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8/19: Most memorable TV moments
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
As a gimmick to fuel “viewer interaction online,” the Emmys are asking you to vote for the top comedy and drama moments of all time. Yes, all time, people!
You get to pick from 20 in comedy and 20 in drama selected by the Emmy folks. I presume the winners will be shown on Sept. 21 on ABC.
Inevitably, this is an exercise of near pointlessness. Unlike debating entire TV shows, which is difficult enough, moments are even more challenging to isolate and compare. In the comedy category, for instance, there are many moments that aren’t funny at all. And there are moments in the drama arena that are actually laughable.
And the picks seem oddly arbitrary. Sure, the Ed Sullivan Beatles moment is here but why not Elvis? The “Carol Burnett Show” moment seems to have been plucked out of thin air and is hardly the most memorably funny one in that show’s illustrious history. Ditto with “Saturday Night Live.” And that horribly unfunny “Mork & Mindy” bit wouldn’t even make my top 100,000 TV moments, much less my top 20.
I guess they had no idea where to put a reality show moment so “American Idol” is stuck in the comedy category. They picked the moment like this when Kelly Clarkson won. A more notable moment was when Ruben beat Clay. And the funniest “Idol” moment could arguably be either William Hung or Sanjaya’s faux hawk and the “crying” gal.
And a truly dramatic moment when Radar in “MAS*H” reports Henry Blake’s surprise death is lumped into “comedy” because the show itself was known as a comedy with dramatic elements. Oh, well…
My top 5 so-called “comedy” moments from the 20 choices:
1- Sammy Davis Jr. kissing Archie Bunker back in the 1970s was shockingly apropos and remains so to this day. (I’ve included embedded video from YouTube where I can find it. The clips on the Emmy site are usually much shorter.)
2- The last Newhart in 1990 where Newhart wakes up in his previous show “The Bob Newhart Show” and explains to his wife Emily how “Newhart” was a bad dream. It’s still a classic in its self-referential wink-wink way.
3- The “Seinfeld” episode where the foursome set up the “master of my domain” contest. This moment itself isn’t the funniest in the series by any means but the episode is certainly up there in terms of classics.
4- Call me shallow but the “Tonight Show” moment when the tomahawk thrower hits the board in a very private spot and Johnny Carson utters, “I didn’t even know you were Jewish!” is still hilarious even though I’ve seen that moment numerous times.
5-There are so many “I Love Lucy” bits that are downright hilarious. But this one definitely fits the bill — or the blouse. It’s the scene at the candy assembly line where Lucy and Ethel inevitably fall behind wrapping candies and take a few shortcuts including stuffing candies down their shirts.
The drama side for me is much tougher because many of the shows I never saw in their time and many of the shows are seldom repeated nowadays. Plus, it’s even harder to gain context when there is none for some of these clips, usually a minute to 90 seconds in length. For instance, having not watched “Buffy,” her death in “The Gift” is dramatic for sure but I have no clue what is really going on there in isolation.
Then there are truly questionable scenes from classic shows. The choice for “The Sopranos” should have been the very last scene, not the random one given which is more amusing than dramatic. And the “Dynasty” fight scene between Alexis and Krystal is more over the top funny than dramatic. The “Twilight Zone” kicker is even funnier: “It’s a cookbook!” the woman screams as the poor schlub gets shoved into an alien airplane.
“Lost” is my favorite show but the moment they picked (Desmond blowing up the hatch) isn’t the one I would have chosen. I might have simply opted for the first episode plane crash. That was gracefully dramatic. I do have to say the “Waltons” multiple goodnights is legendary in its simplicity and ties to family. Best dramatic moment? Can’t quite get there.
Here’s my top 5, not exactly in any order per se but since we like rankings, I’m numbering them anyway:
1- J.R. gets shot. This is such an iconic moment. I was only 10 years old at the time and it was all people talked about that summer of 1980. I think it even made the cover of Time. This encouraged show producers to create even more cliffhangers, none that ever quite matched up to this one in terms of buzz. The reveal later that fall, I feel, is probably even more dramatic.
2- Roots. Again, I may be basing this more on the fact that this was the most popular miniseries of all time and remains so to this day. But the regal opening featuring the baby Kunta Kinte is quite elegant and dramatic.
3- Little House on the Prairie. This is more schmaltz than drama, but it’s a great moment in a solid series. Michael Landon’s character Charles Ingalls has to tell his daughter Mary she is going blind permanently. This was quite a step for the producers, but it gave the actress Melissa Sue Anderson more grist and enabled her to deepen her role rather than always play second fiddle to Melissa Gilbert.
4-Grey’s Anatomy. This is definitely one of my favorite moments in “Grey’s” because it’s so unexpected when Kyle Chandler’s bomb squad guy just blows up in front of Ellen Pompei’s Meredith Grey. I remember freeze-framing it to see the actual explosion, which is pretty realistic and shocking. Yet somehow, Meredith barely gets injured.
5-The final moments of “The Fugitive.” This show aired before I was born but I am aware how huge this was back in 1967, a multi-season arc of a show with a mondo climactic ending. It was ahead of its time that way and though the dialogue in this moment feels very dated, it strikes me as a very satisfying ending. My generation, though, will always remember the Harrison Ford film version.
You can vote here for comedy.. For drama, go here.
The clips are often annoying given no context and you don’t have an option to watch them straight through. Instead, you have to click on each one to see them. It’s not user friendly at all.
Comments
By Nick
August 20, 2008 8:47 AM | Link to this
Rodney Get A life…..
By me
August 20, 2008 8:50 AM | Link to this
Why in the world is Henry Blake’s death scene in “comedy”? How is the MAS*H finale’s last scene (Hawkeye and BJ saluting Col. Potter, chopper lifting off to see “Goodbye” in stone) no included in “drama”? Or, for more recent, the final scene of West Wing’s “Two Cathedrals” (Pres. Bartlett going from the Oval Office to the press conference while “Brothers in Arms” plays) isn’t included?
Not at all impressed with those lists …
By Douggie
August 20, 2008 11:48 AM | Link to this
What does this have to do with Radio Talk??
By andy fisher
August 20, 2008 12:36 PM | Link to this
My most memorable video moment was the night I took a camcorder to the Mayflower Hotel.