Did you watch the Emmys last night? Overall, I thought it was a pretty good show. A little fashion, a few funny sketches, some awkward Charlie Sheen time, and Jane Lynch doing a nice job hosting and performing in some funny pre-recorded bits. While the show played it pretty safe and by the book (i.e. it ran on time and Ricky Gervais didn’t host) there were a few upsets/surprises that kept me interested till the end.
I was especially happy with all the top acting wins -- Jim Parsons and Melissa McCarthy who are personal favorites of mine, along with Julianna Margulies for The Good Wife (which I love), and Kyle Chandler for FNL (which I also love). Also, very pleased with Peter Dinklage's win for Game of Thrones (which I predicted even before he was nominated…okay not a stretch if you'd seen the show).
I was also really thrilled that Jason Katims won the big writing award for FNL. As an aspiring writer of TV drama, this is an award whose winners and nominees I really take note of (sometimes even more so than the best show nominees and winners) and considering I've loved the writing on FNL, and the fact that the show has been severely under appreciated (awards wise), and the fact that I really like Katims' other show, Parenthood, it’s so nice to see him get the recognition he deserves. To me, that win was probably the best surprise of the night.
On that note, I think I was surprised all night by how much the cable networks seemed to falter compared to the amount of nominations they got. I mean sure, HBO can’t win them all, but the broadcast networks really seemed to hold their own. First, there was the big loss by nominations juggernaut Mildred Pierce. While Kate Winslet still won for playing the title role (and looked lovely doing it) the show lost out to a PBS show.
On the comedy side, Modern Family clearly dominated, winning acting awards in both categories it was heavily nominated as well as winning for directing, writing, and the show itself. As I mentioned before, the other acting awards in comedy both went to shows on CBS. If you’re a comedy writer who really wants to write a cable style dramedy right now…I’d say, that's cool and maybe you're going to have the next big thing, but maybe also make sure you have a good network friendly comedy in your portfolio because that’s clearly what’s hot (both critically and ratings wise) right now.
On the drama side, broadcast network (and former network) shows also made strong showings, with my personal favorite FNL getting two big awards for acting and writing, and Julianna Margulies nabbing the well deserved best actress award.
Now, maybe these couple of wins don’t seem like a lot when you consider the supporting actor nods, directing, and best show all went to non-broadcast network shows, but when you also consider how many nominations a network like HBO or a show like Mad Men gets every year, I’d say the broadcast networks did a pretty darn good job not letting any one cable show run away with it (hey, even Matt Weiner seemed surprised Mad Men won...I was right there with him, I thought for a second that FNL was going to pull off the big upset and take it).
Overall, despite the Mad Men win, I still felt like the Academy's choices really made the point that a show doesn’t have to be on basic or even pay cable to have the best writing and the best leading roles for actors (two things I think a lot of viewers and critics have not felt the past few years).
I guess a win by Mad Men must still feel good for some networks (cough, ABC and NBC, cough) who doubled down on 1960s shows this upcoming season (Pan Am and Playboy Club). I guess we'll see if the solid Emmy performance of broadcast network shows (and somewhat faltering Emmy performance of cable shows) affects the ongoing TV development season but...I'm just saying...I’d love to see every network go after the next FNL or Good Wife just as hard as they went after the next Mad Men. Make it happen broadcast networks. Make it happen.
EDIT: Just saw this article from Deadline which talks about broadcast networks great Emmy performance this year... check it out!
