Right after the stars walked the red carpet and taken their seats at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles, host for the night Neil Patrick Harris brought some the ceremony’s former hosts up on stage for a huge opening number. With Jane Lynch, Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, and Conan O’Brien together on stage, the night was off to a hilarious start. Watch the video here.
After the opener, everyone’s favourite duo Tina Fey and Amy Poehler proved they are still the funniest women in the room as they heckled Neil Patrick Harris, saying, “Take your pants off and twerk it!” to which he responded, “I am not twerking. I’m not gonna do that. That would be degrading,” and they said, “Yeah, it might be degrading but we would be de-grateful.” After the skit, the pair took the stage to present the first award for the night which went to the very deserved Merritt Wever for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her role in Nurse Jackie. The shocked star’s acceptance speech has already made it to YouTube with the title ‘Worst Acceptance Speech Ever’….
Tina Fey was soon back on stage again to accept her award (with co-writer Tracey Wigfield) for Writing for a Comedy Series but the laughter soon came to an end as the first of the In Memoriam segments begun with Robin Williams paying tribute to Jonathan Winters saying, “Thanks for the spark, big guy!”
After a few more comedy awards, including the Lead Actress and Actor in a Comedy Series which went to Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Jim Parsons respectively, we went to yet another memoriam segment during which Jean Stapleton was remembered with a speech from Rob Reiner and Elton John performed a song in honor of Liberace.
We thought the tears could subside for a little while as another round of Emmys were awarded but the damp tone of the evening continued right on when the Writing for a Drama Series went to the late Henry Bromell for Homeland and his wife accepted on his behalf. It was an emotionally charged moment and a sober reminder of Hollywood’s loss.
This damp tone for the evening wasn’t set to stop anytime soon, next up we were subject to the controversial Cory Monteith tribute. The segment drew some criticism from Adam Klugman who told The Associated Press that having a tribute to Cory and not the late TV veteran and three-time Emmy winner Jack Klugman was, “…an insult and it really seems typical of this youth-centric culture that has an extremely short attention span and panders to only a very narrow demographic.”
Whether or not Klugman was included, there’s no denying the tribute to Cory was an emotional and worthy one. Jane Lynch delivered the tribute, saying, “From the first time that you saw Cory, he had a star quality and a genuine sweetness that made it impossible not to fall in love with him. And millions did fall in love with Cory. I’m here to say that all that warmth and that charm, that open-hearted quality that we loved in Cory was no act. Cory was a beautiful soul. He was not perfect, which many of us here can relate to. His death is a tragic reminder of the rapacious, senseless destruction that is brought on by addiction. Tonight we remember Cory for all he was and mourn the loss for all that could have been.” Watch below…
The tears had a moment to dry as another round of awards got underway. Reality Competition Program award was handed to The Voice, Boardwalk Empire’s Bobby Cannavale accepted the Supporting Actor in a Drama Series gong and told the audience that date Rose Byrne was ‘the love of his life’, and in what was as much as a shock as Merritt Weaver’s award, the Lead Actor in a Drama Series category went to Jeff Daniels for his work in The Newsroom ahead of a slew of heavyweights including Jon Hamm, Damian Lewis, and Kevin Spacey.
Claire Danes took out Lead Actress in a Drama Series and gave one of the best speeches of the night, thanking husband Hugh Dancy by saying, “My husband. My love. My crush. Thank you for making me so whole and so happy so I can be so entirely unhappy in the land of make believe.”
Dancy wasn’t the only partner getting a shout-out on stage either, soon after Stephen Colbert accepted his award for Writing on a Variety Show and said, “Personally, I want to thank my wife Evie for being so cruel and sexy.” Cue a blushing Evie and a laughing crowd. Later in the night, 73-year-old James Cromwell of American Horror Show fame said of his girlfriend, “To my dearest Anna, the best prize a man could ever have.”
The next of the tributes was one of the hardest, albeit most touching to watch. Edie Falco took the stage fighting back tears to pay tribute to the late James Gandolfini of Sopranos fame. She concluded the speech by saying, “You all knew James Gandolfini the actor. I was lucky enough to know Jim the man. For 10 years as his close colleague and pretend life partner, and for many years as his friends. And it’s Jim the man, the very dear man, that I will miss most of all.”
After a few more awards, the show was already running well over time and finally Will Ferrell took the stage with his sons to announce the final two awards. He said, “I couldn’t find child care, I had a soccer game, there was a neighbour’s birthday party, a nut allergy. It doesn’t matter — it’s great to be here” before announcing Modern Family as the Comedy Series winner. In his speech Steven Levitan said, “None of us grew up feeling like winners. So thank you to the bullies, to the popular kids, to the gym teachers, who taunted us, who rejected us, who made fun of the way we ran. Without you we never would have gone into comedy.”
The final award of the night, Drama Series, unsurprisingly went to Breaking Bad. Vince Gilligan, who is at the helm of the series, was the only person in the room who seemed shocked saying, “Holy crap!” as he accepted the award and going on to thank, “the best cast on TV, starting with Bryan Cranston.”
And with a final toast from the delightful Neil Patrick Harris, the Emmys were said and done for another year!