Oscars Noms, Razzies and Cancelled Shows

This morning is going to be the first time in almost four years that I have actually missed the oscar nominations in the morning. It’s not too earth shattering anyway, as I’ve been busy with the kids and other things to worry about it. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that movies like Brokeback Mountain, Good Night and Good Luck, Walk The Line and Munich are going to walk out with a nice handful of nominations. Usually, it’s more fun to see who got left out rather than who got in, so it will be interesting to have a look at the eventual full list of nominees. I’ll be sure to post and entry with my two cents over what I think about what happened this morning. I always liked watching the nominations as they are announced, but like I said before it’s not the end of the world but I’ll see if I can get away with using a live feed from CNN.com or something when they are announced. If not, I’ll just catch up with them during my break or lunch. I’ve seen some of the movies that are favorites to get nominated, but I’ll pretty much guarentee that when the envelopes are opened in March, I’ll have seen them all and will post a predictions entry before the big night.

Speaking of nominations, the Golden Razzies announced their own set of nomiantions last night. Usually reading Razzes are a lot of fun to read and get into, but this year’s crop are a tad disappointing. Rather than try to nominatew what truely are the worst films of the year, it seems they nominated films just for the chance to bash its stars rather than the film itself. One such example would be the Dukes Of Hazzard film which managed to nab a handful of nominations, which I think was solely for the purpose of bashing Jessica Simpson, who also garnered multiple nominations. I actually thought Dukes was a good movie, and was being bashed a little too hard when there are other stinkers out there (Alone In The Dark, Doom, Beautyshop, Stealth) that deserved more attention based on their enormous box office flops. I mean if the wanted to bash Simpson, the nominate her for worst actress and such, but the film itself wasn’t too bad, and was no where near what I could call the worst of the year.

Contrary to what others are announcing, NBC may have pulled it’s contraversial new show Book Of Daniel from it’s schedule, but I haven’t really heard the network use the word cancelled yet when looking at the site. Not only is the show still listed on NBC’s website, but the network is showing unaired episodes for fans on the site… which is rather nice of them. Many are hoping that the fact the show is still airing on the site maybe is a sign that the show isn’t cancelled and will resume when the Olympics are finished… including myself. Depsite the fact that the show is about a Priest and his family, I can honesly say that I enjoyed watch this show. Leah and Mom love the show madly and are not too impressed that NBC wasn’t willing to give it a strong chance to catch on with viewers. I really like the show cause I am a huge fan of Adian Quinn, and I find it really, really funny that people are bashing the show even though the concept of a priest talking to Jesus all the time really shouldn’t upset Christians too much. It’s a quirky show, but I guess that is its appeal. It shows the Priest and his family as normal people with problems that I’m sure many families have to deal with from time to time. In the first three weeks of it’s airing, the show tackled issues such as the acceptance of homosexuals in society, internet piracry and even racism. It was an interesting show, and I hope NBC reconsiders. Even if it doesn’t, I’ll at least get to watcha few unaired episodes on the site before it all ends.

Speaking of cancelled shows, how many were stunned by the fact that ABC yanked it’s new comedy titled “Emily’s Reasons why Not”after only airing one episode!?!? That’s it, just one measly episode! I understand the first night ratings were less than impressive, but I mean give people a chance to spread word of mouth and priase the show for a few weeks before pulling the plug. This is really what is wrong with networks these days. If something doesn’t pull in an immediate 15+ million viewers on it’s first night, companies are unwilling to invest in a show and try to make it work. Network execs don’t seem to realize that if you want to score the really huge ratings, you’ve have to take a gamble every now and then and let a show sluge through the low ratings until it can reach its audience. Cheers originally ranked 98th it’s first year on the air before eventually growing into the massive success it was, ending it’s decade long run with an average of 30+ million viewers a week. Had Cheers released during this decades cut throat kind of network era, it would have been axed after two episodes. This is why it will be so hard to find that next great show, they’re all getting axed before they can find their place and start kicking ass. Until someone is willing actually roll the dice and stick to their guns, they’ll lose every time… and that will be not only be our loss, but theirs as well.

Peter