The 2010 Emmys deliver, thanks to Jimmy Fallon and company

I love Emmy night. Most people I come into contact with on a regular basis don't understand the fierce passion I have when it comes to Emmy nominations, wins and the broadcast itself. After last year's show was fairly terrible, I was concerned about whether I'd be impressed again, and I certainly was (yes, NBC did something right).

This year's epic opener kind of proves why I love the Emmys so.



Jon Hamm and Betty White shimmying. Perfect song choice. Joel McHale being Joel McHale (side note: I loved that the Emmys used Joel liberally throughout the show, yet never nominated Community for anything). Jimmy and Tina Fey bringing back their adorable chemistry from their Weekend Update days (but, Tina, don't try to sing, please). Lea Michele not making me gag. If that alone doesn't make the Emmys worth watching, I don't understand how you can call yourself a television fan. For God's sake, they made you laugh at Kate Gosselin without hating her. That's quite the feat.

This year really provided a lot of fantastic moments. My second favorite?



Jimmy's dead-on impression of Billie Joe Armstrong from Green Day, during his tribute to LOST. While I love TV, I'm also a very devoted Green Day fan, so I nearly fell out of my chair in a combination of laughter and giddiness. Just ask anyone at the BG News, who put up with my reactions to the awards all evening long.

I know a lot of people hate Jimmy, but I think he delivered tonight. He played to his strengths but he didn't dominate the show.

Now, to the actual winners.

I was impressed with the comedy wins. I love 30 Rock, but I can handle them losing, especially to a show like Modern Family. I've expressed my feelings about Glee here before, and I just think that they won the awards they deserved, mainly Jane Lynch. I expected vote-splitting for the three Modern Family nominees in the Outstanding Supporting Actor category, but I'm happy Eric Stonestreet took it (actually, I would have been happy with anyone but Jon Cryer). I strongly believe that in terms of consistency, cast excellence and comedic value, Modern Family is a far superior show to Glee. I have no complaints about it winning, even if it isn't 30 Rock. It's time for some new blood. As for one Modern Family complaint? I wasn't wowed by the pilot episode, which earned Christopher Lloyd and Steven Levitan an Emmy tonight. 30 Rock's Anna Howard Shaw day, written by Matt Hubbard, was a better episode.

Edie Falco won for her wonderful performance on Nurse Jackie, making her the first woman to win for both comedy and drama acting categories. I would have liked to have seen Amy Poehler (who looked amazing so soon after having her baby) win, so it would help the woefully under-viewed Parks and Recreation, but there's no denying that Edie is great. Due to my inherent bias against CBS comedies, I haven't seen the Big Bang Theory, so I don't know about how deserving Jim Parsons win was. Like with the suppporting actor category, I was just happy it wasn't Larry David, Tony Shalhoub or Matthew Morrison.

As for guest actors, I was impressed. As much as I love and adore Will Arnett, Neil Patrick Harris was great on Glee, and Betty White's win for SNL was also well-deserved. John Lithgow for Dexter was a no-brainer, too.

Now, for drama. Mad Men won once again, over Dexter's amazing season four. As I've said before, Mad Men may be a show that's well executed, but it would have been nice to see Dexter rewarded for its stellar season. Likewise, I'm frustrated Michael C. Hall lost for Outstanding Actor. Yet, since he lost to Bryan Cranston, who put forth a great body of work this year on Breaking Bad (even if the season was a little inconsistent), who has deserved his three consecutive awards.

The award that brought me the most joy, though, was seeing Aaron Paul win for Outstanding Supporting Actor for Breaking Bad. He was just astounding to watch this season. I loved hearing the insane amount of applause for him and his speech was so heartfelt. I'd say it's a three-way tie between him, Edie Falco and Eric Stonestreet for favorite speeches tonight.

(I'm ashamed to say that I'm very unfamiliar with the nominees for the dramatic actresses. However, just because I do root for the underdogs, it would have been nice to see Connie Britton take home the award. I have seen a scant few Friday Night Lights episodes, and her work impressed me.)

Lord knows I love the Daily Show and Jon Stewart, but I wish Conan O'Brien or Stephen Colbert and their respective shows could have won instead, if only so we could have actually received an acceptance speech for them. Conan's nomination intro was pretty humorous too, and it was wonderful seeing him in the audience, strike/unemployment beard still in tact.

Another highlight? Ricky Gervais, as always. It was silly for NBC to book him to host this year's Golden Globes, a show where the host does little work. This isn't meant as a dig at Jimmy, because I think he did great, but the Emmys are what Ricky is made to host. A low light, however, was seeing Jason Sudeikis bring January Jones as his date. I don't care too much about celebrities' private lives, but I just find January to be boring and basic (put on display during her awful SNL episode), especially compared to his ex-wife, the hilarious and gorgeous Kay Cannon (who was nominated tonight for 30 Rock). It's just one of those couples that baffles me.

