Pushing Daisies

Interview: Patrick Fabian Conducts ‘The Last Exorcism’

mattmovieman — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 08:41:12 -0500

CHICAGO – His face is inviting, but his intentions are ambiguous and perhaps somewhat devious. That’s precisely the type of character that Patrick Fabian has mastered. He’s lent disarming charisma to a variety of characters, from the self-righteously scheming man of faith in “Big Love” to the flamboyantly sleazy car company executive in “Pushing Daisies.”

Though he’s been delivering memorable work in film and television since 1992, Daniel Stamm’s documentary-style horror flick “The Last Exorcism” marks Fabian’s first major film role. As Cotton Marcus, a redemption-seeking minister taping his own faux-exorcisms, Fabian goes toe-to-toe with Ashley Bell, who’s eerily convincing as the seemingly possessed farm girl, Nell Sweetzer. In light of the film’s Jan. 4 release on Blu-Ray and DVD, Fabian spoke with Hollywood Chicago about the spooky side of religion, experimenting on camera and his opinion about the film’s much-debated ending.

HollywoodChicago.com: What attracts you to playing so many shifty characters?

Patrick Fabian: The irony is that I think of myself as a loosey-goosey, hippie rock ‘n’ roller dude. I’m like “casual boy,” and the reality is that you’re right. I have a career full of snakes in suits. I’m the CEO who seems like he’s nice but is actually taking money from children. I don’t think of myself as being that guy inherently, but I think that’s what sells it. I have a [look] that says, “I’m the boy next door who will do the right thing,” so when I don’t do the right thing, it becomes a little more jarring.

With Cotton Marcus, I knew going in that if people weren’t on my side, it wasn’t going to work. I think he’s actually doing a good thing. He’s making a grand confessional, trying to make amends and make up for the fact that he has been bad. I think the step in the other direction would be for him to become a Jim Bakker-type, someone who really amps it up in terms of being false, and this is his chance to turn it around and fix it. I think American audiences love the idea of redemption and self-awareness. We’re all about therapy and figuring out who we are and how to correct our mistakes, and he is trying to do that here. So I think that really puts the audience on my side.

HollywoodChicago.com: Do you note any similarities between Cotton Marcus and Ted Price, your character on “Big Love”?

Fabian: People ask me if I like religious roles, and I never really think about that. I’m more [interested in] the character’s point of view. Ted Price comes from a worldview of Mormonism, or at least his particular brand of Mormonism, where it’s money first and Jesus second, and I don’t think that there’s anything wrong about his view. He looks at the world through a biblical sense where if you don’t see things his way, he pities you and discounts your opinion. It’s black and white for him and he’s very comfortable with that. With Cotton Marcus, if his father had been a plumber, he would’ve been a plumber. He just went into the family business. He knows all the wrenches, all the tools, all the bible things, and all the ways to preach, but he’s lost the passion and the reason behind what he’s doing. He has no value behind the words he says anymore.

Patrick Fabian and Ashley Bell star in Daniel Stamm’s The Last Exorcism.
Photo credit: Lionsgate Entertainment

HollywoodChicago.com: How would you go about defining Cotton’s brand of religion?

Fabian: It’s an amalgamation of a whole bunch of things. We decided we weren’t going to go expressly Catholic or expressly Evangelistic. It was sort of a hodge podge because [Cotton] is covering a lot of ground in the South, so you’ve got to be able to adjust. If you need snake biting, we’ll do snake biting. If you need the blood of Jesus, we’ll get the blood of Jesus. We had a guy onset who was an actual preacher and exorcist. I watched some of the megachurch preachers of our day like Tim Baker and Ted Haggard and Jimmy Swaggart to get a feel for it. But in the end, we just took whatever we could from the Catholic religion, the Evangelists, the Born Agains, [etc]. Religions like Catholicism have a strict regiment for what must be done and in what order. We threw that out the window and decided that we’d cherry pick because, like I said, Cotton’s a cherry picker.

HollywoodChicago.com: How much freedom did the director give you, in terms of experimenting on camera?

Fabian: Daniel had a very specific idea of the tone and what he wanted out of a scene. He was not married too much to the way the scene actually blocked itself out. He was very much about letting [cinematographer] Zoltan Honti, Iris Bahr and myself wander through the house, and discover angles that would suddenly work, either with the vibe of what we were saying or the way in which Zoltan was shooting it. Once we discovered an angle, we’d lay into that for a while. In terms of improvisation, the script was pretty much a map on the highway and Daniel would encourage us to take off ramps. Some ramps were really good, and others were worthless.

I don’t want to give the impression that we stumbled upon a movie because Daniel definitely knew what he was looking for. But he allowed us a sense of exploration that helped free up the actors and made us much more loose and natural. The difference between “The Last Exorcism” and a lot of the other handheld stuff is that there’s a discipline with the cameraman in this one. Zoltan had a way of coming into a scene and laying into it so the viewer could catch their breath and relax and watch what was going on as opposed to being aware that the camera is there. I think that’s the trick. You’re not really aware of the camera until later on when everything gets a little jerky.

