To be honest, last night’s 64th Emmy Awards were fairly boring. The eight o’clock hour was spent recognizing mainly miniseries and movies I’d never heard of.
To the surprise of pretty much no one, “Modern Family” took Outstanding Comedy Series for the third year in a row. Cast members Eric Stonestreet (Cameron Tucker) and Julie Bowen (Claire Dunphy) won Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series and Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, respectively. The neon yellow dress Bowen wore as she accepted her little gold-winged lady was the most exciting part of the whole evening, though her win over Kristen Wigg for that category came as a shock at least to Kristen Wigg’s “tweeples,” who tweeted left and right that Wigg’s final season on “Saturday Night Live” was trophy-worthy.
Not to say “Modern Family” isn’t. The rest of the cast is pretty stellar — Nolan Gould (Luke Dunphy), for example, never fails to steal the spotlight with his innocent one-liners about everything from raccoons to sex, and after Sofia Vergara’s character, Gloria, made that pregnancy announcement in last spring’s finale, it seems safe to say we can expect the fourth season (premiering Wednesday) to include new nutty situations as well as the usual punchlines that have us doubled over laughing.
With the snub of “Parks and Recreation” in the Comedy Series category, Amy Poehler’s nomination as Outstanding Actress in the same genre was the show’s only chance at an Emmy grab. Poehler lost to Julia Louis-Dreyfus of “Veep” but still ended up onstage when the two funny ladies faked an acceptance speech switch.
The comedy category winners weren’t the only jokesters. Host Jimmy Kimmel played what he dubbed “the biggest prank ever” on non-viewers: Tracy Morgan hopped onstage and promptly lay down as if he had fainted (only after handing Kimmel his nunchucks, of course). Kimmel then instructed viewers to tweet, “OMG Tracey Morgan just fainted on stage at the Emmys! Tune to ABC!” Naturally, it was trending within a minute.
Comedy aside, the Emmy gods did manage to spread the wealth this year to an extent. Awards were dispersed between programs such as “Boardwalk Empire,” “Breaking Bad” and “Two and a Half Men.”
Most interestingly, the battle among “Downton Abbey,” “Breaking Bad” and “Mad Men” (poised to set an Emmy record had it won a fifth consecutive trophy) for the Outstanding Drama Series award ended unexpectedly with a win by Showtime’s “Homeland.” In fact, the lack of Emmys “Mad Men” received definitely raised eyebrows. The show didn’t pick up one award on the live broadcast, leaving MU grad Jon Hamm Emmy-less yet again.
To my disbelief (and hopefully to the disappointment of my fellow “Downton Abbey” nerds), the hit British drama only took one trophy for Maggie Smith’s performance as a supporting actress. With the highly anticipated third season currently airing in the U.K., “Downton Abbey” will most likely snag more nods next time around, especially with the entrance of Shirley MacLaine as Lady Cora’s mother.
As far as fashion on the red carpet, there were, eh, a handful of standouts among the countless prom-esque dresses. “Once Upon a Time” star Ginnifer Goodwin was my favorite in a modest orange and beige Monique Lhuillier number. Flowing, gauzy gowns like Heidi Klum’s light turquoise one were popular. Sarah Hyland’s striking, goddess-esque ensemble she co-designed with Marchesa was also a crowd-pleaser. And Sofia Vergara stunned as usual with a flashy, body-hugging gown.
On the other hand, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler weren’t impressive fashion-wise despite the supposed “battle for best dressed” between them. Those necklines simply weren’t flattering. But Elisabeth Moss and Julianna Margulies take the prize for worst dressed, both sporting cheap-looking floral gowns.
In summation, the Emmys happened without much of a fuss or much of anything terribly exciting, which begs the question: Why even broadcast the Emmys on TV? It doesn’t feature exclusive performances by artists like the VMAs or Tony Awards do. In fact, Jimmy Kimmel’s entertaining monologue was relatively short. Why can’t we simply read about the ceremony in the next day’s headlines?
Maybe, just maybe, award ceremonies like these serve as a reminder the old Hollywood glitz and glam still exists amid the racy stories of DUIs and cheating scandals associated with the acting world today. For a few nights a year, we get to pretend the land of “action” and “take two” is still about looking good, accepting hard-won awards and just generally being classy.