Emmy telecast: At least, it was fun and funny

If you’re planning an awards show, here’s the essential requirement:
Make sure that Steve Martin is there early as (at least) a presenter.
Martin has been a delight working solo … or with Martin Short … or as part of the “Only Murders in the Building” triad, with Short and Selena Gomez.
That’s what he did Sunday, early in the Emmys (shown here). Alongside some great work from the hosts (Eugene and Dan Levy), we knew this would be a fun night.
It was, with well-written material for the other presenters. We needed that, because most acceptance speeches were (as usual) bland lists of names. And most of the results were only moderately interesting.
We knew there would be lots of comedy-series awards for “The Bear” (even though it’s not a comedy) and drama-series awards for “Shogun” (even though it’s not a series; it was made as a self-contained mini-series, with a belated decision to do a sequel).
We didn’t grumble about that, because both are part of the FX/Hulu world, which does such great work. That world also includes such current delights as “Only Murders” (Tuesdays on Hulu) and “English Teacher” and “The Old Man” (10 p.m. Mondays and Thursdays, FX.
But it was fun to see the occasional surprise, including the HBO/Max “Hacks” winning for best comedy series. And it was good to hear Richard Gadd, the “Baby Reindeer” writer-star, say that not everything has to have a big-name star and be based on a known quantity.
Which sort of takes us back to what Dan Levy said at the start of the show: The Emmycast is “broadcast TV’s biggest night for honoring movie stars doing streaming shows.”
Broadcast includes the traditional networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, PBS), which are free over the air, with lots of commercials. During the night, we saw brief reminders of many great shows, from “Happy Days” to “Murphy Brown” to “West Wing” and beyond. All of them were on broadcast networks. And during this year’s telecast, those networks combined for a total of zero Emmys.
It’s tough to grind out 22 new episodes a year for broadcast, then compete at the Emmys with the big budget for a 12-episode “Shogun.” But many of the broadcast shows are worth catching, including the new ones coming now.
I’m especially impressed by a couple of CBS ones, “Matlock” and “Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage,” and by PBS “Moonflower Murders.” I like the ambition of NBC’s “Brilliant Minds” and the emotional depth of Fox’s “Murder in a Small Town.”
These and other broadcast shows are worth watching. But we probably won’t hear much about them at next year’s Emmys.