It's never a good sign when a show celebrating television feels like a rerun from the beginning.
When host Jane Lynch of "Glee" began a pre-taped musical number celebrating TV with "surprise" guest spots from prominent actors, a viewer immediately thinks of Jimmy Fallon's "Born to Run" takeoff on last year's show.
And not in a good way. Fallon's opening felt fresh and funny. Lynch's felt hashed-over. Even Jon Hamm was a rerun; the "Mad Men" actor appeared in Fallon's skit, too.
You want reruns? How about "The Daily Show" and Jon Stewart winning an Emmy for their show for the ninth year in a row? Or another win for "Amazing Race"? Their work shouldn't be diminished, but it's just one more signal for viewers that they've seen it all before.
There's something a little off-putting about a musical number proclaiming television "a vast wonderland" and "joy in a box" when it's drenched in irony. This is the time of year when viewers actually want to believe that, and not feel it's all one big joke.
The problem with using irony as the dominant comedic theme is that undercuts other moments. Charlie Sheen may deserve his own real-life Emmy for his springtime of bizarre entertainment, but he came onstage Sunday to calmly wish the stars of his old "Two and Half Men" good luck in their upcoming season.
Then you waited. He couldn't mean that, could he? It had to be some sort of a joke, right? No, apparently not.
Lynch's opening monologue was otherwise serviceable. As Betty White was shown on the screen, Lynch joked that the 89-year-old actress was the reason the show began at 5 p.m. on the West Coast.
Then she largely disappeared. But her sharpest moment same after ABC's "Modern Family" swept the early awards. "Welcome back to the 'Modern Family' awards," she said.
By the way, why do the Emmys frontload the telecast with so many comedy awards? That takes the risk of what exactly happened: that the awards were less about all of television and more about one show.
In one sign that much of the creativity in television has shifted to late-night, one of the night's best routines came when Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel came onstage to present an award. Their elaborate joke about whether or not Fallon had written a speech in case he won an Emmy felt fresh and funny.
We liked the beauty pageant way the nominees for best comedy actress lined up onstage when their names were called.
The biggest backstage buzz was about someone who WASN'T there: Alec Baldwin. He asked that a pre-taped bit that included him in the opening skit be excluded when a joke involving News Corp.'s phone hacking scandal was cut out by Emmys broadcaster Fox. He was replaced by Leonard Nimoy.
It all made Ricky Gervais' comedy skit seem more ironic. The controversial "Golden Globes" host appeared in a pre-taped routine, and said Fox editors would change it if he said something offensive. Of course, he seemed to say several "offensive" things awkwardly cut out and replaced. After Gervais started saying that HBO was the best network on television, the edit had him saying, "apart from Fox, that is."