Surprise! Last Night's Emmys Were Actually Fun

 

 

Before I get started with the report on last night’s Emmys, I’d actually like to give one on an awards I used to do a few years back but basically slacked off in recent years: the Creative Arts Emmys. These awards deal basically with all of the technical awards that the Emmys and take two nights to give. They are condensed in a two and a half hour ceremony on FXX so you could be forgiven for missing them. I have religiously watched them since 1999 mainly for the purpose of being a completist, often because they can be quite entertaining.

I’m reporting on them in part this year because if you watched last night’s Emmys, many of you might have assumed only three or four shows won all the awards. That’s not entirely true. Indeed, fans of The Last of Us would be surprised to know that their show, not Succession was the biggest winning drama this year, winning eight Emmys in all. Granted most of them were technical, which you would expect for a series involving zombies, but they also won two Emmys for Best Guest Acting, which should not come as a shock considering how many guest actors lit up the set. (I’ll get to the winners in a minute.) House of the Dragon also took three prizes and Wednesday took four. Not exactly a shock since most of these series are fantasy series and they have tended to be the winner so often that a few years back the Emmys actually divided many of their awards between fantasy/period and contemporary. (I have a feeling that was the Game of Thrones/Mad Men rule.) The White Lotus also won four Emmys, including casting. Succession actually didn’t win a single award from creative arts.

Comedy had some pleasant surprises, mostly in Guest Acting. Two of my favorite performers: Sam Richardson and Judith Light each won their first Emmys for Ted Lasso and Poker Face respectively. Ted Lasso took three other Emmys on its way out the door as did the Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.

And in the TV Movie category Weird won several awards including the grand prize. But Prey also did well, beating The Last of Us in two technical categories. Hard to argue with that. I also say how proud I am that Jeopardy won its first ever prime time Emmy given for a game show – though I’m disappointed the first Game Show Host award when to Keke Palmer and not either Mayim Bialik or Ken Jennings. Jennings, at least, will get other opportunities.

But I was overjoyed to see Nick Offerman finally win an Emmy for his work on The Last of Us. His speech was both hysterically funny and remarkably self-deprecating (and given the nature of his role, slightly dirty). He’s been owed an Emmy since Parks and Rec and I’m glad he won. (Storm Reid took the other acting Emmy, I would have preferred it had gone to Anna Torv or Melanie Lynskey. Next time?)

I was thrilled to see John Mulaney take an Emmy for his comedy special and it was wonderfully funny as his acceptance speech: “If you had called me when I was in rehab that I would win an Emmy for a special on my experience, I would not have received that call because they took away my phone” was among the highlights. Carol Burnett had the biggest night, winning three Emmys for the special commemorating her 90^th birthday as well as the final prize. She was overjoyed and humble. I guess this makes up for her not even being nominated for Better Call Saul.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from last night Emmys, even though I have immense respect for Anthony Anderson, the man who emceed. Anderson has been one of Peak TV great weapons as well as it’s most versatile. He has been astonishing not merely for black-ish and Law & Order but for his breakout role as Antoine Mitchell on The Shield. (I respect him for not mentioning him being robbed for that one among the many times he lost.) Few performers have a greater appreciation of the medium. That said, I had no idea how excellent a job he’d do in what was a perfect mix of reverence and irreverence.

Last nights Emmys were the 75^th anniversary, so there were many tributes to the great TV shows of our time. I didn’t expect them to all land as well as they did. We saw the set of Dr. Melfi’s office as Anderson reminded us just how much The Sopranos had changed TV. There was a picture of the late James Gandolfini and Michael Imperioli and Lorraine Bracco paid tribute to him as they presented an Emmy. Much of the cast of Cheers reunited on the set to present awards for directing and writing in a comedy, and naturally George Wendt came out with the envelope. Anderson paid tribute first to The Twilight Zone and then American Horror Story – an odd mix, but they are both horror anthologies at their core. (He actually played the man in the rubber suit and gave the envelope to Dylan McDermott.) We paid tribute to Grey’s Anatomy which I couldn’t pretend to ignore and I was glad to see Katherine Heigl out there. And Arsenio Hall gave the award for Best Late Night talk show, reminded us how much he loved Johnny Carson and how honored he had been to compete against Jay Leno and David Letterman. But he remembered his fate and was honest: “I kind of wish they’d sucked.”

My favorite moment came when the cast of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia came out and wondered: “Have they been giving these awards without us all this time?” A fitting question for a show that has been on for sixteen years. Danny DeVito then told them that he had won an Emmy but for Taxi. The cast could not figure out the math for the awards of a great show that ran for five years equated them and then DeVito added: “Rhea won four. For Cheers.”  They then wondered if they could steal some but Rob McElhenney told them that when they’d won five Emmys for             Welcome to Wrexham (I meant to tell you guys” he added), that they didn’t allow it. The rest of the cast said they were going to do so in the afterparty anyway.

Nearly as much fun was when the Emmys paid tribute to Ally McBeal a series I have a personal connection with. The tribute opened in the famous unisex bathroom with Calista Flockhart saying: “You look good girl.” Then the toilet flushed three times and in order Peter MacNicol, Greg German and Gil Bellows came out to the music of Barry White and the dancing that we saw happen so many times came to life on stage. It was a flashback to one of the most groundbreaking shows of all time, and it resonated with me personally. Flockhart has been making the awards shows circuit with her husband the last few weeks; I suspect given this month’s premiere of Capote Vs. the Swans, she’ll be out in her own right this fall. By the way Calista, you still look good girl.

