The Justice

This year's Emmy Awards marked its 60th year on television, which is kind of special, I guess. It has passed its golden anniversary and hasn't quite reached the three-quarter-of-a-century mark, so there's some hullabaloo, but not enough to warrant everyone's attendance (namely the Brits: Dame Judi, Tom Wilkinson and Hugh Laurie, among others).

This year, to highlight the way that mainstream television is embracing reality TV, the five hosts who were nominated for "Best Host of a Reality Competition"--Tom Bergeron, Howie Mandel, Heidi Klum, Jeff Probst and Ryan Seacrest--were all equally bestowed with the title "Emmy Host," an unfortunate decision, really. The miscasting was best displayed in the opening. The five hosts, who seem to have nothing in common, greeted the audience and viewers with the proclamation that they would do things "real," meaning without a script and without the aid of teleprompters. This proclamation was succeeded by a series of misplaced jokes stammered from various parties and a silent duet performed by Klum and Bergeron. Once the awkward sequence came to a close, Klum was disrobed by Bergeron, as well as William Shatner, who sprung onto the stage with seemingly little purpose other than to display himself as the token creepy old man.

With no reality host in sight, the Emmy Awards were able to move forward (though not without the cutting of some bits that left many a presenter bitter) and produced several highlights. Ricky Gervais approached the stage as a presenter, but more memorable than the nominees or winner of the category was the heated repartee he incited between himself and Steve Carrell in reference to the Emmy Award that Carrell accepted on Gervais' behalf last year. Carrell sat back, glaring expressionlessly at Gervais while Gervais jumped to Carrell's seat to retrieve his award. Other memorable moments include Conan O'Brien's reference to Katherine Heigl's infamous Emmy nomination refusal, Tommy Smother's Emmy writing award acceptance thirty years late, Josh Groban's surprising capacity to be funny and the pairing of the always brash Don Rickles with the always amusing Kathy Griffin. And my personal favorite TV drama of all time, Mad Men, received the award for "Best Television Series: Drama." But I can't overlook the big victor of the night: Tina Fey walked away with an Emmy three times this fateful Sunday, officially debunking the baseless theory that women can't be funny. Emmy says otherwise, backward-thinking men.

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