Your Chance to Vote for the Emmys!

Ok, well, maybe not exactly.

Or, you know, at all.

But you can vote in the online contest for “Television’s Most Memorable Moments” — the winners will be shown during the 60th Annual Emmys telecast on Sunday, September 21.

Normally, I don’t pay much attention to the Emmys. They usually only serve to irritate me, as the same few shows and actors win over and over, especially during the last decade or so, when some truly brilliant people and shows have been overlooked just because they were on broadcast television instead of cable. I mean, honestly — someone should get Hugh Laurie an Emmy, about five minutes ago, just for his American accent. Or his gorgeous eyes. But I digress...

This year, I actually have a few dogs in the Emmy fight, including “Lost”, “House”, “Pushing Daisies”, and “Mad Men”.
So I’m watching the press on it a bit more closely than usual, and found this story about the “Television’s Most Memorable Moments” competition. As always, I was a little skeptical, since the Emmys don’t usually congratulate cutting-edge television. But as the article mentioned “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”, I decided to at least take a look.

Even if you don’t vote, I’d definitely suggest taking a look at the nominees for a great walk down television memory lane. I recognized many of them from the pictures on the links, but each has a video clip attached as well. The comedy clips ranged from the brilliant (Suzanne Pleshette’s surprise cameo at the end of “Newhart”), to the iconic (Lucille Ball’s candy conveyor belt schtick from “I Love Lucy”), to the downright confusing (“American Idol”? Even if you must lump music moments in with comedy... American Idol?!?!).

I ended up voting for Carol Burnett — even 32 years later, her “Went with the Wind” skit still cracks me up every time; when complimented on her dress made from drapery — curtain rod still attached — she replies, “I saw it in the window and I just had to have it.”

The drama clips cover a bit more random ground, but I guess there’s at least something there for everyone. I’ve never been a big fan of “Miami Vice” or “Grey’s Anatomy”. (There. I said it. I don’t watch Grey’s. I’ll probably lose my girl card over saying so, but it’s true.) But the “Moonlighting” clip of Maddie and Dave’s fight-turned-passion is just as powerful as it was 20 years ago. And they even threw in a smattering of great sci-fi moments, from “The Twilight Zone” (in case you weren’t aware, To Serve Humans is a cookbook), “Star Trek” (Harland Ellison’s legendary “City on the Edge of Forever”), and my all-time favorite scene from “The X-Files”. Was Mulder finally kissing Scully onscreen a “memorable moment”? Why, yes, it certainly was.

Ultimately, though, I had to go with “Buffy.” The “blue ribbon panel” chose Buffy’s death scene from “The Gift.” Now, I’m not convinced that “Buffy” was even Joss Whedon’s best television show. And “The Gift” is easily the second-best episode of “Buffy”, behind “The Body”. But much like my comedy pick, years later, I still cry every time I see Buffy Summers say good-bye to her sister and sacrifice herself to save the world.

My only nitpick with the clips, overall, was that a couple of the comedy clips were far too dramatic, and kind of belonged in the other category. I don’t care if “M*A*S*H” was a sitcom. The scene where Radar enters the operating room to announce Henry Blake’s death? Well, it’s apples and oranges. You can’t really compare it to the funny stuff.

So vote now, and go back and vote again when the second round picks up on Tuesday, September 9. Even if the Emmys ultimately get it wrong (again) this year, they’re making an effort to celebrate great television, and I think we should reward them for it by participating.

Unfortunately, there’s no ballot to vote against Ryan Seacrest as one of the Emmy hosts. Oh, well. I guess you can’t have everything.