Emmy nominations

The Emmy Award nominations have been announced, and as usual they are a mix of reasonably good and unreasonably foolish choices, and the "big" awards as usual are probably the biggest miscarriages of taste and appreciation, in part. For example:

Outstanding Comedy Series
30 Rock • NBC • Broadway Video, Little Stranger, Inc. in association with Universal Media Studios
Entourage • HBO • Leverage and Closest to the Hole Productions in association with HBO Entertainment
Family Guy • FOX • Fox Television Animation
Flight Of The Conchords • HBO • Dakota Pictures and Comedy Arts in association with HBO Entertainment
How I Met Your Mother • CBS • 20th Century Fox Television
The Office • NBC • Deedle-Dee Productions and Reveille LLC in association with Universal Media Studios
Weeds • Showtime • Showtime Presents in association with Lionsgate Television and Tilted Productions, Inc.

--First, where's Scrubs or Samantha Who?, the two best (but not industry-favored) sitcoms of the last season? And if the pleasant-enough Weeds or How I Met Your Mother are getting nods, The New Adventures of Old Christine, probably the most improved sitcom, deserves a shot, as well (fellow blogger Patti Abbott might be irked that The Big Bang Theory didn't get recognition). The Sarah Silverman Program isn't up to her best work, but certainly if the inane and obnoxious Family Guy (a dullard variation on The Simpsons, and a particular target of well-deserved South Park mockery of late) is so honored...well, Futurama would make a better choice in this category, certainly, among the animated sitcoms. The Venture Bros. probably didn't produce new episodes in the past year, but I'm sure would be overlooked.

Christina Applegate got an actress nomination as a sympathy prize, I suspect.

Outstanding Drama Series
Big Love • HBO • Anima Sola Productions and Playtone in association with HBO Entertainment
Breaking Bad • AMC • High Bridge, Gran Via Productions, Sony Pictures Television
Damages • FX Networks • FX Productions and Sony Pictures Television
Dexter • Showtime • Showtime Presents in association with John Goldwyn Productions, The Colleton Company, Clyde Phillips Productions
House • FOX • Universal Media Studios in association with Heel and Toe Films, Shore Z Productions and Bad Hat Harry Productions
Lost • ABC • Grass Skirt Productions and ABC Studios
Mad Men • AMC • Lionsgate Television

--While I don't like Damages or Lost, I don't find either truly aggressively stupid, and the other noms seem reasonable, even if Life (particularly) or Life on Mars or Burn Notice or Sons of Anarchy, or even True Blood or In Treatment needed to be left off, I'm not sure that Big Love quite deserved to be on. But it's certainly better, and more intelligent and artistically ambitious, than the first two (the enigma-fest and the hugger-mugger legal soap, I mean). At least the voters didn't feel the need to throw a sop to such obvious tripe as Gray's Anatomy this year.

If I were to choose for these categories, I'd probably give the statues to Samantha Who? and Life, and among the nominees probably to House and The Office (despite some weak episodes this season of the latter), with regrets for 30 Rock and Breaking Bad.