Jimmy Fallon (left) blew the roof off the dump with his high energy opening at Sunday night’s 62nd Primetime Emmy Awards.
The Late Night host wisely side-stepped the usual awards show monologue (not Fallon’s strength) and instead began the broadcast with a video goof on the night’s top nominated show, Glee. Fallon had Cory Monteith, Lea Michael, Amber Riley and Chris Colfer running down the high school hallways in what became a “Born to Run” sequence. Tina Fey, Jon Hamm, Betty White, Jane Lynch, Vampire Diaries’ Nina Dobrev, Joel McHale from Community and even Kate Gosselin got in the act (although the Gosselin gag misfired because nobody recognizes her anymore, especially without her suburban asymmetrical hair wedge).
Fallon got the Conan joke out of the way early. What could go wrong when NBC asks the host of Late Night to go west and put on a show, he asked. Cut to bearded O’Brien, who, unfortunately, we never saw again.
Even funnier was the “messing with Modern Family” video which has already gone viral thanks to nbc.com. A goof on all the notes shows get from networks, check it out below:
Fallon also scored with his musical salute to three long-running shows which bowed out in 2010, 24, Law & Order and Lost. His Green Day impression killed, especially the give-it-away lyric, “The island it was mythical/And in the end they died/I didn’t understand it/But I tried.”
NBC should get Temple Grandin to host the season opener of SNL, the girl can’t stay in her seat. There’s Betty White potential there. You Don’t Know Jack winner Al Pacino was rambly as usual. As my old pal Keith Marder has already Facebooked, Dr. Jack Kervorkian should have given a speech, he would have killed.
Nice to see Maury Chaykin saluted among those in the “In Memoriam” spot but where was David Mills?
The show moved at a fairly brisk pace and actually finished on time! Aside from Ricky Gervais, nobody ate up time with a self indulgent comedy spot. Gervais brought a welcome edge to the evening, passing out beer and nailing Mel Gibson. (“He’s been through a lot. Not as much as the Jews…”).
As for the awards themselves, great to see Modern Family do so well. Eric Stonestreet, well deserved, lovely, heartfelt speech. Jim Parsons (right with Sofia Vargares), double yes, Jane Lynch, of course, Kyra Sedgwick, OK but should have gone to Margulies, Bryan Cranston can never win enough of these things, always well deserved, nice to see his Breaking Bad co-star Aaron Paul pick up a best supporting prize. Edie Falco proved she’s hilarious trying not to be funny and thus deserves the Best Comedy Actress prize. Archie Panjabi’s win for Good Wife supporting helps make up for Margulies. Wins for Modern Family and Mad Men, exactly right.
No win for Conan sucked, cheated us all out of a great moment. Top Chef defeating Amazing Race must have Mark Burnett asking what do I have to do to win this thing after that Survivor rebound last season.
Emmy mixed things up and moved statues around this year, which was nice. Besides Race, no win for Monk was about bloody time.
Like the deal where they asked nominees one question to lead into categories. Gave writes a chance to show off their smarts. Steve Levitan, for example, is as funny as his series, Modern Family.
Besides Amazing Race, some other streaks were snapped. 30 Rock went 0-for-15 despite winning Best comedy the three previous years. Lost found just one editing win out of 12 noms.
The Daily Show’s win in the Variety/Comedy category was its eight wins in a row. That streak will end next year, however, doe to no-show Jon Stewart’s snub.
Fallon’s idea to use viewer tweets to introduce presenters got old quick, as did the voice over bits from PC vs. Mac guy John Hodgman. Fallon should have used my tweet. For LL Cool Jay: “not to be confused with the guy who stole Conan’s job, Not So Cool Jay.”
