Story by Scott Collins / MCT
The evening may have ended on a familiar note, but the 63rd Primetime Emmy Awards contained enough surprises to confound oddsmakers as well as skeptics who consider the awards show too predictable.
ABC’s “Modern Family” — credited for sparking a sitcom renaissance on network TV — won as best comedy for the second straight year and took home two acting prizes.
Cable outlet AMC’s “Mad Men,” grabbed its fourth consecutive Emmy as best drama.
Jim Parsons of CBS’ nerd sitcom “The Big Bang Theory” repeated his win from last year. Julianna Margulies, a previous winner for “ER,” won for CBS’ legal drama “The Good Wife.”
But even veteran Emmy-watchers were taken aback by upset victories at the ceremony, hosted by Jane Lynch of “Glee”: Melissa McCarthy of the CBS sitcom “Mike&Molly,” Kyle Chandler of the now-canceled small-town soap “Friday Night Lights,” and Barry Pepper for his role as Robert F. Kennedy in the controversial Reelz miniseries “The Kennedys.”
In the face of such surprises at Sunday’s ceremony, the win for “Mad Men” was almost unexpected, according to its creator.
“Oh my goodness,” exclaimed Matthew Weiner, as the cast crowded behind him onstage at the Nokia Theatre at L.A. Live in downtown Los Angeles. “I did not think that was going happen.”
“Boardwalk Empire” took home only one statuette Sunday — for Oscar-winning film director Martin Scorsese, who’d never previously won an Emmy.
“I must say, this is something I really never dreamed of,” Scorsese told reporters backstage of his win for “Boardwalk Empire.”
“It’s a different medium in a way, although we approached ‘Boardwalk Empire’ as a film — a very long film.
It’s just as exciting (as the Oscar win).”
Scorsese, who won his Academy Award for directing the 2006 crime thriller “The Departed,” was one of four Oscar winners who wound up clutching Emmys on Sunday.
The others were all British: Maggie Smith (for “Downton Abbey”), Julian Fellowes (who created and wrote much of “Downton Abbey”) and Kate Winslet, who won for the title role in HBO’s miniseries remake of “Mildred Pierce.”
“Oh, I didn’t think I was going to win anything!” a beaming Winslet, who won her Oscar for “The Reader,” said onstage.
But some of the other wins were even more startling, and not just for the performers who bounded onstage to pick up their trophies.
Few predicted, for example, that Chandler would win as Eric Taylor, the stoic football coach on “Friday Night Lights,” which this year wrapped up five critically acclaimed but perilously low-rated seasons, first on NBC and then on DirecTV.
Chandler’s competition included three multiple Emmy nominees who have never won: Jon Hamm of “Mad Men,” Hugh Laurie of Fox’s “House” and Michael C. Hall of Showtime’s “Dexter.”
“I did not write anything and now I’m starting to worry,” Chandler said with a smile during his speech.
Other first-time winners included best supporting actor, drama, Peter Dinklage, who stands 4-foot-5, for his part as “the Imp,” a crafty and debauched member of the ruling family in “Game of Thrones”; and best supporting actress, drama, Margo Martindale, for her role as an unlikely crime boss in FX’s “Justified.”
Dinklage summed up the unpredictable nature of the evening by saluting his rivals for the best supporting dramatic actor category, including John Slattery of “Mad Men” and Alan Cumming of “The Good Wife.”
“Wow, I followed Martin Scorsese,” Dinklage marveled.
