CANON OF FILM: "THE BIG HEAT"

THE BIG HEAT (1953) 

Director: Fritz Lang
Screenplay: Sydney Boehm based on the Saturday Evening Post Serial by William P. McGivern

My Uncle Billy's favorite actor as a kid, I'm told, was Glenn Ford. I don't think he had any particular reason for it, or even really knew much of his work; I think he just liked the name and it came out of his mouth randomly quite easily as a kid. Like, as a sly backhanded insult, "Who do I look like Glenn Ford?", something like that that he'd say randomly in weird situations. I remember saying Alex Wright occasionally like that when I was young which is even more unusual 'cause that's just an obscure pro wrestler from the '90s that nobody remembers. 

Anyway, I can't say I'm that much more familiar with his work either; when I think of Glenn Ford, I think of my Uncle, I think of "Blackboard Jungle", and I think of "The Big Heat", the 1953 film noir that, on the surface seems inexplicable in it's greatness. Even a genre as formulaic as film noir, the great films usually have something distinct or iconic about them within the narrative. There's an iconic image in the film, the shot of Gloria Grahame's face half-bandaged after she's had her face scolded from a pot of hot coffee is iconic, but other than that, "The Big Heat" seems almost cliche in comparisons to other films. A good cop, Bannion (Ford) decides to clean the town of the corrupt influence, in this case, headed by Mike Lagana (Alexander Scourby) and represented in pure evil by Vince Stone (Lee Marvin). In response, they go after Bannion, including murdering his wife, Katie (Jocelyn Brando), and yet, he inevitably succeeds against all odds. 

However, there's something almost sardonic in the film. On a subversive level. Bannion isn't just a straight-laced cop, he's a little too straight-laced. Even Joe Friday would tell him to lighten up a bit about the corruption. Sure, the inciting incident that gets him on this journey is a fellow cop's suicide, but the cop himself was on the Mob's payroll. Bertha (Jeanette Nolan), his wife tries to write it off as her husband being sick, but Lucy (Dorothy Green) says he was in perfect health. One of them ends up dead, which not only surprises him, and as Roger Ebert points out, doesn't make Bannion think that the one that's alive might also be working with the Mafia. He also seems to make him completely unaware that his family would be in danger after going to Laguna's house and threatening him. This guy Laguna, basically runs the town. He owns the politicians, he owns the police, including the Commission (Howard Wendell) that's telling Bannion to back off, and runs the gambling in town and meanwhile this cop seems more delusional than Leslie Neilsen in one of "The Naked Gun" movies. 

Everything is played for realism, sometimes deathly serious, but it wouldn't be that surprising to find somebody making a direct remake of the movie as a comedic spoof. Bannion barely looks like he grieves after his wife is killed, and at the end of the movie, he's back on the job. He is a single father now; who is watching his kid? I mean, I'm sure someone is, but who?

The more I think about the movie, the more I actually compare the film to "M", Director Fritz Lang's previous masterpiece about the police and the underworld. That movie, has some sublininal undertones as well, although most of it is about how the Nazi movement grew from underground, and that led to Lang fleeing Germany after the war. There's always something going on underneath in his films, sometimes literally there's a top world and an underneath world in his movies, perhaps most famously in his best film, "Metropolis", but in "The Big Heat", it seems like the world's are too similar and blended, and the only one who doesn't notice or care is the detective. That's the way it always is in these films, but here, it's practically an ironic joke. 

I'm not sure what it represents in this case, maybe it's a parody of the genre itself, film noir was at least a dozen years old at that time. Perhaps he just wants to let us know that those who are true and good supposedly can be just as horrid and corrupt as the most corrupt of the underworld? Maybe they're the same thing. Maybe he wanted to make it more obvious but because of the Hays Code, had to keep it so subtle and subliminial that it only seems weird in hindsight? 

