Why Don Mirscher knows squat

Who is Don Mirscher? The executive producer of the Emmys, who apparently took exception to another year of criticism for the egregious omissions of this years nominations. No “best series” for “The Good Wife.” No “best actor” for James Spader. Most shockingly, no best actress for Tatiana Maslany.

What was his excuse?

““The Emmys are not a popular choice award. The Emmys are an industry award. The Emmys are determined by the men and women who create television. That’s why for those of us who are lucky enough to win an Emmy, it means a lot because it’s our competitors and our peers that have given that to us. I think the way it’s set up and the way it’s going to work again this year is that the nominations came from people in the industry who make the product. How many people watch a particular product I don’t think is as important as the quality of the product, and that’s been reflected in the nominations that you’ve seen four days ago.”

Here’s why this excuse is idiotic.

It IS a popular choice award. The fact that the popularity choice is being rendered by people in the industry doesn’t make it any less so. Popular series get paid attention to; less popular series are ignored. Maslany wasn’t nominated because far fewer people watch “Orphan Black” than the other nominated series. Spader was ignored because…I dunno, they’re dumbasses.

But oh my God, they have to limit the number of nominations because…well, I don’t know why, exactly. The Academy award doubled the number of nominated films and that didn’t cause the Oscars to collapse. Why couldn’t they have said, “You know what? We need another space or two in these categories because we can’t ignore Maslany and Spader; they’re just too good.”

Sorry, can’t do that. Because they’re professionals, don’t’cha know. And you and I and the other non-voters, the ones who they actually fall over each other to get us to watch their programs, we’re fine when it comes to making shows for us. But when it comes to expressing opinions, we should keep our mouths shut and leave it to the pros.

This is the exact kind of pig-headed thinking that will likely continue to screw Andy Serkis of an Oscar nomination next year when he gets once again overlooked for his brilliant work as Caesar in “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.” Any person with a brain knows that that’s Serkis acting up on the screen. But to the professionals, he’s just a special effect and nothing more.

Idiots.

PAD