Highlights and low blows at the Emmys

PARSONS. Cited for his performances in comedy and drama. AFP

We had a fun time watching the 66th Emmy Awards last Tuesday morning, even if it turned out to be a three-hour telethon. Seth Myers was only a so-so host in our book, but other performers, personalities and presenters made up for the slack.

Other highlights and low blows: Jim Parsons won as Best Comedy Actor again for “The Big Bang Theory,” and was chummily razzed by his “envious” peers for now being paid a cool million bucks per episode! Even a big TV-film star like Ashton Kutcher “only” gets something like $800,000 per show, so Parsons is clearly in a stellar league of his own!

Our big question about Parsons is what else he can do aside from his hit sitcom, which seems to have limited producers’ perception of his ability to play other roles. That’s why we were glad to learn that he was also nominated for an Emmy for his noncomedic role in “The Normal Heart!”

Still on that acclaimed TV movie, we were glad when it won the top plum in its category, but felt bad when the Julia Roberts failed to get the Best Supporting actress trophy for her “fierce” portrayal in it (the award went to Kathy Bates for “American Horror Story: Coven”—who was the most nonplussed winner that night—!

Roberts is a big star, so it must have been a real downer and even bummer for her to lose to Bates. —Still, that’s show biz!

On a more “generational” note, we were happy to see that Tom Hanks’ son and heir, Colin, has finally stepped out from under his dad’s really big and long thespic shadow—and was even nominated for his supporting performance in “Fargo.”

Clearly, even bigger achievements can be expected from him in subsequent TV-film seasons, now that he’s found his stride.

Other big winners last Tuesday were Julianna Margulies (“The Good Wife”) as lead dramatic actress, and Julia Louis-Dreyfuss (“Veep”) as her comedic counterpart. As for the lead actors, they were Bryan Cranston (“Breaking Bad”) for drama and Parsons for comedy. And it was most inspiring to see veteran actress Jessica Lange trounce her younger competition by grabbing the trophy for lead actress in a miniseries or movie.

Talk about inspirational moments, Billy Crystal’s tribute to the late Robin Williams was especially memorable given their many years of personal friendship and professional collaboration.

At the other end of the entertainment spectrum, the best comedic portion of the awards show was when Myers and “guerrilla interviewer” Billy Eichner accosted many people and shocked them into giving really funny answers to their unexpected questions. The fun “audience participation” portion lasted only a few fast-paced minutes, but turned out to be such a big hit with viewers that it’s made an overnight sensation of Eichner.

In fact, a netizen gushed, “I wouldn’t mind watching another street-ambush interview again real soon. And, please make it longer—like, 30 minutes long!”