And it must be in hindsight too. "The Big Heat". The movie was generally well-received at the time, but didn't get any Oscar nominations or any other major accolades, and this was just after Gloria Grahame won the Oscar the year before for "The Bad and the Beautiful", yet this is her most famous performance. I don't how to rank Lee Marvin's performances, he has so many of them it's hard to keep track, but damn this is a great one. He's over-the-top and still quietly menacing. He knows he can do anything and take anyone and get away with it, and he loves it. We buy into Bannion's quest because these bad guys are indeed this sadistic. Perhaps that means Bannion is the hero, or more precisely is in the moral right, but at what cost...? 

Still, I can see how someone like Bannion can be so unaware of just how much impact he has. I certainly have had moments where I seem to be completely unaware of how my impact can effect others and how I might not be trying to cause chaos or havoc, but suddenly, I do or say the wrong thing and suddenly,- well, I don't get women killed just by having them talk to me like Bannion seems to do, but if you are that unaware of yourself, it can happen. In another world, Dave Bannion could be Michael Scott or David Brent, running an office thinking everybody likes them, when in fact he's the reason for their pain. I think that's the secret of "The Big Heat", there's so much going on underneath that you keep finding yourself fascinated by it and just drift into the movie every time. It's familiar, in genre and story, but perhaps it's more opaque in the way it goes about it than it does, or maybe it's that it's too familiar to how much we really are sometimes? 

EMMYS POST-MORTEM: MRS. MAISEL, "GAME OF THRONES", RUPAUL, and a MARRIAGE PROPOSAL! Plus, a personal update on myself and my unusual recent absense.

Before I begin with discussing anything Emmys, my recent behaviors, or lack thereof, need some explanation. I have occasionally sporadicallytaken elongated breaks from blogging, but this last one has been unusually long and unexpected for me and I supposed you guys as well. Usually I'll find some way to update until now, but it's been about three weeks since my last post and I didn't even post an Emmy predictions post this year. (Although I did manage to post my Gold Derby ballot on my Facebook pages earlier) Well, without going into too much detail, I've had some bad luck personally, and basically, we had a hard and unexpected, unforeseen move that is, still ongoing. Currently I'm writing this from a cheap, weekly hotel as we're not quite sure where we're moving to. It's been rough, and it hasn't gotten easier lately. I had hoped that by now, things would've at least started to get better, but it hasn't. Basically, the timetable for everything related to this blog, in the future, well, (Shrugs) basically it's on hold, and probably heavily delayed. Frankly, I don't mind taking a breather from this; I was already dreadfully behind in my workload for this, and this didn't help, but instead of this move refreshing my batteries, it's basically left me in a state of limbo. And I suspect if that change does happen for the positive sometimes soon, that also, will required quite a lot of delays to my blog and regular life. I wish I could help it, but that's where I'm at right now, so...- (Sighs) Until things get better, I'm probably gonna be a laying low for awhile, at least blogwise. Again, if that changes, I'll inform as soon as I can.... 

Alright, now that that's out of the way, let's talk about the Primetime Emmys this year. I'm not gonna make this too complicated this year, I'm just gonna mention a few things in general and then I'm just going to cut-and-paste my notes.

The comedy categories, "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" won five tonight, including Best Comedy Series, Actress for Rachel Brosnahan, Supporting Actress for Alex Borstein and Writing and Director for Amy Sherman-Palladino, with "Barry" winning Lead Actor for Bill Hader, and a great emotional moment for Henry Winkler, winning Supporting Actor, his first ever Emmy believe it or not. Long time coming. "Atlanta", one of the odds-on favorite, went down with nothing tonight. 

Michael Che and Colin Jost were, okay. I think it was a nice, intentionally low-key series, that actually tried to showcase the shows and nominees. Not everything worked, the unprepared Maya Rudolph and Fred Armisen thing totally didn't work, but I liked the low-keyness of the show. The introducing nominees then the presenters was an interesting choice. Not 100% sure how I feel about it, but I think it's an interesting choice and it kept the show going. I think they might correctly be assuming that most of the nominees were known by the audience ahead of time. It is a lot easier to get the nominees printed out and listed. It's a bit awkward but mostly the show was good, low-key, the kind of Emmys that's a celebration, but clearly was an award show done with the mindset that it's Monday night and everybody probably has work in the morning. Not the best or worst, but it was serviceable, yet interesting. 

