The "hype man" (not an entirely inaccurate description, based on how he filled the role) was Jermaine Fowler, of the CBS series "Superior Donuts". He was there filling the role of "obligatory representative from a non-nominated network show mucking about in the backstage area", as well as serving as the official VO person for the evening. I feel like this has been done better in past years (I want to say CBS used NCIS's Pauley Perrette in this role in a previous Emmycast); personally, I would have preferred the use of a humorist/stand-up in this role, similar to how John Hodgman did it for several years. I have no issue with adding humor/personality to the off-camera VO, but the person taking the gig needs to be able to read the room.
The show overall (aside from Fowler's VO) was actually fine - no major technical gaffes, Colbert's pre-tapes didn't linger so long as to be annoying, things moved at a brisk pace (and actually finished on time!), and for once the set design was actually really, really good. One thing that bothered me - was Rickey Minor not able to get a copy of the sheet music to ANY version of the SNL theme from the past 40 years? I know orchestrations can vary (e.g. LWT's theme), but what the band used last night was unrecognizable as the SNL theme. Also, for those of you who watched live - did you catch those Audi commercials? On Monday, September 18, 2017 at 9:39:49 AM UTC-4, PGage wrote: > > The LAT Review: Emmys bear the Colbert stamp: Genial, pointed, exuberant > and a little outrageous > > http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/la-et-st-emmy-awards-colbert-20170918-story.html > > I thought Colbert did a good job - just enough Trump references without > overdoing it, some gentle poking of the self-congratulatory nature of the > event, and then a lot of self-congratulation. My FB feed is full of my > liberal friends pissed about Spicer (conservative friends are saying they > stopped watching Hollywood award shows a long time ago, which probably for > once does put them in the mainstream). > > In terms of the production, I kept thinking - yes, we get it, there are > black people at the Emmys. But do we really need a Hype Man as the > Announcer? A couple of times he almost ran into the actual acceptance > speech. They had the most aggressive play-off music we have ever seen - a > couple of times ruining emotional and effective moments, which always seems > so self-defeating for a show like this. I would like to see them come up > with some kind of elastic filler material that they can use if speeches go > short and easily cut if speeches go long, and then relax about the time > limit a little - or at least give the producer some flexibility in a couple > of cases. > > The awards themselves seemed somewhat more relevant than the Emmys have > been over the last few years. I don't agree that we are in the Golden Age > of television, but there is, finally, so much good television that it is > hard to keep up with all of it. There were a couple of shows I have heard > of but not yet watched that got bumped up on my radar (my daughters keep > bugging me to watch that Pretty LIttle Liars show, I guess I will). > > There was a thread on this list recently about Masters of None, and > whether the second season was better or worse than the first. I was pleased > that they singled out the Thanksgiving episode for writing (and that Ansari > allowed his co-writer to do the speech - though he may have been going in > for a final word only to be cut off by the band, it was hard to tell). That > Thanksgiving episode was one of the best things I have ever seen on > "television" (broadly defined), and an excellent illustration of what real > diversity can lead to. > > If Veep wasn't legitimately so freaking funny I would be salty about JLD > winning yet again, but it does underline again Aaron Barhart's old idea > about having shows and people only eligible for Emmy's until they win once > (or may a couple of times). I hated it at first (Godfather II won an Oscar > also), but some years ago I came around to his thinking - it is not really > fair to keep rewarding someone for the same work over and over - all the > more so with so much good work available. > -- > Sent from Gmail Mobile > -- -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
