2011 Emmy Awards – Coach Taylor FTW!

The great part about the Emmy’s is that unlike the Oscars, which has a whole season of award shows honoring the same categories leading up to it, winners are genuinely a surprise to everyone involved. At last night’s 2011 Emmy Awards, some old favorites continued winning streaks, new dynasties were born, and a few old favorites surprisingly—but deservedly—received their first statues.
Host and nominee Jane Lynch kicked-off the show with the obligatory musical number, which honestly could’ve been a lot worse. The theme of the night focused a lot on a world of television and how we live in it while host Lynch poked fun at herself, the industry, and even the way we glamorize it, at one point dissing books and reading. Sadly, her brief interludes were pretty much the only amusing anecdotes of the night, as a lot of winner stumbled through their speeches and presenter banter was expectedly dull. But, let’s recap the awards before getting to that.
How Reality/Variety and Movies/Miniseries awards manage to stay on the primetime telecast and not at the Creative Arts awards held a week earlier, where guest stars including Gwyneth Paltrow were honored, is dumbfounding, considering it’s when most viewers are probably taking a bathroom break or tucking their children in for the night. Some reality programming is already honored at the C.A. awards, affectionately called by some as the Schmemmy’s. Emmy bosses, take note—this is a good way to cut your telecast down to two hours.
CBS’ The Amazing Race won for Outstanding Reality Competition Program while Don Roy King of NBC’s Saturday Night Live was honored for Outstanding Directing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Series. Comedy Central’s The Daily Show with John Stewart took home trophies for both Outstanding Writing for and Outstanding Program in the same genre, the ninth consecutive win in the latter for the series.
On the Movies/Miniseries end, Kate Winslet and Guy Pearce shocked no one when their names were announced as Outstanding Lead Actress and Supporting Actor respectively for HBO’s Mildred Pierce. On the other hand, after all the distribution turmoil and critical revile it endured, Barry Pepper’s win as Outstanding Lead Actor for The Kennedys was somewhat unexpected, as I’m sure where the huge wins for Masterpiece’s Downton Abbey. The period drama won three awards, including Outstanding Miniseries, Movie or Special, and honors for Writer Julian Fellowes and Supporting Actress Maggie Smith, who sadly was not in attendance to deliver an acceptance speech.
Now, for the important stuff. If you walk away with any one impression from last night, it should be that you’re missing out if you’re not watching Modern Family. The cast of the ABC mockumentary, who all chose to submit themselves in supporting categories to respect the ensemble nature of the show, took home both supporting awards. The set could be a little tense today as cast members Julie Bowen and Ty Burrell beat out their coworkers, but graciously thanked each other. Burrell’s speech was probably the best of the night, sharing anecdotes of what his late father might think of his current occupation. Modern Family also won Outstanding Comedy Series, as it did last year for its freshman season, and honors for writers Steve Levitan and Jeffrey Richman and Michael Spiller, director of the Halloween episode.
In one of the most awkward moments of the night, former (or maybe current) raving lunatic Charlie Sheen took the stage to present the award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series. Sheen first wished the cast and crew of his former series good luck on the upcoming season, and seemed relatively sincere about it, albeit too little too late to get him back on network television. Jim Parsons grabbed his second consecutive Emmy for CBS’ The Big Bang Theory, remarking that it was “so odd for so many reasons.” While Modern Family is certainly deserving, The Big Bang Theory is due a little more recognition from the Academy.
In one of the only original moves of the night, the Lead Actress nominees were presented in a pageant-like fashion, each surprised and running from the audience to join their fellow nominees on stage. I’m sure I speak for a lot of viewers out there who were quite shocked at Melissa McCarthy’s win for Mike & Molly. Don’t get me wrong, she’s a great actress with impeccable comedic timing, but I can’t help but wonder how much her supporting turn in this summer’s sleeper hit movie Bridesmaids drove voters and viewers to this series’ recognition. Still, with her touching speech you can’t help but applaud and set your DVR for a few upcoming episodes.
No such dynasty domination occurred in the drama categories last night, but that doesn’t mean there weren’t a few surprises. Martin Scorcese was honored for directing the pilot episode of HBO’s Boardwalk Empire. Peter Dinklage received his first win on his first nomination as Outstanding Supporting Actor for Game of Thrones, a well deserved and truly unexpected win in that crowded category. Julianna Marguiles beat out arguably the toughest competition for Lead Actress. Her stellar performance on the underappreciated The Good Wife will allow me to forgive her terrible dress choice…I just need some time. In what I’m assuming was a huge upset—okay, maybe it was just for me—Justified’s Margo Martindale won for Supporting Actress, effectively robbing Archie Panjabi of her second win. Come on, Kalinda’s scene with the baseball bat alone won that Emmy and you know it.
The real shocker, quite the welcome one, was NBC/Direct TV’s Friday Night Lights winning both Outstanding Writing and Lead Actor, giving series creator Jason Katims and star Kyle Chandler their first wins. For a series that fought for viewers and respect with every episode, it was awesome to finally see some recognition. With the show off the air, hopefully this drives some curious skeptics to the DVDs to discover one of the best dramas out there.
AMC’s awards juggernaut Mad Men took home Outstanding Drama Series for the fourth year. I think this may be the one that goes down in the record books for winning every year it’s on air. I’m a new fan to Matthew Weiner’s 60s-set drama, which has earned each consecutive trophy.
The glib parts of the night were, as is typical, all the celebrity presenter banter. Unoriginal and not funny, many stumbled through jokes trying to keep a look of sincerity on their faces, see Julianna Marguiles announcing herself as the funniest women on television. Others, like David Spade and Kaley Cuoco, let their disappointment with the writing and reception of it slip ever so slightly. The announcer, who heralded each winner as they made the walk to stage, managed to pick up some of the slack, but not enough. Absent were any wins for multiple nominee Glee, the only Fox show nominated. But after an uneven second season, it’s no surprise. A bizarre and unnecessary The Lonely Island musical performance was the cherry on top of the pretty underwhelming production.
Still, I stand by my opening comments. What makes the Emmy’s interesting is that you genuinely don’t know who’s taking home the trophy. Jane Lynch’s we’re-all-in-this-together style opening showed what the night was truly about, the television community coming together to honor the work that they love and we’ve all enjoyed over the past year.

source:http://poptimal.com/2011/09/2011-emmy-awards-coach-taylor-ftw/