Most of the categories were fairly predictable in Variety with "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver" and "Saturday Night Live" taking the big prizes. Reality-Competition was an upset win for "RuPaul's Drag Race", which makes it a rare win that didn't go to "The Amazing Race" or "The Voice", but the first ever series win for a VH-1 show. Drama Series awards were an interesting mixed bag. "The Crown", "The Americans" and "Game of Thrones" each got two awards with "...Thrones" winning for Series and Supporting Actor for Peter Dinklage. "Westworld" got a rare win for Thandie Newton as well, and that 3-way split vote left "The Handmaid's Tale" shockingly leaving home empty-handed from the main show. I suspect almost all these races were close, including Series. ("Game of Thrones" lead the pack with 9 overall, "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" taking 8; nothing else won more than 5 total.)

Limited Series and TV Movie categories were also a bit scattered. "The Assassination of Gianni Versace" inevitably taking the big prize, also getting an acting win for Darren Criss and a surprise Directing win. "Black Mirror" repeated as Writing winner, but "Godless" won two acting awards with Jeff Daniels and Merritt Wev-ver- (Sigh) Wever winning their second Emmy each. Regina King, also somehow won again, because it's apparently a rule now. 

Anyway, good, toned-down decent Emmys that got us a lot of new and/or interesting winners and opens up a lot of interesting races for next year. It was a good celebration of television in honor of it's 70th. 

Alright here's my notes I took from the show, which are more erratic and scattered but I feel are more interesting than my more boring regular notes and also better represent my perspective and state-of-mind as I watched the Emmys. (Shrugs) It's all I got for now, I'm in an erratic and scattered state of mind in general at the moment, so...- Anyway, enjoy. 

2018 EMMYS NOTES

I slept through most of the red carpet, but in my defense, I was tired. At least I was watching E! this time instead of OTRC.

Well, the opening number was cute, although I’m always weirded when the hosts don’t open the show, but Kate McKinnon and Kenan Thompson do a good job as the white guy and black guy from “SNL”.

Yowzers! Elisabeth Moss’s tits are popping out of the dress of hers! Yeah, she wanted people to see her outside of that red robe today. 

Laurie Metcalf joke was funny. A few others were cute. NBC’s been much more mundane with the Emmys the last couple times they’ve hosted. Not a criticism, just an observation.

SUPPORTING ACTOR-COMEDY SERIES

WINNER: Henry Winkler-“Barry”!

Ah, it’s about time he finally won! STANDING OVATION! Good, good-good. That was a great speech. It’s good to see somebody who actually wants to win, and really express it, especially when it is somebody who’s- such a huge part of television history and has truly never been honored before.

I’m gonna try to keep up with my predictions, but I’m not looking directly at them as I write this, which actually is good to be honest. I just want to be happy at who wins and not have to think back about what my record is. Maybe I won’t do predictions in future years?

Yeah, that’s not happening; this is a total anomaly but it’s a nice thought and it honestly does making watching the show better. That’s why I do that with the Tonys every year.

I’m not sure about the announce-the-nominations, then-the-presenters thing, but it’s interesting.

SUPPORTING ACTRESS-COMEDY SERIES

WINNER: Alex Borstein-“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

Oh! Alex Borstein, with the reveal win! That’s a good idea I haven’t seen before. Glad she won too, she’s really good on that show. Also, nice to see the “SNL” people  not winning this. Also, Borstein won for Voiceover Performance Emmy for “Family Guy” earlier. I wish they’d announce or mention these things.

WRITING-COMEDY SERIES

WINNER: “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”-Amy Sherman-Palladino

Oh, thank god, she won. I love her hats. Yes, I am a “Gilmore Girls” fan. And she makes you laugh, thank god somebody funny wins the writing award for once. So far that’s two for “…Maisel.”

Oh, I like Sandra Oh’s dress too- DID SHE JUST RIP THE ENVELOPE! That was funny. Never forget, Sandra Oh, is long overdue and should’ve won for “Arli$$” years ago. She is funny as hell. (oh, and fne, I thought she had won for “Grey’s Anatomy”, she was great on that too. And should’ve won over Katherine Heigl that time, if you were gonna honor someone from that show.

