The Emmys telecast isn’t till next week, but the first batch of awards have already been handed out. Much like how the Oscars have their “Scientific and Technical Achievement” sidebar, of awards deemed too snoozy for broadcast, the Emmys have an unaired ceremony for the “Creative Arts.” One of the Emmys not fit for television is Outstanding Animated Program, which seems like a big one, especially since that means almost no one knows that the award went to Rick and Morty.
The news was buried in a Variety report on the night’s many second-class winners, but it was caught by The A.V. Club, who passed the news onto the show’s fans. The darkly comedic sci-fi show bested Bob’s Burgers, The Simpsons, South Park, and Big Hero 6 to nab the award, its first Emmy. Specifically it won the trophy for last season’s episode “Pickle Rick,” in which the somewhat functioning alcoholic mad scientist transforms himself into a pickle to get out of a therapy session with his daughter.
There was another piece of big news, also caught by The A.V. Club: For the first time, all four guest actor awards went to performers of color. That includes Katt Williams for Atlanta, Ron Cephas Jones for This is Us, Samira Wiley for The Handmaid’s Tale, and Tiffany Haddish for her Saturday Night Live episode. First Haddish is denied her Girls Trip Oscar nomination, now she wins an Emmy and it barely makes a blip.
The full list of winners can be found on Variety’s article, where you can see what shows won for very specific categories, like “Single-Camera Picture Editing For a Drama Series” (The Handmaid’s Tale) and “Production Design for a Narrative Program (Half-Hour or Less)” (GLOW). Also of note: Best TV movie went to the “USS Callister” episode of Black Mirror, in which Jesse Plemons plays a shy nerd who tortures clones of his co-workers in a Star Trek-y RPG game of his own design.
(Via The A.V. Club and Variety)
