‘Show of a lifetime’

Bryan Cranston and his band of Breaking Bad blew Matthew McConaughey and his True Detective team out of the competition, winning the five top honours of the evening — Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series (Cranston), Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series (Aaron Paul), Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series (Anna Gunn), Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series and Outstanding Drama Series. The AMC show — about a schoolteacher who turns meth kingpin after learning he is terminally ill — revolutionised American television and wrapped up last year after a five-season run. Cranston, winning his fifth Emmy for the show, summed it up best: “It’s the role of a life... the show of a lifetime”.

‘A big beautiful dream’

Modern Family showed why it’s still the funniest show on TV, bagging Outstanding Comedy Series for the fifth time in a row. The win tied the ABC show, set in suburban Los Angeles and chronicling the lives of a group of families, with cult comedy Frasier. Ty Burrell — who plays “cool dad” Phil Dunphy — took home the statuette for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series. “It’s a wonder that we get to do this for a living… that we get to be here up on stage when there are so many other deserving candidates… that we get to touch so many lives. Modern Family has been a big, beautiful dream for the last five years,” said creator Steven Levitan about the show that has garnered a whopping 67 nominations since it first premiered in 2009.

Girl power

Looking years younger than her 53, Julia Louis-Dreyfus won the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series award — her third consecutive Emmy — for her portrayal of US vice-president Selina Meyer in Veep. As she walked on to the stage, her Seinfeld co-star Bryan Cranston grabbed the stunner in red and planted a lip-to-lip (inset)! “Ya, ya, he was on Seinfeld,” blurted out a shocked Julia, even as the cameras caught Cranston suggestively rubbing his lip. The backstory: That was Cranston’s revenge for Julia jokingly refusing to recall him as Tim Whatley, her love interest in Seinfeld.

The other big female winner of the night was Julianna Margulies who took home the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for her turn as the irrepressible Alicia Florrick in The Good Wife. “What a wonderful time for women on television,” were the golden words from the three-time Emmy winner.

Host with the most

He may not be as funny as Tina Fey or as cool as Ellen DeGeneres, but host Seth Meyers did make the audience crack up quite often during the evening. Sample: “This year we’re doing the Emmys on a Monday night in August — which, if I understand television, means the Emmys are about to get cancelled.” We loved how the TV comedian improvised when a joke fell flat with: “Jokes are like nominees: They can’t all be winners.” The highlight: When he dissed popstar Justin Bieber with “Cable is looking at Netflix the way Justin Bieber looks at One Direction... through a cloud of marijuana smoke!” ROFL!

‘He made us laugh... hard’

“He made us laugh. Hard. Everytime you saw him on television and movies, in nightclubs, arenas, hospitals, homeless shelters, for the troops overseas, and even in a dying girl’s living room for her last wish,” was Billy Crystal’s poignant tribute to Robin Williams who died earlier this month. “He was the greatest friend you could ever imagine — supportive, protective, loving,” Crystal said, adding, “It’s very hard to talk about him in the past, because he was so present, in all our lives. For almost 40 years, he was the brightest star in the comedy galaxy.” The tribute was peppered with Crystal cracking some trademark Williams jokes and an audio-visual presentation that showed some of his memorable roles through the years.

Laugh out loud

Weird Al Yankovic — who’s just parodied Pharrell Williams’s Happy as Tacky — brought the house down with a medley of television show theme songs, spoofing the likes of Mad Men (Jon Hamm’s never won an Emmy / who cares, he’s still Jon freakin’ Hamm), Homeland (Beautiful women... ugly crying), Game of Thrones ( Here come dragons galore/And some boobs/Okay, to be fair, there’s way more boobs) and Modern Family (It’s Modern Family/Hot babe with old dude/Couple of gay guys). His act was the most entertaining three minutes of the evening.

WINNER TAKES IT ALL

Alfred Molina and Mark Ruffalo were all smiles as they posed with the statuette for Outstanding Television Movie awarded to The Normal Heart. The HBO film focuses on the rise of the HIV-AIDS crisis in New York between 1981 and 1984. Also starring Julia Roberts, Jim Parsons and Matt Bomer, the team got a standing ovation with Larry Kramer, the man who had inspired the film, making an appearance on stage.

The super snubs

Even though it won for Art Direction, Make-up, Costumes and Special Effects, Game of Thrones was snubbed in all the five major categories of acting and direction. The epic fantasy series with millions of fans across the globe hasn’t chalked up an acting Emmy post-Peter Dinklage’s win in 2011.

Matthew McConaughey’s True Detective lost out in all the major acting categories to Breaking Bad, even though McConaughey was a favourite to win for Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series. Winner Bryan Cranston even opened his speech with the acknowledgement: “Even I thought about voting for Matthew!”

Homeland, which had a ho-hum Season 3, didn’t win a single statuette. The terrorist drama had bagged two Emmys in 2013 and six in 2012.

The big winners

Outstanding Drama Series

Breaking Bad

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series:

Bryan Cranston for Breaking Bad

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series

Julianna Margulies for The Good Wife

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series

Jim Parsons for The Big Bang Theory

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series

Julia Louis-Dreyfus for Veep

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series

Aaron Paul for Breaking Bad

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series

Anna Gunn for Breaking Bad

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series

Allison Janney for Mom

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series

Ty Burrell for Modern Family

Outstanding Miniseries

Fargo

Outstanding Television Movie

The Normal Heart

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie

Benedict Cumberbatch for Sherlock: His Last Vow

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie

Jessica Lange for American Horror Story: Coven

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie

Martin Freeman for Sherlock: His Last Vow