'30 Rock,' 'The Office,' 'My Name Is Earl' and 'Parks and Recreation' make final Emmy pitch tonight
On NBC tonight are the season finales of three Emmy veterans ("30 Rock," "The Office," "My Name Is Earl") and one Emmy wannabe ("Parks and Recreation").
The night leads off with "My Name Is Earl" which boasts an Emmy champ in supporting player Jaime Pressly. And while the show may be on the bubble for renewal, according to our forum poster MissyGal, "MNIE has really been great the past few weeks, almost season one quality. I hope if NBC does cancel it, another network will pick it up. It'll be a shame if it goes away forever."
Following that is the new series "Parks and Recreation" which stars "Saturday Night Live" alum Amy Poehler. While this comedy was slow off the mark, our forum posters are giving each new episode better and better grades. For Hodag129, last week's effort "was pretty darn good. Just about everything worked. It walked that awkward-funny line very well, and I was glad to see it leaning towards funny unlike last week. I hope more people start watching this show because it's really starting to take off."
And with a popular vote determining the six nominees in the acting races at this year's Emmy Awards, there's a very good chance Amy Poehler will land a lead nod. After all, last year she became the first "SNL" cast member to contend in the comedy series supporting race; she lost to Jean Smart ("Samantha Who?").
If Poehler is nominated, she will most likely find herself up against her best friend — Emmy darling Tina Fey who won this race last year for "30 Rock." Fey also picked up Emmys for writing and producing this show last year. And as we all know from her shout-out at the Golden Globes, Fey is an inveterate reader of our forums.
Opinion continues to be divided in the forums about the quality of her series. For example, G. Penn thought last week's episode "was a lot of fun, and had a ton of funny moments. It's nice that the show is rallying towards the end of the season." However, Rich@UCLA said, "I hate to be the dissenter, but I thought this episode was awful and highlighted most of the things that '30 Rock' does wrong."
"30 Rock" has won best comedy series at the Emmys for the past two years beating out, among others, 2006 champ "The Office." It was such a formidable rival last year that "30 Rock" even set a new record for most victories by a comedy series in one year (seven). However, as ph1993 points out in our forum, "The finales have always been top notch ('Casino Night,' 'The Job,' and 'Goodbye, Toby'). Here is hoping for a good one tonight."
Are Amy Poehler and Tina Fey secretly channeling Valerie Harper and Mary Tyler Moore?
'Parks and Recreation' can rally at the Emmys
Critics fail to find fun in 'Parks and Recreation'
Emmys comedy race: '30 Rock'? 'Family Guy'?
Photo: NBC
Get Gold Derby on Twitter. Join the Gold Derby Group at Facebook. Become friends with Tom O'Neil on Facebook. Get Gold Derby RSS feed via Facebook. RSS Feedburner. RSS Atom.
My Name Is Earl is the only show I go out of my way to watch. It also the only show in years that consistently makes me howl with laughter. NBC kept changing the time slot so often that I finally stopped watching it on my tv, and I started watching it over the Internet. I hope TBS or Fox picks it up. Hopefully they will be smart enough to give it a stable time slot.
Posted by: Ray | May 22, 2009 at 12:04 PM
"30 Rock" may have set the record for most nominations last year with 17, but it TIED "All in the Family" 1972 haul of seven trophies.
Posted by: Terrence | May 15, 2009 at 12:28 PM