Taken From East Bay Soul’s Facebook Page posted on September 18th 2011
Sunday Short Story…Well, The Emmy’s are on right now as I write this story. We get the live feed out here in LA because, well most of the shows are shot here and besides, they announce the winners on the radio or local news of competing TV stations. Anyway, this brings me back to when I was nominated in 1989. My good friend and colleague Paul Shaffer were nominated for Outstanding Achievement In Musical Direction for the Late Night With David Letterman’s 7th Anniversary Special.
This was not my first time doing the honors with Paul for Dave’s anniversary shows, but this particular event was shot out here at the Universal Amphitheater instead of the studio at 30 Rock where the nightly shows were done. Had a ton of arrangements to do for guest artists performing plus all the walk ons and offs. Bigger horn section than usual that included Lenny Pickett and David Sandborn. The show was a big success and we were thrilled to get the nomination.
Our award category was in the craft section of the ceremony. That meant it was not on the night of the prime time telecast but the night before in a banquet room in the Pasadena Civic Center. Oh boy. But we got all dressed up and hired a car and driver for the evening. After all, an Emmy’s an Emmy. Right? Once a nominee, always a nominee. Same as The Grammys. Win or lose, we’d make a great evening out of it. We had dinner reservations at The Grill in Beverly Hills after so we passed on the rubber chicken dinner at the ceremony.
Paul was not able to come to LA for the ceremony so I represented both of us. We actually sat at a table of 10 with Phil Donohue and Marlo Thomas. Very nice people. Also, there were several writers from Late Night who were up for awards. Now, comedy writers are a cynical bunch at best, and they were at least kind in their informing Andrea and me that nobody ever wins in our category. They all told us that it ALWAYS goes to “Christmas In Washington At The Kennedy Center”.
Well, our category was now being announced. Who knew, maybe Paul and I were about to turn the tide on”Christmas…” When our names were anounced we got real nice round of applause. Encouraging. Then the moment came… The envelope was opened… “And the winner is…Chistmas In Washington At The Kennedy Center”. All at our table were very supportive at our time of sorrow. Cue the violins. Phil patted me on the shoulder and said he didn’t win the first time either. So after the ceremony we went to Beverly Hills and had martinis and dinner. After all, I was still an Emmy nominee. And I still am.
For more on Greg Adams go to www.gregadamsmusic.com
