Emmy Fallout: Mispronounced Names, Field’s Speech And That Strange Credit
Posted September 17, 2007 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
It wasn’t exactly a completely gaffe-filled three hours plus, but those who stuck with the Emmys for its entire length saw the hazards of live TV – and a few of the strangest moments on the tube in recent memory.
It began early, when “Grey’s Anatomy” co-star Katherine Heigl was introduced as “Katherine Heital” by the show’s female announcer. The exasperated thespian made mention of the mistake twice – in her first appearance to hand out an award and in her second when she accepted the statue for Best Supporting Actress.
There were several off colour moments that had host network Fox switching away from the action to show a long shot of the set – with no explanation.
And the night had many asking the question “what’s with Sally Field and award show speeches?” You may remember her immortal, “you like me, right now, you like me” gush from 22 years ago, after winning Best Actress for 1985’s “Places In The Heart”. When she won the TV equivalent for “Brothers and Sisters” Sunday night, it was – in the words of Yogi Berra – déjà vu all over again.
Field launched into an anti-Iraq war admonishment about mothers and sons, but forgot her lines. And as producers tried to usher the babbling star offstage by playing music, she screamed at them to let her finish – then began mumbling her rehearsed speech from the beginning to try and get back on track. When she did, things didn’t get any better. “And, let’s face it, if the mothers ruled the war, there would be no g–damn wars in the first place,” she concluded with a gusto that few viewers in the U.S. saw. Her speech was cut off by the censors.
Afterwards, the 60-year-old remained nonplussed by the incident. “Oh well. I’ve been there before. Well, good. I don’t care,” she concluded. “I have no comment other than, oh well. I said what I wanted to say. I wanted to pay homage to the mothers of the world, and let their work be seen and valued.
“I think probably shouldn’t have said the “God” in front of the … I would have liked to have said more bleeped-out words.”
But what may have been the strangest moment of the night was likely missed by just about everyone who didn’t watch the closing credits. In fact, CityNews.ca may be the only place you’ll even read about it – because it apparently went unnoticed by all the other press outlets in the world.
As the list of the hundreds of writers, producers, lighting directors, dancers, singers, caterers and those associated with the show ran on the screen, there was one that went by in the blink of an eye.
It read, “Overall Smarty Pants: Brad Dunn.”
So far, there’s been no explanation about who that is or why he got that credit. But on a night where so much seemed so strange, it may have been the most appropriate ending of all.
Photo credit: Vince Bucci/Getty Images
