75th Emmy Awards Was Oozing With Nostalgia, Our Favs & Flops of the Show
The 75th Emmys were presented after a 4-month delay due to the writers and actors strikes and it was a fast and furious affair! If you felt it was rushed, it was! 27 shows and 27 awards as host Anthony Anderson exclaimed while kicking the show off to personal recollection of his fav shows growing up with a medley of Good Times, Facts of Life, and Miami Vice theme songs. The TV throwbacks didn’t stop there, with big-name stars and reunions from TV shows gone by, passing the Emmy to torch to the newcomers was an all-night affair. Some were memorable, some, well, just fell flat. Here our are faves and flops of TV’s 75th annual big night.
Fav
Kevin Winter/Getty Images
Christina Applegate made a surprise appearance as a presenter and looked fabulous! She teared up to a standing ovation as she walked onto the stage with the help of a cane as the star is battling severe MS. The Married … with Children alum joked, “You’re totally shaming me with disability by standing up, but it’s fine.” She also made mention of her very first role in 1972 as Baby Burt Grizzell on Days of Our Lives.
Fav
It was a night of cast reunions including replica sets of respected shows including The Sopranos, Cheers, Martin, Ally McBeal, and Grey’s Anatomy.
Flop
Kevin Winter/Getty Images
While it was fun to see these shows cast reunite, it was very fast-paced and the jokes sort of fell flat. Martin Lawrence just seemed off, and the internet was quick to weigh in on it too! Cheers seemed to be forced although Ted Danson said, “This feels nice, to be here in front of all of you,” while John Ratzenberger added, “Think of it as a long overdue class reunion.” What was fun was Ally McBeal star Calista Flockhart, love her or hate her for bringing that dancing baby to our TV screens, replicated her famous neurotic dancing scenes in the bathroom and well, you can still feel the love between the Grey’s cast.
Flop
Jon Cryer took the stage next as a presenter for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series and sadly Henry Winkler lost again! The Happy Days star lost out for his role on the hit show Barry for the 3rd straight year. The 10-time nominee did win for this role in 2010 and at the time he joked, “Oh, my god. Okay. I only have 37 seconds. I wrote this 43 years ago.”
Fav
Kevin Winter/Getty Images
At age 92, Marla Gibbs of The Jeffersons fame looked stunning as she was a presenter for Supporting Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie to a standing ovation. When asked by co-presenter Quinta Brunson about the longevity of her career and how she does it, she responded, “Oh that’s easy, baby: the wage gap. I got to work 20 more years before I retire, but if you great writers write something for me I’ll just keep on working and cut into that wage gap. Black don’t crack, baby. It’s never too late.” Carol Burnett also presented and spoke of her longevity. She said, “I was lucky enough to be the first female host of a comedy variety show from 1967 to 1978. Eleven years! And that was a long time ago, and I just want to say that a lot has changed over the last 46 years for the better. Progress has been made. And it, uh, truly warms my heart to see how well men are doing in comedy now,” as the audience erupted into laughter.
Fav
Kevin Winter/Getty Images
Arsenio Hall has not aged and spoke of his love of Johnny Carson while growing up. He joked, “While most kids in Cleveland wanted to be a football player like Jim Brown, I wanted to be an old white man with a talk show,” and laughed about how he used to be a magician and pretended he had a talk show with his friends. Finally given his break on Jan 3, 1989, with the debut of the Arsenio Hall Show, it ran head to head with Johnny & David Letterman and he said he only hoped that they could suck as he presented the late-night award.
Fav
Everett Collection; Kevin Winter/Getty Images
Jason Bateman talked about his first acting role at Little House on the Prairie at age 11. He played an orphan and spoke about how great the late Michael Landon was at being a mentor. He shared, “My character was an orphan who suffered numerous hardships, including getting caught in a bear trap and being shot in a bank robbery. Without the direction from the great Michael Landon, there’s no way I could have pulled off such a realistic and heart-rendering portrayal of a young, thin-lipped orphan with a bob.” He also joked that he was a late starter compared to Christina Applegate. Bateman wasn’t the only one to speak of early roles, Jodie Foster spoke of her first role in the Courtship of Eddie’s Father at age 6.
Fav
Kevin Winter/Getty Images
The Emmy edition of Saturday Night Live Weekend Update with Tina Fey & Amy Poehler presented the nominees for outstanding variety special with Elton John winning, who sadly was not there as it marked the historic moment of him becoming the latest EGOT winner.
Flop
Kevin Winter/Getty Images
Dame Joan Collins (Dynasty) looked stunning at age 90… has she found the fountain of youth? Joan is not the is not the flop here, the whole setup was a flop. Both Collins and co-presenter Taraji P. Henson (Empire) spoke of the fashion and drama they both brought to their respective series. We thought it would be some sort of costuming award but it was for Limited or Anthology series? Odd.
Fav and Flop
Kevin Winter/Getty Images
Rob Reiner and Sally Struthers set up the In Memorium portion of the show on a replica set of All in the Family. While their speech was great as it paid a wonderful tribute to the late Norman Lear, it once again snubbed the montage. With notables of Jerry Springer, Raquel Welch, Lisa Loring, and Ryan O’Neal to name a few but it did have some surprise mentions like that of Jules Bass of Rankin/Bass fame.
Flop?
Kevin Winter/Getty Images
We are on the fence about how we felt about the candy factory throwback to the famous episode of I Love Lucy where Lucy and Ethel struggle to keep up with the conveyor belt of candy mimicked by Tracee Ellis Ross (Black-ish) and Natasha Lyonne (Orange is the New Black). Ross was hilarious as she REALLY channeled the role but Natasha seemed a little lost. As they flashed to Steve Martin in the audience, his face showed boredom and we sort of felt the same way. Of course there were many other weird moments you can read about here. You tell us, what did you think of it? Did you watch it? What was your favorite part?
1970s Fall TV
September 2023
Take a trip back to the ’70s by looking at the TV Guide Magazine Fall Preview primetime lineups.
Buy This Issue