DIRECTING-COMEDY SERIES

WINNER: Amy Sherman-Palladino-“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”- Oh, I’m glad she won again! Oh, wow, that’s a dress she’s got on.  I think “Mrs. Maisel” might pull It off. Oh, NETFLIX is gonna hate that. It’s bad enough that Hulu won before them, but if Amazon wins first, oh man! OH MAN!!!!!! Somebody's gonna be fired.

Yeah, Tiffany Haddish won Guest Actress for “SNL” which is one can of worms, ‘cause she submitted herself not the show, but all four Guest Actor winners were African-American this year. Big deal. (Ron Cephas Jones won for "This is Us", Katt Williams won for "Atlanta" and Samira Wiley won for "The Handmaid's Tale". Love her bright multi-colored dress, it’s a weird choice but it works for her.

LEAD ACTRESS-COMEDY SERIES

WINNER: Rachel Brosnahan-“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”

She deserved it, easy win. Thank god Julia Louis-Dreyfus didn’t win again. I know she wasn’t eligible this year, but you never know. Remember when Rachel Brosnahan was the hooker in “House of Cards”? Yeah, I can’t believe it’s the same girl either. Great speech, great dress, even if it’s falling off her shoulder.

Michael Douglas is funny, good to see him again. And yes kids, he’s a TV guy, look up “The Streets of San Francisco”.

LEAD ACTOR-COMEDY SERIES

WINNER: Bill Hader-“Barry”

WOW! I don’t think it’s “Atlanta”’s night. Well, Donald Glover won twice last year and I’m happy to see Bill Hader finally win. I do like “Barry” a lot. Stephen Root was robbed btw, he should’ve gotten nominated too this year.

I did stay up long enough through the Red Carpet to find out that we’ve been mispromouncing Chrissy Teigen’s name this whole time. That was weird. I forget how it’s supposed to be pronounced, but she was with John Legend who along with Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber became EGOT winners earlier at the Creative Arts for “Jesus Christ Superstar”. I didn’t see the production ‘cause I’ll be honest here, I hate that musical, (Sorry!) but good for them. I think Legend is one of the youngest to do it too. I had Cynthia Nixon winning next in the pool. I’m switching to somebody else; I lost three times my money on that bet.

OOOH SHIRLEY CHUNG!!!! I love her! She did the food tonight. Ah, she’s such a great Chef. If you haven’t seen her seasons of “Top Chef” yet, go seek them out, especially the New Orleans one. 

Limited Series joke is cute.

Not sure I like Maya Rudolph’s dress or not. Part of me wants to make a Bjork swan dress joke, and part of me wants to say she’s pulling it off. Not sure I liked that bit.

SUPPORTING ACTRESS-LIMITED SERIES OR MOVIE

WINNER: Merritt Wever-“Godless”!

Yeah, “Studio 60…” Alum, I love Merritt Wever. C’mon, get through it this time; you were a favorite, it’s not like that time you shock won for “Nurse Jackie”. How are you not a bigger star, you’re so adorable.

Also, yes, “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip” is by far the most underrated TV show of all-time.

Are they still doing this bit? I’ll be honest, I never really loved this when they did it on “SNL”. I mean, I love Maya and I like Fred Armisen a lot, but still…. Wish I knew where they got the smoothies though.

Oh, I love Constance Wu’s dress, that’s the best so far!

SUPPORTING ACTOR-LIMITED SERIES OR MOVIE

WINNER: Jeff Daniels-“Godless”

Always great to see him win. Boy, “Godless” is doing well, maybe it can pull off the upset. I love Scott Frank too, I gotta watch this. Look up Scott Frank if you don’t know him; he’s one of the best writers in Hollywood and has been for decades. Great speech about the horse.

