Emmy Week Outrage: Nancy Lee Grahn Was Robbed!

One of the traditions before an awards show, at least in the world of hyper-critical bloggers, is to review the most egregiously overlooked performers.  With respect to this year's Daytime Emmys, the sum total of my non-nomination outrage can be summed up in three little words:  Nancy Lee Grahn.  Therefore, thanks to a combination of laziness and true dedication to the outrageousness of this oversight, I am re-running an old post.  I give you (again):   An Open Letter From Nancy Lee Grahn.

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From the Desk of Nancy Lee Grahn
If She Were Not Such a Nice Person*

Dear Daytime Emmy Voter-Types:

My therapist told me that I should write everything out in a letter.  I won't ever send it, but this way I can get all my feelings out on paper and vent about your idiocy, but still show up to the ceremony looking fabulous and non-homicidal. 

Here's the thing.   I ROCK.   I am a great actress, and not just in that "oh, she's a great soap actress" kind of way.   No, I'm just plain great.   Put me in any role, and I could pretty much kick ass.   You've almost acknowledged this on several occasions, even nominated me a few times.  (There was that one time I tied – tied! how does that happen?! – for the win, but that was when Dubya's dad was president so I think we should agree it's high time you stop resting on that particular laurel.)    This year, you didn't even nominate me.  This is unacceptable.

Since the fact that I am awesome is clear to anyone, your unwillingness to acknowledge the extent to which I rock is puzzling, though less so when I think about the other things you do, like naming my show, General Hospital, best daytime drama last year.   I love my co-stars, but we can only do so much.   Did you even watch our show?   Did you listen to the dialogue?   Did you see that the centerpiece of a soap opera is now an unrepentant mobster who is held up as a hero?   Did you notice that the titular hospital has mostly just become the place where the criminals skulk around trying to cover up their misdoings or have their gunshot wounds treated?

Anyway, back to me, and that I rock.   What makes my fabulousness even more impressive is that most of the time I am given absolute crap to work with, and I spin it into gold.   Gold!   This isn’t like when I was on Santa Barbara and the writing was fantastic and Lane Davies and I were given great banter to play with even if we were literally in a freaking cave.   This is me having to dress in drag and play butler to the Quartermaines. Discovering the woman who had been pregnant by my babydaddy was actually my daughter (that's not soapy goodness, that's nasty).   Being a reluctant medicinal pot smoker in a bad wig.   Appearing to be hot for Sonny.   Playing a cancer storyline in which I am portrayed as a villain, not a victim.   Dealing with an adultery storyline in which my daughter sleeps with my husband but the audience is seemingly told to sympathize with my daughter, or even my husband, but not me, the aforementioned cancer patient.   Granted, occasionally I'm given good material (which I, of course, rock), but mostly it’s just me rising above mediocrity.

So none of this is Emmy-baiting.   I'm not spoon-fed fantastic stories in an effort to land me the winged statue.   Sometimes it even seems like the writers are trying to make the audience hate me, trying to turn Alexis into a shrill harpy to compete with Carly in that category that she otherwise dominates, but I make it work.   Yet from you, I get nothing! 

And lest you think it's just drama I do well, I also kick ass at romance, and friendship.   Which were cornerstones of daytime, before my current bosses got hold of things.   But anyway, let's consider: Alexis and Sonny were hot together as a couple, and are great as friends.   Alexis and Ric were hot together as a couple, and once the writers create a severe mental illness to explain his recent behavior, they'll probably be great as friends.   Alexis and Jax were hot together as a fake couple, and are one of the most watchable things on TV as friends.  Alexis and Ned were hot together as a couple and, when the idiots who run this show let Wally Kurth out of the recurring status basement where they inexplicably keep him, are fabulous as friends.   Hell, Alexis and Craig are already hot together, and they just met about five soap opera minutes ago.  What is the common denominator here?   Me, and how much I rock.

I don't mean to say you only make mistakes, because I have absolutely nothing against the other ladies who were nominated – I'm sure they're fantastic.   But there are five nominees!  Five!   You could think there are four better actress in daytime (there are not, but let's play out this hypothetical) and you would still have to nominate me.   Do you have a collective puppy I ran over?   A punchbowl I peed in?   A bonnet I put a bee in?   A saddle I put a burr under?

Anyway, all this is to say:   What is your damage?   What do I have to do to make you hand over that ugly little gold woman?   If it's work with really good scripts and play a character who is clearly valued by the powers that be, I'm totally screwed.   But otherwise, let me know, because I can handle it.   In fact, I'll rock it.

