In a minute, I'm going to do a chronological view of the Emmys. First, however, let me jump to the good news; then I'll digress:
1) The good -- great, actually -- news: Jim Parsons has won the Emmy for best actor in a comedy series. Parsons is brilliant in "The Big Bang Theory," which has quickly become the best comedy on TV.
2) Now back to the start: For the red-carpet preview, I stuck with E this year, which was fortunate. Ryan Seacrest was prepared and topical and -- this is rare on red carpets -- non-ditzy. His colleague, Giulianna Rancic, alas, was mostly a total ditz.
3) Way too many women are wearing black this year. The commentators tried to claim that some of them were actually navy blue. Sure, if the navy has somehow become an undertakers' corps.
4) Jimmy Fallon's opening "Glee" number was a total delight. It was clever and original, with lots of cute detours. And even on NBC, it reminded us anew that Fox's "Glee" is the story of 2009-2010.
5) That led to one of my favorite promos of all time: Betty White gleefully said she was going to be on the season-opener of "Glee." When she was told it was really "Community," she asked: "'Community,' what's that?" It was a wonderful piece of humility, emphasizing the enormous gap between those shows.
6) In addition to Fallon, tonight's other big star was John Hodgman, who made the witty comments as the winners walk to the stage. He's an author and, occasionally, a "Daily Show" humorist, but he's probably better known from those old computer commercials, where he plays the bad one. Incidentally, his co-star on those commercials (Justin Long) went on to date Drew Barrymore and co-star with her in the movie "Going the Distance." I guess this Emmys job means that Hodgman got second prize.
7) Lauren Graham had double bad luck: Someone gave her an awful dress and then a worse joke to be delivered with Matthew Perry.
8) My predictions got off to a good start, anyway: I was two-for-two with Parsons and then Edie Falco ("Nurse Jackie"). The streak stopped, alas, when "Top Chef" ended the seven-year winning streak of "Amazing Race" -- and when Bryan Cranston ("Breaking Bad") won for the third straight year ... once again beating Hugh Laurie -- who should, of course, be the winner every year.
9) Whoever created that comedy film -- a network executive pushing changes for "Modern Family" -- deserves a special Emmy.
10) I wish the show "Under Covers" could be as good as the promo for it. Or half as good. So far (in the pilot film, at least), it's not.
11) I don't care how many times they run that stupid Avon commercial, I still think it's a bad career path.
12) On the flip side, I really like the commercial done by Mike Morelli, the Michigan State University sophomore who was runner-up on "The Biggest Loser." He comes across beautifully with a solid message: He and his dad really did lose 400 pounds, changing their lives.
13) OK, it's fun to be wrong sometimes. I thought Julianna Magulies ("The Good Wife") would win for best actress in a drama; still, I was glad to see Kyra Sedgwick finally win for "The Closer." She's been great every year.
14) I was wrong again and happy about it again. I though a sympathy vote would take Conan O'Brien to a win for best talk-variety show; instead, "The Daily Show" won yet again -- and I was delighted. I still think O'Brien was treated fairly and made a mistake when he left NBC; I also think "The Daily Show" (11 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays on Comedy Central) is a delight.
15) Ricky Gervais announced that he hoped Bucky Gunts would win (for directing the Olympics opening ceremony) simply because of the name. "'Bucky Gunts?' I didn't think you could say that on TV." And then, in one of those neat twists, he did win.
16) George Clooney was, again, terrific. Fame happened to exactly the right guy.
17) Flashing back to earlier in the show, I really liked Fallon's introduction, saying that some people have so much lustre that they only need one name -- "and some are so insecure that they need three .... Here is Neil Patrick Harris."
18) Harris responded neatly by saying it's great to have the Emmys hosted for two straight years by a gay man. (Actually, Harris is and Fallon isn't.) As good as Fallon is, Harris remains my all-time favorite award-show host.
19) Jewel's song, backing the "In Memorium" section, was beautiful. Each year, it's considered a special honor to be the last person listed. This time, that went to David Wolper, the producer of "Roots" and other mini-series; this was especially important, because TV has almost forgotten that minis exist.
20) One of the great acceptance lines was by Adam Mazer, who wrote "You Don't Know Jack," the film about death-doctor Jack Kevorkian. To Kevorkian, who was in the audience, he said: "I'm so glad you're my friend -- and so glad you're not my physician."
21) It was 15 years ago that Steven Spielberg, talking to reporters in Hollywood, singled out two great young actresses -- Julia Ormond and Claire Danes. "Claire Danes is one of the most amazing actresses to debut in 10 years," he said then. Those two never worked together -- until now, when they played mother and daughter in the brilliant HBO movie "Temple Grandin." And tonight, they both won Emmys. As I said back in the first item, the universe is correct.
22) I had a nice little streak there, correctly picking the best actor and actress in a movie or mini-series (Al Pacino in "You Don't Know Jack," Danes in "Temple Grandin") and the best mini-series ("The Pacific"). That was broken when I missed the rest. Still, I'm delighted that "Temple Grandin" -- the best TV movie in years -- won.
23) I was also wrong in thinking "Mad Men" wouldn't win again for best drama. It did. Ironically, "Mad Men" fans had to learn about it later. In two time zones, their show was going on at the same time that it won the Emmy.
24) The final award was handed out to "Modern Family," as best comedy series. That left one irony: Even though "Glee" is clearly the show this season will be remembered for -- and even though it dominated the wonderful opening production number -- it got only two awards in the telecast, neither near the end: Jane Lynch won for best supporting actress, Ryan Murphy for directing.
25) The final count: Only five of my 12 predictions were right. (In two other cases, my preference -- "Temple Grandin" and "The Daily Show" -- won, but I didn't predict them.) The real-life Temple Grandin stood up four times in the audience and once onstage; the real-life Jack Kevorkioan stayed seated, but waved twice. A good time was had by all ... or, at least, all the winners.