Last night the 59th Annual Emmy Awards took place on the left coast, but New Yorkers made out very well. New York productions/creative types that took home the gold: Late Night with Conan O'Brien (writing), The Daily Show (variety-comedy show series), 30 Rock (best comedy), and Dick Wolf (for producing Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee). In the would-have-been arena, America Ferrera won best actress in a comedy, Ugly Betty, which was originally supposed to shoot in the Big Apple but shoots in L.A. because it's cheaper. We'll also count Rob Marshall, who won for directing the Best Variety-Musical Special, Tony Bennett: An American Classic, since he has Broadway roots.
And of course, The Sopranos (who since its first season in 1999 has racked up 111 nominations and 21 Emmys) won for writing (for the season finale), directing and best TV drama. There were a number of references to the show during the evening, from the monologue to the long, drawn-out "Jersey Boys" medley with Sopranos clips, which made the mob drama's win at the end of the night feel anti-climactic. Creator David Chase ended his Best Drama speech with, “In essence, this is a story about a gangster, and gangsters are out there taking their kids to college and taking their kids to school and outing food on the table, and, hell, let’s face it, if this world and this nation were run by gangsters — maybe it is.” Uh, maybe, maybe not.
In the best acceptance speech of the night, Sally Field (after winning for best actress in a drama) was amidst an anti-war statement when the cameras turned off...a la The Sopranos finale! Actually, that was at least the third time that there was a cutaway to a bizarre overhead shot during the show, which touted its special "theater-in-the-round" set-up that left some stars grousing. Host Ryan Seacrest's minimal monologue and audience interactions were painful - we really wanted Simon Cowell to appear and take control of the show.
The other highlights: Lewis Black's rant against TV executives; Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, and Steve Carell had a Daily Show reunion when Stewart and Colbert decided to give the Emmy for Best Actor in a Comedy Series to Steve Carrell when actual winner Ricky Gervais was not present; numerous references to Charlie Sheen's bad boy persona; Rainn Wilson asking Kanye West to stand closer; the cast of Roots appearing; and Tina Fey's Best Comedy acceptance speech.
The other lowlights: The Emmys producers stacking the most famous deaths towards the end of the Reaper Reel; Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert's bit before making Steve Carell coming onstage; making Masi Oka use a laptop to chat with MySpace's Tom Anderson, who presented the interactive Emmy; and lots of other moments.
Here's a list of all the winners.
