Comical Shenanigans at the Emmys

By NANCY BELLE

Last Sunday, the Emmys were ruled by two shows, “Homeland” and “Modern Family.”
On Sept. 23, “Modern Family” continued to lead the awards show as it has in the past. It garnered the prize for Outstanding Directing of a Comedy Series, Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for Julie Bowen, “Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series” for Eric Stonestreet and Outstanding Comedy Series for the third year in a row.
The biggest surprise of the night was the lack of awards given to “Mad Men.” The drama set in the 1960’s failed to win a fifth consecutive Emmy for “Best Drama Series,” and was shut out, not winning a single award despite 17 nominations.
Surprisingly, the new series, “Homeland,” dominated the Drama category, winning Best Drama Series and Best Writing for a Drama Series, as well as Best Actress and Actor in a Drama Series awards for Claire Danes and Damian Lewis.
Humor was another memorable aspect of the evening. The funniest moment of the night occurred when Jon Stewart won Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Series for the tenth consecutive time. On the way to accept his award, he was tackled to the ground by fellow comedians and nominees, Jimmy Fallon and Stephen Colbert in a seemingly preplanned move.
Despite the hilarity from the comedy winners, the Emmy’s host, Jimmy Kimmel, fizzled out quickly and was upstaged by some of the award winners. One of his feeble attempts at comedy came when he brought “30 Rock” star Tracy Morgan on stage and encouraged viewers to tweet, “OMG, Tracy Morgan just passed out on stage at the Emmys, turn ABC on now!” Morgan lay on stage while Connie Britton and Hayden Panettiere calmly presented the next award.
Social media added a new aspect to the Emmys, turning it into an all day event for celebrities and their fans. Jesse Tyler Ferguson, nominated for his role as Mitchell Pritchett on “Modern Family,” tweeted pictures of his preparations with his fiancée and family members before the show, including one memorable shot of him wearing his Spanx.
This also meant that the viewers could check on Twitter throughout the show to see nominees’ reactions after winning and losing. Julia Louis-Dreyfus tweeted “Omg! Omg! Omg! Omg! Omg!#Emmys” upon winning an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for her role in HBO’s comedy, “Veep.” Expressing similar shock for their win was Jon Cryer, who won Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series.
Perhaps the best acceptance speech of the night was not from an actor, but from a director. Glenn Weiss won the award for Outstanding Directing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Special for directing the “65th Tony Awards.” Weiss was directing the Emmys when his award was announced, and he gave his acceptance speech from backstage in the control booth.
The winners of the Reality TV category were a mixed bag. Tom Bergereon won  the award for Outstanding Host for a Reality or Reality Competition Program for his job as host of “Dancing With The Stars,” and “The Amazing Race” won the Outstanding Reality Series award for the ninth time in 10 years.
Bergeron’s win came as a surprise for some considering that he was up against the ever popular Betty White, host of “Betty White’s Off Their Rockers,” a show about senior citizens pranking members of the younger generation on hidden cameras. White last won an Emmy in 2010 at age 88 for her stint as a guest host of “Saturday Night Live.”
Despite most of the night’s awards going to two shows, “Modern Family” and “Homeland,” the Emmys were still interesting, if not a little long, clocking in at around three hours in length.