Enjoy:

Damages
The Good Wife
Harry’s Law
Hot in Cleveland
Modern Family
Nurse Jackie
Spartacus: Gods of the Arena
Suits

It’s not because of the quality of these shows, which is generally quite high, but because they are not SAG projects! SAG Awards go to SAG projects, in my opinion. But considering how the new shows are overwhelmingly AFTRA these last few seasons, it’s interesting to note that the nominations are not overwhelmingly AFTRA. (Not yet.)

Though I hope you’ll watch me, you’ll probably hear me more than see me in the opening sequence of this cuh-razy episode all about pageants for little girls. See a preview on the YouTube.

I wonder how long it will take from the time of hearing the news that saliva analysis is a possible CSI tool till it shows up on an episode of a certain forensics-heavy TV show? Let me know if you see age-by-spit in a plot.

That’s the end. The final episode of Big Love aired on March 20, and I watched every episode. Thank you for Big Love. Thank you to creators Mark V. Olsen and Will Sheffer, thank you to HBO, thank you to the writers and cast and crew, thank you one and all.

Watching BL, I frequently gaped, laughed or sighed. More than once, I bawled heavily. There were some missteps, as with most every TV show, and there were some mistakes central to the topic at hand. One minor character who was very active in her LDS faith would have said “Oh my gosh,” there. One major character mispronounced “Melchizedek” and “temple recommend” both. And, as I said, a few times it wandered in ways had nothing to do with its unique topic and drifted into unfortunate cheesy melodrama. But not very often. More significantly, it was well-made, gripping and pretty damn good. I will miss it.

Some Mormons are opposed to Big Love, whether they’ve seen it or not. I hope there aren’t too many like this, but I know of more than one who, because they’ve been told to be offended by it, by golly they are. Perhaps they imagine every episode over there on HBO is filled with nudity, cursing and wanton mockery of things Mormons hold dear. Nope. There’s a very small amount of that spread over 53 episodes. You could cut 2 entire scenes and 2 seconds of 2 other scenes and all that would be gone, so that’s not really much to get up in arms about now, is it? If it’s not for you, it’s not for you, that’s cool, but if you’re opposed to the message of this show, it seems to me you are opposed to good drama and opposed to a strong message of family, of faith, of being different, of love. Consider the irony.

Back to the motivation to write this post — which is that I will miss it. I’m going to miss seeing things on TV you don’t see on TV all that much. Multiple wives, yes, but also sayings like, “It’s good to have an open mind, but not so open that your brains fall out” (Nicki was always my crazy favorite), and references to “those GD protesters.” Sigh, sigh and sigh. With big gratitude, I bid you a big, fond farewell, Big Love!

I look forward to the ceremony Sunday night! (More accurate: I look forward to reading about it on Monday morning!)

UPDATE: My vote went to the award recipient only 3 of 12 times. There were lots of good choices!

I can say, however, that as a literalist, I will not vote for any work on an AFTRA show. Why? Because these are the friggin’ SAG Awards! With the exception of the Female-Comedy category, the majority of the nominees are working on SAG shows (shown in bold). AFTRA shows (shown in italics) will not get my vote, even if that has very little to do with the quality of the work.

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series
Steve Buscemi — Boardwalk Empire (HBO)
Bryan Cranston — Breaking Bad (AMC)
Michael C. Hall — Dexter (Showtime)
Jon Hamm — Mad Men (AMC)
Hugh Laurie — House (FOX)

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series
Glenn Close — Damages (FX)
Mariska Hargitay — Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (NBC)
Julianna Margulies — The Good Wife (CBS)
Elisabeth Moss — Mad Men (AMC)
Kyra Sedgwick — The Closer (TNT)

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series
Alec Baldwin – 30 Rock (NBC)
Ty Burrell — Modern Family (ABC)
Steve Carell – The Office (NBC)
Chris Colfer — Glee (FOX)
Ed O’Neill — Modern Family (ABC)