WRITING-LIMITED SERIES, MOVIE OR DRAMATIC SPECIAL

WINNER: “Black Mirror: U.S.S. Callister”-William Bridges and Charlie Brooker

Yeah, I’ll get to “Black Mirror” someday. I can feel the “Twin Peaks” fans silently raging already. Glad Brooker brought up “Star Trek” and “The Twilight Zone” as influences; they’re obvious influences but you know, people think so much of television is in a new Golden Age, but honestly, I’m not impressed overall. Go back and really dig into the history of TV somedays and you’ll find out so much that we think of as innovative and new today is just a good retread of the past that most of us have forgotten or never bothered to learn.

Oooh, BETTY WHITE! Awesome. I’ll double-check but if I remember correctly, she was a nominee at one of the first Emmys, for “Life with Elizabeth”. STANDING OVATION, yes, standing ovation. (Correction: it was the third Emmys where she was nominated for Best Actress.) 

That’s a good joke, but she might’ve really been the first lady of television. She’s still funny, she’s slower than she usually is, but it’s good to see her. Tongue still firmly in cheek.

That’s not a joke, I heard about that Tom Arnold/Mark Burnett fight. I hope Tom Arnold beat him up.

DIRECTING-LIMITED SERIES, MOVIE OR DRAMATIC SPECIAL

WINNER: Ryan Murphy-“American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace”-“

“Twin Peaks” fans really pissed now. I’m surprised he won too to be honest. You’d think they’d feel like they’d have given Ryan Murphy enough by now.

I think Leslie Jones and RuPaul are wearing each other’s outfits. Actually, I do like RuPaul’s white with the touches of black.

LEAD ACTRESS-LIMITED SERIES OR MOVIE

WINNER: Regina King-“Seven Seconds”

Oh, for fuck’s sakes, did they really give this to Regina King again! Nobody saw “Seven Seconds”, they’re just honoring her just because-, even she said, “Really!” Especially when they really owe Michelle Dockery an Emmy. Sorry, I love you Regina, but that’s bullshit.

LEAD ACTOR-LIMITED SERIES OR MOVIE

WINNER: Darren Criss-“American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace”

That was expected. I like his tux, the multi-color, with the faded bleached look on top, that works for him. I wish he had a white shirt underneath to help make that pop, but that’s a minor nitpick.

Really, they’re gonna have Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobsen? I didn’t know the Emmys knew who they were! Well, I’m certainly glad they do now, but-eh, now I’ve got other questions, like why the hell haven’t they been nominated yet? (Okay, yes, they were nominated in the Short-Form and Interactive categories, don’t @Me, I’m just saying that “Broad City” was one of the best shows on TV for years, and now, they finally recognize them!)

Oh, NBC’s doing “Hair” now, why are they always doing my least-favorite musicals. Alright, the music for that one is good at least. (Sorry, I’m not big on “Hair”. I think it made hippies look stupid, cliched and stereotypical when frankly, they were inspirational and ahead of their time.)

The REPARATIONS EMMYS, okay this is funny. Oh, Marla Gibbs. Jimmie Walker. Ooh, Kadeem Harrison, where’d they find him? Tichina Arnold, good, she’s definitely long overdue John Witherspoon, good. 

Ooooh, Glazer & Jacobsen, they’re funny!

WRITING-VARIETY SPECIAL

WINNER: John Mulaney-“John Mulaney: Kid Gorgeous at Radio City”

WOW! That’s an upset. They really just want to give this out to standups now; even Samantha Bee couldn’t win here! Shit! He’s the one of the stand-ups I’m not overly familiar with.

Restaurant on the moon, good food, no atmosphere. That was actually funny.

DIRECTING-VARIETY SPECIAL

WINNER: Glenn Weiss-“The Oscars”

Yeah, that was predictable if you know the history of the category. This was a good Oscars this year though.

I’m really missing an announcer announcing stats when the winners go up. AWWWW! We have a marriage proposal! Of course, it was the director, he couldn’t have planned that better! WOW!!!!

Well, no one’s topping that speech tonight. You win Glenn Weiss, you have won the Emmys!

Hey, how’s the football game going? (Flips channels) How are the Bears up ten? Oh well, they’ll blow it at the end like last week, I’m sure. Whoa, Janikowski going from 56, c’mon you old fat man! (Flips back) (Correction: Seahawks didn't come back, Bears won.) 

