Danny Goes Hollywood at the Saturn Awards: My First Awards Show of Many To Come!

Whew.

So last night, thanks to some stuff that our department has going on with the SciFi Channel, I was able to attend the annual Saturn Awards - basically a big awards show that honors the best in sci--fi and fantasy and horror. I really wasn't sure what to expect, but at the least it was going to be interesting.

And it definitely was interesting ... The event itself had a bit of the glitz of a big awards ceremony but also felt pretty informal and intimate. It was held in a relatively small social hall in the Universal Studios Hilton hotel, and had a pretty modest stage area with two big video screens (the event itself is not televised). When we got to the event, there was a small red carpet set up outside leading into the Hilton lobby, and then a separate hall, decked out with Hellboy 2 posters and cut-outs (there's the Universal corporate presence for ya'), where a pre-awards reception was held. This part was pretty interesting, as we kind of just stood around, trying to spot recognizable celebs and trying to act cool whilst standing mere feet away from the likes of Summer Glau and Jennifer Love Hewitt, and resisting the urge to go up to the kid who plays Walt on Lost and beg him to reveal the secrets of the island. No cameras were allowed, so no pics, unfortunately. It was definitely a bit surreal though to check in and see my name slightly below that of J.J. Abrams (who was, unfortunately, a no-show).

The next part of the event was the dinner, as we filed over to our round banquet tables in the hall where the actual awards ceremony was to be held. Food was okay - salad, chicken, and cheesecake for dessert. We weren't at a table with any cool celebs or anything, just a bunch of NBCU / SciFi folks ... but that was okay, we were actually right in the front of the room so everyone walked right past our table as they were getting up on stage.

Okay, so, some cool people I saw at the awards, in no particular order (okay, maybe some particular order):

- Summer Glau (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles)
- Dolph Lundgren (IVAN DRAGO himself! star of countless cheesy 80's actione flicks)
- Frank Darabount (director of The Shawshank Redemption, etc)
- Guillermo Del Toro (director of Hellboy, Pan's Labrynth, soon to be The Hobbit)
- Zack Snyder (dierector of 300, soon to be Watchmen!)
- Jon Voight (legendary actor, star of Deliverance and many others, father to Angelina Jolie)
- Shane Black (writer of Lethal Weapon, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, The Monster Squad, etc.)
- Ray Wise (Twin Peaks, Reaper, all-around badass)
- Damon Lindeloff (exec producer of Lost)
- Drew Goddard (writer on Lost, writer of Cloverfield)
- Tim Kring (exec producer of Heroes)
- Jeph Loeb (Heroes producer, prolific comics writer)
- Adrian Pasdar (Heroes)
- Jennifer Love Hewitt (Ghost Whisperer)
- Lindsey Wagner (the original Bionic Woman!)
- Doug Jones (Abe Sapien in Hellboy, The Silver Surfer in Fantastic Four)
- Peter David (prolific comics scribe of The Incredible Hulk fame)
- Justin Whalen (Jimmy Olsen from Lois and Clark)
- Matt Reeves (director of Cloverfield)

- As we finished up our cheesecake, the awards began with some random scenes from 2001: A Space Odyssey, an introduction from one of the Saturn Awards guys, and then the introduction of comedien Jeff Ross, who would serve as host of the show. Ross is a familiar face from a number of Comedy Central specials, roasts, etc., and he was pretty funny overall. At times, I had to groan a bit when he did Democratic Primary humor (so three months ago) and some other stale bits, but he was great when he was just off-the-cuff and spontaneous. Although, it would have been nice if he focused a little more of his humor on the movies themselves - his comedy, while funny, felt pretty detached at times from the actual awards ceremony that was taking place.

- As for the awards themselves, they are definitely a little bit bootleg in their current form. For one thing, the categories are pretty unexciting and the nominees felt way too all-over-the-place. For example, the Best Cable TV series category saw Battlestar Galactica competing with The Closer and Saving Grace, with Dexter taking the prize. Um, what? Aren't these the SciFi awards? Not only were the nominees random, but they were often pretty questionable. These must be the only awards other than the Razzies where crap like Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer and Ghost Rider (!) were actually up for top honors. When Ghost Rider is in the running for best horror film, that to me automatically makes your awards ceremony pretty sketchy and illegitimate. And some of the sketchy nominees actually ended up being winners, to boot! In many cases, it definitely appeared that whoever agreed to show up was rewarded with a trophy. Jennifer Love-Hewitt was in attendance, while most of the other best-TV-actress nominees were MIA. Guess who won the award? Now come on, would any legit awards commitee agree that J-Love was the best sci-fi / fantasy actress on TV? Anna Friel, Evangeline Lilly, Hayden Panieterre, and many others would surely take issue. And then Will Smith, of all people, won Best Actor in a SciFi, Action-Adventure, or Thriller movie for I Am Legend, beating out Daniel Day Lewis, Viggo Mortenson, and Johnny Depp. Oh-kay ... that's just wrong. None of those guys were in attendance, but Will Smith phoned-in a pretty lame acceptance speech via video in which he acted pretty condescending towards the award. Maybe it's because even he realized that he probably didn't deserve it? Summer Glau is awesome, but again, she showed up, she got an award. If these awards want to have a real air of legitimacy and prestige, they need to fix this.