HollywoodChicago.com: The scene that really got to me was the one in which Cotton and his crew discover Nell on her perch in the bedroom.

Fabian: Filming that [scene] felt interminably long, but upon viewing it, you realize that it’s just long enough. We go into it waiting to see her, and the more you don’t see her, the more you explore all the options that make sense. Just around the time you start wondering what’s going on, we zoom up there, and boy, it’s a really iconic shot. I can’t say enough about Zoltan. He was fantastic.

HollywoodChicago.com: The first big laugh in the film is the moment in which you incorporate a recipe for banana bread into a sermon. Was that an improvisation?

Fabian: That’s a great example of Daniel knowing what he wanted and then being loose enough to say, “Let’s play.” There’s one shot that was filmed when we were outside the church. Zoltan was shooting some B footage and Daniel was giving me direction. I’m nodding because I’m literally in my mind going, “Uh huh, uh huh, get on with it.” It’s totally an actor being impatient with the director, but in the film, it looks like I’m preparing for my sermon and getting all revved up. When I saw the shot, I thought, ‘There’s the magic of film.’

We were preaching for about two and a half days in this church, and it was totally fun. I almost lost my voice. At one point, Daniel said, “I’d like it if Cotton got the congregation so revved up that he could say anything…even a recipe.” And that’s immediately what we shot. There’s a life to that moment that captures exactly what Daniel wanted. When I first saw the film with an audience, the knowing laughter the occurred when I look into the camera really surprised and pleased me because I knew that at that moment, they were onboard. They weren’t hating me for it, they were actually okay with it.

Patrick Fabian, Louis Herthum, Caleb Landry Jones and Ashley Bell star in Daniel Stamm’s The Last Exorcism.
Photo credit: Lionsgate Entertainment

HollywoodChicago.com: Stamm told HC that it was his intention to have actors reach their breaking point by putting them through countless takes.

Fabian: Oh yeah, Daniel and his German heritage [laughs]. I’m dying for a cookie, I’m dying for him to give me a, ‘Hey good job, you’re a good actor,’ and of course, he was not about that whatsoever. He would just keep going, ‘Okay that was good. Let’s do that again.” And I’d be like, “What? That’s it?” It’d be like take 20, and you start getting a little frustrated, but you also start getting out of your head at the same time. The final product speaks for itself. He captured realistic performances, partly because he would continue to go back and re-mine stuff that I thought we had already covered.

HollywoodChicago.com: What was the experience like of working with Ashley Bell during the “possession” sequences?

Fabian: The great thing about Ashley is that she’s such a consummate professional. She came loaded with her homework and loaded with ideas and things to do. We got to shoot fairly in sequence, which is a real luxury. In the first part of the film, her off-kilter innocence is so off-putting and yet you immediately want to try and take care of her because you feel like she’s wounded and lost and too innocent. So when we did those interview scenes, I felt parental toward her. When things suddenly change, her commitment on that level was equally 100 percent. Particularly during the final exorcism, she came to play physically and emotionally. I could be as good as I want to be in the film, but if you don’t believe the possessed girl in an exorcism film, you don’t have a film. You believe her, and because of that, my reactions were genuine. The barn scene was a day or a day and half of work, and that was very intense. She never let up, and that allowed me to never let up as well.

HollywoodChicago.com: The film seems to have been born out of the current paranoia about religious extremism.

Fabian: The isolation of the Sweetzer farm seems like a throwback in our multicultural, hyper-connected world. It seems like these people are rubes, and all they have is their religion. I think there’s a spooky primal sort of voodooism that goes along with that idea. One of the most interesting parts of the film is when we’re in the hospital, and the preacher is trying to convince the farmer that he needs to go to a psychologist, while the farmer is convincing the preacher to believe in god. The film shows that in the modern day, preachers are leaning toward scientific explanations and have lost their path. It also shows that giving your faith over to one point of view, wholeheartedly, without any examination of the other side leads you to dark places.

HollywoodChicago.com: What are your thoughts about the film’s controversial ending?

Fabian: The ending has been debated a bunch. I think Daniel said that once he decided to go in that direction, he decided to embrace it fully. It does feel like a different film in some respects. I thought the ending was going to go in a different direction at one point, because the film sets itself up as being something else. I thought it was going to be more about what happens with Cotton and what happens with Nell as people as opposed to this sort of wrap up. [Stamm] creates such a viable, realistic world that to be taken out of that realism and be reminded that you’re seeing a movie is a weird violation. And I think that’s what people went through. They recognize the sort of ending they were being given, and that takes them out of the truly original experience of the first ninety minutes. And that’s not to say that the ending is unoriginal, but it’s certainly an area we are familiar with.

The Last Exorcism was released on Blu-Ray and DVD on Jan. 4, 2011.
Photo credit: Lionsgate Entertainment

HollywoodChicago.com: The ending seems as self-consciously artificial as the staged exorcisms Cotton performs early in the film.

