The 75th Primetime Emmy Awards should have aired this week. Alas, two strikes prevented them from going on as planned (as they should… give ’em hell, WGA and SAG!) and they won’t be handed out until January. Instead, I’ll take a look at what happened 10 years ago, correcting them the way I have the Oscars for many years. Winners in bold.
COMEDY SERIES
30 Rock (NBC) – Season 7
The Big Bang Theory (CBS) – Season 6
Girls (HBO) – Season 2
Louie (FX) – Season 3
Modern Family (ABC) – Season 4
Veep (HBO) – Season 2
Should have won: Veep
Not even nominated: Happy Endings (ABC)
Modern Family‘s reign continued unabated. And while there’s certainly nothing wrong with the show’s fourth season, it was well past time to shake things up. While Veep would come to dominate later, its second season was when the show took “the leap,” going from a good show to a truly essential one.
But there’s still no excuse for the Academy completing ignoring Happy Endings, especially in its final season. ABC may have screwed up its schedule, but the show maintained a level of cleverness none of these nominees managed.
COMEDY ACTOR
Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock (“A Goon’s Deed in a Weary World”)
Jason Bateman, Arrested Development (“Flight of the Phoenix”)
Don Cheadle, House of Lies (“Hostile Takeover”)
Louis C.K., Louie (“Daddy’s Girlfriend, Part 1”)
Matt LeBlanc, Episodes (“Episode Two”)
Jim Parsons, The Big Bang Theory (“The Habitation Configuration”)
Should have won: Jason Bateman
Not even nominated: Joel McHale, Community
The less said about Jim Parsons’ wholly undeserved win (his third!), the better. Jason Bateman, the glue of one of the funniest shows of the 2000s, only got one measly nomination for the show’s final original season. While the fourth season – especially in its wacky initial configuration – didn’t always work, Bateman was still at his deadpan best.
Speaking of not working, the fourth season of Community was mostly a trainwreck, but Joel McHale never wavered as group leader Jeff Winger, pondering moving on as his graduation approaches. Now let’s never speak of that finale again.
COMEDY ACTRESS
Laura Dern, Enlightened (“All I Ever Wanted”)
Lena Dunham, Girls (“Bad Friend”)
Edie Falco, Nurse Jackie (“Luck of the Drawing”)
Tina Fey, 30 Rock (“Hogcock!/Last Lunch”)
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Veep (“Running”)
Amy Poehler, Parks and Recreation (“Leslie and Ben”)
Should have won: Amy Poehler
Not even nominated: Patricia Heaton, The Middle
I love Julia Louis-Dreyfus and no number of Emmys can truly capture how great she was. But like Candice Bergen before her, it got to be a little too much. Instead of the second of her six wins, I’m giving this to the oft-nominated Amy Poehler. Like the rest of the cast of Parks and Rec, she never got her due. And her big wedding to Ben Wyatt marked one of her best performances.
Patricia Heaton, meanwhile, must have disappeared from voters’ minds entirely. Despite six consecutive nominations (including two consecutive wins) for Everybody Loves Raymond, she never got nominated for The Middle. (Though neither did anyone else, despite being a reliably funny show for nine seasons.)
COMEDY SUPPORTING ACTOR
Ty Burrell, Modern Family (“Mistery Date”)
Adam Driver, Girls (“It’s Back”)
Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Modern Family (“The Wow Factor”)
Bill Hader, Saturday Night Live (“Host: Seth Macfarlane”)
Tony Hale, Veep (“Running”)
Ed O’Neill, Modern Family (“Bringing Up Baby”)
Should have won: Bill Hader
Not even nominated: Nick Offerman, Parks and Recreation
I love Tony Hale. Great character, great acceptance speech. But Hader was legendary on SNL, and the episode he submitted involves the single funniest character he’s ever played (besides Stefon).
But once again we’ve got to talk about a grave injustice. Nick Offerman was never nominated for playing the iconic Ron Swanson. Not even once! A replacement nod from me is the least I can do for the man.