TINA FEY, awesome. She’s doing the feather dress too. 

Aww, the In Memoriam. Aretha’s version of “Amazing Grace”, that’s classy. We lost a lot this year. Oh, I didn’t remember Jerry Van Dyke. Yeah, Reg E. Cathay, sad. Bochco, yeah. Enberg. ☹ Jim Nabors, yeah. Ah, Bill Daily, that was recently. Ah, Bob Schiller, god. Ah, Paul Junger Witt, yeah. Stiers, yeah. Mahoney. Awwww! Hugh Wilson, awe man; I love his shows! Yeah, David Cassidy. Guillaume, man, we lost a lot. The audience’s weird reaction as they remember that Hugh Hefner had an important and major TV show, “Playboy After Dark’. Mitzi Shore! I didn’t hear about that! Ah, Monty Hall! Reynolds. Rose Marie, that’s a big one. Wow, applause for John McCain! We really do respect the hell out of him. Man, we lost a lot of great writers this year. Neil Simon, too, he wrote for Sid Caesar, god. Man, we’re losing TV history. Harry Anderson, if you haven’t seen him do stand up and magic, go look up his old routines one day. It’s hard to remember but he was amazing.

Yes, Hugh Hefner deserves to be honored, “Playboy After Dark” was huge and majorly influential people. I don’t care if it seems weird in the #MeToo era, TV history, look it up.

There’s been several ties at the Emmys, usually in Creative Arts.

SUPPORTING ACTOR-DRAMA SERIES

WINNER-Peter Dinklage-“Game of Thrones”

Yeah, Peter Dinklage wins again. He is the one true great and memorable character on that show. And screw you if you think otherwise; seriously, other than maybe the Dragon Lady and that one kid who was in charge for a minute, nobody else is interesting or memorable at all, I stand by it. He deserves his Emmy wins.

Oh good, Elisabeth adjusted, a little bit. Jesus, how tight is that thing on her!!!! Christ. That's the- remember that line from "Entourage" when Debi Mazur commanded that her assistant get her that dress that makes her tits pop? That's that dress. 

SUPPORTING ACTRESS-DRAMA SERIES

WINNER: Thandie Newton-“Westworld”

That’s an upset, but it’s a good one. Not big on “Westworld,” but she’s great. "The Handmaid's Tale" all split; that's a shocker.

WRITING-DRAMA SERIES

WINNER:”The Americans”-“START”

Yeah, I figured they’d give “The Americans” the “Friday Night Lights” last season award for Writing. BTW, “FNL” was terrible, and never deserved it; I never understood what people saw in that. I mean, I like Kyle Chandler, everybody does, but still; I never got that show.

Who is this? Hannah Gadsby? Okay, I think I’ve heard of her, but yeah, how did she get this gig? I guess Ricky Gervais is busy. She’s funny though.

DIRECTING-DRAMA SERIES

WINNER: “The Crown”-Stephen Daldry

Oh, I’m glad that won something. That’s a great show. He directs the whole series too, so that’s good.

I guess they’re doing all the Series categories at the end. (Shrugs) You know what, I’m okay with that. There’s a lot of them though, there’s 1,2,3…7! Is that right, seven. Comedy, Drama, Limited Series, Variety-Talk, Variety Sketch, Reality-Competition,- Are they doing Variety Special? Alright, six. Boy, that’s a lot still. It’s still than last year’s whatever-the-fuck order that was. That just sucked.

I’m a couple episodes into the new “Queer Eye”. I like it, I miss the old one, but I do think it deserved it’s win for Reality Series this year. It’s growing on me; I gotta get to the rest of it though.

LEAD ACTOR-DRAMA SERIES

WINNER: Matthew Rhys-“The Americans”

Kyle Chandler all over again. Alright, I like the one season of “The Americans” I saw, but I thought Keri Russell was great and he was okay. I don’t honestly get him winning this. Damn though, that’s two. Could it win in an upset here? Still cheering for “This is Us” in an upset. (Fingers crossed #MiloVentimigliaWasRobbed)

Why’d they play the theme to “Mom” for Sarah Paulsen? That was weird.

