All The Way Only Goes Half of the Way Towards Greatness

Lyndon Baines Johnson, our country's 36th president, is one of my personal favorite presidents. I studied him in depth in my A.P. U.S. History class junior year of high school and was lucky enough to be able to write about him on my A.P. Test. He was thrust into the presidency as a result of one of the most heinous acts ever committed on American soil and managed to pass some of our country's most important legislation, all while fondly whipping out his junk whenever he wanted to. Johnson was a larger than life character onto his own and that's what helped him become a successful president. That is why I found it odd that he seems to have been left behind in the zeitgeist. There are a litany of TV shows and movies all about JFK (and his assassination), but almost nothing about his successor. That is why I have been anxiously awaiting for HBO to release All The Way, a semi-biographical look at LBJ based upon the Tony-award winning play of the same name. Plus, we get to see Bryan Cranston's glorious return to television since Breaking Bad.

Predicting The 2014 Emmy Winners: Best Actor

DRAMA

THE NOMINEES:

* Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad)

* Kevin Spacey (House of Cards)

* Jeff Daniels (The Newsroom)

* Jon Hamm (Mad Men)

* Matthew McConaughey (True Detective)

* Woody Harrelson (True Detective)

SURPRISED HE'S NOT NOMINATED: Hugh Bonneville (Downton Abbey)

SHOULD BE NOMINATED: Martin Sheen (Masters of Sex)

MY THOUGHTS ON THE ACTUAL NOMINEES:

2014 Emmy Predictions and Hopefuls: Best Direction

Recently, the Emmy's released every person and show eligible in all of their categories for the 2014 Primetime Emmy's for their nomination ballot. This post is dedicated to everything related to Outstanding Directing in both the comedy and drama series categories. It will be both who I think will actually earn a nomination as well as who I think deserves to earn a nomination. However, there is one main ground rule- I have to go off of the actual Emmy nomination ballot. Which means that if the director isn't actually eligible to earn a nomination in real life (a la Oscar winner Alfonso Cuaron for directing the Believe pilot), then he or she is not eligible to be mentioned in this post. Makes sense, doesn't it? Let's begin!

DRAMA

WHO I THINK WILL GET A NOMINATION:

- Alex Graves (Game of Thrones) "The Children"

- Cary Joji Fukunaga (True Detective) "Who Goes There"

- Rian Johnson (Breaking Bad) "Ozymandias"

- Tim Van Patten (Boardwalk Empire) "Farewell Daddy Blues"

- Vince Gilligan (Breaking Bad) "Felina"

2014 Emmy Predictions and Hopefuls: Best Actor

Recently, the Emmy's released every person and show eligible in all of their categories for the 2014 Primetime Emmy's for their nomination ballot. This post is dedicated to everything related to Outstanding Lead Actor in both the comedy and drama series categories. It will be both who I think will actually earn a nomination as well as who I think deserves to earn a nomination. However, there is one main ground rule- I have to go off of the actual Emmy nomination ballot. Which means that if the actor isn't actually eligible to earn a nomination in real life, then he's not eligible to be mentioned in this post. Makes sense, doesn't it? Let's begin!

DRAMA

WHO I THINK WILL GET AN EMMY NOMINATION:

- Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad)
- Hugh Bonneville (Downton Abbey)

- Jeff Daniels (The Newsroom)

- Jon Hamm (Mad Men)

- Kevin Spacey (House of Cards)

- Matthew McConaughey (True Detective)

2014 Emmy Power Rankings (Comedy)

Last Monday, the Emmy's released their nomination ballot for their voters to vote on. It's a comprehensive list of every single person and show that is eligible in each particular category. This list right here is a Power Rankings of the top contenders in each particular category and how I believe the nominations will play out in a month. Who do I think will get a nomination? Who do I think is in the running but will come up just short? How many major nominations will your favorite show get? Find out when you check out our 2014 Emmy Power Rankings for Comedy Series:

OUTSTANDING COMEDY SERIES

1) Orange Is The New Black (Netflix)
2) Modern Family (ABC)
3) Veep (HBO)
4) Louie (FX)
5) The Big Bang Theory (CBS)
6) Girls (HBO)
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7) Brooklyn Nine-Nine (FOX)
8) Parks and Recreation (NBC)

OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTOR

1) Jim Parsons (The Big Bang Theory)
2) Louis C.K. (Louie)
3) Andy Samberg (Brooklyn Nine-Nine)
4) Don Chedle (House of Lies)
5) Matt LeBlanc (Episodes)
6) Johnny Galecki (The Big Bang Theory)
_______________________________

7) Robin Williams (The Crazy Ones)
8) William H. Macy (Shameless)

OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTRESS

1) Taylor Schilling (Orange Is The New Black)
2) Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Veep)
3) Edie Falco (Nurse Jackie)
4) Lena Dunham (Girls)
5) Amy Poehler (Parks and Recreation)
6) Anna Faris (Mom)
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7) Zooey Deschanel (New Girl)
8) Emmy Rossum (Shameless)
9) Melissa McCarthy (Mike and Molly)
10) Wendi McLendon-Covey (The Goldbergs)

10 Quick Reactions To The 2014 Emmy Nomination Ballot

Throughout the entire month of May, I wrote many Emmy Questions pieces regarding many of the shows eligible and likely to be nominated for an Emmy in 2014 including House of Cards, Mad Men, Modern Family, Breaking Bad and many, many others. You can check out all of my articles here. A lot of the questions for these particular shows were regarding which categories certain actors would be nominated in. The Emmy's helped answer those questions today as they released every single show and person eligible in every single Primetime Emmy category. Here are 10 "Quick" Reaction to the 2014 Emmy Nomination Ballot that was released today.

1) True Detective

Click Here For Our True Detective Emmy Questions Post

The biggest question of all during this "Emmy pre-season" is what category would Woody Harrelson throw his hat into. HBO isn't ashamed to do what they can in order to maximize nominations and prestige, especially considering True Detective is a mini-series yet it's nominated in the Drama Series categories. Matthew McConaughey is a lock to earn a nomination, and is probably the favorite to win Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, so it was unclear whether Woody Harrelson would also be considered a Lead Actor as opposed to a Supporting Actor. The lead actor category is already crowded, and adding Woody Harrelson into the mix makes it almost impossible for anyone to get a nomination!

However, Woody Harrelson was clearly a co-lead with McConaughey and is eligible as such. Even though HBO probably could have maximized its nominations by submitting Harrelson as a supporting actor, the network seems so confident in the show, that Harrelson was submitted as a lead.

I was correct that Cary Joji Fukunaga submitted "Who Goes There" with its excellent oner at the end of the episode for Outstanding Directing, but I was incorrect as to what episode Nick Pizzolatto would submit in the writing category. I thought it would be the show's pilot, but it turned out to be Episode 5, "The Secret Fate of All Life." Since both Fukunaga and Pizzolatto directed and wrote, respectively, all eight episodes by themselves, they're only eligible for one nomination each.

2014 Emmy Questions: Breaking Bad

Click here for the introduction to The Cover 3's "2014 Emmy Questions" series

COLD, HARD LOCK NOMINATIONS: Outstanding Drama Series, Best Actor (Bryan Cranston), Best Supporting Actor (Aaron Paul), Best Supporting Actress (Anna Gunn), Best Director (Vince Gilligan, "Felina"), Best Screenplay (Vince Gilligan, "Felina")

STRONG, EDUCATED GUESS NOMINATIONS: Best Supporting Actor (Dean Norris), Best Director (Rian Johnson, "Ozymandias"), Best Screenplay (George Mastras, "To'hajilee")

QUESTION ONE: How many Emmy's will Breaking Bad win?

2014 Emmy Questions: Modern Family

Click here for the introduction to The Cover 3's "2014 Emmy Questions" series

COLD, HARD LOCK NOMINATIONS: Outstanding Comedy Series, Best Supporting Actress (Julie Bowen), Best Supporting Actress (Sophia Vergara), Best Supporting Actor (Ed O'Neill), Best Supporting Actor (Ty Burrell), Best Supporting Actor (Jesse Tyler Ferguson)

EDUCATED GUESS NOMINATIONS: Best Supporting Actor (Eric Stonestreet), Best Director (Gail Mancuso, "My Hero"), Best Director (Beth McCarthy-Miller, "A Hard Jay's Night")

QUESTION ONE: Will Eric Stonestreet earn a nomination this year?