…TheWrap.Com, of course.
Emmy vs. Oscar: Which Honors the More Substantial Work?
by Steve Pond
It’s become conventional wisdom that there’s more vital work taking place these days on television than in movies.
At some point, goes the story, a bunch of TV writers tired of the usual small-screen fare and started stretching their creative muscles. (And strangely, lots of them were named David: David Milch did “NYPD Blue,” David Chase did “The Sopranos,” David Simon did “The Wire”…)
But how long has it really been going on? And how is it reflected in the awards picture? If one were to compare the Emmy-winning drama series and the Oscar-winning movie from each year, which medium would consistently deliver the more significant achievement?
I did just that, and the results aren’t pretty for Oscar, at least not lately. Since 2000, we’ve had 11 Best Picture winners and 11 Emmy drama-series champs—and by my reckoning, the TV shows have been more substantial, and more impactful in the culture, nine of those 11 years.
By his reckoning? Who the fuck is he and how did he arrive at his reckoning? His own personal taste? Don’t get me started.
Oh-oh, too late. I’m revving. Under orders, as I am, to be cooler than I, um, may have been in the past, I’ll just go back to the basic premise of Mr. Pond’s masturbation article: Hollywood trade organizations – cuz that’s all the TV and film “academies” are, don’t you know? – honoring “substantial work?” In your dreams, Steve-o. You know, the ones about you and the Davids in the steam bath with Revolta swapping writing tips?
Seems to me that if a site like The Wrap, which makes, like, real money from real advertising, unlike TVWriter™, which has no advertising at all because whenever we contact those miserable ad reps to get them to buy some space they in turn put on the pressure for us to buy from them so we can improve our visitor stats and attract – maybe – Final Draft or Creative Screenwriting or some other niche company that has no money and just wants to trade links anyway…
Where was I? Crap. Oh, wait – if a site like The Wrap is looking to fill up pages so people don’t notice that 90% of it is P.R. handouts, they could at the very least give us something helpful or fun, like pictures of hookers hanging with Michael Bay, because catering to my fantasies over some other writer’s definitely gets my vote.
Bottom line: Forget TheWrap. Go to P.R. wire. Or Deadline.Com because even though Nikki’s got a lot of the same stuff she’s nutsy fun.
