‘Flight of the Conchords,’ ‘Family Guy’ Lead Surprising 2009 Emmy Nominees

CHICAGO – The 61st Annual Emmy Nominations were announced today and there were a few surprises, a few disappointments, and a variety of unusual choices. The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences displayed a desire to move forward with some first-time nominees, mostly ignoring some tired staples like “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Desperate Housewives,” but also missed some arguably deserving choices.

The Best Drama and Best Comedy categories expanded to seven nominees this year, which allowed for a wide variety of networks to claim a “Best” nominee.

Family Guy Photo credit: FOX

The nominees for Best Drama are “Big Love,” “Breaking Bad,” “Damages,” “Dexter,” “House,” “Lost,” and “Mad Men”. The refusal to give in to pressure to nominate the last season of “ER” is nice and its hard to argue with too many of their actual choices, but HBO’s great “In Treatment” needed to be in that seven and “True Blood” would have been a more inspired choice than “Damages” or “House”. Even fans of those shows admit the past seasons were down a notch in quality. Finally, the Academy missed the Best Drama of 2008-2009 - the final season of “The Shield” in Best Drama and the acting categories. Shameful.

The nominees for Best Comedy are “30 Rock,” “Entourage,” “Family Guy,” “Flight of the Conchords,” “How I Met Your Mother,” “The Office,” and “Weeds”. The selections here may not be perfect but they are an undeniably unpredictable bunch and, once again, it’s nice to see the Academy ignore predictable staples like “Two and a Half Men” in favor of more risky choices like “Family Guy” and “Flight of the Conchords”.

The rest of the major nominees:

Best Actor in a Dramatic Series
Simon Baker in “The Mentalist”
Gabriel Byrne in “In Treatment”
Bryan Cranston in “Breaking Bad”
Michael C. Hall in “Dexter”
Jon Hamm in “Mad Men”
Hugh Laurie in “House”

Best Actress in a Dramatic Series
Glenn Close in “Damages”
Sally Field in “Brothers and Sisters”
Mariska Hargitay in “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit”
Holly Hunter in “Saving Grace”
Elisabeth Moss in “Mad Men”
Kyra Sedgwick in “The Closer”

Best Actor in a Comedy Series
Alec Baldwin in “30 Rock”
Steve Carell in “The Office”
Jemaine Clement in “Flight of the Conchords”
Jim Parsons in “The Big Bang Theory”
Tony Shalhoub in “Monk”
Charlie Sheen in “Two and a Half Men”

Best Actress in a Comedy Series
Christina Applegate in “Samantha Who?”
Toni Collette in “United States of Tara”
Tina Fey in “30 Rock”
Julia Louis-Dreyfus in “The New Adventures of Old Christine”
Mary-Louise Parker in “Weeds”
Sarah Silverman in “The Sarah Silverman Program”

Best Supporting Actor in a Dramatic Series
Christian Clemenson in “Boston Legal”
Michael Emerson in “Lost”
William Hurt in “Damages”
Aaron Paul in “Breaking Bad”
William Shatner in “Boston Legal”
John Slattery in “Mad Men”

Best Supporting Actress in a Dramatic Series
Rose Byrne in “Damages”
Hope Davis in “In Treatment”
Cherry Jones in “24”
Sandra Oh in “Grey’s Anatomy”
Dianne Wiest in “In Treatment”
Chandra Wilson in “Grey’s Anatomy”

Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series
Jon Cryer in “Two and a Half Men”
Kevin Dillon in “Entourage”
Neil Patrick Harris in “How I Met Your Mother”
Jack McBrayer in “30 Rock”
Tracy Morgan in “30 Rock”
Rainn Wilson in “The Office”

Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series
Kristin Chenoweth in “Pushing Daisies”
Jane Krakowski in “30 Rock”
Elizabeth Perkins in “Weeds”
Amy Poehler in “Saturday Night Live”
Kristin Wiig in “Saturday Night Live”
Vanessa Williams in “Ugly Betty”

The Emmys will be broadcast on September 20th, 2009 and hosted by Neil Patrick Harris. Stay tuned to HollywoodChicago.com for more Emmy coverage in the next few months.

By BRIAN TALLERICO Content Director HollywoodChicago.com brian@hollywoodchicago.com