Emmy Beat -- Rachel, Sally Have Our Vote

I could start this brief post by noting that if Rachel Griffiths and Sally Field need a morale boost going into Sunday's Emmy Awards, they should look no further than the B&S softball team -- who pulled off an emotional 8-5 victory over Grey's Anatomy Saturday morning in front of an impressive crowd. 

The key player was Dave Annable, who, on his birthday, went 3-3, crushing 2 HR and driving in 5.   Undoubtedly this will be the talk of the set Monday morning.

But such inane punditry assumes the following:

1) that the Emmys are some sort of actual competition, in which nominees are asked to perform challenges and "wow" their peers the way the contestants on Top Chef wow the judges -- when in fact Rachel and Sally, along with the rest of our cast, have been wowing viewers for the last year. 

They've already done the heavy lifting -- Sunday is their night to bask in the glow of recognition.

and 2) that Rachel Griffiths and Sally Field give a wooden nickel about the fate of our team. 

Regardless, allow me to say that if the awards were decided on the Fourth Floor at Stage 6, Ms. Field and Ms. Griffiths would be shoo-ins.  The writers couldn't be happier with the life these fine actresses have breathed into Nora Walker and Sarah Whedon.

Buena suerte, ladies.
Dan

Comments

[Suzette (The Netherlands)]

Hi guys,

Man...dutch luck worked..lol!

Hopefully it will work tonight aswell!!!

Wish I could watch it...but no luck on that...as I live in Holland!

But I'll be thinking of you!!

Suzette

[will]

Hola, Dan (I guess I'm saying "hola" because you said "buena suerte").

Dave looks like a slugger. I'm an L.A. Angels fan, and you all must feel the same way when Dave steps up to the plate as we Angels fan do when Big Daddy Vladdy ((Vladimir Guererro) does. I got into baseball for all the cute guys & sexy uniforms....but stayed for the love of the game.

I kinda liked the direction your blog was taking, berating the dog & pony show known as the Emmys....with all the (botoxed-influenced) gracious smiles & oppressive glitz & glamour.....& pitting one type of actress against a very very different type of actress.... Sally & Rachel are special actors by any yardstick & don't need a dumb award to "VALIDATE" their specialness (even though both already have a rack of awards).

But this doesn't get B&S writers off the hook: the emotional depth Rachel is giving to play is....lacking. She is a grand piano. Strike some chords for crying out loud. Both Rachel & Sally deserve storylines that aren't so goddamn predictable, along with soap-ish dialogue. The writers need to rise to the occasion & give these extraordinary women extraordinary material to play. Squeeze more LIFE & character & idiosyncracy into the dialogue. These are not cookie-cutter actresses.

[Jake Lipson]

Congratulations on beating Grey's -- though I have to say that Grey's is an exellent show too. It, along with Brothers & Sisters and Friday Night Lights, are the highlights of my very large TV viewing schedule.

And good luck to Sally and Rachel -- both of them richly deserve the awards.

Looking forward to buying the DVD on Tuesday and revisiting Season 1. Heads up to anyone who's reading this and doesn't already know: Target has an exclusive bonus 7th disc with the Paley Festival Q&A, which I am really looking forward to seeing, so I'm getting it there.

I'm also excited for the clip show next Sunday, which I absolutely plan to waCould you guys blog a bit about that? I'm curious about how those are put together -- when you've got a whole season of stuff, who determines what is "important enough" to go in the recap show? I assume the goal is to hook potential new viewers with a recap of the "big stuff." But there is very little on a show such as this which is not important, so could you maybe go into the process a bit? Thanks.

[JoAnne]

Good luck to Rachel and Sally.....whether they win or not doesn't matter..."WE" know how deserving they are.

[MJJ]

A VERY BIG GIGANTIC HUMUGUS
ENORMOUS CONGRATULATIONS TO SALLY FIELD FOR AWESOME WIN!!!!!!!!!!!!! WELL DESERVED INDEED!! NICE TO SEE AN UPSET!!! KUDOS TO SALLY FIELD!!!!!!!!!

