Fashion, winners of the 69th annual Primetime Emmy Awards
‘Handmaid’s Tale’ takes home 8 awards, ‘This Is Us’ nabs two
“The Handmaid’s Tale,” Hulu’s critically acclaimed adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel, was named best drama series Sunday night at the 69th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards. It scored eight awards, including best actress in a drama series for Elisabeth Moss and best directing for Reed Morano.
Cast and producers took to the Microsoft Theater stage Sunday night with a band playing “You Don’t Own Me.” They were joined by the novel’s author, Ms. Atwood. The series is particularly relevant in an era where women’s rights have been questioned.
Showrunner Bruce Miller accepted the award, concluding, “Go home, wrap it up, we have a lot of things to fight for.” “Veep” won for bestcomedy series and Julia Louis- Dreyfus won yet another best actress in a comedy Emmy, her sixth, a record.
This continued a streak of best drama champs from cable and streaming services. Broadcast shows haven’t cracked the winners circle since “24,” in 2006. “This Is Us,” the NBC series set partially in Pittsburgh, had been considered a front-runner in the category.
Although Gerald McRaney won a guest actor award when the Creative Emmys were announced
a week ago, “This Is Us” took home just one other win for Sterling K. Brown as best actor in a drama series.
Referencing his character, who is an adopted, African-American triplet on the show, he praised his costars: “You are the best white TV family a brother ever had.”
“Big Little Lies,” HBO’s critical hit about cliques and a killing in a beachfront California community, won for limited series. Nicole Kidman (best actress), Alexander Skarsgard (supporting actor) and Laura Dern (supporting actress) also won. Ms. Kidman, in helping accept the limited series statuette, said the project was borne out of frustration that women weren’t being written great roles.
As expected, politics were on the menu.
In a reunion of “9 to 5” stars Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda and Dolly Parton, on hand at LA’s Microsoft Theater to present the Emmy for supporting actor in a limited series, the actresses couldn’t help themselves.
They gave a shout-out to actor Dabney Coleman, who played a sexist boss in “9 to 5,” with Ms. Tomlin adding that, “in 2017 we still refuse to be controlled by a sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot.”
Of course, they weren’t alone. Host and Emmy nominee Stephen Colbert opened the show in a big way. The man never met a topical songand-dance number he didn’t like, taking the opportunity to lip-sync his way through a humorous number, “Everything IsBetter On TV.”
Traipsing through scenes with cast members from “This Is Us,” “Veep,” “Archer,” “The Handmaid’s Tale” and “The Americans,” among others, Mr. Colbert wound up in a glitzy production on stage with those Handmaids (”At least your health care’s free!”).
In his monologue, he cracked wise about everythingfrom Ted Cruz to the fact that Milo Ventimiglia’s character on “This Is Us” has disappointed fans by not dying yet. Mr. Colbert was just warming up, however, eventually bringing up the “T” word. Trump. Donald Trump. The star of “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” has enjoyed stellar ratings on the strength of his political brand of humor. Front and center has been the president; little wonder Mr. Colbert called him “the biggest TV star of last year.”
Then, he dug a bit deeper, wondering why President Trump never won an Emmy with “The Apprentice,” because Emmy “people love morally compromised antiheroes.”
“If he had won an Emmy, I bet he never would have run for president. Trump is like Walter White. He’s just like Walter,and much whiter.”
Later, Alec Baldwin, who plays the president on “Saturday Night Live,” bounded to the stage after winning best supporting actor in a comedy.
“I guess I should say, ‘At long last, Mr. President, here is your Emmy.’”
Even former White House press secretary Sean Spicer got in on the act in a bit about judging the size of the Emmy awards crowd.
Diversity was represented to an unprecedented degree. There were first-time winners such as Donald Glover (FX’s “Atlanta”)for directing a comedy series. He also won for best actor in a comedy. In addition to Mr. Glover’s win, Riz Ahmed, who is British-Pakistani, became the first actor of Asian descent to win a best actor in a limited series Emmy (forHBO’s “The Night Of”).
There was another breakthrough moment when “Masterof None” writers Aziz Ansari and Lena Waithe won for comedy writing. Ms. Waithe is the first AfricanAmerican woman to earn an Emmyin this category.
But “Saturday Night Live” proved everything old is new again, when, having satirized the presidential election for more than a year, it took home the crown for best variety series and scored nine Emmys in all.
The venerable NBC sketch show has racked up 231 nominations over 42 seasons. Its director, Don Roy King, got into the act, winning his seventh prime-time Emmy in 11 seasons with “SNL.” Mr. King, a Pitcairn native, is a Penn State University graduate.
Mr. King, noting that the Emmy broadcast’s director caught his daughter, Cameron, on camera, he joked a thanks to “Glenn Weiss for taking a shot at my daughter.” He also thanked “the best television all-star team ever, especially the writers.”
Other winners included John Lithgow — Winston Churchill on Netflix’s “The Crown” — who won his seventh Emmy as best supporting actor in a drama. “Saturday Night Live’s” Kate McKinnon repeated for best supporting actress in a comedy, thanking her mother, sister and Hillary Clinton, who she parodied each week leadingup to the 2016 election.
Laura Dern (HBO’s “Big Little Lies”) was effusive, thanking her “tribe of four ladies,” when she won for best supporting actress in a limited series or movie. Jean-Marc Vallee, who directed “Big LIttle Lies,” also wonan Emmy.
Perhaps the most touching speech was given by Ann Dowd, who plays the terrifying Aunt Lydia in “The Handmaid’s Tale.” Her win for best supporting actress in a drama was an upset, but she charmedwith a teary speech.
“This is a dream,” she said. “I have been acting for a long time and that this would happen now? I don’t have the words.” Maria Sciullo: msciullo@post-gazette.com.