britney Spears’ hyped two-episode appearance on How I Met Your Mother didn’t catch the eye of Emmy voters, who left her off their list of semifinalists for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series, per the latest round of Emmy scoopage from the L.A. Times’ Gold Derby blog.
Spears shouldn’t feel too snubbed, thoughfellow twentysomething Mary-Kate Olsen, who played a pot-dealing proselytizer on Weeds, didn’t make the cut, either. And she’s been acting all her life!
But this year, only two under-40 thesps made the first cut, the relative young’uns being Sarah Silverman, who could be a two-time Emmy nominee thanks to her turn as a psycho fan on Monk, and Oscar nominee Amy Ryan, who made quite the impression as the Michael-liking “new Toby” on The Office.
In addition to needing way more experience, it also probably would have helped if Spears and Olsen had guest-starred on 30 Rock or Desperate Housewives. The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences singled out three seasoned stars apiece from eachEdie Falco, Elaine Stritch and Carrie Fisher for shaking things up at NBC and elder Housewives Polly Bergen, Shirley Knight and Kathryn Joosten, the last of whom also won the Emmy in 2005 for her role as Lynette’s neighbor, Mrs. McClusky.
Also well-served by their sharp comedic chops were Christopher Guest regular Jane Lynch, who appeared in Two and a Half Men, Curb Your Enthusiasm’s Vivica A. Fox and Ugly Betty’s Annie Potts.
On the masculine side of things, there’s a lot to like about the short list for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy, despite the pitiful absence of Ugly Betty’s Michael Urie, any of the dudes from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Entourage’s Jeremy Piven…
Kidding! Of course Piven has the chance to win his third Emmy in a row for playing Ari Gold. The Office’s Rainn Wilson, Two and a Half Men’s Jon Cryer, How I Met Your Mother’s Neil Patrick Harris and Piven’s Entourage costar Kevin Dillon have their second shot in a row for a trophy, as well, but they’ll face some stiff competition from, among others, everyone’s favorite NBC page.
Jack McBrayer, who plays the infectiously funny Kenneth on 30 Rock is facing off against costar Tracy Morgan, as well as The Office’s John Krasinski, Weed’s Justin Kirk and Back to You’s Fred Willard, whose performance looks to be the only one the Academy singled out from the already canceled Fox sitcom.
On a more serious note, House’s Hugh Laurie, Rescue Me’s Denis Leary and defending champ James Spader of Boston Legal are back in the hunt for Lead Actor in a Drama, where they join Golden Globe winner Don Hamm of Mad Men, Patrick “McDreamy” Dempsey of Grey’s Anatomy and a host of captivatingly conflicted charactersDexter’s Michael C. Hall, Breaking Bad’s Bryan Cranston, The Riches’ Eddie Izzard and In Treatment’s Gabriel Byrne.
Holding down the fort for the woefully underwatched Friday Night Lights is best actor possibility Kyle Chandler, who proves that nice guys don’t have to finish last.
Speaking of overlooked, the fate of Battlestar Galactica (its Emmy fate, anyway) might really rest on President Roslin’s shoulders.
It’s not confirmed at the moment, but a tipster has indicated to Gold Derby that Mary McDonnell is a semifinalist for best actress in a drama…finally.
In all likelihood, her fellow competitors will be past winners Sally Field of Brothers & Sisters, Mariska Hargitay of Law & Order: SVU and Patricia Arquette of Medium; The Riches’ Minnie Driver and The Closer’s Kyra Sedgwick, both nominees last year; Damages’ Glenn Close, Big Love’s Jeanne Tripplehorn (seeing as she’s Wife No. 1 and all), Saving Grace’s Holly Hunter and, possibly, Elisabeth Moss from Mad Men.
The blog has also confirmed seven of the semifinalists for Outstanding Actor in a Comedy (again nothing shocking here): 30 Rock’s Alec Baldwin, The Office’s Steve Carell, Curb Your Enthusiasm’s Larry David, Golden Globe winner David Duchovny of Californication, Pushing Daisy’s Lee Pace, Monk’s Tony Shalhoub and Two and a Half Men’s Charlie Sheen.
Brought To You By …
Let’s talk about cereal commercials (again).