I am sooo very sorry that Rachel did not win! She is an awesome actresses. I am even more sorry that Brothers & Sisters was not recognize more with Best Drama, Best Supporting Actor or Actress , directing and what about writing?? Who can beat the writing on the show???

Sally ,again Congratulatons on a Big Win!! Love your character!!!

[Corrine Puntel]

I will never ever watch this show again ! ONCE AGAIN Sally feels as if she can give us her opinion of "THE WAR" like this is THE 60'S ! WELL I WILL NOT TAKE IT! I'm an AMERICAN I will stand behind my PRESIDENT AND THIS STUPID WAR! ABC you have lost one viewer. I will miss my MCDREAMY but I will also take a stand. NBC has alot of shows I'm sure I can learn to love. Thanks. Corrine Puntel

[Eve]

Congratualtions, Sally Field, for winning the award! I know there will be a lot more opportunities for Rachel Griffiths to bag an award. You both, along with the entire Walkers clan, make me hooked to B&S. And I don't even live in the US!

[cj]

Yeah Sally! I loved your speech and as someone who has a loved one over there, I greatly appreciate your passion! I'm think I'll go call my mom!

[Nate]

Congrats Sally Field for Best Leading Actress in a Drama Series.

An emmy already for the 1st season! Lets hope Rachel and one of the boys(Matthew :) gets an emmy next year.

[Carrie]

Congrats to Sally on her Emmy. I'm so happy she won. I just wish the end of her speech hadn't been cut off.

[Betsy]

Congratulations to Sally!!

The most disappointing part of the whole night was FOX bleeping out "god damed". BRAVA to Sally for speaking her mind. If more of us "stepped up to the plate" (in keeping with the softball theme) and spoke our minds we would be out of Iraq by now.

I can not wait for the start of the new season! Love this show and all on it.....

PEACE

[Mariana]

Congrats to Sally Field, which greatly deserved the prize!
I've come to love this show and I'm looking forward to watching it again.

[CeCe]

First: Congratulations to Sally!!! I want to know what she said that they bleeped out! I was already shouting "YES!!!" to the first part...then she lost her train of thought...then they bleeped her!

Second: Why didn't y'all tell me you were hanging out here all summer? I figured it would be dead in here until the new season, only to come in here and find some fun stuff was happening all along!

Can't wait for the new season!

[Scott]

Congratulations to Sally!! What a well-deserved win! It made my night.

And Rachel...you're still awesome in my book.

[will]

Right on, Sally.

In retrospect, Sally should have probably said the (near) last line - "...the mothers who stand with an open heart & wait.... wait for their children to come home: from danger, from harm's way and from war" - & simply left it at that. That would have been "acceptable" in Emmyland.

But I think one of the things I love about Sally the most is....she's not really one of the gracefully-spoken, botoxed, Hollywood elite....she's honest, she's COMPLETELY THERE, she wears her heart on her sleeve (sometimes to a fault). She's a woman with insecurities, is extremely human (& humane) and doesn't quite "fit" into that whole glamorous Hollywood scene. And, again, I love her for that.

Sally can say whatever she wants & I will always listen.

[Karen]

Sally, I was embarrassed for Fox's transparency last night...months we endured (showed tolerance) for Cindy Sheehan and were deprived three seconds when you exercised your right to free speech. You are dear to many of us, Sally, regardless of your opinions. Congratulations on a well-deserved award.

[will]

OMG....I MISSED you CeCe! And Scott. And JoAnn. And Jude. And Carrie & K.C. I see in the last few posts many people are drifting back "home" here.

I can only imagine that B&S is an extremely costly drama - DRAMEDY, whatever! - to produce, both behind & in front of the cameras. Here's hoping Sally's win gives it that extra publicity (& slight controversy?) to push it into the top 10 this year. And I hope the writers have dreamed up a few intriguing plotlines to SHAKE UP & invigorate, rejuvenate....GALVANIZE.... same old, same old Network TVland.

I know I am a lot of hot air here, but I want to see this show do something special. This cast is too damned talented for formula drama.

[bobp]

SALLY FIELD - congratulations - thank you for a well thought through acceptance speeh - FOX was nuts to bleep you - the idea of connecting mothers to the role you play was pure GENIUS!

