Emmy Opening in Poor Taste?

The Emmys is a huge production. They're already planning next year's show. It would have been a major ordeal for them to change something like that hours before the show. It's business versus questionable ethics...in TV, business usually wins...

...not my opinion, just the way things are.
 
It's business versus questionable ethics
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I don't think the ethics are even that questionable.

At what point do we admit this country is becoming wishy washy and oversensitive to every issue?

Yes its a terrible tradgedy but you know what if my loved ones died in a horrific plane crash i don't think I'd be watching the Emmy's to pick up my spirits.

I'd be mourning and making preparations to identify the body so why is this even an issue?


So in response to the original question yes i think you are being too sensitive H.L.
 
NBC Apologizes for Emmy Plane Crash Insensitivity
Network executives at NBC have publicly apologized for airing a fake airplane crash as a comedy skit at the beginning of Sunday's 58th Annual Emmy Awards telecast. Ceremony host Conan O'Brien's pre-ceremony skit was savaged by critics yesterday for its insensitivity - it came just hours after a plane crash in Kentucky left 49 people dead. In the pre-recorded skit, O'Brien's "crash" mimicked the incident that launched TV series Lost. Following the backlash, NBC bosses released a statement late yesterday saying, "Our hearts and prayers go out to the many families who lost loved ones in the plane crash in Kentucky on Sunday. In no way would we ever want to make light of this terrible tragedy. The film's opening during the Emmy telecast was meant to spoof some of television's most well-known scenes. The timing was unfortunate and we regret any unintentional pain it may have caused."
 
The Machinist said:
I don't think the ethics are even that questionable.

At what point do we admit this country is becoming wishy washy and oversensitive to every issue?

Yes its a terrible tradgedy but you know what if my loved ones died in a horrific plane crash i don't think I'd be watching the Emmy's to pick up my spirits.

I'd be mourning and making preparations to identify the body so why is this even an issue?


So in response to the original question yes i think you are being too sensitive H.L.
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Because, people are so worried about what others think they forget to stop and ask what they ACTUALLY think. People constantly make up their mind for other people and don't give the people themselves a chance to speak out.
 
To me, they could do nothing about it, and was not in bad taste at all. It is sad that that tragedy happened to happen a few days ago, but what was NBC supposed to do? Cut the whole intro, which probably cost a million just to shoot?
 
I'm the last guy you'll find screaming for censorship. Hell, I once wrote a short script in which a mother gives her teenage son a handjob. It was even too over the top for the student director.

I think what concerns me here is the timing and the captive audience thing.

I'd never attempt to tell Paul Greengrass or Oliver Stone that it was too soon for them to make their 9/11 movies and I'd certainly never attempt to tell them not to make them in the first place. However, there is nothing wrong with showing sensitivity to people who have recently experienced a tragedy. Case in point, when I went to see The Libertine at a theater in the East Village and it goes dark and up comes the trailer for Flight 93 I was furious. It wasn't the "the families wanted us to make this movie" trailer. It was the "here's what happens" trailer. I was a captive audience essentially forced to watch images that took me back to the darkest day of my life. Anyone and everyone is welcome to go see that movie, because that's what they're paying to see. I didn't drop my $10.50 for The Libertine to be acosted by that trailer, which I found extremely insensitive to NYC audiences.

I feel the same way about this Emmy skit. When people sit down to watch the Emmys they don't expect to see a plane crash and if they just lost a friend or relative in one THAT DAY it's extremely insensitive of NBC not to either warn audiences or edit the sequence to take out the potentially upsetting material.
 
warn audiences
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That seems like a much more reasonable and prudent course of action.

And for the record i was more upset that i paid 21.00 to see the libertine than i was about the United 93 trailer.

Although i have admittedly not watched the film and never intend to.
 
Who the hell watches the Emmy's when their relative or friend just died hours before?

EDIT: oh, yes, Machinist did say :smiley_up that earlier.... "great minds....."

P.S. Doesn't showbiz say: "The show must go on?"
 
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I agree with Machinist. The people directly affected by this tragedy wouldn't be watching the emmys. They have other things to do right now. Are we gonna cancel the next episode of Lost while we're at it?

And NBC shouldn't have apologized. That was lame. I love how huge corporations will screw people over left and right, and then turn around and apologize for the wrong things. What the frick is going on in this country?
 
Mike McNeese said:
The Emmys is a huge production. They're already planning next year's show. It would have been a major ordeal for them to change something like that hours before the show. It's business versus questionable ethics...in TV, business usually wins...

...not my opinion, just the way things are.
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The 2001 Emmy Awards were postponed twice because of the Sept 11 attacks and again when we went to war in Afghanistan. I'm sure a lot of money was lost rescheduling everything. That doesn’t seem like "questionable ethics" to me.

The crash in Kentucky was tragic but so are the average 114 automobile deaths every single day. IMO, NBC didn't need to apologize, but I can see why they did it.
 
Next thing you know you wont be able to show people dieing in films or tv because it's offensive to people that have known people who have died.
 
And yet news media can show the most graphic images available during primetime with no censorship or any real warnings other than a quick "graphic images to follow" from the anchor.

Damn hypocrites.

I saw HORRIFIC pictures and video on MSNBC during this prison "expose" they were doing. Some of the most gruesome stuff I've ever seen.

And I've seen someone get run over by a subway and another person shot point blank by a shotgun 50 ft away from me.
 
Hairy Lime said:
In response to your justification, it's not about intention, it's about sensitivity. The Emmy skit aired a little over 12 hours after the first jet air disaster in the US in nearly 5 years. Had the crash occurred weeks or months before the Emmy's it might not have been so bad, but the very day 49 people lost their lives? Very poor choice.
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And many thousands of people each day are dying from gun shots, car crashes, famine, disease, and suicide etc..

Where's your 'sensitivity' on those events?

(and hint, incase it was obscure, media about all those events occurs rather daily)

edit.
 
they prep months ahead for the opening. plus if we censor it might as well take snakes on aplane out of the theaters. and wtc.
 
My sensitivity is just fine on those fronts, thanks.

You'll notice none of those tragedies were used in the skit. Thus they're not really at play here.
 
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