The show also had moments that were moving that were unexpected. Christina Applegate was the first presenter of the night and not long after the standing ovation began she said: “Please, you don’t have to applaud everything I do.” (But you do it so well Christina.) There was also Rob Reiner and Sally Struthers tribute to Norman Lear on a mockup of the set of All In The Family. (Lear was actually nominated for another Emmy not long before his passing.) There was all irreverence among the reverence. When Carol Burnett came out to present she remarked about how she was the first female host of a variety show in 1967, spoke on how much the industry had changed “and how pleased I am to see how men are represented in the industry today.”  Similarly after being praised for his work on Mad Men Jon Hamm reminded us all that he was responsible for 1/16 of all the show’s wins “and if that doesn’t get me the Governor’s Award, I don’t know what will.”  (They might make up for this year Jon, we’ll see.”)

But the MVP of the Emmys was, of course, Anthony Anderson’s mother. Anderson reminded us all that music was used to play people off, but the winners ignored it. His mother was in the audience for the purpose of ‘shaming the winners off stage’. When you see her standing, thank Jesus and your Mama, and get off.” Jon Oliver, after winning for Best Scripted Variety Show, naturally said he was not going to leave without that happened and began naming the entire lineup of his favorite football team before she finally did. The other ‘victim’ was Jennifer Coolidge, who still couldn’t make a complete speech but did go out of her way to thank ‘the evil gays’ who tried to kill her on The White Lotus.

I actually expected the winners to be a disappointment, and I’ll admit a certain sadness that Better Call Saul has now completed its tour of duty and gone home without a single Emmy to its name. I’m sorry Bob, you did deserve better and Rhea, they took long to recognize you to begin with. But considering how many awards Succession had been winning the entire week previous, it was an inevitability that most of the cast was going to take the trophies that they spent the week winning.

As I expected ‘Connor’s Wedding’ took both the Directing and Writing Prizes, which is what happens when the Emmys nominate the single most important episode of last year, arguably the most significant one in a drama series since ‘Ozymandias’ in Breaking Bad. Kieran Culkin took the Emmy I knew in my heart he was going to win since last week’s Golden Globe and this time gave a decent speech though while thanking his wife and two children he said: “I want more. And you said if I won you’d think about it.” When Sarah Snook took her prize she thanked the daughter she’d been carrying while the final season was filming, saying that she helped her get through that final season and now she did everything. (Incidentally none of the Roys may have ‘won’ Succession but all three Roy children did win Emmys, which should count for something.) Matthew MacFayden became one of only two performers all night to repeat their awards and thanked both his on-screen wife Snook and his other on-screen wife Nicholas Braun. Considering how much of the joy of the series was watching their byplay, Cousin Greg earned it.

I’ll admit I was stunned how much The Bear dominated the Emmys last night, but admittedly having Season 1, it’s not like none of the winners didn’t earn it. Ayo Edebiri took the first of what will doubtless be many Emmys as did Jeremy Allan White and Ebon Moss-Bachrach. After the show won Best Comedy, Bachrach stole the night again by kissing the joyous producer square on the mouth. (Yes, I know I’ll start on Season 2 soon readers.)

Of course I couldn’t complain because my favorite for Best Actress also won: Quinta Brunson. You’d think by now Brunson would be used to all the awards she’s been getting but she got teary-eyed upon accepting her Best Actress in a Comedy Award. Brunson’s victory in this category is the first in my memory of an African-American Actress winning in this category. The gap between  an African-American Actress winning for Supporting Actress in a comedy was thirty three years between the first and the second. Sheryl Lee Ralph may not have won last night but she must be grateful the gap between the second and third was even shorter.

Diversity reigned supreme in the Best Limited Series category. Niecy Nash-Betts gave a wonderfully joyous speech when she took the long awaited prize for Dahmer shouting: “I won one. And I’d like to thank me, for believing I could do this when no one else could!” Her speech was one of the most active of the night. Paul Walter Hauser’s speech for winning for Black Bird was also memorable as he basically delivered a rap off his phone in which he thanked everyone responsible for his win for Black Bird off his phone in verse. (To be fair, he’s spent the last year getting prepped for this.)

Hauser was the only white winner of any major award in Best Limited Series last night. In addition to Nash, all the major winners were for Beef. Not only was this deserved on a critical level, this is a major victory for an awards show that has had a horrible reputation within diversity. It has made up ground with African-Americans over the past decade, but still lags behind with other major minorities particular Asian-Americans. (Sandra Oh’s being defeated by white co-stars in Grey’s Anatomy and Killing Eve while winning Golden Globes for both shows is just the most obvious example.) It was not just Lee Jung Jin’s wins in three categories, directing, producing and writing that added oomph. It was the depth and humility he’s shown as he has won awards. He has talked about how badly he was starving for money when he came to Hollywood, and he also used one of his acceptance speeches to say how glad he was that the topics in the show – which involve suicidal ideations – have led to major sharing across the board.

Steven Yeun and Ali Wong continued their winning streak this past week and I don’t have anything more to say. Though Ali, I’m glad to know you and Bill Hader are seeing each other. Can I just say: collaborate on something? Anything? I know I’d watch.

I don’t know if it was merely the coincidence that the Emmys were postponed to Martin Luther King’s birthday (something that Peter Dinklage mentioned when he gave out the award for Best Drama  again) that we had by far the most diverse group of winners in Emmy history this year. Having seen the improvements not only in nominees and winners of color  - and far more significantly, the increased level of great roles for performers, writers and everyone else of color – I like to think that the Emmys, who as we all know are always behind the curve, are finally catching up with what so many of us have recognized about Peak TV over the past decade. I look forward to see what the future holds – and starting this week, I’m going to begin to get caught up with some of the comedies, dramas and limited series that will no doubt play a part in the conversation. (Although to be fair, I have been watching quite a few series that seem certain to be already.)