Processing the Emmys . . .

When I was younger, one of my favorite books was "Little Women" and every time I read the book or watched a movie version, I thought to myself, maybe this time Jo will end up with Laurie (those of you familiar with the story surely know those two star-crossed lovers belonged together). Every time, I remained optimistic until the very end.

That's kind of how I am with the Emmys, history has shown that they will most likely disappoint me and that I shouldn't care about them and that they don't really matter, but every July I anticipate the nominations with a renewed hope. I've tried to break up with the Emmys but to no avail. I've pretended I don't care, but we all know somehow I do.

Here are some of my reactions to the 2009 Emmy nominations:

Most wonderful surprise: I was positively delighted to see "How I Met Your Mother" make it into the Outstanding Comedy category. The show is about to enter its fifth season, usually if it hasn't been nominated by now, it won't be (it seems that season two is the ideal time for a show to gain Emmy recognition and secure it for the duration of its run). So I'm basking in the awesomeness of what I think is the best comedy on network TV finally getting the accolades it deserves. From now on, I might just always refer to the show as the Emmy-nominated "How I Met Your Mother."

Most devastating disappointment: So to recap, the Emmys expanded to include seven drama nominations and they couldn't make room for "Friday Night Lights" or Kyle Chandler or Connie Britton. Do you think Joe McKooy was behind this? I knew that Taylor Kitsch and Zach Gilford were long shots but I really thought (again this is where my naïve optimism comes in) that Chandler and Britton would sneak in there. What really sets me off is the show was nominated for Outstanding Casting. If the cast is so great, how come none of them were nominated?

Most confounding loyalty: The Emmys just can't seem to let "Boston Legal" go. Sure I enjoyed William Shatner's Denny Crane but it's time for the Emmys to move on. They haven't showed this kind of latent loyalty to "Desperate Housewives" or "Grey's Anatomy." Why the fixation on "Boston Legal?"

Most welcome return: Thank goodness "Lost" made it back into the best drama category. I still don't understand why more of the actors don't get recognized (seriously how good is Elizabeth Mitchell?), but I'm glad to see "Lost" back where it belongs.

Of course, there were other nominations I was thrilled about (yay Cherry Jones) and confused about (Sarah Silverman?), how about you? What was your best Emmy surprise? Most devastating disappointment. Talk about it below. And for a complete list of Emmy nominees, click here

Hopes for the new season

In two weeks, I head out to LA for the Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour. That's when new shows try to convince us to love them and existing shows swear this will be their best season yet. So I thought I would start musing about my hopes for the new season. Here's my first one: I hope they don't kill off George on "Grey's Anatomy." Yes I know T.R. Knight isn't coming back. Yes I know he was off the elevator while Izzie was still on it.  But I think I would actually prefer the show picking up a few months after the season finale and announcing that George recovered and entered the army after all. I just don't want the doom and gloom that would surround his death plus I liked George and I want to think about him happy somewhere. How about you? What are some of your hopes for the new season?

Labor Pains

Okay this is what I want to say about "Labor Pains," the movie premiering Sunday at 8 p.m. on ABC Family. Yes it stars Lindsay Lohan and yes the movie is going directly to cable, but if you take those two factors out, it's a perfectly pleasant light romantic comedy. It plays out like a made-for-TV movie, which is actually okay, since, as it turns out, it now is a made-for-TV movie. Lohan stars as Thea, a woman who when she thinks she's about to lose her job decides to tell her boss that she's pregnant. As the movie progresses, she becomes more and more committed to the lie. Cheryl Hines stars as Thea's best friend and Chris Parnell is her pompous boss. Kevin Covais (from "American Idol") is quite amusing as the sycophantic intern in Thea's office. Yes the plot is preposterous - -really how long could someone fake a pregnancy for -- but the actual movie is rather sweet and Lohan surprisingly charming. I say three and a half out of five stars.

Quotes of the Week

"I've just got one thing to say to you. I'm not that girl. The girl who's turned on on by this bad boy crap. I'm not skipping home to scribble in my journal that maybe you're a vampire." Kat to Patrick on "10 Things I Hate About You." Thanks to Kelly for the quote.

"I am a vampire, I'm supposed to be tormented." Bill to Sookie on "True Blood."  Thanks to James for the quote.

"Having the burden of winning the HOH, the first week is like kissing your best friend's girlfriend. It's exciting and good while it lasts, but the repercussions thereafter might not be in your favor. Because, everybody might hate you." Jessie on "Big Brother 11." Once again, thanks to James for the quote.

"Life's a test. You, you my boy, you're passing with flying colors. I couldn't be more proud." Eli's dad to Eli on the series finale (sniff) of "Eli Stone."

"I told my wife I had a certain surgery when I didn't." George to Grace on "The Secret Life of the American Teenager" thus confirming what we have suspected all along, that George is the father of Anne's baby.

Exchange of the Week

"If you die, I'm going to be really pissed." Tara to Lafayette on "True Blood"

"Well that makes two of us." Layfayette's response.

That's all for today. I'm back on Monday to talk about the new series "Ruby & the Rockits" and talk about what's happening on "Rescue Me," "Raising the Bar," "HawthoRNe" and more. Have a question? Seen a familiar face? Want to nominate a quote of the week? Write me at amytvgal@zap2it.com