Fabian: Someone came up to me and was like, “I totally get it. I fully expect to see a sequel where it turns out that this was all his footage and the entire thing was staged. Just call it ‘The Rebranding of Cotton Marcus.’ He’s created this whole thing to rev up the second half of his career.” And I was like, “Dude, spot on!”

HollywoodChicago.com: Has this role made you more eager to pursue films?

Fabian: I think anybody wants to do films if they get the chance. It just so happens that I look midway through my career and see that television has been my bread and butter basically. Movies are a tough nut to crack, they always have been. I was just saying to someone the other day that you always ask yourself, “Hey, how come I’m not Tom Cruise?” And the fact is, there’s one Tom Cruise and he’s doing just fine thank you very much. I’d love to do more features and the fact I was able to anchor this film will hopefully bode well for the next part of my career.

Meanwhile, I just finished wrapping 12 episodes of a sitcom, “Working Class.” It’s going to be on Country Music Television on January 28, and my [role] is 180 degrees different from playing an exorcist. But it’s absolutely fun. I got to play with Melissa Peterman, the funniest girl on television, and Ed Asner, who’s a TV legend. It was a great experience, and I’m looking forward to seeing how that rides. There are a couple of films for the springtime that I’m mulling over, and it remains to be seen which one I’m going to go with. But I’m looking forward to continuing working in films as much as I can.

‘The Last Exorcism’ stars Patrick Fabian, Ashley Bell, Iris Bahr, Louis Herthum, Caleb Landry Jones and Tony Bentley. It was written by Huck Botko and Andrew Gurland and directed by Daniel Stamm. It was released on Blu-Ray and DVD on Jan. 4th, 2011. It is rated PG-13.

By MATT FAGERHOLM
Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com
matt@hollywoodchicago.com

‘30 Rock,’ ‘Mad Men’ Lead 2009 Emmy Award Winners as Best Comedy, Drama

BrianTT — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 23:04:35 -0400

CHICAGO – Neil Patrick Harris hosted a joyful edition of the 61st Primetime Emmy Awards on Sunday night, September 20th, 2009, at which AMC’s “Mad Men” and NBC’s “30 Rock” were the big winners with Alec Baldwin, Jon Cryer, Kristin Chenoweth, Toni Collette, Cherry Jones, Michael Emerson, Glenn Close, and Bryan Cranston walking away with the major acting awards.

Harris opened with a musical number that could have been called “Put Down the Remote”. It kicked off a show that was surprisingly buoyant and well-paced. After hosting the Tonys and now the Emmys, the Oscars may want to consider giving the best host that awards shows have seen in a long time a call. After the number, Harris spoke of his love for TV, something that served as a theme for the entire night.

For the first time (and hopefully not the last), the show was split up by genre, handing out all the awards for comedy programming first. (Although it was kind of a cheat with the big award, Best Comedy, being saved for the end of the night. Just the acting, writing, and directing awards were presented early.)

The night started on a fantastic note as the wonderful and highly underrated Kristin Chenoweth won Best Supporting Actress for “Pushing Daisies”. It’s too bad the show is off the air. Nice job, ABC. Chenoweth joked, “I’m unemployed now, so I’d like to be on Mad Men.”

Harris and Kevin Dillon were robbed for the next acting award, Best Supporting Actor, which went to Jon Cryer for “Two and a Half Men,” after several consecutive nominations and straight losses to Jeremy Piven for “Entourage,” who was surprisingly not even nominated this year. With Chenoweth and Cryer both being unpredictable winners, the stage was set for an upset in several categories.

And it continued. Justin Timberlake, who had won the Outstanding Guest Appearance in a Comedy for his work on “Saturday night Live” presented the next award, Best Actress, to another surprising winner, Toni Collette for Showtime’s “United States of Tara”. Three acting awards and no winners for multi-nominated “30 Rock” was a surprise at this point in the evening, as most critics and TV writers expected Tina Fey to win here.

Best Actor in a Comedy looked like it might be where “30 Rock” picked up its first acting Emmy for its most-nominated year, but would previous winner Tony Shalhoub or beloved newcomer Jim Parsons steal the trophy? Of course not. No one can stop Alec Baldwin, who said “I’d trade this to look like him” in reference to his award’s presenter, Rob Lowe, and then honestly thanked Lorne Michaels for believing in him.

The reality awards began with Jon Cryer and Hayden Panetierre giving the Emmy for Best Reality Host to Jeff Probst for “Survivor”. Best Reality Competition Program went to “The Amazing Race,” a consistent winner in the category.

The Mini-Series and TV Movie categories were next and Kevin Bacon & Kyra Sedgwick kicked off the section of the evening by presented Best Supporting Actress to Shoreh Aghdashloo for “House of Saddam” and Best Supporting Actor to HBO’s great “Grey Gardens”. He jokingly said “I’ll make my speech as brief as possible in the hope that it won’t be interrupted by a Congressman or a rapper.”

Other Mini-Series and Movie winners included Brendan Gleeson for “Into the Storm” and Jessica Lange for “Grey Gardens” in the acting categories. The winner for Made For Television Movie was HBO’s “Grey Gardens” and “Little Dorritt” took home the prize for Outstanding Miniseries.

