This entry was started on August 31, 2009, but only completed on September 4. Another year, another Daytime Emmy broadcast. With the show airing on The CW, ratings expectations were low, and sadly there is a decent chance we won't get them aired in 2010. The Daytime Emmys for me are a celebration of the television shows I've watched for more hours that one should admit, but I have feel no shame.
The three-hour broadcast began with a one hour Red Carpet pre-show. It was interesting to see Nelson from TVGuide.CA and Jamey from Daytime Confidential on screen alongside Stephanie Sloane from Soap Opera Digest. It was distracting though as my feed had the screen cut off on the right side during their segments. The names of the nominees were truncated, and it bothered me. Presenters, nominees and past winners were shown along with ads for new fall programming on The CW.
We then went into the main broadcast. The song Vanessa Williams You're too good to be true, can't keep my eyes off of you performed was used in a Daytime Emmy award show in the past. It was before Napster was illegal, as I recall downloading the Lauryn Hill version that was used during that telecast. My mind went into flashback mode as I pictured past Best Actor and Actress award winners, who were brought together on stage. The second dance routine with Gilles at least was not offensive to my sensibilities. The fashion show introduced by Tyra Banks featuring daytime stars was better than the hot guys, sex scene montages of the past. Of course, I wished to see some of Tyra’s cohorts from America’s Next Top Model or some of the Mode gang from Ugly Betty. Seeing African poverty is always sad and made me wish that everyone had a bed to sleep in and a food to eat.
Younger actor and actress went to respectively: Darrin Brooks (Max, Days) and Julie Marie Berman (Lulu, GH). My first thought was isn't this the category that Billy Warlock won an Emmy for in the 80s, which was the last time until this year any Days performer got a Daytime Emmy. So now Max and his older adoptive brother Frankie both have awards, too funny. Sometimes it is just the little things, which make an experience. Darrin cursing was bad, but at least he realized it right after and the delay saved an FCC fine. A good number of the pundits picked Julie as their choice for younger actress. I was happy for her, as I do like Lulu. I thought it was tragic how Lulu followed in the footsteps of her mother, by losing her mind.
Supporting actor and actress went to respectively: Vincent Irrizarry (David, AMC) and Jeff Branson (Shayne, GL) due to a tie and Tamara Braun (Ava, Days). What was interesting about this was none of these performers were playing these characters for the entire year. Irrizarry and Branson only came to their programs in the last three months of the year, and Braun was only on Days for six months. I appreciated how Irrizarry mentioned three late actresses, he worked with as there was no in memoriam montage this year. Branson’s win made GL not completely shut out for the evening. Tamara Braun seemed genuinely shocked to get an award.
Lead actor and actress went to respectively: Christian LeBlanc (Michael Baldwin, Y&R) and Susan Haskell (Marty, OLTL). The streak of Tony Geary, Christian LeBlanc continues as it is a year ending in an odd number and LeBlanc won. Susan Haskell won for a controversial story that had many detractors due to the content and not the performances. Like Susan Haskell's kids, I too would appreciate the autographs of people from Sesame Street.
Best Directing, Writing, Show went to respectively: OLTL, GH and B&B. OLTL won for the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire inspired episode, and the show's executive producer, who is also a director accepted the award for the team thanking the cast lead by their three long term vets, which was a nice touch. GH submitted one of the episodes in which Michael was shot in the head. One of the associate writers gave the speech thanking the head writer. B&B got its first win in best show after being on the air for 22 years. Due to time, the speech was cut. The thing I am most interested in seeing is how "The Soup" handles this win, since they love mocking B&B.
Best game show and host went to respectively: Cash Cab and Meredith Viera (Who Wants to be a Millionaire). Cash Cab is a guilty pleasure show of mine, and I view it during the dinner hour. The show is very low budget and the prize money is most likely not life changing, but seeing people react in such a situation can be extremely entertaining. What is great about it is, that usually the people aren’t mocked or given gross out stunts to get ones proverbial 15 minutes of fame. I’ve seen Who Wants to be a Millionaire with Meredith Viera hosting and it just fine. What is odd is the first woman who won in the best game show host category was Betty White.
Talk and Court Categories: The ladies from The View finally won and they didn’t show up to the telecast. Good Morning America, Tyra Banks Show and Rachael Ray got, best morning show, best informative show and best entertainment show respectively. Cristina's Court got best court show. I don't get to see any of these shows regularly, so I don't have much to say. In the past year I've seen maybe two or three episodes of each.
The Lifetime Achievement Award and celebration of Sesame Street 40th anniversary was a highlight for the kid in me. I'm biased towards Sesame Street, as it is the program that taught me to read much to the surprise of my parents. Due to budget issues, even they are feeling the hurt and producing less new episodes this season. The amount of people who watched and learned from that show or the international versions that followed is impossible to determine. The music on that show like Sing, Sing a Song, Rubber Duckie, Who are the people in your Neighborhood along with the theme song were highlighted. Those along with other music not shown have stuck with me throughout my life. The message of Sing, Sing a Song is one of self-expression. Ideally I’d love to only sing of good things not bad, in my real life or through my words on the net, but that isn’t possible.
The GL tribute...a lot has been said on this one. Unlike Another World, Guiding Light actually was given a tribute before it went off the air. All I know is if I had been given the job to create the montage, many of the clips chosen would have been very different than what we did see even with an extremely short time limit. This isn't a criticism in the least, just a statement of fact. The only thing I found puzzling was the use of the song Take a Bow sung by Rihanna and written by Ne-Yo. In the proposed version of the montage for the Emmys another song was chosen, which was more appropriate. If one takes a look at the words of “Take a Bow”, you don’t see saying goodbye to a beautiful relationship or anything in the least.
Here is part of the song...
Don't tell me you're sorry 'cause you're not
And baby when I know you're only sorry you got caught
But you put on quite a show, really had me going
But now it's time to go, curtain's finally closing
That was quite a show, very entertaining
But it's over now
(But it's over now)
Go on and take a bow
It is a screw you jerk song, not an honor something wonderful song. I doubt the Emmy people would intentionally make that statement about GL. I could see a viewer perhaps making such a video in frustration over the show being canceled or due to the bad decisions made while it was on the air.
After the montage ended we saw the cast bow, as Hold on to Love, the theme used for the program during the majority of the 1990s played behind them. Hearing that theme reminded me more of what was lost, than the montage, but even if the show wasn't canceled that theme would elicit such a reaction. Hold on to Love was very evocative to GL in early 90s, the characters and the relationships focused upon and the idea of how love could help and heal people individually.
Whether this was the best or the worst Daytime Emmy broadcast is debatable. I did appreciate that other than As the World Turns all the other current soaps were given at least one award during the broadcast. I can't recall the last time that happened.
While I liked it, there were others I enjoyed more for various reasons. I just don’t have the verve I once did. I didn’t wake up with a smile on my face; jumping out of bed after remembering it was Daytime Emmy day. I didn’t spend the rest of the day before the telecast counting the minutes until it began, watching various talk shows featuring daytime’s best along with my regular slate of programs. Those kinds of things created excitement and added to the fun. Then during the broadcast itself, I would be like one of those rabid sports fans happily cheering when someone I love watching won, shaking my head if someone I didn't like did, looking puzzled at the screen if there was a factual or musical error of some sort, or laughing when a speech was unique and unexpected. My hope for next year is that the show is on the air, and the people viewing it get some joy and entertainment from the broadcast.
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