Oy Ve: Emmy Edition

The Emmy nominations were announced. Where to begin? So the Emmys decided to change their voting process this year in what has now become known as the "Lauren Graham Rule," where, supposedly, fringe shows like Gilmore Girls and Everybody Hates Chris would get their deserved nominations next to old stand-bys like West Wing.

So did it work? Well...kind of. Not exactly. A little bit, just not in the right ways. Sort of, if "sort of" means "not so much."

Surprises did abound, as last year's winners for Best Drama and Best Comedy (Lost and Desperate Housewives, respectively) got almost completely shut out. Many a cancelled show snuck in (Arrested Development, Six Feet Under, The Comeback), as did many lame-ass shows still on the air (Two and a Half Men, anyone?). Get ready to scratch your heads and pop your eyes in bewilderment:

- Kevin James in The King of Queens and Charlie Sheen from TaaHM in the Best Comedic Actor category but no Jason Lee from My Name is Earl or Jason Bateman from Arrested Development? Charlie Sheen's character is named Charlie Harper...he's so bad that he's not even trusted to learn a different name. What does that tell you? At least Steve Carrell is in there.

- The Best Comedic Actress category might be one of the worst line-ups in recent history. Sure, there's Lisa Kudrow, but Debra Messing? She's always been the weak link of Will & Grace (sometimes due to receiving the weakest writing, but still...) and this past season was definitely not one of her best. Julia Louis-Dreyfus? Stockard Channing? Okay, so they're definitely surprises, which I guess is what the Emmys are going for this year, but I'm just not buying that either of these two talented actresses deserve to be here. (More on who should be later...)

- Like I was saying...hooray for Lisa Kudrow fighting her way into the Best Comedic Actress category for her one-season, cancelled HBO show The Comeback! Her Valerie Cherish was an awesome parody of Hollywood actresses: tacky, vain, clueless, shallow-disguised-as-deep, etc. You can bet I'd be at one of her Chocolate Fountain parties, savoring every drop of chocolate AND brittle neuroses. Too bad the show itself was...eh.

- Other surprisingly good choices: Peter Krause and Frances Conroy for Six Feet Under (but I'm still upset that Michael C. Hall and Lauren Ambrose were not only overlooked this year, but neither of them have ever won. Ridiculous, I tell you!), Denis Leary for Rescue Me, Jean Smart as the First Lady on 24, Elizabeth Perkins on Weeds, and Project Runway nominated in the Best Reality Competition category.

- Talk about desperate housewives. You can bet they'll be clawing over each other and chomping through season three's scenery like it is zero-calorie Cinnabuns to make sure they make the cut next year. I'm glad the over-praised Teri Hatcher is finally absent (again, I like her, but a Golden Globe and a SAG?) and, I don't care how hot she is, Eva Longoria doesn't deserve to be there in the first place. But Marcia Cross has been overlooked since her days on Melrose Place (Emmy worthy, I kid you not), and it's a shame to see her ignored yet again when she rose above season two's overall mediocrity. And how can Felicity Huffman go from last year's Best Comedic Actress to not even worthy of a nomination? And if all four ladies are absent, how could they not have found room to nominate the wonderfully disheveled Mary-Louise Parker on Weeds or Tichina Arnold, the hilarious mother on Everybody Hates Chris?

- While their respective shows were both nominated, it's interesting that Stephen Colbert was nominated for Outstanding Individual Performance In A Variety Or Music Program but Jon Stewart wasn't. Although, in his defense, Colbert's is much more of a performance than Stewart's. I'm just saying...it's interesting...

- How can House be nominated but not its lead actor, Hugh Laurie? How can Scrubs potentially be the best comedy of the year and yet receive no other major nominations at all, not even for the writing? How can Edie Falco on The Sopranos be overlooked when she is simply one of the best dramatic actresses on television right now? I'm a Geena Davis fan, but no way did she deserve to make it in over Falco.

- Oh, and that "Lauren Graham Rule"? Yeah, she didn't maket the cut. Gilmore Girls didn't at all, actually. In fact, most shows from the WB and UPN were pretty much overlooked. So much for that new voting system.

Oh. Wait a minute. What's that? What's that on page 20 of the PDF list of nominees? Is that...? Why, yes, I think it is...

- Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List is nominated for Best Reality Show! Oh, forget any negative thing I ever said about this year's Emmy voters. They're geniuses, I tell you. Mensa members, all of them. God bless 'em.