The dramatic awards started with a surprising and well-deserved win by Michael Emerson as Best Supporting Actor for “Lost”. The winner for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series went to another shocking choice, Cherry Jones for “24”. That’s where the surprises stopped, as the final hour of the evening went relatively predictably.

Ellen Burstyn and Michael J. Fox had previously won awards for Best Guest Appearance in a Drama and presented Best Directing to Rod Holcumb for “ER”. The winner for writing went to, of course, “Mad Men” and its scribes Kater Gordon and creator Matthew Weiner.

Lead Actress in a Drama Series went to the fantastic Glenn Close for “Damages,” predictably repeating her win from last season. Lead Actor in a Drama Series was also a repeat from last year with Bryan Cranston taking home the Emmy again for his work on AMC’s “Breaking Bad”.

Finally, the two big awards of the night went, rather predictably, to “30 Rock” and “Mad Men”. A night that started with a few shockers finished with four winners repeating from last year. Congratulations to all the winners and good luck to everyone thinking of toppling Close, Cranston, “30 Rock,” and “Mad Men” next year.

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

DVD Review: ‘Pushing Daisies: The Complete Second Season’ is Romantic, Beautiful TV

BrianTT — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 12:45:41 -0400

CHICAGO – The minute I saw “Pushing Daisies,” one of the very first notes I took while watching the pilot was “this is never going to last”. It was great, but it was also too quirky, strange, romantic, and hard to put into a definable box, making it unlikely to find an audience. Now that the second-and-final season of “Pushing Daisies” is on DVD, we can look back and see the beauty of the brief time we had with this great show and wonder what might have been.

DVD Rating: 4.0/5.0

The same reasons that “Pushing Daisies” couldn’t find an audience are why it will be a beloved cult hit, a show held high on the “brilliant-but-canceled” lists of the future.

First, TV audiences don’t like to be told what to watch. They like to discover their favorite shows on their own. And there was such unanimous praise for “Daisies” before it even aired that I think viewers had impossible expectations. The show was an immediate victim of its own praise.

Pushing Daisies: The Complete Second Season was released on DVD and Blu-Ray on July 21st, 2009.”
Photo credit: Warner Brothers Home Video

There’s also a low chance of a show that’s as hard to pin down as “Pushing Daisies” finding a huge audience. Is it a comedy? A drama? A romantic fable about a guy who can bring people back from the dead? I truly wish more viewers had found “Pushing Daisies,” but I’m not surprised that it didn’t connect.

The writer’s strike didn’t help. When the strike hit, ABC chose to shelf a few new shows until the Fall instead of bringing them back for a few episodes post-strike. This was a disastrous strategy, as there were no new episodes of shows like “Daisies,” a series just starting to build a following with only 9 aired episodes, for nearly a year. By the time “Pushing Daisies” came back in October of 2008, it was dead in the water, earning half the viewers of season one. Only ten episodes aired with the final three burned off this summer.

Pushing Daisies: The Complete Second Season was released on DVD and Blu-Ray on July 21st, 2009.”
Photo credit: Warner Brothers Home Video

The great thing about modern television is that “Pushing Daisies” will come back from the dead on DVD. This is the kind of show that fans will lend to other fans and the cult of “Daisies” will undeniably build. Just as more people claim to watch “Arrested Development,” “Wonderfalls,” and “Firefly” than ever did in their broadcast airings, “Pushing Daisies” will live on. TV this good doesn’t die.

If you’re unfamiliar, start with season one and come back for season two after you burn your way through that excellent release. Lee Pace plays Ned the Pie Maker, a man with a witching finger for waking the dead. He touches them once and they wake up, but if he doesn’t touch them again and put them back to eternal sleep within a minute that someone else will die. Oh, and if that happens, he can never touch the “undead” again or they will, of course, die again.

That’s what happened with Chuck (Anna Friel), the love of his life from childhood and a girl who Ned must admire from afar because if he touches her again, he’ll lose her forever. Ned uses his powers with private investigator Emerson Cod (Chi McBride) to solve crimes in the pursuit of reward money. Yeah, it’s ANOTHER show about a magical pie-maker who seeks justice with his private dick partner and gorgeous undead girlfriend. No matter what you think of “Pushing Daisies,” no one can say it wasn’t original.

And the originality of “Pushing Daisies” extended to every element of the production. Film-caliber art direction, beautiful scores, and writing that was some of the best on television. “Daisies” was consistently clever. And it didn’t hurt that it featured two of the best female performances on TV in the charming Friel and the fantastic Kristen Chenoweth, nominated for an Emmy for Best Supporting Actress for both seasons.

The season two DVD of “Pushing Daisies” presents the 13 episodes in a matted widescreen presentation that’s merely so-so. We were hoping to cover the release on Blu-Ray, but copies weren’t available. If we were you, someone interested in buying season two of a visually sumptuous show like “Pushing Daisies,” do it in HD.

