[Televisionary]

It's that time of year again: Emmy nominations. Modern Family 's Sofia Vergara and Community 's Joel McHale were on hand bright and early this morning to announce the Primetime Emmy Award nominations. (I stayed home to watch E! Online's stream of the press conference rather than drive over there bleary-eyed and unable to conceal my frustration about overlooked performances and series in person.) While Vergara ultimately walked away with a nomination for supporting actress for Modern Family (as did most of her co-stars, in fact), McHale was sadly shut out of the nominations, as was Community , a real slap in the face (along with that for Parks and Recreation ) considering that Community and Parks were both streets ahead of The Office and 30 Rock this season. Grr. So which series did the best overall? HBO's The Pacific walked away with an impressive 24 nominations, followed closely by FOX's Glee at 19 nods, AMC's Mad Men at 17, and 15 nominations...

I already waxed enthusiastically about the beauty and grace of HBO's biopic Temple Grandin (airing Saturday night) , which recounts the life of author, autistic, and inventor Temple Grandin, played here by the incomparable Claire Danes. I had the rare opportunity to separately interview Temple Grandin, Claire Danes, director Mick Jackson, and executive producer Emily Gerson Saines in a series of one-on-one interviews for a feature over at The Daily Beast. You can head over to The Daily Beast to read the feature , in which the quartet discuss the HBO film, its portrayal of autism and Grandin's extraordinary gifts, its legacy, and the remarkable woman at its center, Temple Grandin herself. The half-hour I spent with Grandin will remain with me for the rest of my life and I was touched by her innate charm, humor, and honesty. You'll read just a sliver of what we discussed, which also went on to include details about her life, her work with the cattle industry, alarming trends...

Made-for-TV movies often get a bad rap. They're sometimes looked at as being saccharine stories of people overcoming adversity, focusing on individuals who bravely overcome diseases, disabilities, or gut-wrenching issues. But every now and then, especially in the hands of HBO, a telepic comes along that is just as good as--if not better than--feature films shown in cinemas, projects that change your perception of the world around you, make you question some hard truths, and make you a better person just by dint of watching them. One such project is HBO's superlative and imaginative film, Temple Grandin , which airs this Saturday night on the pay cabler. Focusing on the courageous spirit and inquisitive mind of inventor, author, advocate, and teacher Temple Grandin, the film unfolds in a nonlinear fashion to reconstruct the struggles of autistic Grandin from her childhood as a mute four-year-old girl to her emergence as a brilliant scientific mind, one who revolutionized the cat...