"Late Night" host Conan O'Brien helmed the ceremony, which took place at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, Calif. Beginning the show with the always-clever pre-taped montage of spoofed scenes from "Lost," "The Office," "24" and "South Park," his second act consisted of stand-up comedy and his usual self-deprecating humor, a theme that seemed to pervade the evening.
In a song-and-dance parody of "Ya Got Trouble" lovingly ripped from "The Music Man," O'Brien sang, "We got trouble, right here at NBC, with a capital T and that rhymes with G, as in 'Gee, we're screwed!'" The man was just plain funny.
Sure, the Emmys weren't distributed until a quarter past 8 p.m., but who really cares when O'Brien is so entertaining? Well, NBC certainly cared because the producers did their best to move the show along. Some presenters handled two categories at a time, as if trying to get rid of awards as quickly as possible; nominees were introduced with mere snapshot glimpses; winners were revealed with nary a pause for suspense. When winners' speeches went on longer than 30 seconds or so, 70s-like music started playing over them.
These tactics predictably caused several production errors. The Sheen father-son duo went on the stage too early and many award winners gave their thanks without actually having accepted their statuettes.
The writers, self-conscious of their forced fast pace, interjected with funny moments as best as they could. Throughout the ceremony, cameras cut to Bob Newhart, held in a sealed cylinder with enough air for exactly three hours, the time allotted the Emmy Awards. He would die, as O'Brien informed his audience, if the show went over time. Newhart's look of panic as the seconds counted down was priceless.
At one point, O'Brien himself was fast-forwarded à la Tivo. "Law & Order" star Christopher Meloni demonstrated how to speed up the acceptance process. Seeing Detective Stabler on a Segway was, you must concede, at least mildly amusing.
But I suppose the speed did its job: It kept the show almost strictly an awards ceremony and under three hours. I say "almost," because there were also well-deserving tributes to television legends Aaron Spelling and Dick Clark. Still, I question the introduction by Simon Cowell and the performance by Barry Manilow because the focus should have been on Clark the radio host, rather than the musical groups he presented in decades past. And I resent Manilow's win, but I won't digress further than Stephen Colbert did.
The Emmys themselves went to a variety of actors from popular television stars such as Megan Mullaly to veterans on unheard-of or cancelled shows such as Blythe Danner. Although there were few nominations this year for hits "Lost" and "Desperate Housewives," viewers were probably satiated by the wins for "24" and "The Office."
Including the Creative Arts Emmy Awards, which were distributed on Aug. 19, the top winners were "Elizabeth I" with nine statuettes, "24" with five and "My Name Is Earl" with four.