So the Emmys happened last night. Emmy voters seemed intent on awarding the 2nd-bests in every category — not the obvious incompetants, but not the truly deserving innovators, either. Best Actor in a Comedy: not the amazing Steve Carrell, and not the horrible Charlie Sheen, but the decent Tony Shalhoub. Outstanding Variety/Comedy show: not the inspired Colbert Report, and not the irritating Bill Maher, but the solidly excellent Daily Show. Reality Show: not the clearly superior Project Runway, and not the schlock-fest Dancing with the Stars, but the decently entertaining Amazing Race.

And then there were the tragedies, like Barry Manilow. Barry Manilow, people! Winning an Emmy! Over Stephen Colbert, David Letterman, Craig Ferguson, and Hugh Jackman! What kind of world are we living in? 

The good news is that two TiFaux favorites — The Office and 24 — won the big awards. Yippee, or whatever.

Here is the point where I would put Conan's cute opening sketch, where he traveled through Lost, The Office, House, South Park, and Dateline's To Catch a Predator, but the nerds have abandoned me, and it's not on youtube yet as far as I can tell.

And, oh god, did everyone else catch the sappy and insipid trailer that NBC is running for The Office? It's all softly tinkling pianos, slow-mo shots of Jim and Pam, and fading in title cards that say things like "Last spring… we held our breath… for the greatest love television has ever seen… will they or won't they?" or something to that effect. I kept waiting for the joke. For the record-skipping noise, and then Dwight leans into the frame and says something about fire regulations or whose turn it is to change the urinal cakes. But that moment never came.

Bad move, NBC promo-maker. Bad move.

And finally, I was pleased to see that Ellen Pompeo appears to have finally eaten something, and is no longer on the verge of collapsing in on herself like a black hole. Still skinny, but not grossly so.