Special features on “Pushing Daisies: The Complete Second Season” include “The Master Pie Maker: Inside the Mind of Creator Bryan Fuller,” “From Over to Table: Crafting a Script Idea into Reality,” “Secret Sweet Ingredients: Spotlight on Composer Jim Dooley’s Work,” and “Add a Little Magic: Executing Some Giant-Sized Visual Effects”.

‘Pushing Daisies: The Complete Second Season’ was released by Warner Brothers Home Video and stars Lee Pace, Anna Friel, Chi McBride, Kristin Chenoweth, Jim Dale, Swoosie Kurtz, and Ellen Greene. It was created by Bryan Fuller. The show was released on July 21st, 2009. It is not rated.

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

The 10 Biggest Emmy Snubs of 2009

BrianTT — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 11:00:57 -0400

CHICAGO – The 61st Annual Emmy Award Nominations were an interesting melting pot of smart, brave, new choices and old-fashioned, predictable, stale selections.

It was fantastic to see a few first-time nominees from our own “Dream Emmys” piece including Jim Parsons for “The Big Bang Theory,” Jack McBrayer for “30 Rock,” Kristen Wiig for “Saturday Night Live,” Aaron Paul for “Breaking Bad,” Hope Davis for “In Treatment,” Toni Collette in “United States of Tara,” and Cherry Jones for “24”. Those are great choices that hint at an organization willing to think outside of the box when it comes to handing out awards.

Now, that doesn’t mean some people weren’t totally screwed. For every great choice this year, there was one that could politely be called a head-scratcher. In my humble, TV-critic opinion, the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences failed to nominate what should have WON the top three dramatic categories - “The Shield” for Best Drama, Michael Chiklis for Best Actor in a Dramatic Series, and January Jones for Best Actress in a Dramatic Series. So, it’s not as if they missed a minor nominee here and there. They missed some biggies. And it’s time to name names.

Note: The overall snubs of “Friday Night Lights” and “Battlestar Galactica” is ridiculous but who knows where to start with those shows, a pair of beloved series that have NEVER gotten the Academy recognition that they deserved. We’re trying to stick with specific acting snubs and both “FNL” and “BSG” are snubs in multiple categories. We could do a top ten of just those two shows. To keep the list from getting too specific, consider them overall snubs, not specific ones on the list.

The Ten Biggest 2009 Emmy Snubs

Photo credit: FX

10. Denis Leary for “Rescue Me”

This is a questionable one but it indicates something deeply flawed about the Emmy system - its link to the standard, broadcast calendar year. The 2009 Emmys were for shows that aired from the first of June in 2008 to the last day of May in 2009. What happens if a show straddles (gasp) both May and June?!? How daring! The fifth season of “Rescue Me” started in April and runs until September. I’d like to think that Emmy voters will remember what Denis Leary is doing this season at NEXT year’s Emmys, when the bulk of the season is eligible, but I want to plant the seed now - what Leary is doing this season far outweighs anything he has delivered before. He has really grown comfortable in the role of Tommy Gavin and he’s doing more subtle work than he has in any of the previous seasons. I guess with only a few eligible episodes this snub isn’t that egregious but don’t let it happen again next year.

Photo credit: ABC

9. Anna Friel for “Pushing Daisies”

The Academy missed out on a chance to nominate the final season of ABC’s brilliant-but-canceled “Pushing Daisies” in multiple categories but no exclusion was more shocking than leaving the charming and delightful Anna Friel out of a category that, let’s be blunt, is hard to fill with six nominees. When you get past the deserving Christina Applegate, who displayed perfect comic timing in the very imperfect “Samantha Who?,” the obvious choice of Tina Fey, and the one-two punch of Showtime heroines in Toni Collette in “United States of Tara” and Mary-Louise Parker in “Weeds,” the pool gets awfully shallow (at least until Edie Falco walks home with this award next year for “Nurse Jackie”). That’s why relatively stale choices like Julia Louis-Dreyfus in “The New Adventures of Old Christine” and Sarah Silverman for her Comedy Central program get in. I love both actresses and think they’re very talented but they’re getting nominated more for their overall ability than the actual program. The overall quality of “Pushing Daisies” and how Friel contributes to it should have prevailed over better-known actresses on inferior shows.

Photo credit: NBC

8. Jenna Fischer and Ed Helms for “The Office”

“The Office” had an inspired, creative season that easily ranks with their best to date but it’s getting a little tiring of seeing the same-old nominees every year. Yes, Steve Carell and Rainn Wilson are talented people but can’t we spread the wealth? Both Ed Helms and Jenna Fischer had arguably better seasons. (Fischer was nominated once before in 2007, but she was even better this year.) Helms’ plotline involving the dissolution of his engagement to Angela was priceless and Fischer’s involving Pam breaking off and joining the Michael Scott Paper Company allowed the actress to display her best comic timing to date. Helms should have snuck in over Wilson (or maybe even Tracy Morgan or Jon Cryer…both are good, neither are Emmy-worthy) and Fischer deserved the spot over Vanessa Williams for the tired “Ugly Betty”. A lot of people deserved the spot over Vanessa Williams.

