The actual Emmy winners were the least interesting thing about last night's awards ceremony. In fact, the defining moment may have been when the director of the Emmy broadcast accepted an Emmy award for directing last year's Emmy awards, thanking the producer's of this year's Emmy awards, while directing from the control room.
No, the winners weren't interesting. More notable during the 3+ hours of industry self-congratulation were things like:
The Grey's Anatomy Snub: 11 nominations, no wins. Why?
Post-Stroke Dick Clark: Unexpectedly moving speech from a man exposed as truly despicable in "Bowling For Columbine."
The Original Charlie's Angels Reunite: For a less-than-convincing tribute to their "dear friend" Aaron Spelling who never hired them again. Intercut twitching Farrah with sobbing Candy and Estranged Tori, fuming that she's only been left $800K.
Host Conan O'Brian: Allowed, surprisingly, to trash NBC in his opening musical number.
Stephen Colbert: The smartest loser in the room, playing sidekick to smuggest winner Jon Stewart, who by this point actually looks deeply bored with winning awards.
Nazi Elf Billy Bush: Humiliating himself with one cringe-inducing red carpet gaffe after another, ultimately provoking Jeremy Piven's "You seem like a person who could have potential. Maybe you need a new job."
Alfre Woodard: Looking thoroughly unsurprised she didn't win for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy, given that she plays a mother drugging and imprisoning her retarded rapist son in her basement.
Non-winner Martin Sheen presenting with non-winner Charlie Sheen, half-heartedly pretending to be proud of what his son has become.
And finally, when Julia Louis Dreyfus was on stage, busy forgetting her husband's name in her acceptance speech, it was more interesting to note that each of the four other women nominated had their shows cancelled. That fact made it a little hard to swallow the line from the Best Episodic Director who said, "We are in the midst of a new golden age of television." I'm sure they feel that way at his show ("24") but last night proved comedy is in trouble. But maybe I'm wrong. Maybe America is full of people standing around water coolers quoting their favorite lines from "The Office."
After all, it's a winner.