Emmy tries to be hip but still ends up boring

Even most of the acceptance speeches were tired. If you’re Brad Garrett and you’ve just won an Emmy yet again, do you really decide to thank the same people you thank every time you win, instead of maybe at least pretending that you’re humbled to have been picked yet again? Apparently so.

Yet just when all seemed old and familiar, the Academy surprised us. Felicity Huffman won for best actress in a comedy. (Perhaps she’ll let the other nominated ‘Housewives’ hold the statue during on-set breaks.) David Shore picked up the drama writing statue for writing the smart dialogue of “House.”

As with the awards themselves, the acceptances had their moments.

An exuberant and emotional Patricia Arquette, taking the trophy for best actress in a drama, acknowledged both those helping with Hurricane Katrina’s aftermath and those still fighting in Iraq.

And S. Epatha Merkerson won outstanding actress in a miniseries, but really stole the show when she admitted that her acceptance speech was lost, tucked too far into the front of her dress. “Oh God, it’s down there,” she said.

The Trump-Mullally show
There were a few other stunning moments, such as Donald Trump and Megan Mullally’s rendition of the “Green Acres” theme. That was part of the “Emmy Idol” competition, which Trump and Mullally, performing in character as Karen Walker, easily won. They probably have to give most of the credit to Trump’s hysterical outfit — overalls, a white t-shirt, and a straw hat.

Host Ellen DeGeneres mostly stayed off stage, as if embarrassed about what was often occurring there. She appeared, for example, in the nosebleed seats with shunned “Desperate Housewife” Eva Longoria and backstage with the man responsible for making sure the program didn’t run over its allotted time (it did run long, but nothing compared to some years).

The San Francisco Chronicle’s Tim Goodman recently wrote that “[a]nger at the Emmys is pointless. The Emmys manage to defuse rage by having so many outlandish oversights that one cannot muster up the energy to scream bloody murder.”

But that is the point of the Emmys, endless frustration when a viewer’s favorites lose to other viewers’ favorites, and moments of bliss when your show wins. Watching this year’s ceremony was like rereading a familiar novel, but one that had a handful of pages torn out and replaced with new writing. Next year, the story will probably be mostly the same, but those unexpected pages will keep drawing us back in.

Andy Dehnart is a writer and teacher who publishes reality blurred, a daily summary of reality TV news. He is a regular contributor to MSNBC.com.

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