The Emmy B-Team: The Scruff

Welcome back to my 7th edition of the Emmy B-Team. The idea is pretty simple. People like to complain about the Emmy nominations. They point out one or two "snubs", never consider what's actually on the nominating ballots*, and say that the Emmy voters did a bad job. The skeptic that I am, I wanted to find out if the Emmy picks were really that bad. So, years ago I looked through the official Emmy nominating ballots. I created an alternate group of non-nominated performers/episodes/shows and compared those groups to the actual nominees to see which was stronger. I'll spare you the suspense: The Nominees always win handily, although it's close in the Drama and Comedy categories. Now, this serves as a fun way for me to point out the biggest snubs, audit the Emmy picks more fairly, and point out some quirks in the nominating ballots**.

 

*Remember, a show, person, or episode can only be nominated if it is submitted. Even if you want every episode of Watchmen to be nominated for writing, that won't happen, since they only submitted some of the episodes.

 

**You'd be surprised how often that actor you thought was snubbed wasn't even on the official ballot or had listed himself as a lead instead of a supporting actor.

 

I don't do every category. I don't pretend that I've seen everything or that I fully understand all the categories. I'm a one-man operation talking about hundreds of shows. I'm doing the best I can.

 

I'll start with what I call "the scruff". It's the random categories that I like to include that don't fit in any of my major groups.

 

The Scruff

Reality Shows

Variety Series and Specials

Limited Series and TV Movie

Comedy Series

Drama Series

 

* Indicates a show that I haven't watched this season.

# Indicates a show I've seen before, not this season.

 

Outstanding Animated Program

Nominees

Big Mouth “Disclosure The Movie: The Musical!”

Bob's Burgers “Pig Trouble In Little Tina”

BoJack Horseman “The View From Halfway Down”

#Rick And Morty “The Vat Of Acid Episode”

The Simpsons “Thanksgiving Of Horror”

 

B-Team

#Archer "Robert De Niro"

*Central Park "Episode One"

*Disenchantment "The Electric Princess"

#Family Guy "Peter and Lois' Wedding"

#South Park "Band in China"

 

The Emmys finally let BoJack Horseman into the party last year. Now Big Mouth and Rick & Morty have invites. Bob's Burgers continues to get deserved nominations and The Simpsons remains the most relevant 30-year-old series you're going to find. In terms on the B-Team, the only missed potential nominee was Apple's new series Central Park, which I've heard only positive things about. So that makes this pretty easy.

Winner: Nominees (Dominant)

 

Outstanding Directing For A Documentary/Nonfiction Program

Nominees

American Factory

Apollo 11

*Becoming

*The Cave

The Last Dance “Episode 7”

Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem And Madness “Cult Of Personality”

 

B-Team

*Beastie Boys Story

*Country Music "5. The Sons and Daughters of America (1964-1968)"

I Love You, Now Die: The Commonwealth v. Michelle Carter

McMillion$

One Child Nation

The Imagineering Story "The Happiest Place on Earth"

 

This is a surprisingly stacked field. As you'll see me say a lot, The Imagineering Story is the only show I've watched twice this year, so I couldn't be more biased about it. It does a pretty terrific job telling the Disney park story though. One Child Nation is probably the best of the B-Team. McMillions$ is a crazy story, but I didn't care for the decision to do re-enactments. Ken Burns (Country Music) always delivers a good product.

American Factory and Apollo 11 are probably the two best options on either list. I shouldn't hold the unfair comparisons to OJ: Made in America against The Last Dance, which does a really fine job telling its story. So, even though I didn't think Tiger King was particularly well put together, it's hard to go against the Nominees.

Winner: Nominees (Comfortably)

 

Outstanding Writing For A Nonfiction Program

Nominees

*Beastie Boys Story

*The Cave

*Circus Of Books

*Don't F**k With Cats: Hunting An Internet Killer “Closing The Net”

McMillion$ “Episode 1”

 

B-Team

*Country Music "7. Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way? (1973-1983)"
The Happy Days of Garry Mashall

The Imagineering Story "The Happiest Place On Earth"

*McCarthy (American Experience)

*Woodstock: Three Days That Defined A Generation (American Experience)

 

Again, I'm very pro-Imagineering Story. It's surprising that a Ken Burns doc like Country Music didn't get more love. Meanwhile, McMillion$ is the only Nominee I can stand by. I'm not sure why the nomination ballot for this was so much emptier than the Directing field.

Winner: B-Team (Narrowly)

 

Outstanding Documentary Or Nonfiction Special

Nominees

*The Apollo (HBO)

*Beastie Boys Story (Apple TV+)

*Becoming (Netflix)

*The Great Hack (Netflix)

*Laurel Canyon: A Place In Time (EPIX)

 

B-Team

*AKA Jane Roe

*The Black Godfather

The Happy Days of Garry Marshall

I Love You, Now Die: The Commonwealth v. Michelle Carter

*One Day At Disney

 

I was much more about the Documentary Series than Specials. So, I'm going to go with the marquee names. The B-Team doesn't have any. The Nominees have the Beastie Boys and the Obamas. Clear edge goes to the Nominees.

Winner:Nominees (Comfortably)

 

Outstanding Documentary Or Nonfiction Series

Nominees

*American Masters

*Hillary

The Last Dance

McMillion$

Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem And Madness

 

B-Team

*Abstract: The Art of Design

*Atlanta's Missing and Murdered: The Lost Children

*Country Music

The Imagineering Story

*Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich

 

Again, I wasn't super impressed with Tiger King, so really this is McMillion$ and The Last Dance vs. The Imagineering Story and Country Music. I reeeeeally loved The Imagineering Story, and I recommend it to anyone. I've gotta go with the Nominees though.

Winner: Nominees (Narrowly)

 

---

4-1 Nominees

We're starting to get to a point where there are so many shows being made that even these off-beat categories are getting competative. Then again, I did leave out a ton of categories that aren't remotely deep enough. Stuff like Interactive and Short Form Series. Those are...rough.