Ellen Gray: She will 'Rock' you

MAYBE THEY should just call that statue Tina.

Upper Darby's Tina Fey and her little comedy that could, NBC's "30 Rock," last night walked off with the Emmys for outstanding comedy, lead actress in a comedy and for outstanding writing.

In accepting the acting Emmy, the former "Saturday Night Live" writer and performer thanked her parents, Donald and Jeanne Fey, "for raising me with confidence disproportionate to my looks and abilities. . . . That is what all parents should do."

Later, before plugging "30 Rock" 's time slot - yes, it returns Oct. 30 at 9:30 - she said that the ratings-challenged show's cast and crew were "very, very grateful to have jobs in this turkey-burger economy."

AMC's "Mad Men," a basic-cable show whose first season was watched by perhaps a fifth the number of people who saw "30 Rock" last year, won for outstanding drama and for writing, but was shut out in the acting categories.

Yet things could hardly have been better for AMC, which until recently was known strictly as an old-movie channel.

Bryan Cranston of AMC's "Breaking Bad" broke James Spader's winning streak to claim the award for best actor in a drama, a category in which the former "Malcolm in the Middle" co-star, who now plays a terminally ill teacher-turned-meth dealer, was up against "Boston Legal" 's Spader, "House" 's Hugh Laurie, "Dexter" 's Michael C. Hall, "Mad Men" 's Jon Hamm and "In Treatment" 's Gabriel Byrne.

Cranston's win wasn't the only surprise.

Zeljko Ivanek, a veteran character actor who'd inexplicably never been nominated before, won for supporting actor in a drama for FX's "Damages," while Dianne Wiest was another unexpected winner, for supporting actress in "In Treatment."

Still, thanks in part to time-wasting traffic jams involving reality-show hosts Tom Bergeron, Heidi Klum, Howie Mandel, Jeff Probst and Ryan Seacrest - who were upstaged by Oprah Winfrey in the show's opening and never recovered - and ideas like having Josh Groban sing 60 years' worth of theme songs, the 60th Primetime Emmy Awards felt even longer than usual.

And that's not even counting the deja vu moments.

There was, for instance, the third Emmy in a row for Jeremy Piven, of HBO's "Entourage," who'd be the Spader of comedy if "Boston Legal" weren't itself more a comedy than a drama.

Jean Smart, of ABC's "Samantha Who?" had her third win (though the other two were for guesting on "Frasier").

Even George Carlin died twice, appearing at both the beginning and end of the annual "In Memoriam" roll call.

And CBS' "The Amazing Race," clearly the only "reality" show that Emmy voters have either seen or heard of, won the Emmy for reality-show competition for the sixth year in a row (though its host, Phil Keoghan, wasn't even nominated for the award that went, after some tedium, to "Survivor" 's Jeff Probst).

But it was that other amazing race that seemed to be on the minds of the winners and presenters.

Anyone looking for evidence that Hollywood bleeds blue would no doubt have found it in Tommy Smothers' acceptance of the 1968 writing Emmy he hadn't sought at the time - because 40 years ago, he feared his name on the entry would jinx it - in which he noted that "truth is what you get other people to believe."

I'm not sure anyone really believed Martin Sheen, speaking from a desk in "The West Wing" 's Oval Office, when he suggested that the show itself had been "nonpartisan," but, hey, he was just there to remind you to vote, right?

Right.

HBO's "Recount," a movie about the messy aftermath of the 2000 presidential election, won for made-for-television movie and for directing.

Kirk Ellis, who won for his adaptation of David McCullough's "John Adams" for HBO, was cut off in what seemed to be mid-speech right after referring to a time when "articulate men" talked about ideas in "full sentences."

Those guys clearly weren't subject to ABC's time limits.

"Adams" producer Tom Hanks got in his own shot, as he accepted the Emmy for outstanding miniseries for "John Adams," noting that the presidential race between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson was filled with lies and innuendo.

"How great we've come so far since then," he said.

Added Paul Giamatti, who won for his portrayal of Adams: "Anybody can play the president."

Stephen Colbert, host of Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report" - which won for writing, but lost the variety, comedy or musical program Emmy to his lead-in, "The Daily Show with John Stewart" - even managed to wring politics from a bag of fruit.

"I think America right now needs a prune," he said. "This dried-up old fruit has the experience we need . . . What could possibly go wrong?" *

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