LEAD ACTRESS-DRAMA SERIES

WINNER: Claire Foy-“The Crown”

Oh, I actually called that one! Cool, “The Crown” won two, and “The Americans” won two. Damn, I don’t know how Series is gonna play out here. I knew people were underestimating “The Crown” though, and she’s not coming back either. Huh, the two Best Actor and Actress in Drama Series winners won’t be back next year. Interesting.

Sorry, I really didn’t like Fred & Maya’s bit.

I know “Rick & Morty” won the Animated Series Emmy, and I don’t think it’s a bad show, but I get exhausted watching it. I like it better than Dan Harmon’s horribly overrated “Community”, but, I still can only take so much of him at a time.

REALITY-COMPETITION SERIES

WINNER-“RuPaul’s Drag Race”

Oh, thank Christ, it wasn’t “The Voice”. Glad to see RuPaul win too, he won the Host award earlier too. Hey, that’s a rare VH-1 award win.

Wow, they long-afterward decide to honor “Chappelle’s Show”’s greatness by having them announce the Sketch Series category. They’re pretty funny too.

VARIETY-SKETCH SERIES

WINNER: “Saturday Night Live”

No real surprise here; clear heavy favorite, little competition. I thought maybe, Sarah Silverman had an outside shot, but-eh, yeah, they’re still the top. Lorne Michaels is still classy.

Whoa, Connie Britton’s dress is weird. I think I like it, but what an interesting choice.

VARIETY-TALK SERIES

WINNER: “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver”

No shock here, he deserves it, it’s easily the best. Sorry, five-days-a-week shows. (Shrugs).

Oh yeah, Patricia Arquette has that weird Emmy win for “Medium”. How did she win that year. Does she have a Tony or Grammy? I need a new pick in my EGOT poll? (Reminder to look up.) Benicio Del Toro’s funny.

LIMITED SERIES

WINNER: “American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace”

I thought “Godless” might pull it off, but I guess I don’t mind this winning. It’s expected. I wish he and everybody else would stop reminding me of all the horrible tabloid exploitative crap I had to live through in the ‘90s. Although that one, it doesn’t actually get talked about enough, so…. (Shrugs).

They’re having Kenan Thompson announce Drama Series because he’s basically broken all the records for doing sketch comedy on television. I mean, that’s a good reason, sure, I mean, I think he passed Carol Burnett for that record, and dammit “Black Jeopardy!” was great this year…- BTW, he finally won an Emmy earlier for Best Song at the Creative Arts as a writer on that Obama song.

If you want to realize how long he’s been around btw, look up Kenan Thompson and Chris Farley on Youtube one day. Yes, they worked together once, look it up.

I feel like I’m saying “Look It Up” a lot. I know that sounds pretentious and obnoxious, and I can’t do anything about that, sorry.

BTW, I wish they’d go back to putting Comedy Series last; it’s really the more important category. Sorry drama series, but the sitcom is the art form of television.

COMEDY SERIES

WINNER: “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”!

HAHA! Somebody at Netflix just got fired! Honestly, great choice, I love this show. 1^st hour-long sitcom to win since “Ally McBeal” btw. Great choice. Is Amy Sherman-Palladino’s skirt getting shorter as the night goes on? I mean, I’m not complaining, but….- Oh, congrats Amazon too, you finally won a Series Award! I knew I should’ve stuck with my gut on that one, but I got convinced by the Gold Derby folks on “Atlanta”. Curse you Gold Derby!!!!!

Next year, look out for “GLOW”. Seriously, second season of that, is sooooooooo gooooooooooood!

DRAMA SERIES

WINNER: “Game of Thrones”

Wow! (Sigh) I’m shocked honestly. I’m willing to bet that it was close, but I thought “The Handmaid’s Tale” was gonna take it. I suspect this’ll be the last year they’ll be able to slightly pull this off and that this year was really, really close in voting. Did Netflix win anything tonight? Wow, nothing. Hulu got shutout too. (Sighs)