Emmys were good, but a tad unsatisfying

     Last night was the 62nd Annual Emmy Awards, and this morning, the results are a mixed bag.  First, the broadcast itself.  Host Jimmy Fallon did ok.  His singing tribute to 24 and Lost was very cool, but his reading of twitter comments was beyond lame, and he did it multiple times throughout the night.  The cast of Modern Family participated in some funny retooling clips of their show.  The best part, naturally, was the opening sketch.  Jimmy and Tina Fey helped Lea Michele, Corey Monteith, Amber Riley, and Chris Colfer, all from Glee, form a Glee Club.  The other members they picked up included Jon Hamm (Mad Men), a very enthusiastic Nina Dobrev (The Vampire Diaries), the always enjoyable Jorge Garcia (Lost), Joel McHale (Community), the fantastic Jane Lynch (Glee), and last and definitely least, Kate Gosselin (Jon & Kate Plus Eight).  The bit also included appearances by the legendary Betty White, Tim Gunn (Project Runway), and Randy Jackson (American Idol).

     The comedy awards went in an expected fashion.  Jim Parsons (The Big Bang Theory) and Edie Falco (Nurse Jackie) took the lead awards, while Eric Stonestreet (Modern Family) and Jane Lynch (Glee) brought home the supporting statues.  While none of these choices was surprising, each was highly deserved.  It was also nice to spread out the gold among four different shows.  Stonestreet's TV husband, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, touchingly has tears in his eyes as Eric went up to the stage.  The much-talked about showdown between Modern Family and Glee for best comedy ended with MF getting the prize.  Again, not surprising, as MF is the more typical comedy of the two, although it was surprising that phenomenon Glee didn't garner more statues.  Most surprising?  Broadcast television swept this category.

     The drama awards were a bit more surprising.  Not the Best Series, which went for the third year in a row to Mad Men, even though I was really pulling for Lost in it's final year.  Although I must ask, for a series that has won top honors three times, why was a new episode aired last night in competition with the Emmys?  Did they want no one to watch it?  Thank goodness for TiVo.  Also, Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad) kept his Best Actor streak going  But Best Actress went to Kyra Sedgwick (The Closer), a total mistake in my book, as I was rooting for every other actress in that category!  Cranston's co-star, Aaron Paul, got a well deserved Supporting Actor win, and Archie Panjabi (The Good Wife) rounded out the category.

     In the miniseries and movie genre, Al Pacino (You Don't Know Jack) and Claire Danes took home the top statues, the latter much more deserving than the former, and David Straithairn and Julia Ormond assured that Temple Grandin got three of the four awards.  Grandin also took Outstanding Made for Television Movie, while the Tom Hanks / Steven Spielberg epic The Pacific unsurprisingly won best mini-series.  Grandin and The Pacific were both fantastic, so no complaints there.

     I'd also like to mention that although it would have been oh-so-satisfying for Conan O'Brien's The Tonight Show to win, The Daily Show With Jon Stewart is a nearly flawless program that deserves every kudos it earns, so it someone had to beat Conan, I'm glad it was Jon.