COMEDY SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Mayim Bialik, The Big Bang Theory (“The Fish Guts Displacement”)
Julie Bowen, Modern Family (“My Hero”)
Anna Chlumsky, Veep (“First Response”)
Jane Krakowski, 30 Rock (“Hogcock!/Last Lunch”)
Jane Lynch, Glee (“Feud”)
Sofia Vergara, Modern Family (“Yard Sale”)
Merritt Wever, Nurse Jackie (“Teachable Moments”)
Should have won: Anna Chlumsky
Not even nominated: Nina Conti, Family Tree
Though Veep had an incredibly strong ensemble, Chlumsky (in her first major role since My Girl 2) was the show’s secret weapon. She absorbed all the rage and impotence of her co-workers and kept inside, venting it at the most inopportune times.
I may have been the only person to watch Christopher Guest’s Family Tree, a fitfully amusing mockumentary series starring Chris O’Dowd. The show as a whole was fine but forgettable, except for Conti as O’Dowd’s sister, who uses a monkey puppet to communicate. The gag could have gotten stale quickly, but she crafted a fully realized character in a show that had its roots in improvisation and quick gags.
WRITING FOR A COMEDY SERIES
30 Rock (“Hogcock!”)
30 Rock (“Last Lunch”)
Episodes (“Episode Nine”)
Louie (“Daddy’s Girlfriend, Part 1”)
The Office (“Finale”)
Should have won: No complaints here
Not even nominated: Happy Endings
In a somewhat weak lineup, I’m more than OK with Tina Fey and Matt Hubbard winning for the 30 Rock finale, which eschewed sentimentality for more of the show’s brilliantly chaotic nonsense.
DIRECTING FOR A COMEDY SERIES
30 Rock (“Hogcock!/Last Lunch”)
Girls (“On All Fours”)
Glee (“Diva”)
Louie (“New Year’s Eve”)
Modern Family (“Arrested”)
Should have won: 30 Rock
Not even nominated: Happy Endings
Despite winning three awards for writing, 30 Rock never got its due for its agile directing (not even for its live episode). So apologies to Gail Mancuso (who would win the next year anyway), and let’s hear it for the underrated Beth McCarthy-Miller.
DRAMA SERIES
Breaking Bad (AMC) – Season 5, Part 1
Downton Abbey (PBS) – Season 3
Game of Thrones (HBO) – Season 3
Homeland (Showtime) – Season 2
House of Cards (Netflix) – Season 1
Mad Men (AMC) – Season 6
Should have won: No complaints here
Not even nominated: The Americans (FX)
You’ll hear nothing bad from me about Breaking Bad‘s long overdue win here. The show had already ended on a perfect note with Season 4’s “Face Off.” But Vince Gilligan and company set out to top themselves for a final, supersized season, and they pulled it off.
But Downton Abbey was already getting stale. (So much so that Dan Stevens asked for his character to be killed off.) So let’s swap that with The Americans, which the Academy barely acknowledged until its last seasons. It was the best drama series of the 2010s, featuring two incredible lead performances.
DRAMA ACTOR
Hugh Bonneville, Downton Abbey (“Episode Five”)
Bryan Cranston, Breaking Bad (“Say My Name”)
Jeff Daniels, The Newsroom (“We Just Decided To”)
Jon Hamm, Mad Men (“In Care Of”)
Damian Lewis, Homeland (“Q&A”)
Kevin Spacey, House of Cards (“Chapter 1”)
Should have won: No complaints here
Not even nominated: Matthew Rhys, The Americans
It amuses me greatly that despite its enduring status as a punching bag, The Newsroom still won a major Emmy. As a ride-or-die for Aaron Sorkin, I still (mostly) love the show. And while Jeff Daniels continued to get better throughout the show – especially as his character grew more mature – it’s not that surprising that the rant that opens the show went viral in his world and in the real world.