Photo credit: ABC

7. Elizabeth Mitchell for “Lost”

It took a few years, but I think it is now widely recognized that “Lost” is a truly ensemble-driven show and, consequently, perhaps it doesn’t deserve that many acting nominations. I said “that many”. It still deserves a few and, thankfully, the Academy did pick out one - the great, show-stealing Michael Emerson for Best Supporting Actor. And I can’t even say for sure that Elizabeth Mitchell had that amazing a season. It’s more of the fact that this excellent actress has never been nominated. At least Locke, Said and Ben got their shot at glory. (Terry O’Quinn won in 2007, Naveen Andrews was nominated in 2005). But no woman has ever been nominated for “Lost”. And I doubt that the final season of the show is going to be very character-specific, once again leaving voters at a loss as who to single out of the ensemble. This was possibly their last chance. Elizabeth Mitchell should have been the first.

Photo credit: NBC

6. Regina King for “Southland”

Regina King is the main reason that “Southland” is on NBC’s fall schedule. She is easily the best thing about this intriguing-but-flawed show and it would have really displayed a willingness to look outside of the usual candidates if her name had been called on nomination morning. As Detective Lydia Adams, King displays a perfect combination of human vulnerability and the veins of steel required to be an L.A. cop. King has stolen scenes in major films for years and now she’s doing it on NBC. I think her exclusion is due to a slightly understandable lack of exposure to the show. After all, only seven episodes have aired and I bet most Emmy voters don’t even know that the on-the-bubble show was renewed. However, if “Southland” makes it through another season, I would bet money that King gets nominated next year. Sally Field, Mariska Hargitay, and Holly Hunter might want to prepare for some disappointment.

Photo credit: HBO

5. Anna Paquin for “True Blood”

Speaking of “Best Actress in a Dramatic Series” mistakes (and this won’t even be the last time). The general exclusion of “True Blood” this year was tragically disappointing. Based on years of snubs for the amazing “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and now the exclusion of “True Blood” from Best Drama and Best Actress, it’s crystal clear that the Academy has something against vampire fiction. (The team behind The CW’s upcoming “Vampire Diaries” probably don’t need to clear mantle space for Emmys.) Paquin is perfect on “True Blood,” bringing a harder-than-it-looks blend of southern innocence, primal sexuality, excellent comic timing, and true emotional core to the role of Sookie Stackhouse. She’s so good on “True Blood” that most people don’t even notice how good she is. It is a FAR less flashy role than Holly Hunter on “Saving Grace” or Sally Field on “Brothers and Sisters” and no one can ever explain to me how (outside of her status as Hollywood royalty) Mariska Hargitay keeps getting nominated. The show’s good popcorn entertainment, but really?

Photo credit: HBO

4. Danny McBride for “Eastbound and Down”

How amazing and subversive of the generally-safe Emmy Awards would it have been to see a clip of Kenny Powers on the broadcast? The racist, sexist, drug-using, and basically insane Kenny Powers might have sent some of the older Academy members running for the exit doors. And, to be honest, that’s probably why the excellent Mr. McBride didn’t get nominated. It’s a shame because “Eastbound and Down” has a growing, thriving fan base, one that gets bigger with every viewing of the season one DVD. What McBride does on “Eastbound and Down” is comic brilliance, the best thing that the star of “Pineapple Express” and “Tropic Thunder” had done to date. With guest appearances on the show from Will Ferrell and Craig Robinson and a growing fan base, a major nod for “Eastbound and Down” might have brought in a whole new audience for the Emmy Awards. I’m sure that Jemaine Clement for “Flight of the Conchords” will do some of that, but McBride is just a bit better.

Photo credit: The CW

3. Ray Wise for “Reaper”

Like “Pushing Daisies” (and my next choice), this was a case of the Academy having only one more chance to correct an omission from last year and they blew it again. Yes, you could fit the number of people who watched “Reaper” into a Dodge Caravan but that shouldn’t matter when it comes to awards. It’s the responsibility of voters to catch up on every eligible performance. And I don’t believe they did. Because if you see Ray Wise as the Devil on “Reaper,” you would vote for Ray Wise. I think there may have been some category confusion with “Reaper”. Is it a comedy? A drama? The fact is that most modern shows that have straddled the line between the standard definition of the categories - “Buffy” is a great example - have struggled to get major nominations. “Reaper” was eligible in comedy and Ray Wise was better than at least half of the supporting actor nominees.

Photo credit: FX

2. Michael Chiklis and Walton Goggins for “The Shield”

How are critics and Academy voters SO far apart? “The Shield” was the most nominated show by the Television Critics Association for their final, brilliant season. It was nominated for Best Drama, Best Actor, and Best Supporting Actor. Don’t you think ONE of those nominees might have been mirrored by the Emmy Awards? ONE?!? The final season of “The Shield” was the Best Drama of 2008 and Chiklis and Goggins were the main reason why. Watching Vic Mackey and Shane Vendrell reach the apex of the dance they’ve been doing with destiny since the series premiere was riveting television and the final scenes of both characters merited nomination on their own. The fate of both characters was beautifully, perfectly written by one of the best writing staffs of the ’00s and Chiklis and Goggins knocked it out of the park. They both should have won. Neither were nominated. Shameful.

