It won’t be the last time bikers feel the cold, unwelcoming shoulder from the non-riding world, but yesterday's missing Emmy nominations for anything ‘Sons of Anarchy’ has the two-wheeled world buzzing.

Sure, not including the wildly popular FX drama in the latest round of television awards doesn’t stack against the uncomfortable stares bikers still occasionally endure when visiting new or non-riding establishments. But as a group we’re used to being considered among America’s most wanted by America’s most oblivious who haven’t quite worked out bikers run the gamut of lawyers, police and every other profession imaginable.

Forgetting the edgy scripts and excellent storylines from the motorcycle drama for a moment, even television critics were stunned by Sons of Anarchy’s leading lady Katey Sagal being omitted from the nominations, something considered as good as done as recently as a week ago.

‘If there was an Emmy for the most obvious and egregious snub, it might go this year to Katey Sagal,’ wrote Mary McNamara in the Los Angeles Times, ‘[she] delivered a stunning performance this year as biker doyenne Gemma in “Sons of Anarchy.”’

Newsweek’s Joshua Alston noted ‘As the damaged matriarch of a biker gang, Sagal turned in a masterful performance in what had to be the most emotionally challenging arc in the past year of television’ while Tim Goodman at SF Gate put it a little more bluntly calling the omission ‘an inexcusable oversight [on] Katey Sagal (who not only should have been nominated, but was far and away the best actress in the category)’.

And having no mention of the motorcycle drama in any category had some entertainment writers wondering.

‘Kurt Sutter's Shakesperean roadshow has given FX Rescue Me-like ratings, where Emmy darling and soon-to-be cancelled Damages (which is also fantastic) didn't.  Katey Sagal in particular had a breakout season in Son's second year, so what we want to know is, how many Mayan associates are on this friggin Emmy commitee?’ Hilary Rothing asked on UGO Entertainment.

The oversight can't be put down to the lack of success. Achieving numbers never seen before with either cable or broadcast television, the second season of Sons of Anarchy showed the largest season-to-season growth in adults ages 18-49 with 81 percent more people tuning in and 80 percent increase in males 18 to 49. The total number of viewers for the show grew 72 percent. 

Of course Sons of Anarchy creator, producer and writer Kurt Sutter had his own opinion of the motorcycle drama being overlooked.

‘Let's face it, kids, we are the dirty-faced outlaws who no one wants in their clean white town.  We are too loud, too violent, too brash,’ Sutter wrote in his usual cutting style, ‘We don't sing, have pretty sets, or wear retro suits.  They admire us from afar, wish they could do what we do, then they pull the shades and settle for the familiar and safe.’

He does humorously acknowledge, ‘if we were nominated I'd be calling the Academy geniuses’.

Without one SAMCRO sighting in this year’s Emmy nominations the plan of having a roaring open to the TV awards show by a pack of Harley-Davidson’s will be put back on the shelf until the next Hollywood awards extravaganza. It’s a shame really, having real life husband and wife Kurt Sutter and Katey Sagal walking the red carpet surrounded by leather clad motorcycle club bodyguards would have made for great television.

But being of the robust nature bikers are known for, the non-nomination will be taken in stride and is really best summed up by Los Angeles Times’ Mary McNamara, ‘If this kind of dramatic performance doesn't earn you an Emmy nomination — Jodie Foster won an Oscar for “The Accused” for heaven’s sake — then I don’t know what this town is coming to.’