DRAMA ACTRESS
Connie Britton, Nashville (Pilot episode)
Claire Danes, Homeland (“Q&A”)
Michelle Dockery, Downton Abbey (“Episode One”)
Vera Farmiga, Bates Motel (“First You Dream, Then You Die”)
Elisabeth Moss, Mad Men (“The Better Half”)
Kerry Washington, Scandal (“Happy Birthday, Mr. President”)
Robin Wright, House of Cards (“Chapter 10”)
Should have won: Elisabeth Moss
Not even nominated: Keri Russell, The Americans
Claire Danes was great on Homeland, but she’d just won the year before. But Moss somehow never won for her role as Peggy Olson, arguably the only good person working at Sterling Cooper. While this episode didn’t give us the iconic quitting time meme or “The Suitcase,” her performance was still magnificent.
DRAMA SUPPORTING ACTOR
Jonathan Banks, Breaking Bad (“Say My Name”)
Bobby Cannavale, Boardwalk Empire (“Sunday Best”)
Jim Carter, Downton Abbey (“Episode Six”)
Peter Dinklage, Game of Thrones (“Second Sons”)
Mandy Patinkin, Homeland (“The Choice”)
Aaron Paul, Breaking Bad (“Buyout”)
Should have won: Jonathan Banks
Not even nominated: Kevin Rahm, Mad Men
Mike Ehrmentraut might just be the most fascinating character in the Albuquerque underworld. This was his final appearance on Breaking Bad (but far from his last time playing this role). Cannavale’s a solid actor, but Banks gets my vote.
At this point, it would be foolish to say Mad Men is underrated. But like many shows that dominated the Emmys early on, its popularity among its members faded. But in its sixth season, the show was still humming along. Its bench of great actors was so deep that Kevin Rahm, who played the forthright but morally conflicted Ted, was snubbed. Honestly, any of the “forgotten” dudes would be a worthy nominee here, including Jay R. Ferguson, Aaron Staton, James Wolk or Ben Feldman. Even Vincent Kartheiser, as the sniveling Pete Campbell, never got nominated!
DRAMA SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Morena Baccarin, Homeland (“State of Independence”)
Christine Baranski, The Good Wife (“The Seven Day Rule”)
Emilia Clarke, Game of Thrones (“And Now His Watch Is Ended”)
Anna Gunn, Breaking Bad (“Fifty-One”)
Christina Hendricks, Mad Men (“A Tale of Two Cities”)
Maggie Smith, Downton Abbey (“Episode One”)
Should have won: Emilia Clarke
Not even nominated: Kiernan Shipka, Mad Men
Remember when people were mad that Daenarys torched King’s Landing almost immediately after overtaking it in the final season? They must have forgotten this episode, where she has her dragon kill a guy for insulting her! It’s one of the great moments of the show, and worth commemorating.
And boy did Kiernan Shipka turn out to be a great young actress. Though she could be annoying as Sally, this was the season where she showed her character was far more mature than either of her parents. It’s a tricky thing to do, but she pulled it off. And let’s be honest, that’s trickier than Maggie Smith sitting in a chair and saying a withering remark.
WRITING FOR A DRAMA SERIES
Breaking Bad (“Dead Freight”)
Breaking Bad (“Say My Name”)
Downton Abbey (“Episode Four”)
Game of Thrones (“The Rains of Castamere”)
Homeland (“Q&A”)
Should have won: No complaints here
Not even nominated: Mad Men
While there were memorable, shocking moments in all of the nominated episodes here, Homeland‘s brutal interrogation provided the most gripping episode of this batch.
DIRECTING FOR A DRAMA SERIES
Boardwalk Empire (“Margate Sands”)
Breaking Bad (“Gliding over All”)
Downton Abbey (“Episode Four”)
Homeland (“Q&A”)
House of Cards (“Chapter 1”)
Should have won: No complaints here
Not even nominated: The Americans
For better or worse, David Fincher’s cold view and cynical vibes set the visual template for House of Cards (and many other shows). Along with Kevin Spacey’s performance, his direction pulled you in immediately.