If I ran the Emmys …

If only I could pick all of my favorite shows to win awards and had the power to make sure those programs secure renewals …

But alas, that’s not the case. Many times, shows I like either get canceled or shuffled around or, when it comes to the Emmys, just get overlooked for some unknown reason. (Friday Night Lights immediately comes to mind.) So I’m going to pretend that I’m the woman behind the curtain who has control over all the nominations and am putting forth my wish list of Emmy nominees before the official nominations are announced Thursday morning.

I’m pretty lousy at making accurate predictions of who’s going to win anything — my NCAA basketball brackets always wind up being a hodgepodge of informed choices, punctuated by sentimental favorites with little chance of winning — so I’m not even pretending that my favored nominees will necessarily resemble the official list. And since this reflects my preferences, I’d love to hear about your favorites as well, people or shows that you feel are deserving of an Academy of Television Arts and Sciences nod:

Best Drama: Mad Men, Friday Night Lights, The Good Wife, Rescue Me and Men of a Certain Age

Mad Men sincerely deserves this honor for the deft way in which the drama handled not just the personal crises that beset the main characters last season, most prominently the implosion of the Draper marriage, but how flawlessly the real events of 1963 were woven into the episodes (JFK assassination, Civil Rights movement) providing necessary and vital context to the lives the characters were leading.

I intentionally left off one of my all-time favorite shows — Lost — because the episode that was supposedly the series finale left me feeling as though the entire final season had been a waste of time and my lingering disappointment about that finale is prohibiting me from thinking rationally about it. Big Love, once a favorite of mine, would’ve been on my list as well had the show gurus not attempted to pack an absurd number of massively over-dramatic threads into a mere handful of episodes to the point where it got ridiculous.

Best Comedy: Modern Family, The Middle, Parks and Recreation, The Office and Nurse Jackie

Modern Family. By. A. Mile. I adore this show. It became an instant classic, smart TV comedy that does not dumb it down and, in fact, makes incisive, snarky observations about the American family while making me laugh — out loud — and tears well up in my eyes.

Lead Actress, Drama: Julianna Margulies from The Good Wife, January Jones from Mad Men, Connie Britton from Friday Night Lights and Ellen Pompeo from Grey’s Anatomy

Julianna Margulies is one of the biggest reasons why The Good Wife is a solid hit. She was tough, sexy, smart, unpredictable and entirely believable, definitely worthy of an Emmy. But I’d be just as happy if either January Jones, who was spectacular as the emotionally vacillating Betty Draper — unsure if she should or shouldn’t leave her cheating, duplicitous husband — or the down-to-earth Connie Britton, whose season saw her character gracefully face tough challenges at home and at work where she was frequently publicly vilified for just doing her job, walk away with this award.

Lead Actor, Drama: Jon Hamm from Mad Men, Hugh Laurie from House, Bryan Cranston from Breaking Bad, Ray Romano from Men of a Certain Age and Denis Leary from Rescue Me

I’m currently writing the Breaking Bad Virgin Diary series and I just finished watching the first season. Based on that, I think Bryan Cranston’s work has been fabulous thus far, HOWEVER, since I haven’t yet seen his performance in the third season, I’m going with Jon Hamm and his despairing, lost Don Draper who had to finally (involuntarily) remove his mask and be honest with his wife about his sordid back story, only to find his worst fears realized: That she no longer loved him, the real him.

Lead Actress, Comedy: Amy Poehler from Parks and Recreation, Edie Falco from Nurse Jackie, Patricia Heaton from The Middle, Mary-Louise Parker from Weeds and Tina Fey from 30 Rock

If it weren’t for the fact that the Modern Family cast submitted themselves in the supporting actor and actress categories, I would’ve voted to have someone from Modern Family win every comedy category. But since they didn’t, in this case, my sentimental favorite to win this category is Amy Poehler from Parks and Recreation, as her show has blossomed in its sophomore season into a solid, reliable comedy.

Lead Actor, Comedy: Alec Baldwin from 30 Rock, Steve Carell from The Office and Neil Flynn from The Middle. Alec Baldwin always wins this category and, after his performance this past season, I think he deserves to win again.

Supporting Actress, Drama: Sandra Oh from Grey’s Anatomy, Elisabeth Moss from Mad Men, Chandra Wilson from Grey’s Anatomy, Mae Whitman from Parenthood and Audra McDonald from Private Practice

Supporting Actor, Drama: Michael B. Jordan from Friday Night Lights, Zach Gilford from Friday Night Lights, Terry O’Quinn from Lost, Kevin McKidd from Grey’s Anatomy and Andre Braugher from Men of a Certain Age

Supporting Actress, Comedy: Julie Bowen or Sofia Vergara from Modern Family. I don’t need to list anyone else because if one of these two women doesn’t win this award, I’m going to be outraged.

Supporting Actor, Comedy: Ty Burrell, Rico Rodriguez, Eric Stonestreet, Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Ed O’Neill from Modern Family. Needless to say, SOMEONE from Modern Family should receive the honors in this category this year.

If you were in charge of the Emmys, who’d get your nominations?

Clacked by Meredith O'Brien
on Jul 07, 2010 @ 13:00 EST5EDT