Michael Keaton wins 1st Emmy on funny, entertaining night

Michael Keaton picked up his first Emmy Award for his role in Hulu’s opioid crisis drama “Dopesick” at Monday night’s 74th annual Emmy Awards.

That was only after a cringeworthy song-and-dance opening number — set to TV theme songs that only got worse as it went on. Fortunately after that, host Kenan Thompson introduced Oprah Winfrey, who was there to present the best actor in a limited series award.

Keaton, who had already won Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild awards for his “Dopesick” role, described his father winning a black-and-white TV in a raffle and how he’d watch it as a child, gape-jawed, leading him to re-enact scenes and create his own scenes that his parents never objected to.

“My folks weren’t exactly patrons of the arts,” Keaton said. “We weren’t patrons of anything, frankly. But I want to thank them. I just want to thank all those people in my family for never making me feel foolish, because I went on to do that several times myself. That’s the thing about feeling foolish and making a fool of yourself and making mistakes, there’s huge power and merit in that. I’m glad I made a fool of myself over and over and over again.”

He also forgave his doubters and got bleeped by NBC for thanking “the true believers, I (expletive) love you, man!”

Despite Keaton’s win, “Dopesick” lost in the best limited series category to HBO’s “The White Lotus,” which since it is coming back for a second season this fall, doesn’t seem like it should be in that category.

The other two top categories saw repeat winners: Apple TV+’s “Ted Lasso” picked up best comedy series and HBO’s “Succession” won best drama. But drill down a little deeper, and there were some terrific new winners and great reactions to those wins.

Perhaps the affable Thompson, so reliable on “Saturday Night Live,” was talked into that awful opening, because he quickly returned to tell some jokes that successfully scored laughs.

The remainder of the telecast was funny, entertaining and moved like a freight train.

Thompson teased that many of this year’s Emmy-nominated shows are hard to watch: “’Stranger Things’ was hard to watch because it’s so scary. ‘Squid Game’ was hard to watch because it’s so violent. And ‘Yellowjackets’ was hard to watch because it’s on Showtime.”

Thompson also referred to TV as a balm, from “Netflix and chill to Paramount+ and eatin’ dinner alone.”

“Tonight we celebrate hundreds of shows produced each year and then we give awards to about five of them,” Thompson said, speaking a criticism fairly and consistently leveled at Emmy voters.

But Monday’s telecast had a decent share of deserving first-time winners and it was their acceptance speeches that made for great TV.

Sheryl Lee Ralph’s speech after winning best supporting comedy actress for ABC’s “Abbott Elementary” — she belted out “Endangered Species” and received a standing ovation for encouraging dreamers to “never give up on you!”

Similarly, seeing new shows like “Watch Out for the Big Grrrls” beat repeat winner “RuPaul’s Drag Race” in the best competition program category, was extremely rewarding. Lizzo accepted the award noting the value of diversity in representation and how it would have helped her as a child to see someone “fat like me, Black like me, beautiful like me.”

Mike White won for writing and directing a limited series, HBO’s “The White Lotus,” and reminded viewers of his time as a contestant on “Survivor,” noting that in “Survivor” you stay in the game by lowering your threat level and he fears with multiple Emmy wins, he’s raised his threat level.

“Please don’t come for me, don’t vote me off the island, please,” White said.

Some awards and brickbats to the Emmy telecast itself:

Best innovation: Asking nominees to contribute written “thank yous” in advance that appeared on the bottom of the screen if they won was a good time-saver and allowed for less repetitive laundry list speeches or just an opportunity for another joke. “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” used its lower-thirds space to say: “To our staff who couldn’t be here tonight, … don’t worry, we’ll tell Oscar Isaac hello for you.” This is worth keeping but maybe leave the notes on screen longer and use a larger type size.

Terrible writing and delivery: Another awards show tried to have a DJ and once again it was a flop. The writing was consistently bad (“Here are two cops no one wants to see defunded” as a groanworthy introduction to “Law Order” stars Mariska Hargitay and Chris Meloni) but the dumbest moment was the introduction for comedy series clips: “Nobody dies in these audience favorites” … followed by scenes from “The Flight Attendant,” “The Afterparty” and “Only Murders in the Building,” shows in which characters definitely died.

Fact check, please: Thompson said ABC’s “Abbott Elementary” “took all their Emmy marketing money and used it to buy school supplies for public school teachers.” But as a consumer of multiple Hollywood trade publications that featured dozens of “for your consideration” ads for the show, this seems dubious.

Best throwing the Emmy show writers under the bus: Lizzo, in presenting the best supporting comedy actor Emmy, said the Emmy “is in her own way a really big girl — I didn’t write that, they did.”

Best reunion: While “The Brady Bunch” reunion was a sad head-scratcher — where was Marcia Brady (Marueen McCormick)? — it was great to see Thompson reunite with “Kenan & Kel” co-star Kel Mitchell. They even worked in a quick “Good Burger” reference.

Best potential future Emmy hosts: The banter among Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez was a hoot.

“What’s the difference between being in a movie versus television?” Martin said. “Marty can get work in television.”

“What an audience you are,” Short said. “I wish I could box you up and take you home like classified documents!”

Worst music choice: Despite beginning the Emmy telecast with an ode to TV theme songs, why did producers forego theme music from the winners’ shows as they walked to the stage in favor of generic, unrelated, upbeat pop tunes?

Comedic bit gone wrong: The Will Arnett bit where he pulled Jimmy Kimmel’s limp body on stage started funny but then just became a distraction and literal obstruction when Kimmel stayed on stage as winner Quinta Brunson attempted to accept an award.

Worst use of music to play off a winner: Cutting off Jennifer Coolidge, winner for supporting actress in a limited series for “The White Lotus” was criminal. Cut the DJ, not Coolidge.

Best use of music to play off a winner: Thompson introduced the Emmy accountants who count the votes and then cut them off and didn’t let them speak, both a good comedic turn and the right place to trim some time from the telecast.

You can reach TV writer Rob Owen at rowen@triblive.com. Follow Rob on Twitter or Facebook. Ask TV questions by email or phone. Please include your first name and location.