Submitted For Your Consideration...

The benefits of being able to brag "this is an Emmy-winning show" are obvious. TV studios will spare no expense advertising to any member of the Emmy voting committee, mailing them free items of fine quality they would never make for us. In the weeks before the ceremony, every member of the panel gets their mailboxes buried in promotional materials relating to the nominated shows, always with the label "For Your Consideration" (either it's a law or it's assumed to be one). These packages usually include home video copies of the shows, just in case, you know, there's an off chance they misplaced theirs. Gotta be sure!

All that money never has much of an effect, though -- the Emmys remain massively predictable. "Let's just give it to Modern Family again and go out for French cuisine, ho ho ho."

The only way to get into the Television Academy of Arts and Sciences is to either be related to an academy member, or to save the life of an academy member. Perks of being inside the elite club include Emmy Magazine (seen to the right, yes, a magazine just for Emmy members and it is thick) as well as mounds of "For Your Consideration" bribe material. Mostly free DVDs!

Oprah just can't do anything small, can she? To entice the Emmy panel into considering any of the reality shows on her OWN network (ha ha, good luck with that) she packed a package full of four DVDs and sent it out.

"Four? That's a lot!" you might be thinking. Actually, the number four is rather restrained. When it comes to "consideration" packages, we've only scratched the surface of excess.

This is what NBC Studios sent to the Emmy committee in 2007. A whopping 18 discs were included inside, each with its own individually labeled sleeve. This would cost you a hundred bucks or so at the retailers.

FORMAT: DVD (17 DISCS / ORIGINAL 18 DISCS)

FEATURED SHOWS:

< THE OFFICE > – Disc Missing

< 30 ROCK > – Episode "Hardball", "Hiatus"

< MONK > – Episode "Mr. Monk and Leper"

< PSYCH > – Episode "From the Earth to the Starbucks"

< ANDY BARKER, P.I. > – Episode "Pilot", "Fairway, My Lovely"

< SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE > – Episode "Host: Alec Baldwin, Musical Guest: Christina Aguilera" (November 11, 2006)

< THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JAY LENO > – Episode "Guest: Borat & Martha Stewart, Musical Guest: Damien Rice" (November 9, 2006)

< LATE NIGHT WITH CONAN O'BRIEN > – Episode "Guest: Tracy Morgan & Jim Gaffigan, Musical Guest: Sparta" (January 16, 2007)

< LAST CALL WITH CARSON DALY > – Episode "Guest: Michael Rapaport, Musical Guest: Ben Harper and The Innocent Criminals featuring Charlie Musselwhite" (February 20, 2007)

< HOUSE > – Episode "Half-Wit"

< HEROES > – Episode "Genesis (Pilot)"

< FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS > – Episode "Pilot"

< CROSSING JORDAN > – Episode "33 Bullets"

< LAS VEGAS > – Episode "Heroes"

< THE BLACK DONNELLYS > – Episode "Pilot"

< RAINES > – Episode "Pilot"

< BATTLESTAR GALACTICA > – Episode "Collaborators"

< EUREKA > – Episode "Before I Forget"

HBO, to be stylish, shortened the common phrase to just "FYC" and gave Emmy voters this for free in 2010.

I can't even begin to list the volume of content here -- count them, 22 discs. Twenty-two! Each with its own sleeve and polished paper description!

This is actually down from the previous year's 25 discs, and every year has come with its own sophisticated protective case suited for the bookshelf.

The Lifetime network sent this 3-pack of DVDs out to members in 2007, promoting three female-targeted TV movies, including "Why I Wore Lipstick To My Masectomy."

AMC's 2011 giveaway had less DVDs than its competition, but made up for it in volume: not just one or two episodes, but the entire third season of Mad Men is inside, as well as 2 discs of The Walking Dead and a couple other things it ran that year.

I don't know how good the History Channel thought its chances were when they published this 10-DVD set for the academy, but episodes of Ice Road Truckers and Axe Men are inside, for all the good it would do them.

These are from Comedy Central (as it says on the box) and they cover shows from 2009 and 2010 respectively that they wanted to win. There's no South Park in either of them, and I know it's won an Emmy or two. (But Sarah Silverman is in both......yay?)

Here is one WB Studios sent to committee members in 2013. The eBay merchant selling this had never seen it opened up (observe the cellophane).

This Scrubs box, a 2002 mailing, looks fat enough to hold the entire season -- but it's unopened, again. This is actually better packaging than the retail version got.

At least Sony cares more about Community than NBC does. That being said, this is the smallest package on the entire page -- one DVD inside a cheap cardboard sleeve.

As I write this, How I Met Your Mother is just ending (and WHAT a finale, EVERYONE loved it!). This was from 2011 and contains one DVD with three Season Six episodes: "Subway Wars," "Natural History" and "Last Words." There is also fine print on the back instructing the giftee to "not copy, upload it to the Internet, or publicly perform it. Do not loan, rent, sell or give it away." These kinds of toothless warnings have always been impossible to prosecute (and never are, except in the more extreme cases of piracy). I have a depressing theory that in the future, the art of making these things will be done away with and they'll give out streaming codes instead, which can be taken back and cannot be preserved.

Also unopened, yet I have no doubt that DVDs are inside. Note that more of these are untouched than not. Academy members already have access to screener discs of the nominated show episodes and have little need to bother. All this money could be better spent on starving children, but...here we are.

TNT, whose logo hasn't changed in at least one decade, sent this DVD set out for the 2004 committee. What, no Witchblade?

They got a bit fancier one year later. Sorry, guys, but The Librarian stunk on ice and wasn't going to win a thing. (But my feelings or the Emmys' don't matter; it's coming back soon.)

This pretty loud one came out of Warner Bros. in 2007, and hyped four shows, including ABC's weirdly-titled "Men in Trees." (Its working title was "Why I Brought Men In Trees To My Masectomy.")

An oldie from the days of VHS, this one's a classic. A videotape promoting Malcolm in the Middle and spotlighting Bryan Cranston in what is sure to be the defining role of his career -- wimpy, whimpering Hal.