The last Emmy Awards (75th in January) was a huge success, with casts from classic series such as “Cheers,” “The Sopranos,” “It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia” and “All in the Family” reuniting for such a big birthday. At the latest Emmy Awards, the organizers were asked to “refrain from applause.”
In a night peppered with reunions of shows like “Saturday Night Live” and “Happy Days” and themes like TV moms and dads, the shows “Shogun,” “Baby Reindeer” and “The Bear” all won trophies.
Here are some notable moments from the night.
Kind host
The event was hosted by father-son duo Eugene and Dan Levy, who won Emmy Awards in 2020 for “Schitt's Creek,” and the atmosphere was warm, even poking fun at themselves by saying the telecast was celebrating “movie stars of streaming services.”
It was mild, even when Canadians attacked shows like “The Bear,” which competed in the best comedy series category despite not being a traditional gangster film festival.
“I love the show, and some people are expecting us to make jokes about whether 'The Bear' is actually a comedy, but in the true spirit of 'The Bear,' we're not making jokes,” Eugene Levy said.
At one point, the pair were in the audience but in different rows, mistaking stage left for the left side of the theater. An awkward moment ensued. As they tried to push through, Eugene Levy lamented, “I can't see the teleprompter!”
The show is defeated by the dog
John Oliver had a lot of people to thank after winning the award for Outstanding Written Variety Program for “Last Week Tonight,” but things took a strange turn when he ended up honoring his family's recently deceased dog.
“We have the most amazing dogs, they came to our wedding, they helped us get through the pandemic, they've been with us through both of my pregnancies…” he said, blasting the music as he walked off stage.
Oliver didn't take the hint. “We had to say goodbye to her. I feel like Sarah McLaughlin right now. She was a great dog,” he said. Then he started yelling expletives and trying to say more about his late dog.
“This isn't just for her. This is for all the dogs,” he continued, as the room roared. “All the dogs, you're all such good girls. You're all such good boys. You all deserve a treat. Go ahead and make fun of me right now! Thank you so much.”
The White House reunites
“The West Wing” celebrated its 25th anniversary with cast members Martin Sheen, Dulé Hill, Richard Schiff, Janel Moloney and Allison Janney coming together to present the show with the trophy for Best Drama.
Created by Aaron Sorkin, “The West Wing” premiered on NBC in the fall of 1999 as an idealistic portrayal of politics, with its cast assembled in a replica Oval Office set. It ended in 2006.
“It's hard to believe that just 25 years ago, Aaron and the writers would have had to stretch their imaginations to create intriguing storylines for 'The West Wing,'” Janney said. Schiff added, “Unlike today, when storylines can be plucked straight from the news, writers 25 years ago would have found these a bit far-fetched, if not downright absurd.”
Coach, hire me
Jane Lynch, who played the cantankerous cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester on “Glee,” and Brendan Hunt, who played the silent coach Willis Beard on “Ted Lasso,” teamed up to present the award for best directing in a drama series.
The two appeared on a locker room set, with Lynch teasing Hunt that he was the head coach on TV and she was just an assistant coach, but the stage seemed a bit too big for two TV coaches.
But that all changed when Paris Olympians Ilona Maher, Caleb Dressel, Steven “Pommel Horse Man” Nedorosic and Paralympian Ezra Fleck appeared on stage.
“Saturday Night Live” greats mock its creators
“Saturday Night Live” got a head start on its 50th anniversary next year with a mini-reunion, with Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Seth Meyers and Bowen Yang presenting the award for best writing for a variety special.
Three of the four mocked creator and producer Lorne Michaels, who was in the audience. They claimed Michaels had been nominated for 85 Emmys and had never won one. Rudolph said he “fudged” him, while Yang said he would “get better” and “keep winning.” Myers corrected them all, saying Michaels had in fact won 21 Emmys. Yang then mispronounced his boss' first name.
It may have been a sign of things to come in 2025, when a three-hour primetime special will air in February to celebrate the pioneering sketch show that launched the careers of stars like Eddie Murphy, Adam Sandler, Tina Fey, Will Ferrell and Mike Myers.
Bad guys and bad girls
Antony Starr from “The Boys,” Giancarlo Esposito from “Breaking Bad” and Kathy Bates from “Misery” have all emerged to represent that strangely important part of television: the villain.
“You can't have a story without a villain or an antagonist,” Esposito says. But it comes at a cost: “Do you know how hard it was for me to find a date after Misery?” Bates jokes about playing Stephen King's deranged kidnapper.
Esposito complained that drug dealers would interrupt his dinners to ask for advice on how to build an empire, and Starr said a bunch of 12-year-old critics would come in and tell him his superheroes were “bad.” He responded that the show was rated R, pointing out that it was “sloppy parenting.”
Mom and Dad
Actors who played memorable TV dad roles, including George Lopez, Damon Wayans and Jesse Tyler Ferguson, gathered to honor the lead actors of the comedy series. They entered the man cave set, where Lopez and Wayans said they wanted to thank the TV wives, but Ferguson hesitated because she starred with her TV husband on “Modern Family.” “Excuse me, have you watched my show or…?” he asked them. “Yes, all 90 seasons,” Wayans replied.
Then it was the mothers' turn. Family Ties matriarch Meredith Baxter, Friday Night Lights' Connie Britton and This Is Us' Susan Kelechi Watson presented the award for best writing in a comedy series. “We've come a long way,” Baxter said. “TV moms are no longer one-dimensional,” Watson said. “They can demand just as much as TV dads.”
“Tuesdays, Wednesdays, happy days”
Director/producer Ron Howard and actor/writer Henry Winkler have reunited to celebrate the 50th anniversary of “Happy Days,” a film that romanticized teenage life in the 1950s and centered around teenage humor about cars and dating.
Winkler, who played the cool, “Yeeees!”-thumbs-up Fonzie, and Howard, who played do-gooder Richie Cunningham, rose to fame on the sitcom, which aired from 1974 to 1980. Winkler went on to win an Emmy for HBO's dark comedy “Barry” and spread awareness of dyslexia as a best-selling author, while Howard directed Oscar-winning films such as “Apollo 13” and “A Beautiful Mind.”
The two met onstage, in a diner set that resembled the show's setting. Winkler congratulated Howard on his Emmy-winning documentary about Jim Henson. But despite Howard's repeated prompting, Winkler wouldn't sing the theme song. “I'm out of practice,” he said. “And I need to practice.” So Winkler instead nudged the jukebox with his elbow and played the theme song.
Order and Law
On Sunday, TV's criminal justice system was represented by two separate but equal characters: the cops played by Jimmy Smits of “NYPD Blue,” Niecy Nash Betts of “Reno 911!” and Don Johnson of “Miami Vice.” They appeared on a set featuring an NYPD squad car. Smits said he died in the first episode of “Miami Vice,” and later as part of the cast of “NYPD Blue.” Nash Betts said he wasn't dead, joking, “I'm black and I survived 'Damn.'”
And then there were the TV lawyers who took cases to court: Viola Davis in How to Get Away with Murder, Gina Torres in Suits, Christine Baranski in The Good Wife and The Good Fight (though, to be honest, Smits was a good lawyer on L.A. Law, too).
“Lawyers have seen the full range of human situations,” Davis said. “Lawyers, in many ways, try to improve the human situation and lift us up,” Torres added.
