Hosted by late night’s Jimmy Fallon, the award show celebrated the best of television. As always, the Emmys had its share of expected victors, including “Mad Men’s” third consecutive win for best drama and Jane Lynch’s victory as outstanding supporting actress in a comedy. Many predicted a tight race for best comedy between “Glee” and “Modern Family,” with “Family” unsurprisingly prevailing in that category. Also, Bryan Cranston went home with his third consecutive win for “Breaking Bad” and Edie Falco won for best actress in a comedy for her role on “Nurse Jackie.” Despite these predicted winners and perennial victors, there were still some noteworthy surprises.

The most interesting upsets came in the acting categories as several new or previously overlooked performers went home winners. For instance, the best supporting actor and actress in a drama. Against tough competition, including her colleague Christine Baranski from “The Good Wife,” Archie Panjabi won for best supporting actress, and best supporting actor went to “Breaking Bad’s” Aaron Paul. In another surprise and after multiple nominations, Kyra Sedgwick won her first Emmy for best actress in a drama beating Glenn Close, who has won for the past two years for her work on “Damages.”  

My favorite win of the night went to Jim Parsons as lead actor in a comedy for his performance on “The Big Bang Theory.” Parsons faced off against Alec Baldwin, who has won this award twice for “30 Rock” and Tony Shalhoub, who had won thrice for “Monk.” I only recently started watching Parson’s work on “Theory” and he is a tremendously funny actor who deserved this recognition.

One of the nicest and most unexpected surprises was how the winners focused on their work and not on their politics. This may have to do with the fact that Hollywood’s president, Barack Obama, is suffering in the polls. But whatever the reason, it was a relief to see things stay on course. I appreciated many of the non-political speeches, especially George Clooney’s thoughtful words as he accepted the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award.

Overall, it was an enjoyable night. Although some bits fell flat, Fallon deserves credit for the way he handled his host responsibilities. He seemed ready and willing to try a lot of different bits to get a laugh. There were many opportunities for failure but Fallon overcame the lamer jokes and the weaker parts of the show (including the Twitter introductions of some of the award presenters). Fallon tried really hard to keep the audience entertained throughout the show and was mostly successful.

In a night that celebrated the effort that goes into telling stories that entertain and/or enlighten people, both Fallon and the stars succeeded admirably.

The big topics of the week were Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the presidential fly killing:

The election of Mahmoud was compared by the talk show hosts alternately to the 2000 Presidential and the 2008 Minnesota Senate elections. Fallon claimed that now that his opponent lost, he’ll go on to make a documentary about Global Warming.  David Letterman actually did a joke almost every single night, changing the punchline from Florida voting machines, to Pat Buchanan, Al Gore, Al Franken and Jeb Bush.  Bill Maher used Norm Coleman then criticized his audience for not knowing who he was talking about. The funniest line was Ferguson’s who claimed that Iranian politics have finally gotten as corrupt as Chicago.

Ferguson and Conan get the Writers Over Shoulders Award for making a joke about the fly being eaten like a lizard.  Ferguson speculated that it would be done by Cheney, while Conan put a computer animated tongue in the president’s mouth, snapping the fly off his wrist. Kimmel gets an honorable mention for putting a sound effect of flatulence behind the video so it looked like the President was trying to fan the odor away.

The Most Overused Person as a Punchline goes to Thomas Prusik Parkin, the man who dressed up like his dead mother to collect her social security check. David Letterman accused both Elton John and Barry Manilow of dressing like their mothers on alternate nights. The funniest line he said was that he was so good at dressing up like an old woman that Ashton Kutcher wanted to date him. (He told a similar joke the following night, saying if he wanted to look like an old woman he should have dressed up like Madonna.)

John McCain buying a hybrid was another big story of the week getting attention from Conan, Fallon and Letterman who used it for ageist jokes. Letterman claimed that a Hybrid to McCain would be a horse and buggy while Conan claimed that to McCain, hybrid meant an AM/FM radio. Fallon claimed that seven months ago he couldn’t use a computer, but now he’ll have a hybrid and a twitter account; perhaps he’s the new Benjamin Button.

Jimmy Fallon reached all the way back to an administration that predated his talk show career to deliver the Lamest Attempt at an Obama Joke, claiming that George Bush tried to one-up the new President by killing a fly himself, but it took 20 minutes of clumsy two handed swatting. There were also a couple Bill Clinton as a predator jokes during the week. But the Oldest Presidential Reference goes to Stephen Colbert, who ran Richard Nixon’s quote about Bohemian Grove being “faggy.”

Most of the week’s Obama material centered on the fly. One exception was Jon Stewart who derided the President for trying to fix Health Care in the middle of a war on two fronts and trying to keep the nation from looking like it did in the Grapes of Wrath. But the Funniest Obama Line goes to Conan who claimed that while President Obama was on the phone talking to Phil Jackson and Dan Bylsma, Joe Biden got to talk to Tito Jackson and a real penguin.

