There were several aspects of “Self Made Man” that made her performance worthy of Emmy consideration, but one – which is tempting to forget and even consider a negative – is that it was the logical apex of one side of the Cameron character she had been playing throughout the series. Few people deserve an awards for fifteen minutes of playing a new character, if they did, we would see most Emmys going to players of cameo appearances or “Victim/villian of the week” characters in crime dramas. I’ve seen some utterly fantastic patient of the week performances in House but I’m not surprised only the regulars ever get any consideration.

Summer was the one bright spot in that awful TV series. And Self Made Man was her opportunity to define a major part of the character, and as always, she excelled at it. The episode would not have carried and not have been considered one of the best of the series if it wasn’t for Summer’s performance. And yes, Summer had done many of the acts before, but that’s not a negative: SMM pulled those acts together in one place. And Summer did a fantastic job of realizing it.

Olivia Williams – I think we’ve seen more of her than you think! “Haunted” practically revolved around her, and episodes like “Spy in the House of Love” and, as you say (but seem to see as “out of character” – actually I saw it as an awesomely perverse way of defining the character) “Echoes”, helped define a character that wasn’t what was expected.

I think the way to define William’s performance is by the reaction to her character from other people. And, I can tell you, I’ve never seen a single character that generates such absolute loathing of the creators of the show itself. Hell, I’ve been flamed and treated as someone who just said “I think Hitler’s a pretty nice guy” for saying that I think DeWitt is a fantastic character who isn’t some cheap archetype. And, of course, some of that is the writing, but a huge amount rests on Williams’ performance.

I don’t know if it’s worth an Emmy right now, but it’s certainly deserving of a nomination, and, who knows, with a new series that should help define the character even more, we might see something more concrete this time next year.

(BTW, isn’t the Internet wonderful? Miracle Laurie got my tweet this weekend, wishing the cast and crew better luck next year, and retweeted it. A few years ago, I’d have had to go to the trouble of writing a letter for what was a brief complement that’d have probably been filtered through an agent anyway. The world seems to get smaller every year.)

I’m happy with all the nominations of ABC! Especially with Lost, Desperate Housewives, Grey’s Anatomy, Ugly Betty, Pushing Daisies, Brothers & Sisters and Boston Legal.

OTOH, I think Summer’s performance in Self-Made Man was purely workmanlike, and nothing special. There were no heavy emotional moments compared to Allison From Palmdale where she was constantly laying on the emotion heavy both as a robot and as a human. Watching Summer’s face scrunch up as she was crying as Allison was a tear-jerker. Her reactions when she was confronted by John in the halfway house subtly indicated that she was re-asserting her Terminator mode precisely at the moment he suggested he could “fix” her.

Considering how difficult it is to play a robot that still manages to convey what’s going on in the machine’s mind merely by subtle facial expressions, Summer definitely had the toughest role on the show. Lena was brilliant as Sarah, but Summer was also brilliant. I doubt most of the actresses nominated really could have pulled off that role as well as Summer did. She has an amazingly expressive face as a real person, which is one reason she’s such a fine actress.

The guy who played the library clerk had more emotional moments than Summer did in Self Made Man; he was very good. But she played robot just as she always did, except for the part at the end where he went off on her and her face showed the lack of comprehension in dealing with a human emotional outburst and the reasons thereof.

No, Summer definitely deserved an Emmy nomination if anyone did.

I’m sure they are all very good in their shows, but that shouldn’t surprise anyone. They should almost be judged relative to their own work or just give them all lifetime achievements and bar them from the general category. Go Elizabeth or Mariska! I guess I’m even more saddened by the prospect of well acted challenging TV missing out on acknowledment in order to feed these TV vehicles for Hollywood heavyweights. Sally’s show is excluded from that remark, not because it is challenging but because it is not a Sally Field vehicle. Please don’t think I’m saying TSCC was challenging either, it was not. I’m sure there is some small show somewhere with a great actress that would have greatly benefited from the exposure of a nom and instead we get catering to the established acting brands.

iCarly is primetime right? Jennette McCurdy snubbed, wtf ??

Terminator almost completely ignored at Emmy’s

Lots of whining and moaning over the fact that TSCC was virtually ignored….
Hmm…could it be because it was virtuality ignored every Friday night at 9pm ?

~Lanie~”

How many other good shows were virtually Emmy ignored? Buffy was amazing yet was ignored year after year. X-Files, Star Trek Next Gen, Angel, etc etc etc

I think the beating of the TSCC dead horse should be done. Let the fans that miss their show whine and moan, its hard when something you like gets cancelled, and they have every right to be annoyed.

Next season we’ll be hearing the whining and moaning of the Dollhouse fans when Fox axes that as well.

“Michael Lombardo, president of HBO’s programming group and West Coast operations, talked with B&C’s Melissa Grego about the network’s plans for keeping up the momentum, his reaction to Emmy nominations HBO did and didn’t get, and what he thinks of Showtime and other rivals. Following is an edited transcript of that conversation.”

“Are you surprised True Blood didn’t get more recognition?

Not really. Truth is, we premiered the new season of True Blood right before the nominations, so timing-wise it really didn’t have time to have impact with Emmy voters. I think its time will come. Next year, I would be very surprised and disappointed if it weren’t recognized more.”

Season 2 is even worse: it’s lost the “OMG THOSE’R ROGUES BOOBS!” factor.

I’m surprised by all the surprise about SCC getting nothing. It was sci-fi, so that’s strike #1…and it was an unsuccessful sci-fi show (in terms of ratings). You think the Academy is going to nominate that?! Please. People should know by now that nominations aren’t about quality, not totally.

I’m glad True Blood got ’snubbed.’ Season 1, frankly, wasn’t that great. It was still finding itself. It also has the fantasy strike against it, but Alan Ball and HBO might make up for that next year.

and obviously that stuff can get too relentless. i think on the movie front sacha baron cohen is finding that out a little bit this week. and if every show were like that, it would be a horrible world. but without that impulse there’s no da ali g show, there’s no borat movie. and that would be a shame.

Dave Chappelle did what you claim Sarah Silverman does. Sarah Silverman is just dick and fart jokes, and that, my friend… is retarded.

as for people hating sarah silverman, utterly stipulated eric. she’s doing stuff designed to peel the paint off your living room walls. shows like hers and the late great wonder showzen are the best justification i know of for limited-audience cable channels. but she’s doing stuff nobody else ever contemplated playing for comedy before, how many comedies can say that?

On the positive side, I’m glad to see Family Guy up for Best Comedy. I’m a huge fan and I thought it had it’s best season since returning.

More so than any other show I watched while it was on… i LOVED the intro’s to Terminator. Every episode had an awesome intro, and just as things were heating up… DUN UN DUN DUN UN! that awesome terminator score played… got me pumped.