Emmy's best of the best?

It might as well be called, A Montage Of No Particular Importance, Just for Padding.

ABC and the TV Academy are asking you to vote on "TV's most memorable moment" in two broad categories, comedy and drama. So far, the list has already been whittled down for you, potential voter, from millions to 20 in each race. Your mission, should you choose to fall for it, is to refine that number to 10 comedy and 10 drama clips to be played during the Sept. 21 show.

And if you don't care to participate, we wonder if that same "blue ribbon panel" that picked the top 20 will do its "expert" thing to arrive at the so-called best of the best. So far, we're not impressed with their taste.

Truth be told, we're kind of confounded by the lists, which contain a great show that was consistently shut out of the Emmys ("Buffy, the Vampire Slayer), and some Emmy darlings that were completely snubbed -- no "Cheers," no "Frasier," no "Simpsons," no "West Wing." "Grey's Anatomy" made the cut, but "St. Elsewhere" did not. "Miami Vice" was singled out over dozens of arguably more worthy cop and crime shows.

Then there are the musical and reality bits that would seem to have no place in a comedy category -- the "American Idol" finale from season 2, and the Beatles on "The Ed Sullivan Show"). Those were funny?

It's downright impossible to find a thread, though inevitably any such short list of "the greatest" from TV will be fraught with problems and subject to attack.

We're happy to oblige, as is fellow blogger Tom O'Neil who puts his Rain Man skills to work on the inconsistencies and omissions on the comedy side. He points out, for instance, that Jackie Gleason was infuriated until the day he died that he never won an Emmy for "The Honeymooners." But there he is in a clip that's among the voting pool.

In other Emmy telecast news: the "Desperate Housewives" -- all of them -- will try not to recreate that famous Vanity Fair photo situation as they present an award en masse, and "Baby Mamma"/"SNL" duo Tina Fey and Amy Poehler also will work the podium, probably more successfully than most.

Things are looking up?