Photo credit: Lionsgate

1. January Jones for “Mad Men”

I honestly didn’t think there would be a more shameful omission than Chiklis and Goggins (who I kind of expected to get screwed considering how much the Academy has ignored “The Shield” over the years), but that’s because I couldn’t fathom the Academy missing the Best Actress performance of 2008. Sure, they missed January Jones last year, but this season of “Mad Men” was all about the female characters in the world of Sterling/Cooper, none more prominently than Jones’ Betty Draper. Jones did something amazing this year, subtly portraying the unraveling of a woman who has worked hard to keep up a perfect front. Jones’ work on “Mad Men” is so just-below-the-surface that I think Emmy voters must have missed it. I love Kyra Sedgwick and Holly Hunter too, but even those actresses would admit that their characters are a bit more scenery-chewing. Jones didn’t have a “big moment” to sell in an Emmy clip and probably lost out because of it. Don’t let it happen again next year.

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

If We Had an Emmy Ballot: The Best TV of 2008 to 2009

BrianTT — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 17:57:05 -0400

CHICAGO – Ballots for the 61st Annual Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Emmy nominations are due on Friday, June 26th, 2009, and we’re here to offer some advice for all of you Emmy voters still holding a ballot in your hands and trying to make those tough TV decisions.

And, like the large majority of us, if you’re not a card-carrying Emmy voter, let this serve as your populist guide to who really SHOULD be winning Emmys this year. There’s sometime a disconnect between who actually wins the awards and who viewers KNOW should win the awards - i.e., the almost total lack of Emmy love for “Buffy,” “Battlestar Galactica,” etc. - so, in a fantasy world, our fantasy ballot hopes to heap some recognition on the shows and creative types who really, truly knocked our socks off in the 2008-2009 season. But, if you ARE an Emmy voter, be a pal and give some of these guys the nods they deserve.

(Note: While there are five nominees per category, voters nominate six per ballot, so that’s how many we suggest.)

Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy

Jack McBrayer on 30 Rock
Photo credit: NBC

Neil Patrick Harris, “How I Met Your Mother”
Ed Helms, “The Office”
Justin Kirk, “Weeds”
Jack McBrayer, “30 Rock”
Jeremy Piven, “Entourage”
Ray Wise, “Reaper”

There are a number of very strong, mostly male ensembles in comedy television nowadays and it can be tough to pick a favorite. Would you nominate Tracy Morgan or Jack McBrayer from “30 Rock”? Kevin Dillon or Jeremy Piven for “Entourage”? Justin Kirk or Kevin Nealon from “Weeds”? And which of the guys from the criminally underrated “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” would you pick if you wanted to really take a chance on something new?

We picked our favorites, but they’re also representatives for the show’s supporting casts in general and, if Dillon makes it in over Piven or you want to choose Nealon over Kirk, it’s an understandable alternate. And any of the three guys on “Philadelphia” are deserving even if they don’t quite make our top six cut.

All we know for sure is that Emmy voters really need to take the last chance they’ll get to nominate the show-stealing Ray Wise from “Reaper” and Neil Patrick Harris had his best year to date as “How I Met You Mother” really started to click this season.

As for what “will” happen, Jon Cryer is likely to get in over several of our choices for the always-nominated “Two and a Half Men” and you can expect a nod for someone from “The Office”. If they do go with a Dunder Mifflin employee, here’s an idea - jump on the “Hangover” band wagon and nominate Ed Helms. We love Rainn Wilson as much as the next guy, but Helms was more inspired this year as he watched his doomed engagement to Angela fall apart.

Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy

Jenna Fischer on The Office
Photo credit: NBC

Kristin Chenoweth, “Pushing Daisies”
Rosemarie DeWitt, “United States of Tara”
Jenna Fischer, “The Office”
Elizabeth Perkins, “Weeds”
Cobie Smulders, “How I Met Your Mother”
Kristin Wiig, “Saturday Night Live”

Last year was the first that the cast of “Saturday Night Live” was eligible in this category and, rightly so, they nominated the deserving Amy Poehler. Amy only worked half of this season, one of the best in many years for the show, so why not spread the wealth to one of the most talented comediennes in the history of the show - the sublime Kristin Wiig?

Like Ray Wise, there’s also a great opportunity here to nominate another amazing supporting star on a canceled show, the awesome Kristin Chenoweth for “Pushing Daisies”. She made the cut last year. Emmy voters - nominate her whenever you get the chance.

Meanwhile, Showtime continues to excel and should earn more nods this year than any before. While “Weeds” has gone downhill a bit, Elizabeth Perkins’ perfect and often episode-stealing arc last season in which she had to go to rehab earns her a spot. Showtime should earn a few nods for “United States of Tara” and the first should come for Rosemarie DeWitt (who deserved and was snubbed already this year for an Academy Award nod for “Rachel Getting Married”).

“The Office” is something of a boy’s club, but Jenna Fischer did her best work to date as she joined the ill-fated “Michael Scott Paper Company” on “The Office,” so just like Pam, it’s time that Jenna gets a little more recognition this year.

