Is Steven Spielberg's 'Falling Skies' doomed when it comes to TV's highest honor?
By debuting "Falling Skies" on June 19, it looks like TNT believes that there's little hope of Hollywood embracing Steven Spielberg's new sci-fi series for TV's top award. The cutoff for Emmy eligibility is May 31. Had TNT aired just six episodes prior to that date, "Falling Skies" could compete in the current derby. At next year's Emmy competition, it may seem like old news.
Granted, science fiction and fantasy dramas tend to fare poorly when it comes to most Hollywood awards. Spielberg's "E.T." lost best picture at the Oscars to "Gandhi" in 1982, and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" wasn't even nominated for the top Academy Award in 1977. (At least "Star Wars" made it into the race, losing to "Annie Hall," but "Encounters" also got aced out of a nomination for best picture by "Julia" and "The Goodbye Girl.")
Sci-fi/fantasy fare does poorly at the Emmys too, but at least "The X-Files," "Star Trek" and "Star Trek: The Next Generation" have been nominated for best drama series in the past. One promising omen: Spielberg proved that he can get his productions beamed through such resistance in 2003, when "Taken" -- his marathon tale of alien abduction for the Sci-Fi Channel -- won for best TV miniseries.
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-- Tom O'Neil
Photo: Noah Wylie's character leads earthly resistance to an alien invasion in TNT's new drama series "Falling Skies." Credit: TNT
Dear Mr. Spielberg,
I could go on about all of your accomplishments but all I want to say
is that you have enriched my life.
Thank you for that.
Respectfully,
Michal Kivlehen(age 65)
P.S. I'm sorry but I'm still "pissed"
that your story about "Saving Private Ryan"
didn't get the best picture award.
Posted by: Michael Kivlehen | April 13, 2011 at 11:16 PM
It may be that, given how short season one is, the producers might be aiming to get season 2 in prior to the next cutoff, thereby garnering it two seasons of attention in one Emmy's cycle.
Of course, it may also be that Spielberg wants the Emmy to go to Terra Nova :P
Posted by: Genre Addict | April 04, 2011 at 09:04 PM
To ChaCha, please remember Richard Attenborough himself said E.T. should've won Best Picture, not his own film Gandhi.
Posted by: Alientraveller | March 31, 2011 at 01:51 AM
Spielberg sci-fi films got no Oscar love for Best Pic is because they're all special effects razzle, dazzle and no substance. Close Encounters was really quite dull overall and E.T. was over-hyped kiddie fare which kinda doze me off. The only thing about E.T. that kept me awake throughout the movie was John Williams' score. Plus both movies seem quite dated now, que no?
Posted by: ChaChaheels | March 30, 2011 at 02:34 PM
True Blood gets its share of nominations and it's a summer show.
Posted by: Joe B. | March 30, 2011 at 11:55 AM
Tom, wouldn't you say it's just the opposite though? What your defeatist post ignores is that the date could very well be taken as a sign of strength that the TV show WILL NOT be forgotten come next year's Emmys. Think about it. You can just as well take it as a display of condidence that they don't even worry about making some artificial deadlines and are releasing it when they want to.
Also, your post about Sci-Fi being ignores, conveniently makes no mention the fact that Spielberg- exec produced "Taken" won an Emmy award for best mini-series. They know what they are doing here.
In, other words, it looks to me like someone's trying to hard to cast doubt over something that looks like an impressive show.
Posted by: Proman | March 30, 2011 at 08:42 AM