BTW - did anyone see most recent "OUT"? Is it true that John Barrowman was asked to play the senator's (Rob Lowe) gay brother? That would have been AWESOME! Kudos on that casting idea - too bad he was working on something else -
Looking forward to season 2 - insisting that my students watch as part of "Catholic living" class - I can hear y'all graoning now - BUT - we deal with issues of war, politics, infidelity and family life - GREAT JOB WRITERS!!!!!!!!!

[Jim]

Bravo for Sally Field! A richly deserved win for a classy lady!

[Staci]

Woo Hoo to Sally Field! Hope you are all partying like rock stars today! : )

[JoAnne]

Will, you got here before me, to say exactly what you said about Sally's speech. There was a point where she should have stopped. I was happy to see an awards show where there were no personal opinions about the war or the President and then came Sally. I was disappointed.

Of course, I will still watch the show, would be silly to boycott it because of her opinion, but my opinion of her has changed.

[Caroline]

Brilliant Sally =)
Way to speak your mind

[James Hill - San Antonio]

I congratulate Ms. Field on winning her Emmy.

In fact, I shouted "Yes!" to myself when the announcement was made.

I have long been a supporter of President Bush. I don't agree with the manner Ms. Field stated her views.

But, that does not diminish the fact that I thoroughly enjoy "Brothers and Sisters."

As I mentioned once before, the program exhibits a perfect study of ensemble acting.

You all have many reasons to be proud of your work.

I will continue to be a faithful viewer.

James Hill
San Antonio

[mbteinert]

I was a fan of Brothers and Sisters until I heard Sally's anti-war rant. Frankly, TV is an occasional diversion from real life. That said, thanks ABC now that I fully understand Sally's agenda I will not watch her or your channel again!

[will]

TEMPEST IN A TEACUP....

The conservative talk-radio circuit & Fox news has been going crazy with Sally's "CONTROVERSIAL" remarks on Emmy night. Larry Elder, a conservative talk-radio personality, said this at 3:36 p.m. today (in the midst of a conversation on the recent O.J. Simpson allegations): "I want everybody who wants to weigh in on the Sally Field story to stay on the line..."

After a commercial break, Larry Elder characterized Sally's speech as "blasting the Iraq war", all while "using profanity". He treated his listeners to ANOTHER soundbite of Sally's comment ("...if the mothers ruled the world, there would be no GD war in the first place"). Then he said this remark was "not the endorsement you would want for a woman to be commander-in-chief", a not-so-veiled slam against Hillary.

Larry opined to his listening audience that since Sally would not have made these comments were she accepting an award for "Gidget" or "The Flying Nun", say, she should therefore not have made these comments in the context of Nora Walker, B&S mom (I didn't quite get his "logic").

He referred to the applauding Emmy audience as part of the larger "degenerate american culture". Elder asked his audience to imagine having a commander-in-chief "who refused to go to war, who took the nuclear option off the table..." Iran's Ahmadinejad was invoked, as were islamic terrorist threats that Madonna or Britney Spears should be "beheaded" (the logic being, I suppose, that middle-eastern war was necessary in order to stop terrorists from threatening Madonna). In a discussion of Sally's backstage comments, Sally was heard saying "I had no point to get across. I have no agenda." Still, Elder felt Sally's comments were enough to "make you throw up".

To Ginny, a caller from the Dallas, Texas area, Larry Elder said, "How DARE Sally Field presume to speak for all the mothers!" Caller Ginny told Larry that "Sally Field needs to get a grip....as do all the people living in California and in Hollywood..." The two went on to characterize Sally's comment as just another instance of the "Hollywood elite" imposing it's "liberal anti-war values" on the mainstream culture (nevermind that two-thirds of the mainstream culture is against this conflict). THIS is the kind of airplay conservatives are devoting to Sally Field today. Personally, I think this will translate to greater B&S ratings in the long run, as I subscribe to the maxim "there's no such thing as bad publicity" (except in the case of senator Larry Craig's bathroom stall rendezvous - or the Atlantic Falcon's Michael Vick.... by the way, MSNBC is reporting that the Minnesota airport bathroom stall has now become a "tourist attraction" & is reportedly attracting large numbers of sightseers).