joy magnetism: Sing of bad things, not good




@Joymagnetism, now on Instagram!

Monday, August 31, 2009

Sing of bad things, not good

Magnet #556 - Sesame Place

Last night, The CW, a network that broadcasts no daytime soap operas, hosted the Daytime Emmy Awards. And, it was quite possibly one of the poorest-produced awards shows I've seen in all my years of watching awards shows.

I know, I know, I should be grateful the darn show is still being televised. But honestly, last night's production was total "amateur-hour" as one of my friends put it. And? She only watched the tail end of the show, where they didn't even have time to squeeze in poor "first time they've ever won in 22 years" Bold & the Beautiful's best drama acceptance speech.

She didn't get to see all the missed cues, silly and weird camera shots/angles, CUs that made no sense, no CUs when there should have been, a lack of dramatic pauses, uneven timing, inane segments that could have been cut for time (it's about the awards, not Vanessa's singing), and commercial breaks that seemed unplanned. Honestly, I was surprised they managed to catch the curse words in that one cute dude's award speech.

I love these awards. Otherwise, I wouldn't have shelled out the bucks to go to them while they were here in town. I love seeing the winners, even when I'm not watching their shows. I love watching the pretty dresses and pretty boys running around. And, I have a sense of how much hard work goes into these productions by hundreds of people, which is why it's upsetting that the result wasn't so hot. But at this rate, they would have been better off saving money and airtime and just putting on a chicken/fish luncheon over at one of the Renaissance ballrooms.

Moving on, today's the last day of August, which I just heard was "What will your legacy be?" month.

Two legacies shared the spotlight last night: Guiding Light goes off the air in September, after 72 years. They put together a pretty good tribute montage, followed by the shortest standing ovation ever for the entire cast on-stage. It was truly sob-worthy - whether or not you watch the show.

And, second, this magnet my friend brought back for me from Sesame Place shows one of the few bright spots of the show - the 40th anniversary spotlight for Sesame Street. They wove them into the show as best they could, with Big Bird and Elmo doing a red carpet interview with Lara what's her name from the pre-show, and then a running gag where ultracute Oscar the Grouch dressed in an old-school ticket-taker uniform, not letting poor Gordon and Elmo into the fabulous Orpheum.

Christina Oh introduced the montage and the cast for their achievement award (not sure why, but who cares, because she had the best cookie wand ever). The montage totally took me down memory lane, of us watching it in class. Watching the medley was superfun, and brought back more recent memories of seeing them here in NY for some other DEmmys.

Fun. Well, up until I saw strings on Big Bird's arm, and then when they were accepting the award, some guy had his arm up Cookie Monster, and moving his lips while Cookie was talking!

I dunno what that's about. We know they're all real, for cookie's sake. I dunno what all those other folks were doing on stage. Heh. (Though, I really do wonder what the parental protocol was for any young children watching. Because that wasn't traumatic - at all!)

I will say my favorite part was Cookie Monster eating the award. That was freakin' awesome. I wonder what flavor an Emmy is. Hee.

Hmmm. Me want cookies now.

eta:
Full list of awards winners here.
Pin It!

4 comments:

jen said...

That's sad. Poor soap stars. I remember when those were a big deal. Much like the Miss America pageant. Sigh.

G said...

They would have saved themselves not only airtime and money, but also face. The ending was just a complete failure of production.

And yep, I did only catch about five minutes total and then the ending. I completely, totally, utterly kept forgetting it was on. The extravaganza failed to capture my attention span of a gnat.

I wonder if kids have a problem with the whole thing about seeing the puppeteers. They know Elmo's a puppet, yet are willing to accept him as a living breathing friend--a friend with a hand stuck in him, but nevertheless it's suspension of disbelief.

joy said...

Yeah, the show used to be awesome. I mean, when they couldn't find a home for it, I really thought they'd just not air it. Oh well.

The puppet thing still is worrisome, because there's a whole reason why the Disney characters have strict rules about that stuff. Won't someone please think of the children?

julie said...

sad i missed the sesame street thing. :(

but also, hello are you surprised? it's the CW? don't they just show reruns of What I Like About You and NOT real daytime shows???