Even some of the Achievement Awards seemed a bit off. Matt Reeves getting recognition for his work on Cloverfield was probably warranted. And Guillermo Del Toro is one of the best directors working today, and on his way to becoming one of the all-time great genre directors. Guillermo accepted a special award with his usual grace and humor, and was given a great introduction by the legendary Frank Darabount. But even Guillermo seemed unsure of why exactly he was getting this recognition. What was the award for, exactly? Nobody seemed to know.

- Here's what I'd recommend to the Saturn Awards as they look to expand and get more media visibility:

- Have better categories. Get rid of the action-adventure and straight drama stuff and stick to straight up scifi, fantasy, and horror. Have the big two categories simply be Best Genre Film and Best Genre TV Show. Within that have best science fiction film, fantasy film, and horror film. Have best sci-fi, fantasy, or horror TV show. Have categories for makeup, f/x, CGI work, musical score, direction, and writing. Have an award that honors one legend of sci-fi and one that honors a promising up-and-comer. Have male and female acting categories but keep it simple - Best Genre Actor for film, Best Genre Actor for TV. I'd also expand the awards a bit - have some fun with it. Best Genre Spoof. Best Comic Book Adaptation. Best sci-fi-themed licensed videogame. Best movie poster. Best viral marketing campaign. In the future, it might even be cool to expand the awards a bit into comics, books, and videogames.

- Have higher-quality nominees. It reflects badly on the whole awards show when a movie like Ghost Rider is nominated for one of the show's highest honors. Pick the great movies that the Oscars overlook, the ones that the hardcore fanboys are clamoring to see get recognized. Movies like Stardust and Grindhouse and Sunshine and Iron Man. These are the awards that should try to do right by the fans. Stop nominating or giving awards to movies and TV shows just so that one of their stars will show up at the ceremony.

- Up the flash. If a TV deal is to be struck, get bigtime presenters who love scifi and fantasy and serve as faces for genre entertainment. If you're going to do a sci-fi awards show, you have to have the whole community involved - everyone who's anyone should be there, from Spielberg to Lucas to Cameron. Stars like Robert Downey Jr., Christian Bale, Samuel L. Jackson, Liv Tyler, and Meghan Fox. The casts of Heroes, Lost, and every other bigtime genre TV show. Legends like Frank Miller, Harlan Ellison, and Ray Bradbury. Emphasize why sci-fi is cool. Capture the zeitgeist. Sci-fi is about great visuals and imagination, so make the awards shows fun and vivid and flashy. Have fun with it - have Chewbacca or Yoda come out to present. Do parodies. Get a host who knows his or her stuff and let them riff.

- Keep the base, but keep the obscure stuff limited. One award last night was given to a guy who spent 32 years writing a biblical book on Italian horror maestro Mario Bava. One was given to a guy who has built a career making robots for collectors and film sets. Pick one of these obscure guys. Honor them. But geez, don't let them take up an hour each with their speeches. At the same time - use the awards to give a state of the union of sci-fi. Build that sense of community. Pay tribute to fallen greats like Stan Winston. Honor the legends and respect the fans.


So anyways, it was a pretty cool night overall. Getting to hear people like Frank Darabout and Guillermo Del Toro speak was a real treat, as was seeing all kinds of Hollywood names from Summer Glau to Zack Snyder to Jon Voight. Plus, my ticket got me a giant giftbag loaded with DVD's, comics, and other random paraphenalia. Definitely pretty surreal, waiting in line for my giftbag flanked by the likes of Dolph Lundgren.

One of these days, when these awards are big-time and so am I, I may be up there on the stage, remembering my first brush with awards-show craziness.

- Okay, that's about it for now. I'll be back soon with more, but before I go: a fond farewell to the legendary George Carlin, a true innovator of comedy and one of the greats.