Emmy voters give parting gifts for final 'Breaking Bad' season

By LORI RACKL TV Critic

'Breaking Bad' star Bryan Cranston accepts his Emmy from presenter Julia Roberts at Monday's Emmy Awards. | KEVIN WINTER/GETTY IMAGES

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The Television Academy showered a lot of love Monday on the late, great 'Breaking Bad' during the 66th primetime Emmy Awards, a telecast that was short on surprises yet surprisingly entertaining.

Bryan Cranston won his fourth Emmy for his remarkable turn as chemistry-teacher-turned-meth-kingpin Walter White in the stellar AMC series, which also took the top drama prize.

Cranston was the most deserving in the hotly contested lead actor category - now renamed the Anyone But Jon Hamm Award - but his victory was one of the few shockers of the evening.

'Even I thought about voting for Matthew,' Cranston said, referring to odds-on favorite Matthew McConaughey, star of HBO's uber-buzzy 'True Detective.'

Cranston's on-screen partner in crime, Aaron Paul, pulled off a three-peat for his mesmerizing work as supporting actor in 'Breaking Bad,' which wrapped up its final season around this time last year - or forever ago, in Hollywood time.

The drama was still very much at the forefront of the minds of voters, who also awarded Northwestern grad Anna Gunn with her second consecutive statuette for playing Walter White's morally complex wife, Skyler.

The AMC series also snagged a writing honor for its stellar episode 'Ozymandias,' possibly the most perfect hour of television we'll ever see.

Voters stayed true to 'Modern Family,' too, awarding the ABC sitcom its fifth consecutive Emmy - tying it with record-holder 'Frasier.'

Seth Meyers proved awards show hosts don't have to be able to carry a tune or break out the fancy footwork to deliver the goods.

'We're dong the Emmys on a Monday night in August, which if I understand television means the Emmys are about to get canceled,' Meyers said about the ceremony, airing on a Monday for the first time since 1976.

A taped bit with Billy Eichner's man-on-the-street quiz got the evening off to an energetic, entertaining start, especially when someone mistook Meyers for another Seth: MacFarlane.

The 'Late Night' host's genial monologue leaned heavily on industry humor while being broad enough to land the laughs. Much of his material mined the decline of traditional television and the increasing dominance of cable and streaming services like Netflix.

He praised HBO's 99 Emmy nominations - more than twice the number than that of the next closest network, CBS.

'Not to be outdone, NBC is also a network,' Meyers quipped about his longtime home base.

The Evanston-born emcee managed to squeeze in a compliment to the Peacock net, noting that 'The Blacklist' is the most DVR'd show on television. 'Game of Thrones,' the most pirated. 'And 'Duck Dynasty,' the most VCR-taped.'

He also gave a shoutout to TV series that will end this season - 'Sons of Anarchy,' 'Two and a Half Men,' 'Glee' - 'as well as almost every new show to premiere this fall.'

Unlike last year's telecast, this one didn't dwell on death. Billy Crystal delivered a touching, funny tribute to the late Robin Williams, poking fun at Williams' lack of baseball knowledge and celebrating his comedic prowess.

'It's very hard to talk about him in the past because he was so present,' Crystal said. 'For almost 40 years, he was the brightest star in the comedy galaxy.'

Speaking of bright stars in comedy, Emmy darling Julia Louis-Dreyfus pulled off a hat trick, winning her third consecutive award for playing potty-mouthed pol Selina Meyer on HBO's 'Veep.'

It's the Northwestern University grad's fifth statuette; she won in the past for 'The Old Adventures of New Christine' and 'Seinfeld,' where her character, Elaine, briefly dated Jerry's dentist played by Bryan Cranston.

The 'Breaking Bad' star and Louis-Dreyfus reminisced about their 'Seinfeld' days while they co-presented an Emmy - and sealed it with a serious kiss later in the evening as Louis-Dreyfus took the stage to collect her bling.

Another Emmy magnet, Allison Janney, picked up her second Emmy in as many weeks. The four-time winner for 'The West Wing' walked away with a trophy for her guest spot on 'Masters of Sex' at the recent creative arts ceremony and topped it off Monday with a best supporting actress win for Chuck Lorre's CBS comedy 'Mom.'

Other predictable victories went to perennial champ Jim Parsons for 'The Big Bang Theory,' who now has four gold statuettes - bazinga! - to go along with that semi truck full of cash he's getting thanks to the cast's new contract.

Fellow nominee Ricky Gervais ('Derek') played the sore loser after getting beat by Parsons.

'I've come a long way,' the British actor whined. 'He's probably local.'

Upsets included Kathy Bates' unexpected win - even she appeared to be shocked. Bates won for best supporting actress in a movie/miniseries for her role in 'American Horror Story: Coven,' besting rookie favorite Allison Tolman ('Fargo') and Oscar winner Julia Roberts for HBO's gut-wrenching film, 'The Normal Heart,' about the dawn of the AIDS crisis.

Roberts' co-stars Mark Ruffalo and Matt Bomer also went home empty handed, with trophies in their categories going instead to Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman for PBS's 'Sherlock: His Last Vow.' Despite the acting shut outs, the Ryan Murphy film took top prize for outstanding TV movie, while 'Fargo' did the same in the miniseries category.

Awkward/hilarious moments of the night came courtesy of Woody Harrelson who cracked a plagiarism joke - I'm guessing 'True Detective' creator Nic Pizzolatto wasn't laughing - and singer Gwen Stefani mangling the pronunciation of two-time variety series winner 'The Colbert Report.' The latter snafu prompted challenger Jimmy Fallon to rush the stage to claim the prize.

'She said it wrong so there must be a mistake,' Fallon protested.

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