When John Lithgow accepted his Emmy for “3rd Rock From the Sun,” he accepted in disbelief. The talented actor and proven thespian was amazed to win his award because he was convinced everyone thought he was making a giant ass of himself as High Commander Dick Solomon. And to a degree, he was, but it as a sacrifice he was making for his art, for a show that used its situation comedy for social commentary. Fast forward eight years and you have a cast full of actors making giant asses of themselves, but with no depth to their show. And yet, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences has honored “Two and a Half Men” with seven Emmy nominations, including nods in all the major Comedy categories.
Now, this isn’t the first time the sitcom series has been recognized by the Emmys before, although it is the first time the show has gotten nominated across all categories. Previous years have seen recognition of the men in the show or the women, or editing, but this year is different. This year all major cast members have received nominations in their respective categories, with the exception of the half man, Angus T. Jones, and Melanie Lynskey, who had the common sense to jump ship for a promising action/drama series that was prematurely killed by the Fox network.
What do I have against “Two and a Half Men”? It’s too simple. It’s simple comedy with no real drive or purpose. There’s no witty social commentary. There’s no moralistic journey going on. It’s not even a coming of age story, despite the pubescent younger cast member. Even the sympathetic divorcee concept wore out after half a dozen episodes. Instead it’s a weekly foray into common situation comedy more clichéd that “Full House”. Name a sitcom standard and they’ve done it. Flashing forward in time and aging all the cast members? Done. Wacky Christmas episode? Done. It’s so formulaic it hurts. It’s almost enough to make us forget Charlie Sheen was such a good replacement for Michael J. Fox on “Spin City.”
Don’t get me wrong. I recognize there’s an audience out there for formulaic agony. After all, “The War At Home” managed to stay on the air much longer than it had content for. But look at the Emmy category competition: “Entourage” and “30 Rock” are clever commentaries on the Hollywood machine, exposing the workings of movies and television with a humorous edge. “Ugly Betty” is a similar expose only on fashion magazines and a commentary on our fixation with physical and tangible attractiveness. “The Office” puts that incompetent boss and clueless group of employees in the limelight; something most of us can relate to (and if you can’t relate to, you’re probably that clueless employee or incompetent boss). And then there’s “Two and a Half Men”… see the difference?
Instead, this year “Two and a Half Men” is one of the heavy contenders for the Emmy awards, leading me to a concern that it might actually have a chance at overthrowing something much more worthy; winning the award over a show that actually has thought put into its creation. After all, the proof is in the writing, the one major Comedy category that sees no nominations from “Two and a Half Men”. That’s because it doesn’t take much creativity in writing to throw a dart at a list of sitcom clichés and then let Charlie Sheen play the single swinger (basically just a version of himself) on camera.
But the nominations are out. It’s too late to have an impact on them. However, some of you out there have control over who wins. I implore those of you with voting power not to reward base humor and mindlessness over actual skill and commentary. “Two and a Half Men” is the path that leads us toward Mike Judge’s parodical “Ow, My Balls.” Television is already a vast wasteland of nothingness at times. Let’s not encourage more by rewarding that. Seek out the good that is provided by programming, not the mediocre. The Emmy Award should be for people who make asses of themselves for a purpose, like John Lithgow once did, not people who are just good at making asses of themselves. Otherwise you might just start handing out Emmys to every other person on the street; that’s how meaningless the award will have become.
