Mostly I'm thinking about two things.
1) The five "hosts" from reality tv.
I've read website commentary suggesting that having five "reality show" hosts hosting the Emmys was an effort to give "legitimacy" to reality programming, to acknowledge that it's part of the tv landscape, and it's here to stay.
I don't buy it.
I can't see how putting five marginally-talented people in front of millions of people, giving them nothing to do (Who in the world thought that rambling, "We've got nothing..." opening was a good idea?), and practically begging the audience to compare them unfavorably to the major-league talents on display (Like Steve Martin, Ricky Gervais, Steven Colbert, John Stewart, Tina Fey, etc. - Any one of whom would have made a better host), could be seen as anything but blatant sabotage.
I genuinely think someone high-up wanted to "make a point" - "Without actors and writers, this is what you get..." - but clearly didn't think through the terrible repercussions. It's the only thing that even "sort of" makes sense.
(I guess they could have been trying to draw the "reality show" audience. But c'mon - Nobody watches American Idol for Ryan Seacrest; you watch a "reality show" for the show, not for the host.)
2) The other thing that struck me as particularly cringe-worthy was how they cut off Kirk Ellis, who won a writing Emmy for John Addams, right as he was talking about the series, "celebrating a time when our leaders spoke complex thoughts in complete sentences".
They cut him off for a promo of the next part of the show - the award for "Best Reality Show" (Not exactly stuff that celebrates people "speaking complex thoughts in complete sentences").
The timing was exquisitely awful; If I were an anti-TV guy - which I'm not - I'd be pointing at that moment, and saying, in my most pretentious tones, "And that, my friends, is why TV sucks...".
Seems like a moment you'd want to avoid on an award program celebrating TV.
Well, I had my My Name Is Earl audition yesterday, at the "Earl" production offices in Van Nuys.
My appointment time was 2:00 p.m., but I didn't actually do my thing till around 2:30 (Their production meeting ran long).
As I waited in the lobby - I'd gotten there over a half-hour early - I was struck by the wide range of "types" they'd called in for the role ("Wow, they're really 'all over the map' here", I thought to myself).
But - Duh! - they had a number of roles to cast, so only a handful of actors were there to read for the "Boss" (It varies from office-to-office, but typically, an office may call in 20-30 actors for a "pre-read", and narrow it down to a half-dozen or so for the "producer session"; I was at a "producer session" yesterday).
Anyway, when the time came, I was called into the room.
There were, I think, five people there - I was too excited to do a head-count (I don't know who was who, but I imagine the writer, director, producer, and casting people comprised the five).
I did my thing, and got a very good response.
Then as I started to go, I said, "I had an alternate take..." (As in "...if you want to hear it"), and they said "Sure".
So I gave them a read that "went in a different direction", and it seemed to go over well enough (Though I kind of wished I'd "left well enough alone" - I didn't execute the "alternate take" as well as I'd wanted to).
Then I said, on my way out, "I'm a big fan of the show, so it was just fun being here...".
(And here's where it becomes "interesting" to be me...)
My first response to the experience was to be happy - I went in with a strong choice, did my thing, and it got laughs. And that's pretty much exactly how you want something like this to go.
But that happiness only lasted a few minutes before I started being assailed by doubt; I shouldn't have asked to do the other reading, I shouldn't have said the thing about being a "fan" - I even started doubting their reaction to my first reading ("Were they just being polite...?").
I really had to "rein it in", and remind myself that I've made enough people laugh over the years to know the difference between polite laughter and the genuine article.
And my "alternate take" showed them I'd given a lot of thought to the audition and to my character (And if my first choice really was the better read, that's okay - it shows I knew what the stronger "choice" was).
And in terms of being a "fan" (I worried afterwards that it made me sound like a "civilian")- those people work hard on "Earl", so why wouldn't they be pleased to hear that actors coming in enjoy the show and are happy to be there?
Long story short, screw the doubts - I done good.
In fact, I "done good" enough that, even if I don't get the gig (And the more time passes today, the less likely it seems), I still "won" - I won't be at all surprised if they call me back in for something before the season's over.
And while I'm going into "self-defense mode", assuming at this point that I didn't book it - so I can quickly "get over it" and move on - I'm being a mite premature with the post-mortem; at this point, it's still possible I could get "the call".
And if I do, you'll be the first to know.
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