Freshman hit "Modern Family" won best comedy series as well as supporting actor (Eric Stonestreet) and writing (Steven Levitan & Christopher Lloyd) at this year's Emmy Awards. "Glee," the other breakout show of the TV season, had to settle for supporting actress (Jane Lynch) and directing (Ryan Murphy). The lead acting awards went to Edie Falco for the first season of "Nurse Jackie" and Jim Parsons, who prevailed on his second nomination for "The Big Bang Theory."
"Modern Family" joins a long line of classic TV shows to win top comedy series for their first seasons. Among them: "All in the Family" (1971, the first of four wins), "Taxi" (1979, the first of three in a row), "Cheers" (1983, the first of four), "The Cosby Show" (1985), "The Golden Girls" (1986, the first of two in a row), "The Wonder Years" (1988) and "Frasier" (1994, the first of a record five in a row). "Modern Family" co-creator Lloyd shared in all of those wins for "Frasier" and also won a writing Emmy for that show in 1996.
The most recent laffer to win for its inaugural season was "30 Rock." It took home the Emmy in 2007 and again in 2008 and last year. However, show creator and star Tina Fey must have been reading our pundits predictions, which were fool-proof on the comedy front. When drama actress winner Kyra Sedgwick asked Fey, who was presenting, to keep her Emmy while she read off her speech, she quipped it would be the only one she held that night.
Falco made Emmy history by beating Fey and the other funny ladies, thus becoming the first woman to have won the top awards for both comedy and drama series. Previously, she had prevailed in three of her six Emmy bids for the series "The Sopranos" (1999, 2001, 2003). Carroll O'Connor ("All in the Family," "In the Heat of the Night") and Robert Young ("Father Knows Best," "Marcus Welby, MD") are the only other double-sided champs.
Photo: Steven Levitan and the cast of "Modern Family" onstage at 62nd Annual Emmy Awards. Credit: Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times.
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