I hope you enjoyed your ...
Question: I hope you enjoyed your vacation. You probably accumulated a lot of questions about the Emmys since you've been gone. I read TV Guide's
Dream Ballot as well as other critics' wish lists and keep seeing
Friday Night Lights,
Kyle Chandler and
Connie Britton. You've mentioned in an earlier column that it will show the Emmys getting it wrong once again if
FNL doesn't get some major nominations this year, but I have to ask, do you seriously think that will happen? I like the show enough but hardly expect it to be nominated much at all. I won't be too upset, though. I fully expect
FNL to join
Buffy,
Gilmore Girls,
The Wire,
Veronica Mars and
Battlestar Galactica on the should-have-been-nominated list. However, I would be mad if a subpar
24, the uneven
Heroes or the soft-porn-esque
The Tudors got nominations over
FNL. But why would this year's Emmys be any different from other past infractions against great but not greatly watched shows?
Answer: Friday Night Lights does have the advantage of being on a major network, produced by a major studio and not a "cult" series, except when you look at the ratings. I've pretty much come to grips that the actors on this show may be overlooked, but the series itself is in a position where
Hill Street Blues and
Cheers (looking back at NBC's fabled history) were at the end of their initial low-rated seasons. Emmy attention in the form of a best-drama nomination (with possibly some writing and directing nominations thrown in) are possible, especially in a show's freshman season, and in this show's case, would be especially valuable in raising its profile going into a make-or-break sophomore season. It's nothing new for low-rated, offbeat shows to be ignored, but this one really does feel like something special to me. I'd like to think it could have a showing like that for
Arrested Development, which was adored by the TV industry way out of proportion to the way the general public ignored it.
