I Love the Emmys

I am a TV junkie.

I could say I have tried 12 step programs, detox units, and literary clubs to wean me off my habit but to no avail, and frankly I am not even slightly disappointed. Mainly because, these days, and it is increasingly so, TV is where all the real visual creativity is happening; it’s where many of the true visionaries are plying their trade and creating TV so powerful, clever or funny that you wonder why the movies, now reduced largely to remaking the same tired, dumb movies over and over, don’t just give up, hand their big screens over to TV, and let us all move in and watch wall to wall true creativity writ large. (Of course trying to clean up in of those cineplex bathrooms would require the patience of a saint, and the dexterity of a gymnast, but you get the idea.)

Jane Lynch hits the stage at The Emmys after her opening previously filmed piece of liquid crystal fabulousness.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7C50iY04M8 (such a fun opening piece!)

So what is any TV junkie worth his or her remote doing tonight? Well they’re glued to their set watched TV’s night of nights unfold. Well, truth be told, as I write this, the Emmys have ended, the red carpet has been trod, surprise guests unleashed (no more so than Charlie Sheen popping up to present Best Actor in a Comedy Series), and Jane Lynch has performed her magic, managing to be oh-so-clever and funny all at the same time, and having a bundle of fun with an opening piece that features hilarious interactions with the cast of Big Bang Theory and Mad Men, among others, all based on the conceit that all the characters in every TV show live in the same building. What follows is not an exhaustive roll call of winners but rather my run down of what matters to me and a few choice photos to make it all visual and pretty (even so, a full list of winners and losers follows at the end of the blog since I am nothing if not a completist…. at times.)


First up, I am thrilled that Jim Parsons aka Sheldon Cooper of Big Bang Theory has won the Emmy for Best Actor in a Comedy Series. He is such a supremely talented actor, and while BBT is a true ensemble relying on all its characters to bring on the laughs, it is Jim Parsons gift for comic timing and nuance that holds it all together, and is the focal point for the show. Well done Jim!

They also walked away with wins for Julie Bowen, Outstanding Supporting Actress, Comedy (with a dress that must have drawn the heterosexual male demographic to the screen like moths to the proverbial) and TyBurrell, Outstanding Supporting Actor, Comedy (who wowed the crowd with a very funny stand up routine in lieu of thanking everyone, and his dog.)

And finally in amongst Martin Scorsese deservedly winning for directing Boardwalk Empire, and my one of my favourite comediennes around, Melissa McCarthy, who I have loved and adored since her days on The Gilmore Girls, winning for Outstanding Lead Actress, comedy in Mike and Molly, the English period soap, Downton Abbey with it’s exquisite portrayal of British aristocracy just prior to World War 1 when everything changed forever, romped home with four awards and proved that quality everything can triumph in a sea of mediocre reality TV shows, and poorly written scripted shows. 

I wouldn’t call this year’s ceremony a massive surprise, especially with shows like Amazing Race winning the Reality Show category again (less an indictment on the show itself, which I love, but more a reflection of the paucity of true genius in the category generally) and  Daily Show winning for the ninth straight year (mainly because it is awesomely fantastically hilarious and deserves to just be automatically given the Emmy for as long as it’s on air), but Jane Lynch was fun and refreshing, the genuine joy of many of the winners contagious (Melissa McCarthy’s teary speech was touching), and it managed to celebrate all that’s good about TV without overstaying it’s welcome. 

Melissa McCarthy holding her Emmy statuette aloft

Here are the night’s winners: