Why 'Modern Family' Shouldn't Win The Outstanding Comedy Series Emmy in 2013

Neil Patrick Harris hosts the 65th Emmy Awards

Nominations for the 65th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards will be announced on July 18. Modern Family is one of the best written shows on Television, and has won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series three straight years. Its actually the only show to win it this decade so far. You can be sure it will be a finalist once again. However, even though I love the show, it would be a shame if it won a fourth straight time.

This past season, while good as usual, wasn't quite as strong as the previous three, and was out-shined by a number of other comedy series. Here are the following comedy shows I would rather see win the Emmy Award this time around.

The Big Bang Theory - Well this is the most obvious choice. In a time where broadcast shows are getting lower ratings thanks to rapidly increased competition from cable & pay channels (as well as streaming services like Netflix & Amazon), The Big Bang Theory has become a juggernaut. The show is the most watched sitcom since Friends. Its also really grown and come into its own since it premiered in the fall of 2007. The first & second seasons ended up 68th & 44th respectively in the final Nieslen Rankings. The most recent fifth & sixth seasons ranked 8th & 3rd. You can bet that the seventh season is a safe bet to become the top rated show by the end of the 2013-2014 season. The series has made nerds cool, and its time for the rise of the nerds to be capped off with an Emmy.

Parks & Recreation - One of the most underrated shows on Television. Parks & Rec, much like NBC's former 30 Rock, suffers from low ratings. However, it is one of the most laugh out loud shows currently on Television. Amy Poehler is the driving force, and the cast around her including occasional characters makes it feel like a live action version of The Simpsons.

The Middle - Modern Family gets most of the attention on ABC, yet The Middle has stood well on its own for the past few years. This season it exuded a sense of warmth around its dysfunctional family comedy with each & every episode, outshining the higher rated Modern Family for the first time. This year could be its best chance to strike Emmy gold.

The Office - The 2006 winner for Outstanding Comedy Series gave a final season that satisfied fans and critics alike. The show brought a satisfying conclusion to each and every one of its quirky characters that we grew to love over the past 9 seasons. The ensemble cast has been the shows strong point, and this year all their story lines came to a close in an emotionally funny way, without being too over the top. And I'm still mad that Steve Carell never won an Emmy for portraying Michael Scott. Its unlikely to be nominated, but I still think the final season is worthy, and was better than Modern Family this year.

Veep - The political satire stars Julia Louis-Dreyfuss as Vice President Selina Meyer, who just can't help but screw up time and again in the most hilarious of ways. The series uses its political humor without actually taking shots at any specific parties (which aren't mentioned), its more about the system we have and how ridiculous politics in general can be, which is much more satisfying.

I'm tempted to include The Mindy Project, but its tough for a freshman series to get a nomination & win. Mindy Kaling has a great chance to leave with some hardware herself though.

The 65th Primetime Emmy Awards will be held on September 15 on CBS, and hosted by the hilarious & reliable Neil Patrick Harris once again.

Unintentionally Funny 90s Moments: 'Full House' vs 'Saved By The Bell'

We have a 90s smackdown today between two unintentionally funny Television moments. In one corner, the episode of Full House where DJ (Candace Cameron) develops an eating disorder and faints in the gym. In the other corner, the episode of Saved By The Bell where Jessie (Elizabeth Berkley) becomes addicted to caffeine pills. Both of these episodes aired in November 1990, perhaps they were trying to one-up each other?

Full House: "Shape Up" (Season 4). Full House is known for having many episodes where a valuable lesson is learned. By the end of the episode, everything is back in order along with the same corny background music to put an emphasis on what we all learned. And in this episode, we learned: Starving yourself is bad. Its even worse when your snot-faced little sister is there to tattle on you. And you'll partially faint after using a StairMaster. (Really though people, don't starve yourself, food tastes so damn good.)
Best Line: "Doesn't anybody care about dental hygiene around here?!?"

Saved By The Bell: "Jessie's Song" (Season 2). Between midterms and the demands of her singing group, Jessie was really feeling the pressure. So she turns to...caffeine pills! Instead of passing out like DJ, she has a hyper-nervous breakdown in front of Zach (Mark-Paul Gosselaar) that has become the stuff of legend. Once YouTube started to take off, this was one of the first sitcom videos to go viral.
Best Line: "I'm so excited!...I'm SO EXCITED...I'M SO...scared."

The winner: Jessie Spano! The clip has been remixed into various forms on YouTube, and has become one of the most quoted moments from any 80s/90s sitcom. You can even buy t-shirts that reference this classic TV scene. I'll never understand how it was ignored by the Emmy Awards.