Alright, I've rambled on long enough about the Emmys, but I just love them so. What did everyone else think were highlights and low points? Any red carpet mishaps I missed? Seriously, if there were any awful/hilarious/amazing red carpet moments, please let me know. I had to work, so I was only able to watch the show on a stream online, and it was hard enough to pay attention to them, I didn't have time to watch red carpet shows, either.

For a list of winners, click here.

MTV Movie Awards destroy millions of brain cells

The only way I feel like I can accurately sum up the MTV Movie Awards: Is this real life?


I can't even begin to process the awful and ridiculous, or ridiculously awful moments on tonight's broadcast.

I was going to write a semi-long recap of the events that happened tonight, but honestly, I had to hypothetically scrub my brain of all of everything. However, and I apologize to anyone who follows me on Twitter for this, I Tweeted all night about this disaster. If I may, I would like to use my Tweets as a basis to begin to try and process what I witnessed this evening.

"The awards playing Green Day's "American Idiot" in the background just now means my highlight of the show has probably already happened" - I was mostly correct.

Moving aside Ed Helms and Ken Jeong for the irrelevance of Jennifer Lopez and Tom Cruise was just genuinely offensive (how old was Jennifer's song?), and it proved that this show was just a vehicle to continue to promote celebrities that are irrelevant. It was like MTV was trying to make 'fetch' happen all night. It isn't going to work. Along those same lines: VH1 and MTV need to stop trying to make Diddy happen again. Seriously, Jennifer Lopez and Diddy? Again? Is this 1999? I don't want to know what Diddy has under the seat of his car now...

However, even though it was strange to have Tom Cruise dress up as a two-year old character all night, Les Grossman made Tom the most likable he's been in years, at least before he and Nicole Kidman divorced and the fight to conquer Xenu became extra important. And then he showed up at the end, as himself, not Les, looking wild-eyed and crazy as always. Downgrade.

It looked like Kristen Stewart dropped her award yet again with she was on stage with Robert Pattinson. Remember this? Oh well, at least KStew and RPattz's kiss wasn't as awkward as Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens' 'kiss.' Zac looked as though he'd never ever kissed her in his life!



I'm still trying to figure out Snoop Dogg's outfit during his performance of "California Gurls" with Katy Perry. It was the socks and the (somewhat) dark shoes. He looked like your stereotypical Polish man, walking around Disney World or something with the shorts, white socks and dark shoes. In other words, he looked like every picture of my father and grandfather in the '70s and '80s. Also, Katy? Your hover-surfboard was cool (but, yikes, the way her legs were bent, if that thing snapped, there go her ankles!), but Britney Spears did it better in her 2000 tour with her magic floating carpet during "Don't Let Me Be The Last To Know."

I'm still angry at Michael Cera for ruining my life. Because of his arrogance and stalling in wanting to make the Arrested Development movie, I don't think it's ever going to happen. So, every time I see him now, a part of my soul dies.

Is anyone aware that Mark Wahlberg is an incredibly violent guy who once blinded a man during a robbery he committed while on PCP? He's another person who angers me every time I see him on camera.

I highly enjoy that RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN won an award, if only because I hope it reignites Stephen Colbert's amazing hatred for him. Because now, Rain has a Movie Award, and Stephen does not. Stephen will not stand for that.

I feel like that Eclipse trailer was a joke. RPattz just looked so incredibly plastic and fake, I can't accept that that is a legitimate clip from a movie. People will really think he looks attractive in Eclipse if he has that stupid look on his face the whole time? I'm sorry, I just don't get it.

And then, there's this.




This is Christina Aguilera's blinking vagina. This was the moment I realized I could not mentally handle this show anymore, it just became too ridiculous for me. Oh, and Christina, Ke$ha called, she wants her tacky futuristic-style performance shtick back. (I can't wait for Christina fans to storm my blog in anger if they find out about this.)

The good moment? Peter Facinelli of Twilight and Nurse Jackie was put in charge of giving the acceptance speech for New Moon as it won best movie (like last year, these could be called the "Twilight Awards."). He was smart and got wasted during the entire show, and released a fantastic array of f-bombs that the MTV censors missed. A running joke throughout the night was that censorship and people saying bad words is HILARIOUS. This was the only moment the joke actually delivered, and it was impromptu. The Parents Television Council is probably writing angry letter after angry letter to MTV right now (because Peter's missed f-bombs were nowhere near the only missed ones tonight), which is understandable, because remember folks, the MTV Movie Awards are supposed to be such a family friendly show!

Oh, and I believe I'm going to use my new Capital One MTV credit card to pay off my cable bill, so I can continue to watch great, informative cautionary tale MTV shows such as True Life: I'm in Debt.

