Emmys winners and losers, set to a fun Glee-style musical number (with Betty White cameo!)
The Emmys held its annual pancake breakfast on Sunday, and in deference to what is easily television’s ninth or tenth most important night, none of the shows that broadcast new episodes on Sundays took a hiatus. So in case you were busy watching Mad Men or True Blood instead of watching the cast and crew of Mad Men and True Blood talk about what an honor it is to make a show like Mad Men or True Blood, here are some of the highlights you missed:
THE WINNERS
New comedies (and musicals masquerading as comedies): In one of the true upsets of the night, Modern Family took Best Comedy away from fellow freshman Glee after also nabbing trophies for Best Supporting Actor (Eric Stonestreet) and Best Writing. But don’t feel bad for Glee: Jane Lynch took home her first Emmy for playing Sue Sylvester, likely setting her up to be the next perennial nominee in the Jeremy Piven or Christine Baranski mold, while Ryan Murphy grabbed one for Best Directing. Also, the entire pre-show was dedicated to talking to seemingly every single one of its cast members, while the ceremony itself opened with a big, Glee-style opening number set to Bruce Springsteen’s “Born To Run” featuring the cast performing with Jimmy Fallon, Tina Fey, Jon Hamm, Betty White, Joel McHale, Kate Gosselin, Jorge Garcia, Tim Gunn, and Randy Jackson. (That Neil Patrick Harris wasn’t asked to host in this, The Year Of Glee, was probably a source of great consternation to him.) And much like Glee, this set the stage for an entire night of musical numbers substituting for actual jokes, as seen in Jimmy Fallon’s later impressions of Elton John and Billie Joe Armstrong.
AMC: Mad Men won Best Drama again. Breaking Bad’s Bryan Cranston won Best Actor again. Cranston’s co-star Aaron Paul took Best Supporting Actor in another of the night’s surprise (and most deserved) wins. Both shows thanked AMC profusely and basically called it the only network with any balls. Somewhere in a cavernous conference room high in the Hollywood Hills, an HBO executive banged his fist on a huge redwood table and shouted at his underlings to find him 10 more pilots by sunup.
Top Chef: Finally, the stranglehold that The Amazing Race has held over the Best Reality Show category was broken. It was a triumphant moment—except for the poor staff member who tripped on her way to the podium and ensured she would be mentioned in just about every Emmy wrap-up.
Pomposity: Most TV actors are fairly self-effacing about their craft, so thank goodness the Emmys always hands out awards to any movie actor willing to lower themselves to their level, otherwise the show would be robbed of that always-crucial element of puffy rhetoric. Emboldened by its touchy-feely subject, the cast of HBO’s Temple Grandin—which took home accolades for Best Made-For-TV Movie, Best Actress, and Best Supporting Actor and Actress—supplied the gustiest winds, with David Strathairn basically thanking the film for giving him the opportunity to teach America about autism, and Julia Ormond actually delivering the line, “It takes a village to raise a child, and it takes a cast and crew to make a film.” Also, George Clooney showed up to make everyone feel bad about being rich and not caring about Haiti anymore, and Tom Hanks used his The Pacific acceptance speech to say it was the U.S.’s job to “save the world” every once in a while. And hey Kyra Sedgwick: Tina Fey is not your personal valet. Hold your own damn Emmy.
Betty White: This year’s go-to punchline.
Bucky Gunts: Next year’s Betty White?
THE LOSERS
The networks: Of the many winners last night, the only network shows that walked home with trophies were Modern Family, Glee, The Big Bang Theory (for Jim Parsons), and The Good Wife (for Archie Panjabi, who bested both Mad Men favorites, then bluntly told the audience that “this is good for my career”—which, shut up). Somewhere in a conference room high in the Hollywood Hills, an NBC executive banged his fist on a huge redwood conference table and ordered 10 more remakes of 1970s action shows by sunup.