I thought of all of the cereal commercials we’ve had over the years after seeing the latest ads for Fiber One. Yes, to answer your question, that is Kate and Allie’s Fred Koehler playing the store clerk who calls the manager over after the customer has a question about the lack of twigs in his cereal (that’s Koehler with Johnathon Schaech). At first I thought to myself, “why is he doing cereal commercials instead of TV shows and movies?,” but then I figured, hey, we all have to pay the bills, and Fiber One cereal is good! I just saw a sequel to the ad that features new Fiber One/Yoplait Yogurt and in it you see Kathryn Joosten, a great actress who played Mrs. Landingham on The West Wing and Mrs. McCluskey on Desperate Housewives and…well, a million other roles. So it’s actually very cool to see them doing this stuff along with their many other roles.
This got me thinking about cereal commercials in general. The most famous cereal commercial, of course, is this one, featuring Mikey and his brothers (as a bonus, a snippet of a classic Oscar Mayer ad!):
Mikey, as you know, died from eating Pop Rocks and Coke. OK, that’s only an urban legend. He actually did a commercial years later, telling his niece and nephew about the joys of Life cereal:
Those two kids look really familiar.
Of course, there were a ton of Flintstones commercials for Cocoa Pebbles and Fruity Pebbles. Note the ingenious disguise by Barney that completely fools Fred:
Older readers will remember eating Quisp cereal (you can actually still buy it). In this one he battles a mad ball of yarn, which Star Trek: TNG would later use in the classic “The Yarn of Space” episode:
Anyone remember Freakies? I had all of the figures, which are probably worth thousands now:
We all ate Cap’N Crunch when we were kids. I never realized how drunk the Cap’N sounded:
Here’s an early 60s commercial for Grape Nuts, featuring Andy and Barney. Complete with laugh track!:
And finally, a commercial for HoneyCombs cereal, which was obviously written by people smoking weed. It features a motorcycle gang member (dressed like a Viking?), a robot, and kids in a clubhouse:
Desperate Housewives: Welcome to Kanagawa
(S04E10) “He can build homes and decorate them. Sometimes God gives with both hands.” - Lee McDermott
So Ida didn’t survive the twister. Was anyone really surprised? If everyone in the basement had survived it would’ve strained credibility a little too much. However, seeing the Scavo clan crawl out of the rubble was really cool. It was the kind of moment that hearkened back to the first season and reminded my why I started watching Desperate Housewives in the first place.
Another bright spot in this episode was Kathryn Joosten. Actresses like her are the backbone of a decent drama. I wouldn’t be surprised if she eventually wins an Emmy for DH like she did for The West Wing.
What a treat to see Mike Farrell playing a character very different from what we’ve seen before. Personally, I can’t wait to see Carlos and Gabby get what’s coming to them. Victor left her with nothing and Carlos has no way to access his money. It’s like they say, “If you wanna play, you gotta pay.”
I was disappointed to see Gabby’s slapstick routine in the garage. Did we really have to see her senselessly rifling through boxes just to reach the inevitable embarrassing conclusion? I thought Teri Hatcher had a lock on those scenes.
I also had a hard time feeling sorry for Carlos when his blindness was revealed. Should I feel bad for him because Gabby is too selfish to take care of him? He knew she was a scorpion when he headed across the river, didn’t he?
So what was it that Susan and Julie thought was so bad about having Bree live with them? Did they not expect her to cook and clean and treat their home like it was her own? I mean, clearly Bree has a screw loose but as a single man, I think it’s a small price to pay for a home cooked meal and a surplus of clean socks. Susan’s scheming to keep the Hodges in her house as long as possible is a pretty tired plotline if you ask me.
What I really liked was the development of the Mayfair’s storyline. I know I’m not the only one dying to find out their family secret. Quite frankly, I haven’t been this interested in the show since Mary Alice offed herself. Dana Delaney and Nathan Fillion are the best things to happen to DH in a long time.
Speaking of the early seasons of the show, let’s hope Marc Cherry has finally gotten over his fascination with cremated bodies. Is it really that funny to see the remains of the dead flying through the air and landing on people?
By the way, is it just me or did ABC air a commercial for October Road during tonight’s episode? Is that show still on?