62nd Annual Primetime Emmy Awards

The 62nd PRIMETIME EMMY AWARDS last night went off without a hitch, and apparently without a beer, with the breakout comedy MODERN FAMILY, drama MAD MEN and HBO’s THE PACIFIC and TEMPLE GRANDIN taking home the top prizes. This year’s host Jimmy Fallon added his own flair to the usually blasé show with an opening number with Betty White, a very in character Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch), Joel McHale, Tina Fey, Jon Hamm, Jorge Garcia (Hurley from LOST), Kate Gosselin, as well as GLEE cast members Lea Michele, Cory Monteith, Chris Colfer, and Amber Riley. The GLEE-esque opener, played for the audience on video and sung to the tune of Bruce Springsteen’s “Born to Run”, ended with, who I initially thought was a now slimmed down Al Roker, but really it was Randy Jackson and the group on stage to kick-off the start of the awards show.
Overall the opening was definitely one of the high points from the ceremony last night. It was much funnier than expected, the highlight being Betty White teaching Jon Hamm how to move like a back-up dancer in a Sir-Mix-A-Lot music video. The two then came out to present the night’s first award for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy, which went to a very praiseworthy Eric Stonestreet from MODERN FAMILY. His antics are a large part of what makes the show so amazing each week. Each year, however, is another nomination and another loss for Neil Patrick Harris of HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER, who deserves to win at some point as his character is the driving force behind the show’s popularity. Steven Colbert came out and awarded Jane Lynch Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy for her role as Sue Sylvester on GLEE. The Best Supporting Actor and Actress, this time in Drama, were Aaron Paul of BREAKING BAD and Archie Panjabi of THE GOOD WIFE. Rounding out the category for Miniseries or Movie were Julia Ormond and David Stratharin both from HBO’s TEMPLE GRANDIN.

The Leading Actor/Actress awards this year went mostly to new winners including, in my opinion, the most deserving winner of the night Jim Parsons for his role in THE BIG BANG THEORY, this after last year’s loss and no previous nominations.  Edie Falco, mostly known for her role as Mrs. Tony Soprano from THE SOPRANOS, won for her role in NURSE JACKIE and returned to the stage to award Bryan Cranston his third consecutive Lead Actor in a Drama award for his role in BREAKING BAD. Finishing off the Drama side of the category was Kyra Sedgwick from THE CLOSER. Claire Danes won for her performance as in the title role of TEMPLE GRANDIN, about an autistic girl who goes on to revolutionize how livestock are handled. With his second EMMY win Al Pacino took home the prize for his role in YOU DON’T KNOW JACK, about Jack Kevorkian.

Guest-stars also get their spotlight at the EMMYS and this year’s comedy awards went to Betty White and Neil Patrick Harris for their roles in SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE and GLEE respectively.  While it was great to see Neil Patrick Harris win an award for a great role, I feel as though Mike O’Malley should have won this one. His character on GLEE has developed as much in a few episodes, if not more, than the main characters on the show have had all season to do. Every time that he is on screen you know that it’s going to be great. Hopefully his character keeps making stops in Ohio and grabs another nomination next year. On the Drama side Ann-Margret and John Lithgow won for their roles in LAW & ORDER: SVU and DEXTER respectively.

Writing and directing and producing, while much less glamorous on the EMMYS due to the lack of recognizable names, still have their time on stage. For writing Steven Levitan and Christopher Lloyd won for MODERN FAMILY, a well deserved win, Matthew Weiner and Erin Levy won another for MAD MEN, Dave Boone and Paul Greenberg won for the 63rd ANNUAL TONY AWARDS, and Adam Mazer won for YOU DON’T KNOW JACK. Directing brought Ryan Murphy to the stage for GLEE, Steve Shill for DEXTER, Bucky Gunts for the VANCOUVER 2010 OLYMPIC WINTER GAMES OPENING CEREMONY, and Mick Jackson for TEMPLE GRANDIN. TOP CHEF took home the prize for Outstanding Reality-Competition Program, which was a shock to producers who expected reigning winner THE AMAZING RACE to take home the Emmy for an eighth straight year. THE DAILY SHOW WITH JON STEWART did win its eighth straight Emmy for Variety, Music, or Comedy Show, which left the short lived TONIGHT SHOW WITH CONAN O’BRIAN with just a nomination under its seven month old belt.

George Clooney took home the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award for his relief efforts for Haiti and Jewel sang a new song titled “Shape of You” during the In Memoriam part of the show.
The night was a success with presenters bringing in laughs a plenty. Some memorable quotes came from all around including last year’s host Neil Patrick Harris who thanked the EMMYS for “allowing a gay man to host the Emmys two years in a row. You’re doing a great job Jimmy.” However, the presenter of the night was most certainly Ricky Gervais who left me in stitches with quotes like “I’m gonna keep it short and sweet this time. And clean. I’m saving all the offensive stuff for the Golden Globes. They’re all drunk anyway. Not here. No drink here. No drink at the Emmys. No beer, not even backstage. What do they think is going to happen? There’s no tough guys. No Russell Crowe. He wouldn’t be seen dead here. It’s TV.” Gervais then proceeded to present the first few rows with some (non-alcoholic) beer. Then, while presenting for Best Directing for Variety, Gervais quips “I hope it’s Bucky Gunts. I didn’t know you could say that on television. Let’s face it, we’re all Bucky Gunts here”, and let out a holler when Gunts actually won the award.
Like every year, it’s exciting to see some new shows like GLEE and MODERN FAMILY win so many awards, and sad to see some older ones get none. It’s also great to see some TV personalities that haven’t been in the spotlight for a while, like Matthew Perry and Ted Danson, making an appearance. So thanks, NBC, for a successful EMMYS this year. You kept my fingers crossed for my favorites and gave my thumbs a nice rest from the TiVo remote, which will be recording BREAKING BAD and MAD MEN next season.  Bravo.

Thanks to CBS for the pictures. You can see the full albums below:
Red Carpet Pictures
Highlights