Emmy Curio: Will Kevin Kline Triple-Crown via "Bob's Burgers"?
Thursday, August 24, 2017 at 11:00AM by Nathaniel R
Can Kline win two big showbiz prizes in one year? (Tony for Present Laughter / Emmy for Bob's Burgers)
Voice acting has only been a regular competitive category since 2009 at the Emmys so we don't quite have a ten year history to work from. Before then the prize was juried with a winner announced. The newish category split into two categories in 2014 to have a separate award for voiceover narration as opposed to voice acting (in short, the Emmys have way too many categories). Nevertheless despite this very very specific craft having two categories all to itself the voting body still make super weird choices. Consider that Archer, which has one of the all time best voice casts, and could well fill up the entire category each year, has only been nominated for this category once for H Jon Benjamin, who voices Archer himself.
This year's nominees for voice work include two newbies, two previous winners, and one Kevin Kline who could triple crown if he wins this since he already has an Oscar and three Tonys...
Outstanding Character Voice-Over Performance
- Dee Bradley Baker as "Klaus" in American Dad "Fight or Flight" (S2e2)
- Kevin Kline as "Mr Fischoeder" in Bob's Burgers "The Last Gingerbread House on the Left" (S737)
Second Emmy nomination. The first was for Lead Actor in a Miniseries for Great Performances: Cyrano de Bergerac (2009). Incredibly this is only the second nomination for this great animated series in voiceover. John Roberts was nominated for his genius work as Linda Belcher two seasons ago. If Kline wins this he Triple Crowns and will just be missing the G in the EGOT. - Kristen Schaal as "Sarah Lynn" in Bojack Horseman "That's Too Much Man" (S3e11)
First Emmy nod. Can you believe that? - Mo Collins (multiple characters) in F is For Family "Pray Away" (S2e9)
- Seth MacFarlane (multiple characters) in Family Guy "Boys in the Band" (S15e1)
Seventh noms and two wins in this particular category. - Nancy Cartwright as Bart Simpson in The Simpsons "Looking for Mr Goodbart" (s28e20)
The Simpsons as a show is a regular nominee for voice acting but incredibly this is only her second time at bat. She won an Emmy in 1992 (with the rest of the voice cast) when the category was a special juried prize.
Who will win? Who knows!
History of the Emmys suggests that Cartwright or MacFarlane will prevail since they love their repeat winners (sigh). But if they're going by career heat at the very moment this could well be a toss-up between Schaal (also hilarious on Last Man on Earth and in her other voice role on Bob's Burgers) and Kevin Kline, who took home his third Tony earlier this summer and is among the nation's most prestigious thespians. After all their competitors are either brand new competition or previous winners on very long-in-the-tooth shows. One thing that would make Kline's Triple Crown extra cool is that all of those wins are for comedic roles, even normally comedy-averse Oscar!
Kline's episode was an ingenious Christmas episode when we learned of an absurd contest in Mr Fischoeder's home which mashes up the quaintness of gingerbread houses with macho shoout-out violence. Schaal's episode features Sarah Lynn, her former child star turned bad girl, and Bojack on an epic bender.
Who would you vote for in this lineup ... or is it not even a contest with that comic Triple Crown possibility on the table?
Reader Comments (14)
How Bojack Horseman didn't get more nominations for this past stellar season is beyond me. "That's Too Much Man" was one of the best episodes of the year and even deserves a writing nomination as well.
Kristen Schaal is a terrific talent and I'll be rooting for her, not just for her work on "Bojack," but for all of the great work she has done this year.
Schaal is so talented. It'd be great had she been nominated for best actress in a comedy for season 1 of TLMoE. And should've been a winner for any of the first 5 seasons of "Bob's burgers" (people, please, see this show! It's gold). And this episode of Bojack, beyond her really deserved nomination, is simply heartbreaking. Season 3 should've been a slamdunk for either drama por comedy series.
Schaal has a killer episode. Bojack Horseman was outstanding last season, with Time calling one of its episodes the best of the year in television. It definitely deserved more nominations.
Dee Bradley Baker does consistently good work on American Dad, but the nomination is the prize here for him. I think Kristen Schaal or Nancy Cartwright will take it, as both of their nominated episodes are excellent.
Revisited The Big Chill this week, and all I could think while watching was: Glenn Close was the only member of this stellar cast to be Oscar-nominated but two of her costars, Kline and William Hurt, would win later in the decade (and I bet Tom Berenger came really close for Platoon).
NewMoonSon: I doubt Berenger was close. I'd order that field like this:
1. Michael Caine, Hannah and Her Sisters
2. Willem Dafoe, Platoon (He got both the hammy Christ Pose death and the "We're going to lose this war" moment. On paper, it was probably down to the wire between the top two, because...)
3. Dennis Hopper, Hoosiers (If the Academy's actors had nominated the right Dennis Hopper performance, Blue Velvet, he probably would have won in a LANDSLIDE. With Hoosiers? He had almost no chance. I don't think him upsetting would have been impossible, just not as likely as the two most likely.)
4. Tom Berenger, Platoon (He's not "bad", but this is more a BP winner coattails nom than anything else.)
5. Denholm Elliot, A Room with a View (How did this even get in? Okay, there was BP heat, but Day-Lewis and ESPECIALLY (admittedly) one-hit-wonder Julian Sands (but, again, no one could know that at the time, so...the bleep) are both better within this same movie. Was every actor voting for this just OLD?)
I'd vote for Kline even though Cartwright and Baker are also very worthy.
Random Useless Fact: Meryl Streep out of 20 nominations has only been recognized nine times for R rated movies.
Jessica Walter never been nominated for her ace work as Mallory Archer? Question your existence, this category.
I went to the same high school as Kevin Kline (St. Louis Priory shout out!), so I'm definitely #TeamKline
Kristen Schaal and all of "The Last Man on Earth" was amazing on that first season, but that show seems to slowly be going nowhere. But she's a future worthy winner.
Michael Caine also had the overdue factor, and had just lost in "Educating Rita" 2 years previously. Plus nearing the end of Woody Allen's run of great movies.
I also wonder how only Close was nominated of that cast. One of my all time favorite movies about friendship and time.
I have never even heard of F is for Family, but Mo Collins is from Minnesota and I have been watching Mad TV bloopers with her as Stuart's mom all week and am practically DEAD.
Note to everyone: That's my impression of the likely Academy order. My actual Supporting Actor ballot?
John Cusack, Stand By Me
Willem Dafoe, Platoon
Dennis Hopper, Blue Velvet - Winner
Jeffrey Jones, Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Julian Sands, A Room with a View
Schaal does such great work on Bob's Burgers - it's a shame that's not recognized. Otherwise, #teamKline.
im still aghast that the main 8 on Archer (Sterling, Mallory, Lana, Pam, Cyril, Krieger, Carol/Cheryl/Cherline, Ray) havent been nommed more often... From this past season id actually think that Lucky Yates' Krieger would've been recognized for the AMAZING WWII flashback work...