Inside the Golden Globes: Best Actor - Comedy
Tuesday, January 02, 2007
The category of Best Actor in a Comedy Series has always been full of heavyweights. This year is no different. The Golden Globe nominees in this category are big names and all quite deserving, but I have a couple questions (though they may be deemed moot for eligibility reasons). The dearth of comedy on TV these days has thinned out the field, but what remains is still formidable.
Digressing for a second; Isn't it about time we nominate voice actors in a category? Think about who would be nominated in a
Best Voice Actor - Comedy category:
Your Take
Trey Parker as Eric Cartman (South Park)
Dan Castellaneta as Homer Simpson (The Simpsons)
Seth MacFarlane as Peter Griffin (Family Guy)
(umm...maybe that's about it...ooh, wait)
Bob Saget as Future Ted Mosby (How I Met Your Mother)
All right, so maybe that's a stretch. Here are the Golden Globe nominees:
Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series - Musical or Comedy
Nominees:
Alec Baldwin for 30 Rock
Zach Braff for Scrubs
Steve Carell for The Office
Jason Lee for My Name Is Earl
Tony Shalhoub for Monk
Anybody notice something here? Yep, NBC's Thursday Night line-up is representing. Four of the five nominees (Braff, Carrell, Baldwin, and Lee) star in NBC shows that air in one two-hour block. As I've said before, NBC now boasts the best comedy line-up in years, maybe ever. Seriously.
Anyway, Steve Carrell, Jason Lee, and Zach Braff are no-brainers. Alec Baldwin is certainly hysterical, but I wonder if he's really a lead on 30 Rock. I'd peg him as a supporting actor. If Baldwin can get this nomination, why not put up
Neil Patrick Harris for his work as Barney on
How I Met Your Mother.
Tony Shalhoub has always been a critical darling and, given my lack of Monk-watching, I can't really make an argument one way or another. Shalhoub was hilarious in the wildly underrated film
Galaxy Quest so, you know, I can deal with the nomination.
Was
Arrested Development out of the running? It seems so. Otherwise, Jason Bateman would've deserved a nod. Same goes for Larry David and
Curb Your Enthusiasm. Otherwise, the Hollywood Foreign Press did a pretty great job on this category. Well done, sirs.
The Golden Globes air on January 15, 2007, on NBC.
-Oscar Dahl, BuddyTV Senior Writer