The 2017 Emmys: they’re not merely about the best television of the last year and Stephen Colbert in the nude. There’s also room for a little bit of nostalgia. And I’m not just talking about car noises arranged to sound like the Cheers theme. The TV-centric show also managed to find the time to celebrate a classic film by reuniting 9 to 5 stars Dolly Parton, Lilly Tomlin, and Jane Fonda.
Unsurprisingly, the trio wasn’t there to merely grab applause from the crowd and announce the winner of the award for Best Supporting Actor in a Limited Series. (Spoiler alert for everyone recording the show to tape for later: Alexander Skarsgard won for Big Little Lies.) Instead, they showcased their still-potent chemistry and fire as Fonda and Tomlin (who, of course, co-star in Netflix’s Grace And Frankie) lived up to their reputation for being outspoken on political issues and equated their classic film’s “sexist egotistical lying hypocritical bigot” boss to Donald Trump, garnering a big round of applause.
Not to be outdone, but to maybe stay a little above the fray in terms of politics, Parton also got a laugh by making a “support” joke before the nominees were announced. She then followed that by making a Grace and Frankie vibrator joke and offering a loving shout out to Dabney Coleman (who played the aforementioned boss in 9 To 5). If you’re scoring at home, that Coleman shoutout matches announcer Jermaine Fowler’s shout out to Winston Churchill for most unexpected of the night. Who will be next, will Donald Trump have the guts to take on the 9 to 5 gang on Twitter later tonight, and when will Dolly Parton guest star as Lily Tomlin’s peyote dealer on Grace and Frankie? These are the big takeaways from this article, I think.
