AND THE EMMY GOES TO. . .
HENRY WINKLER WINS BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A COMEDY
Winkler wins first Emmy of his career 42 years after first nomination for The Fonz
Amazon’s “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” became the first streaming series to win top Emmy comedy honours and HBO’s “Game of Thrones” recaptured the best drama series award Monday at a ceremony that largely slighted its most ethnically diverse field of nominees ever.
With the exception of “Saturday Night Live,” broadcast shows were shut out of the top awards as 21st-century platforms continued to overshadow traditional network fare like “This Is Us,” among the also-rans.
“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” Amazon’s freshman sitcom about an unhappy 1950s homemaker liberated by stand-up comedy, earned best actress honours for star Rachel Brosnahan.
Her castmate Alex Borstein earned the supporting actress trophy and the series creator, Amy Sherman-Palladino, nabbed writing and directing awards.
Claire Foy of “The Crown” and Matthew Rhys of “The Americans” won top drama acting Emmys, their first trophies for the roles and last chance to claim them, with Foy’s role as Queen Elizabeth II going to another actress and Rhys’ show wrapped.
The field bested by Foy included last year’s winner Elisabeth Moss for “The Handmaid’s Tale” and Sandra Oh of “Killing Eve,” who would have been the first actor of Asian descent to get a top drama award.
“This wasn’t supposed to happen,” said a startled Foy. She played the young British queen who, as the series progresses, will advance in years.
“Game of Thrones,” which sat out last year’s Emmys because of scheduling, won its third best drama trophy despite competition from defending champ “The Handmaid’s Tale.”
“Thank you for letting us take care of your people,” ”Game of Thrones “producer D.B. Weiss said to George R.R. Martin, whose novels fuel the drama.
In a ceremony that started out congratulating TV academy voters for a historically diverse field of nominees ever, the early awards all went to whites.
An African-American sweep of guest series actor awards at the recent creative arts Emmys signalled major change in the awards, which only recently have given significant honours to performers and creators of colour.
But there was disappointment for “Atlanta,” which had claimed acting and directing trophies last year for its star and creator Donald Glover and seemed poised for more with 16 nominations.
Rather than become the first black-led comedy in 33 years to be named the best (since “The Cosby Show” in 1985), “Atlanta” was shut out Monday (it won two awards, including guest actor for Katt Williams, last week).
The showing by “Mrs. Maisel” extended the long winning streak of shows that focus on white lives, including “Modern Family” and “Friends,” with ethnic minorities rarely given screen time.
“Let’s get it trending: #EmmysSoWhite,” presenter James Corden joked at the ceremony’s midway point.
Then Regina King broke the string, with a best actress trophy in a limited series or movie for “Seven Seconds,” which tracks the fallout from a white police officer’s traffic accident involving a black teenager.
She was followed by Darren Criss, who won the lead acting award for the miniseries “The Assassination of Gianni Versace” and who is of Filipino descent.
Thandie Newton won best supporting drama actress for “Westworld,” and Peter Dinklage added a third trophy to his collection for “Game of Thrones.”
Bill Hader collected the best comedy actor award for “Barry,” a dark comedy about a hired killer who stumbles into a possible acting career.
Henry Winkler, a.k.a. “The Fonz,” won a supporting actor award — his first Emmy — for “Barry,” four decades after gaining fame for his role in “Happy Days.”
“If you stay at the table long enough, the chips come to you. Tonight, I got to clear the table,” an ebullient Winkler said, with an equally delighted auditorium audience rising to give him a standing ovation. To his grown children, he said: “You can go to bed now, daddy won!”
The biggest award won by a broadcast network was “Saturday Night Live” for best variety sketch series.
The Emmys had a real-life dramatic moment when winning director Glenn Weiss, noting his mother had died two weeks ago, proposed to his girlfriend, Jan Svendsen.
“You wonder why I don’t want to call you my girlfriend? It’s because I want to call you my wife,” Weiss said. She said yes, he put his mother’s ring on her finger and the crowd whooped and cheered.
John Oliver, in picking up the trophy for best variety talk show award for “Last Week Tonight,” thanked Weiss’ girlfriend for giving the right answer or, he joked, the whole ceremony could have gone south.
The Emmys kicked off with a song, “We Solved It,” a self-mocking celebration to the diversity of nominees sung by stars including Kate McKinnon and Kenan Thompson. The tune included a mention of Oh’s possible victory: “There were none, now there’s one, so we’re done,” the comedians sang.
Oh played along from her seat: “Thank you, but it’s an honour just to be Asian,” said the Korean Canadian actress.