I need to go watch tonight's Breaking Bad at 1 a.m. (which I missed at 10 to watch this piece of garbage show). Hopefully that will work as a brain bleach to forget about this show.

The week in late night laughs

Stephen Colbert's send-up of various aspects of politics and popular culture are always spot-on and hilarious. Since television is my life, I have to admit that I have not missed an episode of "the Colbert Report," ever. I began watching the show on its debut, Oct. 17, 2005, and I haven't looked back. Is that pathetic? Probably, but at least I've been entertained in that time!

Anyway, my point is that I've seen Colbert mock a lot of people and trends over those four-and-a-half years he has been on the air. Thursday night Colbert took on the "hipster" demographic, and it was easily in one of my top 25 Colbert moments. Apparently, hipsters feel that it's cooler to ironically refuse to fill out the census than to help make their area a better place. Then again, as Colbert points out, maybe that is the point! There has to be a point where gentrification becomes even too much for those poor hipsters. If they have to pay higher rents for their run-down apartments, how will they afford they Pabst Blue Ribbon?

I'm sure that the more exciting news from Thursday's episode is that Colbert will be traveling to Houston next month to participate in NASA's astronaut training. While that will surely be an epic piece of television (as were his Iraq and Philadelphia shows), in the meantime, I'm too busy laughing at hipsters to think of the upcoming trip.

Check out Colbert's segment on the hipsters here:

Tip/Wag - Forbes & Hipsters

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
www.colbertnation.com
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In other late-night TV news, "Saturday Night Live" delivered yet another lackluster episode this week. I can't really place the blame on host Ryan Phillippe (even though he often looked bored to tears to be there), because once again, I feel that the weak links of the show are the writing. However, instead of focusing on the weak parts of the show, I have to share with everyone the absolutely hilarious portion of Saturday's broadcast.

If you live in or around Ohio or Michigan (well, really anywhere in the Midwest, but especially in these states), you're probably familiar with Insane Clown Posse, and their fans, the Juggalos. They are, well, unique, for a lack of a better word. For those who are outside of the Juggalo fandom, ICP can offer utter hilarity, as their latest video for the song "Miracles" shows (lyrics are NSFW).



On SNL, they beautifully parodied the "Miracles" video and the Juggalos. "Why are pants different than shirts?" is a question for the ages.

Hulu highlights, part one

One of the great developments in television in the last decade is the invention of Hulu, the (currently) free Web site featuring clips and full episodes of numerous television shows. Originally a joint venture between Universal and 20th Century Fox, there are now a myriad of options for users to catch missed episodes and discover new favorites with high-quality, legal videos (those are the key words with Hulu; you don’t have to worry about the Feds knocking on your door, or getting a headache from straining your eyes to see a poor quality video). Are you looking to discover the best Hulu has to offer, but don’t have plenty of time to spend watching TV on the Internet? Here are some of the best shows Hulu has to offer right now (at least, what the offer from the beginning, so you can become acquainted with a show from the beginning).

“Strangers With Candy” (Comedy Central, 1999-2000): If you are interested in introducing yourself to this show (which you should be), you need to act fast. As of right now, the episodes will expire on Saturday, Feb. 27. Normally I wouldn’t include videos that are going to expire so soon, but “Strangers With Candy” is one of my all-time favorites. In this satire of cheesy after-school specials, Amy Sedaris stars as Jerri Blank, a 46-year-old self-described “boozer, user and loser” who returns to high school to pick up her life where she left off when she left for a life on the streets. I became familiar with this show because of Sedaris’ co-star, Stephen Colbert, who plays a disaffected, rude and closeted teacher, Chuck Noblet. It’s utterly twisted and perverted, and that’s what makes it such fun.

“My So-Called Life” (ABC, 1994-1995): Since “Freaks and Geeks” is sadly not on Hulu, I’ll recommend this great look at the American high school experience instead. Claire Danes’ Angela Chase is a realistic and relatable character attempting to find her place in the high school world, along with her friends Rayanne and Rickie. Her quest to have the quintessential high school bad boy, Jordan Catalano (Jared Leto) also helps to create a conflict-filled high school series that doesn’t sugarcoat the experience.

“The Office” (BBC Two, 2001-2003): Hulu must have realized I was putting this list together, because I looked on Hulu’s Facebook page, and this show was featured as a brand-new addition yesterday. This show goes without saying; it beget the American version (and numerous others worldwide), and any fan of the American version needs to see this version for themselves. Whether you prefer the broader comedy of the American version or the dry humor (or humour, since we are talking about a British show), both are essential viewing. The series finale Christmas special, like the Christmas finale on Gervais' show "Extras," is a hilarious and touching way to end a series.

I’m sure you’re all overwhelmed already by the amount of hours you’ll be staring at the computer screen, so for now, I’ll leave you with these three shows. In my next entry, I’ll feature other Hulu gems.