Your 63rd annual Emmy Awards recap

A few observations about Sunday night’s 63rd annual Emmy Awards:

Jane Lynch was an OK host. She kept the Glee shout outs to a minimum. She did not really do a monologue, probably a smart move. Here best line was, “A lot of people are curious why I’m a lesbian. Ladies and gentlemen, the cast of Entourage.” But the writers should have given her more zingers after Sheen’s appearance, and there seemed to be an hour in the middle where she disappeared altogether. Grade her a C as in Sue C’s it.
The pre-taped opening was hit-and-miss. Apparently a bit where Alec Baldwin goofed on the Fox phone tapping scandal was a little too close to the bone and was snipped. Nimoy was wasted. Lynch’s run past the Big Bang Theory and Mad Men sets went well, making good use of the characters. The part where Lynch makes fun of the over-heated studio audience response was smart. But the money spent putting on this production could have banked another three seasons of Flashpoint. The big lesson last night was that more genuine laughs were elicited by Steve Levitan’s wife making eye rolls at the camera than this entire, over-produced opener.
The show should have opened with Charlie Sheen getting high with Chuck Lorre.

Ty Burrell raised the bar with his impressive acceptance speech. The Modern Family star managed to be both moving and cynical, sentimental and hilarious all at the same time. He should win the best male comedy performance again next year just based on this year’s acceptance speech.
Charlie Sheen was funnier when he was drowning in booze, drugs and strippers. Ashton Kutcher and Jon Cryer better be funnier tonight on Two and a Half Men.
The prom queen set up to the best female comedy performance award was, unlike Sheen’s moment, truly winning. The women got into it and Melissa McCarthy was a deserving winner. Edie Falco, a surprise winner last year for the darkly-funny Nurse Jackie, looked like the most relieved person in the house.
The Canadian Tenors were beat up so badly on Twitter for their live In Memoriam vocal performance they may be on the list next Emmy Awards.

Funniest Twitter snark of the night may have been Rob Salem’s quip, “as far as I’m concerned they should give Peter Dinklage to Alan Cumming.”
Funniest on-stage throwaway line may have been Jon Stewart’s quip that presenters Rob Lowe and Sofia Vergara should re-colonize the earth.
The two Jimmys, Fallon and Kimmel, should host next year and keep fighting between every award so that at the end of the night they look like Leno and Letterman.
Best shout out to Canada not heard in Canada: CTV was so fixated on over-cramming commercials and plugs for their upcoming fall lineup that we missed hearing David Boreanaz say “I was born in Buffalo. That’s close to being Canadian.”

Deserving best dramatic actor winner Kyle Chandler, as former Buffalo News critic Alan Pergament pointed out on Twitter last night, was also born in Buffalo.
Even on paper, somebody had to have said, “Emmytones? Really?”
Jon Stewart’s writing staff seems less diverse than the Republican presidential field.
Note to Geminis: NOT ONE WINNER was played off the entire night, not even ramble-y best director Martin Scorsese.
Most ironic TV moment: CBC launched a show last night opposite the Emmys called Cover Me Canada.
It all ended on time.