Episode 3-65: 2005 Emmy Watch I

Best Directing (Comedy)

Charles McDougal (Desperate Housewives) - Pilot
David Frankel (Entourage) Pilot
Gary Halvorson (Everybody Loves Raymond) Finale
Randy Zisk (Monk) Mr. Monk Takes his Medicine
James Burrows (Will & Grace) It's a Dad Dad Dad Dad World

Who Should & Will Win: With no entries from Arrested or Scrubs (and why is that?), the only clear choice is the quasi-comedy Housewives.

Best Directing (Drama)

Quentin Tarantino (C.S.I. Vegas) - Grave Danger
Greg Finewood (Deadwood) Complications (formerly "Difficulties")
Peter Horton (Grey's Anatomy) A Hard Day's Night
Scott Winant (Huff) Crazy, Nuts, and all Mixed Up
J.J. Abrams (Lost) Pilot (I-II)
Alex Graves (West Wing) 2162 Votes

Who Should Win Even more than Housewives, Lost set a new standard for TV. The most expensive pilot in histoy has every dollar on screen. And the tension ratcheted up lasted throughout the entire season.
Who Will Win: It'll be down to the wire between Lost and C.S.I.. Quentin didn't win for his last go-round (a 1995 episode of e.r.). And while some scuttlebut has this being the year for new shows, more often than not Emmy defers to the safer, older options. Look for Tarantino to take it home.

Best Writing (Comedy)

Barbie Adler (Arrested Development) - Sad Sack
Brad Copeland (Arrested Development) Sword of Destiny
Mitchell Hurwitz, Jim Valley (Arrested Development) The Righteous Brothers
Marc Cherry (Desperate Housewives) Pilot
Phil Rosenthal, Ray Romano & a cast of Thousands (Everybody Loves Raymond) Finale

Who Should Win: See? I've been telling you that Arrested was good! The blowout is merely proof, although they didn't nominate my favorite, Good Grief. That said, Sad Sack has the best chance.
Who Will Win: HOWEVER ... the problem with flooding the zone during the nomination process is that you end up splitting the vote amongst yourselves. Even though Arrested won last year, the single nomination for Cherry will lead to a win.

Best Writing (Drama)

David Shore (House) - Three Stories
J.J. Abrams, Damon Lindelof, & Jeffery Leiber (Lost) Pilot I-II
David Fury (Lost) Walkabout
Dennis Leary & Peter Tolan (Rescue Me) Pilot
David Simon & George Pelecanos (The Wire) Middle Ground

Who Should Win: This just might be the strongest category of the night. All 5 entries would win in almost any year. From House's confessional to Lost's slam-bang opener and Locke's first flashback to Rescue's gripping 9/11-tinged pilot to The Wire finally being recognized after 3 full years of being known as "The Best Show Noones Watching", there's not an undeserving winner in the bunch. Knowing all that, the one that least required an assist from the director was Rescue Me.
Who Will Win: While I'd love to see House or Walkabout take it, I have a feeling that Emmy will finally make up for all those snubs and give it to The Wire

Best Guest Actor (Comedy)

Fred Willard (Everybody Loves that Raymond Fellow) as Hank
Victor Garbor (Will & Grace) as Peter Bovington
Jeff Goldblum (Will & Grace) as Frank/Scott
Bobby Cannavale (Will & Grace) as Vince
Alec Baldwin (Will & Grace) as Malcolm

Who Should Win: Seriously?!? I'm sure there was at least ONE other show that had a guest star, wasn't there?!? Let's go with non-gay one: Willard
Who Will Win: Word in the street is that Victor Garber finally gets payback for being ignored on Alias.

Best Guest Actor (Drama)

Red Buttons (er) as Mr. Roubadoux
Ray Liotta (er) as Charlie Metcalf
Ossie Davis (The L Word) as Melvin Porter
Charles Durning (NCIS) as Ernie Yost
Martin Landau (Without a Trace) as Frank Malone

Who Should Win: For no other reason than he's not hooked up to a respirator (or already dead like Ossie Davis), Liotta takes the cake.
Who Will Win: Landau was nominated last year. From now on, I'm gonna keep picking him until he wins.

Best Guest Actress (Comedy)

Georgia Engell (Raymond, We Love Him) as Pat
Kathryn Joosten (Desperate Housewives) as Ms. Landingham ... er, Mrs. McCluskey
Lupe Ontiveros (Desperate Housewives) as Juanita Solis
Cloris Leachman (Malcom in the Middle) as Ida
Blythe Danner (Grace & Will) as Marilyn Truman

Who Wasn't Nominated: Once again, how Liza Minelli wasn't nominated for vertigo-suffering Lucille II on Arrested, I'll never know.
Who Should Win: Engell and Leachman are repeat nominees. And the best performance was from Gabrielle's mother in law Juanita
Who Will Win: Joosten has the episode most likely to engender support from the voters.

Best Guest Actress (Drama)

Cloris Leachman (Joan of Arcadia) as Aunt Olive
Amanda Plummer (Law & Order: SVU) as Miranda Cole
Angela Lansbury (Law & Order: SUV) as Ealanor Duvall
Jill Clayburgh (nip/tuck) as Bobbie Broderick
Swoozie Kurtz (Huff) as Madaline Sullivan

Who Should Win: Clayburgh, for not being old.
Who Will Win: Not Leachman, she's already nominated in Comedy. Uh... Lansbury?