Breaking Bad, Modern Family and Homeland top honours
At yet another edition of the Emmy Award, the gathering witnessed a night of unexpected glories. The world-famous television award show lived up to its reputation as the least predictable entertainment awards show. The evening was mixed in surprises with expected winners, and ended some winning streaks while extending others. Newcomer Netflix made its presence felt, but not in the splashy way it had hoped for.
Breaking Bad, the brutal, drug-fueled saga of an ‘everyman’s ambition turned evil’, captured its first best drama Emmy Award, denying the online series House of Cards a history-making honour.
“I did not see this coming,” said Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan on Sunday night, tipping his hat to Netflix’s political thriller House of Cards, the first digital contenders for top Emmy honours.
Attention and acclaim for the AMC cable channel’s Breaking Bad has built as it nears the end of its five-season run next Sunday, with the final eight-episode arc eligible for next year’s Emmys.
Going into the Emmys, much speculation surrounded whether Netflix’s House of Cards would be the first series not shown on a broadcast or cable network to win best drama. It didn’t, but Gilligan said if it wasn’t for streaming services like Netflix, his show wouldn’t have lasted beyond its second season.
“Nobody in America is winning their office pool,” host Neil Patrick Harris said late in the CBS telecast from the Nokia Theatre in los Angeles.
On the other hand, Modern Family won its fourth consecutive trophy for top comedy series even though its oft-honoured cast was shut out this time. However, this win can’t be called a surprise.
Jeff Daniels won the Emmy for best drama series actor for his portrayal of an idealistic TV anchorman in The Newsroom, with Claire Danes capturing top actress honours for her troubled CIA agent in Homeland.
Daniels noted that he’d also received an age 50-plus acting honour from AARP, which represents the interests of older Americans.
“With all due respect to the AARP, this is even better,” Daniels said.
Danes, who captured her second trophy for the terrorism drama, paid tribute to one of the series’ writers, Henry Bromell, who died last March and who received a writing Emmy posthumously Sunday.
The ceremony often struck a melancholy note with extended tribute to stars and other industry members who died in the past year.
“Well, this may be the saddest Emmys of all time but we could not be happier,” said Modern Family executive producer Steve levitan.
The show also included upsets, defying the conventional wisdom in several categories, among them the best supporting acting comedy awards for Merritt Wever of Nurse Jackie and Tony Hale of Veep.
“This just in. Nobody in America is winning their Emmy office pool. Surprises galore,” said host Neil Patrick Harris.
Danes’ win ended the hopes that Scandal best actress nominee Kerry Washington would become the first African-American to win in the category.
One of the show’s oddest moments came quickly, when Merritt Wever of Nurse Jackie won best supporting actress in a comedy series. “Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Um, I got to go, bye (sic),” Wever told the audience. Her brevity drew positive notices from Harris and not a few folks on Twitter.
Wever said later she made it quick because she thought she was going to cry.
Tony Hale of Veep was another surprise winner in the comedy supporting actor category, beating three Modern Family cast members. “Was I fineIJ Because I totally blacked out,” he asked about his acceptance speech backstage.
More familiar names took home best acting trophies for comedies. Julia louis-Dreyfus won for the second year in a row for playing the lead character in the HBO series Veep. Jim Parsons, whose CBS show The Big Bang Theory has blossomed into television’s most popular comedy, won his second acting award. “It means a ton because I’ve actually lost many, many more times than I’ve won. I’ve lost 10 times in fact. It’s delicious to win,” said louis-Dreyfus, who has now won twice as many personal Emmys for Veep as she did playing Elaine Benes on Seinfeld.
As she accepted her second straight award as best actress in a drama for Showtime’s Homeland, Claire Danes paid tribute to one of the series’ writers, who died last March and received a writing Emmy posthumously on Sunday.
A notable Emmy winning streak ended Sunday when The Colbert Report beat its comedy rival The Daily Show in the variety series category. Jon Stewart’s Daily Show had won the award for 10 years straight.
“We get a boost from just how stupid the real news is,” Colbert said backstage. Colbert, who once worked on The Daily Show, paid tribute to Stewart and noted that Stewart gets a piece of this year’s Emmy, too, because he’s an executive producer of The Colbert Report.
Another relative stranglehold — the dominance of The Amazing Race in the reality show category — was ended when NBC’s The Voice won that category.
Diahann Carroll, the first African-American Emmy nominee in 1963 for Naked City, created one of the night’s most heartfelt moments when she took the stage with best drama actress nominee Kerry Washington and noted the importance of diversity in the industry and Emmys.