Finally, Alyson Hannigan turned her real-life pregnancy into something hysterical (and difficult to cover up) on “How I Met Your Mother,” but her lack of screen time in the second half of the season should allow room for her increasingly funny co-star Cobie Smulders to get a nod. Like most of the cast, she did her best work of the series to date this season.

Best Lead Actor in a Comedy Series

Danny McBride on Eastbound and Down
Photo credit: HBO

Alec Baldwin, “30 Rock”
Steve Carell, “The Office”
Zachary Levi, “Chuck”
Danny McBride, “Eastbound and Down”
Jim Parsons, “The Big Bang Theory”
Tony Shalhoub, “Monk”

There are a few nominees here that are virtually guaranteed and for good reason. Alec Baldwin, Steve Carell, and Tony Shalhoub continue to drive the success of their very well-liked shows and, while it may be predictable to suggest them, they deserve the nominations that they can almost count on.

So why not make the other nominees a little more out of left field instead of a safe (but more likely) choice like Charlie Sheen in “Two and a Half Men”? (Does anyone really gather around the watercooler to talk about how awesome the Ma-sheen was following a very special episode of “Men”?)

Zachary Levi has really developed a strong comic timing on the underrated “Chuck” and he’s the main reason the show has earned such a strong cult following (and won itself a last second cancellation reprieve). An unexpected Emmy nomination could do that show a world of good in its struggle for ratings and survival.

“The Big Bang Theory” is one of the funnier shows on television and the perfect performance by Jim Parsons as Sheldon is one of the main reasons. He might have had a better shot in supporting but he’s eligible in lead, so vote for him there. His comic timing is amazing.

And then there’s the performance for which it will be most difficult to find a clip that they can air on network TV - the hysterical work by Danny McBride on HBO’s “Eastbound and Down”. If you haven’t seen it yet, you should. If you have seen it, you know he deserves to be nominated.

Best Lead Actress in a Comedy

Toni Collette on United States of Tara
Photo credit: Showtime

Christina Applegate, “Samantha Who?”
Toni Collette, “United States of Tara”
Kaley Cuoco, “The Big Bang Theory”
Tina Fey, “30 Rock”
Anna Friel, “Pushing Daisies”
Mary-Louise Parker, “Weeds”

We know this can be a tough category to fill but, please, let’s not resort to America Ferrera and Julia Louis-Dreyfus again. There are simply more deserving actresses out there.

Christina Applegate, Tina Fey, and Mary-Louise Parker deserve to return to the dance and duplicate their nominations from last year for “Samantha Who?,” “30 Rock,” and “Weeds,” respectively. They’ve all had better years but they’re still more than good enough to make the big six.

As for the other three, the lovely and charming Anna Friel deserves consideration for her pitch-perfect work on “Pushing Daisies” and Toni Collette is absolutely flawless on “United States of Tara”. We wouldn’t be surprised to hear either of their names on nomination morning.

More surprising but just as deserving would be a nod for the underrated Kaley Cuoco of “The Big Bang Theory”. In the show’s excellent second season, Cuoco really proved she could play with the boys in this very male-driven ensemble and more than held her own in multiple episodes.

Best Comedy

The Office
Photo credit: NBC

“30 Rock”
“The Big Bang Theory”
“Eastbound and Down”
“It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”
“The Office”
“Pushing Daisies”

Last year it was “30 Rock,” “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” “Entourage,” “The Office,” and “Two and a Half Men”. The two NBC shows deserve to repeat and remain the best comedy hour on television.

As for the rest? “Curb” isn’t eligible (there hasn’t been a new episode since 2007), “Entourage” had a slightly down year (although it wouldn’t be that horrible if it was nominated), and we’ve never understood the massive acclaim for “Men,” a decent show but not an award-worthy one in the slightest.

What’s ironic is that there are two CBS sitcoms that DO deserve nomination although my jaw will drop if they both make the Emmy cut - “The Big Bang Theory” and “How I Met Your Mother” - an hour of television that often out-delivered NBC this past year for the funniest hour on television. “Mother” was a bit too hit-and-miss at times, so let’s go with “Big Bang Theory” if we have to pick only one.

“Pushing Daisies” is the most tragically canceled shows of the last several years and the Academy often jumps at a last chance to nominate a show that they will never be able to again. If you can, voting members of the Academy, please take this opportunity to give The Pie-Hole some well-deserved post-cancellation love.

Nothing was as sublimely ridiculous in 2008-2009 as HBO’s unbelievable “Eastbound and Down” with its spectacular direction by the great David Gordon Green (“Pineapple Express”) and Jody Best (“Observe and Report”). If you haven’t seen “Eastbound,” catch up with it on DVD next week (and watch for a full review soon).

Finally, very few shows make us laugh out loud like FX’s inspired “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”. It’s one of the top-rated shows on Hulu for a reason and is developing a growing following with every episode. Emmy voters, try and jump on a bandwagon before its come to a stop for a change.

Go on to the next page for the five drama categories…