Sincerely, 
Nancy Lee Grahn, If She Were Not Such a Nice Person*    

P.S.  An acting nomination for Passions?  Really?


* Ed. Note:  I don’t actually know that Nancy Lee Grahn is a nice person, but I’m assuming she is.   How else could she be so kick-ass? Evidence of her nice-person-ness, or general kick-ass-ness, is encouraged in the comments.

Comments

[penny]

I agree Nancy was robbed. I will never get it.

[LooseLips]

I LOVE that PSSNs got an acting nom, but DAYS didn't....

While I am crazy mad about Nancy, But I am still bitter about Jason Thompson and Kimberly McCullough (who didn't even get a Pre-nom, wtf).

[Jess]

OH! Those scenes at Kristina's funeral - I still remember watching those the first time around. They don't let anyone talk to Jason/Sonny that way, anymore. How awesome was that?!

And I'm equally outraged by the writing nom and NLG's snub as I am cynical regarding the system. I mean these people gave Jacob Young and Emmy - and not for kickass JR, for unLucky. So. That's my standard for everything they do.

[Debbie]

Nancy truly does rock. Any actress who can survive that Dobson madness deserves a freaking Nobel prize.

[JL]

And let us not forget, Emmy winning Natalia Livingston.

The Emmy people are clearly, clearly on some good stuff. Probably some of the same stuff the GH "writers" regularly indulge in.

[Roxiebell]

Come on! There are other great DT actors that always get snubbed by the Dippy Daytime Academy besides NLG who is "overhyped" in her GH role. Just my "not so humble" opinion with decades of experience watching this venue to back up my opinion.

Basically I love my DT actors but HATE the DT Academy, so I haven't watched an DT Emmy show in over a decade, I could "care less" who wins or looses and BOO-HOO if NLG didn't get a nod, shes had PLENTY and there are other "as good" if not "better" DT actresses who never get or got a nomination. Amber Tamblyn is one of them.

Not to defend JY, because I couldn't stand his Not!Lucky portrayal, and I still think he's overrated even if he has gotten better over at AMC, but when you look at the list of people he was up against in the Younger Actor category that year . . . well, let's just say it's no surprise that he won. :) But when it comes to NL's win, over the competition she faced, well, I got nothing! :)

As far as the writing goes, GH as a whole sucks, but every once in awhile, they do have some stellar single episodes, and the two that are representing them are pretty damn good. It'll suck if they win, as if condoning the rest of the garbage that's shoved down our face. But at the same time, the episodes themselves are deserving of a little recognition. Perhaps the nomination alone will suffice? :)

Michelle Stafford rocked this year, and yet, her tape selection was meh when you rewatch them. Jeanne Cooper was good in the John's deaths story, but that's really all she had, and the tapes themselves, are just good, not great. I probably would've slid NLG into either ladies' slot. Alas, I'm often NLG's bitch, so I might be more than a little biased. :)

Sooo looking forward to the live blogging come Emmy night!

[NuShooz]

I love NLG. She is a fabulous actress. But I can't in good concious blame the Emmy Committee for GH failing to write her a compelling story with the time devoted to deliver on it. They have such a hardon for Carly and Sam that those too ladies were knee deep the leads in Nancy's story.

GH collects this past due bill. I refuse to pass the buck!

[snapshot]

I have to disagree with a lot of points here. I think NLG is kind of 'one note' in a lot of her performances. They aren't shocking or touching or anything like that. Yes, a lot of that is the writing, but a good actor rises above the writing and lately I haven't seen that in NLG. Maybe she's been doing it so long that she's in kind of rut. I'm not an actor and I can't imagine how hard of a job it really is, but I think the bar gets set higher and higher and I'd like to see NLG reach a bit more for some more emotion. Again, just my opinion.

[ElementaryDays]

Okay. I must report a bit of unfortunate news. Nancy Lee Grahn has questionable taste in clothing. I saw her recently at a show in LA, and...well, she was wearing some really fugly boots. Actually, the boots weren't that bad, it's just that what and how she was wearing them was rather dumbfounding.

It was a Tony Bennett show, so the appropriate attire would've been something classic and simple, right? Well, Nancy Lee Grahn, who is a lovely and awesome actor, by the way, was wearing a big afghan cardigan sweater and torn-at-the-knee loose-fit jeans tucked into knee-high fringed boots. Her hair was in a half-ponytail. True story.

BUT! She had brought her mom, which is sweet. And she obviously has great taste in cool, kick-ass music and adorable timeless performers, so...that's cool!