‘The Office’ farewell present to Steve Carell: Emmy?
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While appearing on ‘The Office,’ Steve Carell lost five Emmy bouts: twice to Alec Baldwin (’30 Rock’), once, most recently, to Jim Parsons (‘The Big Bang Theory’), once to Tony Shalhoub (‘Monk’) and once, quite ironically, to Ricky Gervais, who created the original British version of ‘The Office’ but won his Emmy for ‘Extras’ while competing against the U.S. version of ‘The Office.’
Blame part of Carell’s poor luck on the episodes submitted to the Emmy juries. They just didn’t have the emotional oomph sufficient to knock voters’ blocks off. But now Carell has two episodes that might prove victorious. For weeks, our forum commenters have been hyping his sweet marriage proposal to Holly (Amy Ryan) as a real winner. However, his farewell from the series was a heart-tugger with a plus: Being a special one-hour episode, it will be twice as long as most sitcom entries in the category.
Which one should he submit this year? Below, what our forum writers said when I posed the question. See more responses here.
Brilliance inmorbid: It was a good episode and a solid goodbye, but it could come off as overly sappy if you don’t have an emotional connection to the series. Carell is the front-runner, but this isn’t unbeatable. LadyHathor25: Carell absolutely needs to go with ‘Goodbye, Michael’. He would be a total fool to not to. This is a winning tape. Hodag129: Tom, you’re great and I appreciate all you do here, but this is a dumb question. Definitely ‘Goodbye Michael.’ tv_freak: The goodbye episode because of screen time, sentiment, and it’s equally emotional as the proposal. He may not even have the most LOL tape of the six nominees, especially if you have not watched this show from the start. All things considered, this is his episode from beginning to end. GoMe91: I love Alec Baldwin, but if the Emmy voters give Alec the Emmy over Steve, they are not doing anyone any favors. Not the show 30 Rock. Not Alec. Because whoever weirdly beats Steve this year, will be criticized unmercifully until the next ceremony. So JUST GIVE STEVE THE EMMY ALREADY and make everyone happy. Jim Parsons already has one. Alec has two. Let’s spread the love and give it to Steve after 7 amazing seasons!
-- Tom O’Neil
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Steve Carell: Farewell, ‘The Office’ -- Hello, Emmy?