'Mad Men' wins best drama, '30 Rock' best comedy
09/22/2008
"Mad Men" was named best drama and "30 Rock" best comedy at the 60th annual Primetime Emmy Awards Sunday night.
Perhaps there's something to these writers, after all.
In an Emmy show as awkward as the banter between its five hosts, "Mad Men" and "30 Rock" took home the top prizes at the 60th annual Primetime Emmy Awards Sunday night -- best drama series and best comedy series -- while HBO's miniseries "John Adams" set a new record with 13 trophies.It's no coincidence that both "30 Rock" creator Tina Fey, who leads the show's writing staff, and "Mad Men" creator Matthew Weiner, who handles the same duties on his show, took home honors for their scripts as well. This in a year that saw many TV series shut down by a 100-day writers strike.Though "Mad Men" earned what is traditionally the biggest award of the night -- and became the first basic-cable series to do so -- it was "30 Rock" that cleaned up, winning seven awards. In addition to best comedy series, it earned two Emmys for Fey (for acting and writing), one for lead actor Alec Baldwin and three earlier this month at the Creative Emmy Awards, which honors guest performances and technical feats."I thank my parents for somehow raising me to have confidence that is disproportionate with my looks and abilities. Well done. That is what all parents should do," said Fey.Baldwin praised Fey as "the Elaine May of her generation" and called "30 Rock" "the greatest job I've ever had in my life."Writing was also at the forefront of the two winners among variety/comedy/music programs, "The Daily Show" and its Comedy Central stablemate, "The Colbert Report." "Colbert" earned an Emmy for its writing staff; "Daily" was named best variety/comedy/music program for the sixth straight year."John Adams" set an Emmy record Sunday night, with 13 wins overall -- eight Creative Arts awards and five on the prime-time presentation including outstanding miniseries.The HBO program, which had led all nominees with 23 nods, also earned trophies for Paul Giamatti, Laura Linney, Tom Wilkinson and writer Kirk Ellis.There were also some Emmy surprises. "Breaking Bad's" Bryan Cranston -- sporting a shaved head -- defeated "Mad Men's" Jon Hamm and "House's" Hugh Laurie to win best actor in a drama, and "Damages" actor Zeljko Ivanek earned best supporting actor in a drama.Ivanek's co-star, Glenn Close, won best actress in a drama."We're proving that complicated, powerful, mature women are sexy and are high entertainment and can carry a show," Close said. "I call us the sisterhood of the TV drama divas."Early on, the show could have used more drama -- or a script. The five hosts -- best reality-show host nominees Ryan Seacrest, Tom Bergeron, Heidi Klum, Howie Mandel and Jeff Probst -- began the 60th annual Primetime Emmy Awards by doing ... nothing.With the 5-foot, 9 ½-inch high-heeled Klum towering over her fellow hosts, the quintet spent several minutes doing some bizarre vamping, admitting they hadn't prepared an opening. If the lack of preparation was actually planned, it escaped the knowledge of later winners and presenters.Jeremy Piven, who won his third straight Emmy for best supporting actor in a comedy for his performance in "Entourage," poked fun at the odd opening before thanking the audience for his award."What if I just kept talking for 12 minutes -- what would happen? That was the opening," he said.Eighty-two-year-old comedy veteran Don Rickles, who received a standing ovation when co-presenter Kathy Griffin demanded the audience to "GET UP!" for the insult legend, got in a poke of his own. "Let's read these funny lines they wrote for us," he acidly instructed Griffin as they announced the category of best reality-competition program. (The award was won by "The Amazing Race" for the sixth straight year; "Survivor's" Probst later won best reality-show host.)Rickles later earned an award himself for his film "Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project.""I've been in the business 55 years, and the biggest award I got was an ashtray from the Friars in New York," Rickles said, offering several more zingers in his acceptance.A predecessor in the topical "Daily"/"Colbert" tradition, "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour," earned an Emmy 40 years late.Onetime "Smothers Brothers" scribe Steve Martin told the audience how comedian Tommy Smothers left his own name off the list submitted to the Emmys for the writing award in 1969 so as not to inflame the television academy's ire at a time when the Smothers show was the subject of controversy. When the show's staff won, Smothers was left out.Smothers accepted emotionally, concluding his speech, "There's nothing more scary than watching ignorance in action. So I dedicate this to add the people who feel compelled to speak out ... to speak truth to power."Smothers wasn't the only one to make political remarks. Several presenters urged people to vote, and some got in digs about the election and Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin.Some segments suffered from odd rhythms. A tribute featuring the cast of the late-'60s comedy "Laugh-In" fell flat. A medley of TV themes, gamely sung by Josh Groban, seemed as out of place as the sets of "M*A*S*H," "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and "Dragnet" on the otherwise high-tech Nokia Theatre stage.But at least some of the awkwardness was well orchestrated and earned laughs. Ricky Gervais, a master of the form, received a number of laughs in a segment in which he berated Steve Carell for stealing the Emmy Gervais won last year. Gervais wasn't at the Emmys to accept, and he claimed he'd never gotten the award from Carell."Have you been to see 'Ghost Town' yet?" he demanded, referring to his new movie
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