Viewers, Critics Offended by Emmy Skit

By GARY GENTILE

AP

LOS ANGELES (Aug. 27) - It was meant to be funny. But a fake plane crash during the opening Emmy awards skit made many cringe on Sunday - the same day 49 people died in a fiery plane crash in Kentucky.

 

The skit, aired live at the start of NBC's Emmy telecast, brought a swift response from the general manager of NBC's Lexington, Kentucky, affiliate, WLEX.

 

"It was a live telecast. We were completely helpless," Tim Gilbert was quoted as saying on the Lexington Herald-Leader's Web site.

 

"By the time we began to react, it was over. At the station, we were as horrified as they were at home," Gilbert said.

 

Criticism of the sequence also appeared on other Web sites Sunday night, including the Los Angeles Times, where television columnist Scott Collins called it "cringe-inducing" and "of questionable taste."

 

The prerecorded opening segment began with Emmy host Conan O'Brien boarding a private plane to Los Angeles. Asked by a stewardess if he was nervous about hosting the show, O'Brien answered "Nervous? What could possibly go wrong?"

 

The plane then shook and pitched violently, sending O'Brien out of his seat and seeking shelter in an overhead baggage compartment.

 

The skit didn't show the plane crashing. Instead, it cut to O'Brien emerging from the ocean onto an island resembling the one in "Lost," where he meets a cast member.

 

Emmy show executive producer Ken Ehrlich declined comment when asked about criticism of the skit at the Governors Ball after the show.

 

The skit aired live on NBC just hours after a commuter jet in Kentucky crashed into a field and burst into flames, killing all aboard except a co-pilot.

 

Gilbert said he was home watching the Emmy show with his family when he was "stunned" by the Emmy skit. He said if he had known about it beforehand, Lexington viewers wouldn't have seen it.

 

Gilbert said he plans to ask NBC for an apology.

 

"They could have killed the opening and it wouldn't have hurt the show at all," Gilbert said. "We wish somebody had thought this through. It's somewhere between ignorance and incompetence."

 

I don't know how to react. They didn't show the plane crashing. And yet people were offended. I think this might be a case of people getting offended to easily...

You can't redo the whole opening on such short notice. There's really no harm in it. Are the VW commercials with car crashes insensitive? There's more people dying that way than on commuter jets.

You can't redo the whole opening on such short notice. There's really no harm in it. Are the VW commercials with car crashes insensitive? There's more people dying that way than on commuter jets.

 

 

Exactly.

 

Good analogy.

 

"I'm so sad about those VW commercials 'cuz my kid just died like that. Now gimme-sum-money!"

It's pretty absurd to get offended considering the context of it. It wasn't like it was making of fun of planes crashing, those who have died in a plane crash, etc.

The VW analogy is perfect.

 

Did it strike a cord? Sure, but anything potentially poignant is bound to offend someone. We've just become too overly sensitive as a culture.

I don't find it offensive considering the intent.

Wow, some people are just so damn sensitive.

According to MSNBC, the whole idea that people were offended by the skit showed up on the notorious Drudge Report sometime on Sunday. Looks like they were just trying to stir up some trouble. No one individual has come out and actually said that they were offended.

blame the big bad emmy's to stir public support and turn the eye away from the real issues of the country

 

whine whine whine

it didn't even occur to me until I read some article about some people being offended.

 

it was clearly to parody Lost, I didn't think it was offensive at all.

I'm not offended personally. but that is SO dumb to make fun of anything like that..to make anything of that event is stupid especially since it just happened.

I'm not offended personally. but that is SO dumb to make fun of anything like that..to make anything of that event is stupid especially since it just happened.

Maybe you don't understand. This was prerecorded well before the Emmy's (And as many have said, clearly a parody). And if people are offended by this, they need a reality check. Maybe they should check out of the living-under-a-rock motel. :plain

Anybody who was offended by the clip obviously couldn't understand it was a parody of a tv show. I don't watch LOST, but I still understood what was happening. Even if I didn't know what show it was, the apparances in other TV shows would have given it away anyways.

 

I guess what I'm getting at is that anyone who was offended should be diagnosed medically as an idiot.

these people are idiots