2015 Emmy Awards Recap
After a year of binge watching, exciting series finales and new breakthrough shows, the evening to recognize those who create our favorite characters and worlds of escape, the 67th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards, did not disappoint. First-time host Andy Samberg brought refreshing comic relief without stepping too far out of comedic boundaries, staying predominantly clean throughout the evening. Along with usual jokes and shenanigans of awards shows, the night brought a plethora of memorable acceptance speeches and historical wins.
Per Emmy tradition, the opening number was in fact a song, but instead of the typical live stage performance in the realm of Hugh Jackman’s historic dance numbers, it was in the form of a prerecorded skit. Bringing his experience at “Saturday Night Live,” Samberg made use of digital segments throughout the night which brought the evening’s biggest laughs. The opening number portrayed Samberg as a man who could not keep up with all of today’s television shows and in order to catch up, he locks himself in a vault for a year to watch literally every show on television. The music video was full of guest appearances and cameos including Jon Hamm, Will Forte (with a strange appearance as Javert paying homage to “Les Miserables” for no obviously reason), Kerry Washington, Bob Odenkirk and Nathan Fillion.
Another notable moment was Samberg openly giving out a username and password for the television and movie site ‘HBO Now’ that gave anyone access to the site. And, yes, it worked, at least until there were too many devices logged on at the same time. Andy’s social experiment was a response to a comment that the HBO CEO Richard Plepler released saying, “password sharing is not actually a big problem,” at least until the 67th Annual Primetime Emmys.
As for recognizing the year’s best work in television, history was made as three black women were announced as Emmy winners. Starting off the evening was a win from Regina King for ‘Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Movie’ for her role in “American Crime.” Taken aback by the win, King comically started her speech, “I should have brought one of those papers that all the comedy people had, I was not expecting this.” She continued to give thanks with such emotion that it was more than a list of names, even for a viewer who has never heard of “American Crime.”
Supporting actress in the comedy series “Orange is the New Black” Uzo Abudo (also known as ‘Crazy Eyes’) took home the Emmy, delivering another noteworthy speech of the evening and taking another one home for black women in television. Lastly, “How to Get Away With Murder” star Viola Davis made history as the first black woman to win ‘Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series’ and gave the most thought provoking speech of the night.
“In my mind I see a line,” Davis began. “And over that line I see green fields and lovely flowers and beautiful white women with their arms stretched out to me over that line, but I can’t seem to get there no how. I can’t seem to get over that line.”
Davis continued, “That was Harriet Tubman in the 1800s.” Davis’ acceptance speech praised those transforming what it means to be beautiful and more importantly, blacks in television. She specifically recognized colleagues such as Taraji P. Henson, Kerry Washington and Gabrielle Union for finally “taking us over that line.”
Adding to minority representation, Jeffrey Tambor of Amazon Prime’s “Transparent” made an iconic win as ‘Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series’ for his portrayal of a transgender woman. His speech gave thanks and support to the transgender community in a similar fashion to his 2015 Golden Globe win. “Not to repeat myself but to specifically repeat myself,” Tambor said. “I’d like to dedicate my performance and this award to the transgender community.”
Comedians Jon Stewart and Amy Schumer were also presented with Emmy awards. The 20th Emmy was awarded to “The Daily Show” and Amy Schumer set the standard for the newly formed ‘Outstanding Variety Sketch Series.’
Unsurprisingly, “Game of Thrones” was the most awarded show of the year, winning ‘Outstanding Drama Series’—beating out the series finale of “Mad Men”—along with a slew of writing, directing and acting awards. Another prominent winner was “Olive Kitteridge,” HBO’s eccentric short-story based mini series, which took home six of its 13 nominations.
The most anticipated award of the night was finally awarded to Jon Hamm; after eight nominations for his portrayal of Don Draper in AMC’s “Mad Men,” Hamm finally took home the Emmy for ‘Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series.’ His speech was short and poignant with the same suave of his 1960s on-screen character.
The biggest night in television brought laughter and tears, but most importantly anticipation for another year of places to escape to, characters to dream about and the bliss of pure entertainment.