Television deserves better than weak Emmys

During the broadcast, trigger-happy censors didn’t just drop out the audio for allegedly offensive words, but instead cut away to a shot from the ceiling that seemed like some kind of mistake. From the announcer mispronouncing Grey’s Anatomy star Katherine Heigl’s last name to the lack of a live orchestra, it seemed like no one really cared.

What seemed to matter most to Fox was shameless self-promotion, from Ryan Seacrest’s frequent references to “American Idol” to the gratuitous appearance by MySpace founder Tom Anderson (MySpace is owned by News Corp, as is the network).

On some level, the Emmys resoundingly embraced what has become prevailing wisdom online: mock and ridicule that which you love.

That, however, necessitates a level of appreciation and love that the Emmys seemed to lack.

A tribute to “The Sopranos,” one of television’s all-time best series, was handed off to the cast of “Jersey Boys,” who seemed to lip-sync songs while scenes from the show played on the auditorium’s monitors, which were often not clearly visible to home viewers. A groundbreaking drama ends forever and its tribute didn’t even include any dialogue from the actual show.

Again, three hours of Oscar-style self-congratulation does not make for good television, nor does that approach help people fall in love with the magic of the medium being honored. While the Oscars go too far pretending that they are important and serious, the Emmys have now swung equally far out in the opposite direction, essentially making a three-hour argument that the medium they exist to honor pretty much sucks.

Ridiculing television as part of an awards ceremony makes an argument for the award show’s irrelevance, because why honor a medium that is so bad? Television deserves better than what its own Academy and Fox gave it this year.

Andy Dehnart is a writer and teacher who publishes reality blurred, a daily summary of reality TV news.

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