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The grand finale of the football season is upon us and the denizens of the gridiron will go into hibernation once again. It will be a bittersweet time on Super Sunday for the hardcore football fans when that last second clicks off the clock. They will dream of nothing else until the first kick off comes at the beginning of next season.
While I have developed a greater love of the game thanks to my son Alex, who is now playing in high school, I have not reached that level of dedication to the season as those who live and breath for the sport. Sure they may watch basketball and baseball in the interim, but their true passion lies on that 100-yard field of green.
The season that I have always loved the best got its kick off earlier this month with the Golden Globe Awards. Yeah, I have always been a sucker for the awards season. My love of movies, television, and music has always outweighed my love of sports, though I have found that there is room enough in my life for both.
Granted, the football season is much longer and consistent, but unlike the sixteen weeks that the football season takes, the awards season is the culmination of a year’s worth of watching and listening. So like the football season, the awards season is in essence the Super Bowl of the entertainment year.
As the number of awards shows have grown over the years it has become a national, if not a worldwide, obsession, which is a testimony to the popularity of everything entertainment and celebrity. I’m sure that it is in large part due to the fact that it crosses the gender lines and that equal numbers of men and women are into it.
For the women it is a larger investment of time due to the pre-show “Red Carpet” shows. For them it is not only who takes home the statutes it is also all about who is wearing whom. Well that and who looks the best and worst. I really think they are looking more for the worst; it’s kind of the same mindset as people watching a NASCAR race waiting to see a crash.
I mentioned that the number of awards shows have grown, which is putting it mildly. As with everything nowadays enough is never enough and there is always somebody looking to capitalize on what works. Unfortunately, the knock offs never measure up to the originals, most actually suck.
Just to be clear here, we are only talking about the televised awards shows. Not that awards like the producers, directors, and screenwriters aren’t good awards, we just never get to see them. I’m sorry, unless I can watch, being the voyeur that I am, it doesn’t count.
As far as I’m concerned the only ones that count, being an awards season snob, are The Oscars, The Emmys, The Grammys, and The Golden Globes. You can keep the rest, these are the best. At the very least they are the ones that count as far as helping the recipient’s career, which when there is actually something on the line makes them fun to watch.
The others are more just to stroke the egos of those who are, shall we say, less worthy. The Peoples Choice, American Music, and Billboard Awards to name a few, are just a waste of time as far as the award truly having any meaning or entertainment value. Sure, you may luck out and get a decent musical performance out of them, but you have to be willing to make the time investment to get to it, which is always a gamble.
Especially when it comes to The American Music Awards, which I can’t even stomach any more. To have to listen to the droves of uneducated, poorly spoken, and talentless rappers thank everybody under the sun and god, who had absolutely nothing to do with them receiving the award, is just not worth it.
The Peoples Choice Awards are even worse because all of the “winners” know ahead of time if they have won or not. Without that element of surprise and spontaneity you have sucked out the reason for watching. Unless you like seeing your favorite actor giving a prepared speech and acting like he or she didn’t know they were going to get it.
Why bother when you can just jump on the Internet and find out who won, that is if you care how the masses of tabloid readers who vote on this award feel about the entertainment industry. I mean, what’s the point.
Now take the Academy Awards. Even with a little research you can usually guess the winners of most Oscar races, but there is almost always that element of surprise. The chances are if you have watched the precursor to The Oscars, that being The Golden Globes, and read the right articles, you stand a great chance of winning your office pool on the top five awards without even seeing the movies.
Or as is the case around our house, the family pool. Now that our kids have grown and have become quite the movie aficionados in their own right, we put together our own pool. We don’t stop with just the top five, we go the whole nine yards and vote the entire Oscar ballot. It makes what was already equivalent to a holiday around our house a bit more competitive and lively.
When that last envelope is opened on the 25th of February, my favorite season will come to a close and I will join the gridiron gang on the sidelines until the new season begins next year. Here’s to hoping it will pass quickly.
So what time is kick off?
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