Emmy upsets add drama to script

The evening may have ended on a familiar note, but the 63rd Primetime Emmy Awards contained enough surprises to confound oddsmakers as well as skeptics who consider the awards show too predictable.

ABC’s “Modern Family” — credited for sparking a sitcom renaissance on network TV — won as comedy series for the second straight year and took home two acting prizes (for Julie Bowen and Ty Burrell, who play a harried married couple) as well. Cable outlet AMC’s “Mad Men,” about the New York ad industry in the 1960s, grabbed its fourth consecutive Emmy as best drama, a feat last achieved by NBC’s White House series “The West Wing” nearly a decade ago.

Photos: Emmys 2011’s best and worst

Jim Parsons of CBS’ nerd sitcom “The Big Bang Theory” repeated his win from last year. Julianna Margulies, a previous winner for “ER,” won for CBS’ legal drama “The Good Wife.”

But even veteran Emmy-watchers were taken aback by upset victories at the ceremony, hosted by Jane Lynch of “Glee”: Melissa McCarthy of the CBS sitcom “Mike & Molly,” Kyle Chandler of the now-canceled small-town soap “Friday Night Lights,” and Barry Pepper for his role as Robert F. Kennedy in the controversial Reelz miniseries “The Kennedys.”

In the face of such surprises at Sunday’s ceremony — which aired live nationwide on Fox — the win for “Mad Men” was almost unexpected, according to its creator.

“Oh, my goodness,” said Matthew Weiner, as the cast crowded behind him onstage at the Nokia Theatre at L.A. Live in downtown Los Angeles. “I did not think that was going happen.”

Some observers had speculated that voters at the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences might pass the baton instead to either of two acclaimed new HBO dramas, the Prohibition mob story “Boardwalk Empire” or the fantasy “Game of Thrones.”

“Boardwalk Empire” took home only one statuette Sunday — for Oscar-winning film director Martin Scorsese, who had never previously won an Emmy. But including the seven it won at last weekend’s Creative Arts Emmys, which cite mostly technical categories such as costume design and editing, “Boardwalk” was this year’s most honored series. PBS’ “Downton Abbey,” a “Masterpiece” period drama miniseries, ranked second.

“I must say, this is something I really never dreamed of,” Scorsese told reporters backstage of his win for “Boardwalk Empire.” “It’s a different medium in a way, although we approached ‘Boardwalk Empire’ as a film — a very long film. It’s just as exciting” as his Oscar win.

Scorsese, who won his Academy Award for directing the 2006 crime thriller “The Departed,” was one of four Oscar winners who wound up clutching Emmys on Sunday. The others were all British: Maggie Smith (for “Downton Abbey”), Julian Fellowes (who created and wrote much of “Downton Abbey”) and Kate Winslet, who won for the title role in HBO’s miniseries remake of “Mildred Pierce.”

“Oh, I didn’t think I was going to win anything!” a beaming Winslet, who won her Oscar for “The Reader,” said onstage.

But some of the other wins were even more startling, and not just for the performers who bounded onstage to pick up their trophies.

Few predicted, for example, that Chandler would win as Eric Taylor, the stoic football coach on “Friday Night Lights,” which this year wrapped up five critically acclaimed but perilously low-rated seasons, first on NBC and then on DirecTV.

Chandler’s competition include three multiple Emmy nominees who have never won: Jon Hamm of “Mad Men,” Hugh Laurie of Fox’s “House” and Michael C. Hall of Showtime’s “Dexter.”

“I did not write anything and now I’m starting to worry,” Chandler said with a smile during his speech.

Other first-time winners included supporting actor, drama, Peter Dinklage, who stands 4-foot-5, for his part as “the Imp,” a crafty and debauched member of the ruling family in “Game of Thrones”; and supporting actress, drama, Margo Martindale, for her role as an unlikely crime boss in FX’s “Justified.”

Photos: Emmys 2011’s best and worst

Dinklage summed up the unpredictable nature of the evening by saluting his rivals for the supporting dramatic actor category, including John Slattery of “Mad Men” and Alan Cumming of “The Good Wife.”

He also alluded to his unlikely predecessor as an Emmy recipient.

“Wow, I followed Martin Scorsese,” Dinklage marveled.

scott.collins@latimes.com