TV: The Emmys: My dream ballot

Emmy nominations will be announced on Thursday morning, and if it were up to me, these are the shows and people who'd be nominated:

COMEDY
Series
How I Met Your Mother
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
My Name Is Earl
Scrubs
Slings and Arrows

(Never got into Arrested Development, Entourage, or The Office; and I think that Two and a Half Men is the Home Improvement of its generation -- a perfectly competent, but never special, sitcom.)

Actor
Zach Braff, Scrubs
Stephen Colbert, The Colbert Report
Paul Gross, Slings and Arrows
Jason Lee, My Name Is Earl
Tyler James Williams, Everybody Hates Chris

(OK, yeah, I know, Colbert's not even eligible in this category, but he should be; his rightwing anchor is the most subtle comic creation of the year, and he does it four nights a week)

Actress
Marcia Cross, Desperate Housewives
Lauren Graham, Gilmore Girls
Felicity Huffman, Desperate Housewives
Jane Kaczmarek, Malcolm in the Middle
Lisa Kudrow, The Comeback

(How does Lauren Graham keep getting overlooked year after year? It's embarrassing.)

Supporting Actor
Neil Flynn, Scrubs
Neil Patrick Harris, How I Met Your Mother
John C. McGinley, Scrubs
Mark McKinney, Slings and Arrows
Ethan Suplee, My Name Is Earl

(Along with Graham, McGinley is one of the Emmy Awards' most shamefully overlooked comedy performers, and Suplee has given us one of the most sublime idiots in TV history.)

Supporting Actress
Tichina Arnold, Everybody Hates Chris
Kelly Bishop, Gilmore Girls
Alyson Hannigan, How I Met Your Mother
Megan Mullally, Will and Grace
Jamie Pressly, My Name Is Earl

(Arnold won't be nominated, as she and her producers foolishly decided to run her in the Lead category, where she doesn't stand a chance of being nominated, but she's certainly deserving of a nomination; Bishop is the Graham/McGinley of this category, doing magnificent work that's been ignored for too long.)

DRAMA
Series
24
Battlestar Galactica
Lost
Six Feet Under
The West Wing

(Just finished catching up with Galactica, which is brilliant, and which bumped The Sopranos off my list -- too much time spent in Tony's coma fantasy and following Vito around Gayville, NH made for a weak season; I don't watch Rescue Me, and don't care for Grey's Anatomy.)

Actor
William Fichtner, Invasion
James Gandolfini, The Sopranos
Michael C. Hall, Six Feet Under
Edward James Olmos, Battlestar Galactica
James Spader, Boston Legal

(A tough field, this one, and I wish I'd been able to find room for Alan Alda, Peter Krause, and Hugh Laurie.)

Actress
Frances Conroy, Six Feet Under
Edie Falco, The Sopranos
Mary McDonnell, Battlestar Galactica
Kari Matchett, Invasion
Kyra Sedgwick, The Closer

(Not much to say here; as usual, it's the weakest category on the ballot, and I felt happy to find five names that I could put on my list without wincing.)

Supporting Actor
Vince Curatola, The Sopranos
Michael Emerson, Lost
Jorge Garcia, Lost
Gregory Itzin, 24
William Shatner, Boston Legal

(Emerson made enough appearances to appear in this category instead of Guest Actor; this is another crowded field, and you could practically fill it with the male cast of Lost -- Terry O'Quinn, Naveen Andrews, Josh Holloway, Daniel Dae Kim, all deserving.)

Supporting Actress
Lauren Ambrose, Six Feet Under
Tricia Helfer, Battlestar Galactica
Grace Park, Battlestar Galactica
Mary Lynn Rajskub, 24
Jean Smart, 24

(Helfer and Park do remarkable work, each playing multiple versions of the same character with impeccable subtlety. Helfer particularly surprised me, since her work in the first season of the show had been limited to a not-so-interesting sex-kitten; it was great fun to watch her rise to the occasion when given a broader range to play. Still, the winner here must be Smart, who gave the performance of the year.)