Neil Patrick Harris sang, underdogs won, Ricky Gervais was censored, and a few anti-climatic wins defined the broadcast of the 2009 Emmy Awards. Harris doubled as Producer and assembled a winning format, dividing the awards into genre save for Best Comedy and Drama series, which were awarded back to back at the end of the night. In some of the evening's best executed - as well as completely accidental - moments: host Neil Patrick Harris made self-promotion an art tonight, dropping the name of his popular sitcom, How I met Your Mother, with stupendously tasteful comedic timing - an art that seemed to be catching. Also memorable was the technical difficulty experienced by Ricky Gervais, which cleared up just in time to catch him in a foul-mouthed outburst - good-natured outburst, I'd add, but quite colorful certainly helping to get Gervais in the mood for some of his best live theater.
On the win side of things, Michael Emerson of LOST pulled an awesome upset and won the supporting actor award - the sole award for LOST this evening. The other big surprise of the night was Toni Collette's win as lead comedy actress for United States of Tara. Well, maybe not a surprise for all of us - some of us predicted it long ago [please ignore the other predictions, I think somebody edited the post without my knowledge.] Bryan Cranston nabbed the Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama win for Breaking Bad. Alec Baldwin can be counted amongst the predictable for his win as Outstanding Lead Actor in a comedy. Glenn Close secured the Outstanding Actress award.
In the outstanding series column, both the comedy and drama winners were prognosticated by arm-chair Emmy analysts - and their dogs - everywhere. Snaring a historic 22 nominations, 30 Rock took home best Comedy series. Also making history for managing an incredible 32 nominations over its short two-season life, Mad Men cruised to victory in the Outstanding Drama slot.
Perhaps the biggest winner of the night was Neil Patrick Harris himself, whose sometimes awkward nod as Emmy Host seemed to crystallize on demand to quick witted and polished master of ceremonies when needed, yet retain a humble everyman quality that was inviting to watch. It had all the feel of a great valedictorian speech, where you knew the blushing tongue-tied kid on stage was also the smartest student in school - and it occasionally even showed.
Ricky Gervais was censored?
I didn't catch that.
That was funny, hearing Ricky Gervais do his part. That's a funny comedian.
Oh yeah, when he first came out… something about the microphone.
I didn't realize that was off-script.
Ricky Gervais was censored?
I didn’t catch that.
That was funny, hearing Ricky Gervais do his part. That’s a funny comedian.
Oh yeah, when he first came out… something about the microphone.
I didn’t realize that was off-script.
I wouldn't be surprised if it was a setup. The whole ranting nature of it was so Ricky.
I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a setup. The whole ranting nature of it was so Ricky.
And a big HOORAY for Kristin Chenoweth!
And a big HOORAY for Kristin Chenoweth!