The Most Interesting Interview of the week was Governor Mike Huckabee on the Jon Stewart Show. Governor Huckabee very clearly laid out the constitutional pro-life position for the Daily Show audience. Stewart, was defenseless against a rational case for the rights of the unborn, especially since Huckabee’s position was not based in religion, zealotry or misogyny–the straw men Stewart usually attacks. His audience also appeared stunned, as they were not able to perform their trademark trained seal-clap more than a couple times during Stewart’s humiliation.

The Angriest White Man is still Bill Maher, who after a brief flirtation with moderateness, struck back at those of us who congratulated his criticism of Obama. In a remarkably unfunny rant, Maher warned Republicans:

And as far as you folks on the right, who think that we’re now somehow in league: we’re not in league. I was criticizing Obama for not being hard enough on the corporate douchebags you live to defend.  I don’t want to be on your team, pick another kid.

Gee, all we did was compliment him for being fair.

Besides Letterman, perhaps there might have been another threat issued down to a host last week. It seems David wasn’t the only one, who had to apologize to his “sponsors.”

Monday marked the debut of Jimmy Fallon’s “green” talk show. According to USA Today he has recycled carpet, used seats and bamboo floors. I wonder if he also lights the stage with CFLs, limits guests to one square of toilet paper, serves warm tap water and vegan treats, and takes the subway to work? But enough of the negative. I thought I should check in and see if Late Night’s newest host has decided that it’s okay to make fun of the President. (Fallon also claims to have three bloggers on staff, so if you three are as sharp as I hope, Welcome To Big Hollywood!) This Monday I reviewed Jimmy Fallon, David Letterman, Jay Leno, Jimmy Kimmel, Craig Ferguson, Jon Stewart, and Stephen Colbert.

Many of the nights jokes centered around the snow storm (Letterman, Kimmel, Ferguson, Fallon, Colbert) that buried the East Coast. Nobody mentioned it essentially shut down the Washington DC Global Warming protest scheduled for Monday, although Letterman mentioned in his “Top Ten Things Overheard in the New York Snowstorm,” #4: Al Gore can Suck it!

Letterman and Fallon both wondered why talks show hosts don’t get snow days, Letterman and Kimmel both made jokes about the Obama daughters getting the day off school (Letterman claimed they played with Joe Biden all day, Kimmel showed a doctored video clip where two lookalikes played with a hula hoop on stage during a press briefing.)

Ferguson completely avoided politics last night, outside a few  jokes about the Hollywood delegation visiting Iran: “Iran wants an apology from Hollywood — I read it in the NY Times, so it may be the truth. Hollywood never apologizes; I’ve seen a lot of crap movies, and they never once apologized to me! Of course, I don’t have a nuclear weapon …and neither does Iran!”

Jon Stewart ignored the President and spent his show, going  off on the CPAC proceedings. He did his usual schtick, airing out of context quotes and then making funny response faces. He did make me laugh on one: he showed a clip of NRA President Wayne LaPierre saying, “We must view any attack on the second amendment as an attack on freedom …it’s not politically correct, and I don’t care if their butts pucker from here to the Potomac.”  

Stewart claimed that the new NRA slogan will be: “From My Cold Puckered Butt!” Nothing like a butt joke to amuse my inner adolescent.

Fallon also touched on CPAC, saying that Rush Limbaugh wants Jimmy Fallon to fail. David Letterman, in an interview with Katie Couric, called Rush a bonehead who was dressed up like an Eastern European Gangster, then tried to get Katie to admit that she supports the New President more than the last guy (she demurred).

Leno’s block of Obama jokes claimed that the Obamas new dog will actually be the second dog since the first had tax problems; that he was the first black guy Canadians ever saw, and that Tickle Me Elmo was more analytical than George Bush.

He also mentioned that Wall Street gave Obama an F, to which George Bush replied, “That’s easy, try maintaining an F for eight straight years!”

So what about the new guy? Jimmy Fallon did a reasonably good job on his debut, although he seems a little nervous in the host chair. He acted more like a guest than a host, and on a couple of occasions launched into stories about his own life rather than evoke stories from his guests. He had a few of staff scripted gags: an audience participation bit called “Lick it for $10,” that really doesn’t require anymore elaboration beyond the title; and one called “target demographic,” an excuse to make stereotypical generalizations. Tonight’s target was “Blond Mothers,” (women that shop at William Sonoma, etc.) He also did a “Saturday Night Live” style skit with Robert DeNiro (“Space Train” –for astronauts afraid to fly).

His monologue was as consistent as many of his peers, but unlike most of the others (save Colbert), he actually told a funny Obama joke: “Obama released his new budget which will result in a record deficit. His next State of the Union Address will be brought to you from China.”

(Stephen Colbert also registered a decent Obama joke, claiming that the cheap, Obama memorabilia coins being sold on Late Night infomercials, were literally: “Change you have to believe in.”)

Considering Fallon had to hit the ground running, you have to admire him for at least attempting something that all the veterans have been avoiding for months and didn’t resort to Bush or Clinton for any set-ups.

This week’s nod, goes to new guy Jimmy Fallon.