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series
Edie Falco – Nurse Jackie (Showtime)
Tina Fey – 30 Rock (NBC)
Jane Lynch — Glee (FOX)
Sofia Vergara — Modern Family (ABC)
Betty White — Hot In Cleveland (TV Land)

Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series
Boardwalk Empire (HBO)
The Closer (TNT)
Dexter (Showtime)
The Good Wife (CBS)
Mad Men (AMC)

Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series
30 Rock (NBC)
Glee (FOX)
Hot In Cleveland (TV Land)
Modern Family (ABC)
The Office (NBC)

Pretty much only Mr White and Jesse have any lines. More significantly: It’s hilarious (for a while). I am laughing out loud and BB is not a Laugh Out Loud show. BB is a Freak the F Out show.

Anybody else remember and lurve this lovely episode about killing a fly? From pre-credits thingy, to whacking each with an impromptu flyswatter, this episode rawks. (Insiders, read this, too.)

Which Dick do I remind you of most? Links in Dicks’ names are to Google Images. Click, look, and weigh in via the comments.

It’s written by Ginsburg & McIntyre, and you can follow their shenanigans more on the Twitter.

But Lena also sang some cheesy, fun lounge classics. On this day of her funeral, take a moment to enjoy these two songs that appeared on the Ultra-Lounge compilations. Wives and Lovers. It Had Better Be Tonight.

RIP, Lena. Rest in peace.

My love of BB had actually caused me to stop watching the show. You know, keep a few episodes on the TiVo because watching them all means it’s over, and you don’t want it to end. So now, in glorious anticipation of season 3, I have plunged into the end of season 2.

Episode 11 starts with horrifying violence from a youth. Dear lord, I hope New Mexico doesn’t have such horrible murderous children. As for the rest of it, let me just say this: “Bob Odenkirk!!!!!! Anna Gunn prego singing — schwing!!!!!!”

Episode 12: Whoa. More Krysten Ritter!!!!!! and more John de Lancie!!!!!! Then there was the me watching the very end saying, “Holy sh*t.” Whoa.

Episode 13, episode the last: It starts with the B&W montage that reminds me once again of Sunset Boulevard, a montage we’ve seen a few variations of throughout the season. It is awesome. Perhaps you have to be into the show to know it’s awesome, like viewing a subtle work of art you might pass by at the museum if you didn’t see on the plaque that it’s by Famous Artist. This montage of doom segues into an opening scene of more death. It’s grisly. And it’s an awesome season finale.

And now … I await season 3. Bring it! (And please use actual element symbols for every credited named. Michael Slovis deserves as much.) Season 3 happens on Sunday the 21st!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8wujfB0wwU

It was a great experience to watch him watch himself. I spent that Sunday at his apartment, and after this spot aired, we high-fived and generally celebrated. We did not slap each other in the back of the head — he was too busy responding to the onslaught of text messages from his peeps. Good stuff. Congrats, Katz!

Caprica, I can’t get into it. Despite my deep deep love for BSG. I have to say the strongest SyFy show now is SG-U.

Archer is a well-done cartoon on FX. People aren’t talking about it in my world, but they should. TV-MA ratings and cartoons can be a strange combo for viewers that aren’t immature men like myself, but check it out.

Modern Family is strong, strong, strong.

The Super Bowl was awesome.

And the two shows I never, ever miss continue to be The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, because they make me a better person.

What shows do you never miss?

But now the day has arrived. Now I can say, “I am working on 24 tomorrow.” Excellent.

Script revisions (they always happen, in case you’re not familiar with the TV process) have given me a much bigger chunk of dialog to memorize, it turns out. So no more blogging, I’ve got work to do!

Yesterday, Friday, 18 December 2009, I visited Jim & Jean in the wardrobe department for a fitting, and then I’ll shoot my scene on 24′s next working day. This is a common way to schedule things in TV work, but there’s something quite uncommon about it in this case. The entire production team is taking an extra-long holiday hiatus, so their next working day is Monday, 18 January 2010. In fact, Season 8 premieres one day before my scene shoots. It will be thrilling to watch, I am sure, so watching it will not be a good idea. Thrilling TV keeps me up at night, and I have an early call time!