Emmys mark TV’s high points
Stars come out to celebrate their best achievements — with a little bit of romance, too
LOS ANGELES — Game of Thrones has won the best television drama series Emmy Award.
The HBO fantasy series won after a one-year hiatus in the category and was the leading nominee going into Monday’s ceremony. It beat out other drama series The Americans, The Crown, The Handmaid’s Tale, Stranger Things, This Is Us and Westworld.
Peter Dinklage also won the Emmy for best supporting actor in a drama series Monday night at the Microsoft Theater in downtown Los Angeles.
It’s the third time Dinklage has won an Emmy for playing Tyrion Lannister, the outcast from a noble family who drinks and thinks his way out of trials and tribulations on Game of Thrones.
He’s been nominated for all seven seasons of the HBO medieval fantasy series.
And Henry Winkler won the first Emmy of his career on Monday, more than four decades after he was first nominated for his role as The Fonz in Happy Days.
The 72-year-old Winkler looked bowled over when he won for best supporting actor in a comedy series on Monday for his role as Gene Cousineau on HBO’s dark comedy Barry.
Once he took the stage amid roaring applause and a standing ovation, Winkler joked that he wrote his speech 43 years ago.
Then Winkler quoted some advice he got in Hollywood, saying that “if you stay at the table long enough, the chips come to you.”
“Tonight I got to clear the table,” he said.
Winkler was nominated three times for his work on Happy Days, in 1976, 1977 and 1978. His character Arthur (The Fonz) Fonzarelli spawned a cultural craze and made him one of the biggest stars on TV.
Backstage after his win, Winkler expressed wonder at the win and the path his life and career have taken, saying he dreamed of being an actor when he was seven years old living in New York City “with short German Jewish parents who did not want me to be an actor.”
“I was 27 when I started doing The Fonz. I’m now 72 and I’m standing right here in front of you with her,” Winkler said, referring to his Emmy statuette. “Wow.”
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel won as best comedy series. The Amazon series stars newcomer Rachel Brosnahan as a 1950s mother and housewife who pursues a career in standup comedy and finds success by mocking her estranged husband.
The show had a massive night, winning four other Emmy Awards, including best comedy actress for Brosnahan, and best supporting actress for Alex Borstein. Writer-director Amy Sherman-Palladino also won two Emmys.
RuPaul’s Drag Race won as best reality competition show, a landmark win for a show that spotlights LGBT culture. The VH1 series has won widespread praise and a devoted fanbase for highlighting LGBT stories and drag culture.
Claire Foy won as best actress in a television drama for her role in The Crown.
Foy’s role as Queen Elizabeth II has come to an end, and she emotionally referenced her time on the show and promised that she wouldn’t cry. (She didn’t.)
Two Canadians were nominated in the same category — Tatiana Maslany for Orphan Black and Sandra Oh for Killing Eve.
Matthew Rhys won as best actor in a television drama for his role in The Americans.
It is a major Emmy win for the FX series, which has been largely overlooked by TV academy voters. The show, which has now concluded, was also nominated for best drama series.
Thandie Newton won the Emmy for best supporting actress in a drama series for her role in Westworld. It’s the first Emmy in two nominations for Newton. She was also nominated for her Westworld role as android madam Maeve Millay in 2017.
And in one of the evening’s more dramatic moments, Glenn Weiss walked away with an Emmy and his girlfriend walked away with a ring.
Weiss won the Emmy for directing the Oscars telecast and was giving the sort of speech from a non-celebrity that makes most viewers tune out when he said his mother died two weeks ago, and she was fond of his girlfriend.
He then said, “You wonder why I don’t want to call you my girlfriend? It’s because I want to call you my wife.”
The star-studded crowd, realizing a proposal was on, whooped and cheered. Leslie Jones of Saturday Night Live stood with her mouth agape in surprise, as did the woman herself.
Weiss’ girlfriend, Jan Svendsen, ran up on stage then Weiss took a knee and said he was giving her the same ring his father gave his mother 67 years ago.
Only then did he actually ask the question. She said yes.
You wonder why I don’t want to call you my girlfriend? It’s because I want to call you my wife.
Glenn Weiss