andreikirilenkotattoo on TV: Emmy nominations

The Emmy nominations are out, and I'm torn between outrage ("Entourage"? "Boston Legal"? Almost nothing for "The Wire" or "Battlestar" or "HIMYM"?) and contentment (lots of love for "Mad Men," plus a surprise Bryan Cranston nomination). The lead of my column:

It's nice to know that the Emmy voters all upgraded their cable package.

The nominations of years past would have you believe that every member of the television Academy subscribed only to the broadcast networks and HBO. If a performer or show from a non-HBO cable channel slipped into the major nominations, it was almost a shock.

But the 2007-8 Emmy nominations feature three cable shows - FX's "Damages," Showtime's "Dexter" and AMC's "Mad Men" - duking it out for Outstanding Drama Series, the first time any non-broadcast, non-HBO show has cracked this category, let alone three of them.

To read the full thing, click here. For a complete list of nominees, click here. (For a slightly shorter list, in order of importance, click here.) And after the jump, some other Emmy thoughts I didn't have room for in the column:

-Despite the gag-inducing self-congratulatory repeat nods for �Entourage� and some other Emmy faves, I have to applaud the voters for controlling their kneejerk reflexes with some other series that had terrible seasons. Only two minor nominations (including a very deserving one for Charles Durning) for �Rescue Me,� and only a handful of nods (notably for Chandra Wilson, Sandra Oh, and not for best drama) for �Grey�s Anatomy.�

-On the flipside, despite what was considered by many to be a bounce-back year, none of the �Desperate Housewives� stars got a nomination.

-Though HBO didn�t crack the best drama category for the first time since �98, it was nice to see �In Treatment� get four nominations � in particular, to see Glynn Turman get recognized for his extraordinary guest star turn as Blair Underwood�s dad. The guest star categories are usually dominated by movie stars, so it�s nice to see a character actor get a nod for something so great.

-�Family Guy� made the top 10 for Outstanding Comedy Series but couldn�t crack the final list, meaning (according to Tom O�Neil) no animated series has been nominated here since �The Flintstones� in 1961.

-Only one nomination, for casting, for �Friday Night Lights� season two.

-I figured my beloved �Flight of the Conchords� would be too weird for the Emmy voters, but at least it got writing and directing nominations, plus two song nominations, for �Most Beautiful Girl (In The Room)� and �Inner-City Pressure.� They�ll have a tough road ahead of them, as Sarah Silverman�s �I�m (Being Intimate With) Matt Damon� is also in the category.

-Only two nods � one of them the deserving but predictable one for Neil Patrick Harris � for �How I Met Your Mother.� Sigh...

-Given that Michael Angeli is widely-reviled by �Battlestar Galactica� fandom, I wonder how the fans are going to react to an Angeli script (�Six of One�) being the one to crack the drama writing list. As �Mad Men� (either the pilot or the season finale) will almost certainly win this category, I guess it�s a moot point.

-The �Extras� finale, which I loved, got submitted as a movie and wound up getting nominations in all the right categories: best movie, writing, directing, plus acting nods for Ricky Gervais and (especially) Ashley Jensen.

What do you think?