Emmys stick to the reruns

Oh, groan.

When it came to the statues, last night's Emmy Awards were way off-kilter. It seemed as though the worthiest nominees kept losing to the same-old same-old. Familiar faces walked off with most of the series prizes, leaving more interesting newcomers projecting forced smiles from the audience. For example, ''Everybody Loves Raymond" took its second best comedy prize, and Brad Garrett and Doris Roberts took their third and fourth supporting comedy honors, respectively.

That a tired series winding down in its ninth and final season can stage a mini-sweep in comedy, while ''Scrubs," Jeremy Piven of ''Entourage," and the actors in ''Arrested Development" go unacknowledged is just so much more Emmy shame.

And the disappointments kept coming all night. Once again, Tony Shalhoub took best actor in a comedy for ''Monk," and once again James Spader won as best dramatic actor for ''Boston Legal." Spader was strong enough, but Ian McShane of ''Deadwood" and Hugh Laurie of ''House" were much stronger.

Oh well, next year, next year. Yes, delusion springs eternal.

Over the course of an aimless night, a few newcomers were indeed able to hyperventilate their gratitude, including best comic actress Felicity Huffman of ''Desperate Housewives" and best dramatic actress Patricia Arquette of ''Medium." But then Huffman, who gave one of the night's most excited acceptance speeches, embodies the more dramatic side of ABC's wildly successful soap. And Arquette, who remembered Katrina victims and the soldiers in Iraq in her speech, is simply too recessive and vague to make much of an impression next to powerful performers like Frances Conroy of ''Six Feet Under" and Glenn Close of ''The Shield."

The only unequivocally good prize news, aside from the expected best drama win by ''Lost," was in the miniseries-movie categories. ''The Life and Death of Peter Sellers" took a few deserving awards including best actor for Geoffrey Rush. And while ''Sellers" won awards for writing and directing as well, the unexpectedly affecting ''Warm Springs," about Franklin Roosevelt's struggle with illness before he became president, took the prize for best made-for-television movie. And PBS's extraordinary miniseries ''The Lost Prince" was rightly and surprisingly honored; with HBO's star-laden ''Empire Falls" in the pool, it looked as though the nomination would be its prize.

One of those ''Empire Falls" stars, Paul Newman, won supporting actor, and ''Law & Order" mainstay S. Epatha Merkerson won as best actress for her earthy turn in the movie ''Lackawanna Blues" -- both standout performances of the year. And, in the name of long build-up, Jane Alexander won as supporting actress for ''Warm Springs," playing Sara Roosevelt, after being nominated twice in the lead actress category for her memorable Eleanor Roosevelt back in the 1970s.

As a telecast, the Emmys was sprinkled with some mighty stinky cheese. What was up with the opening musical number, which stimulated unpleasant flashbacks to Oscar's 1989 Rob Lowe-''Snow White" production? There was Earth, Wind & Fire and the Black Eyed Peas singing ''September" fitted with insipid lyrics about the year in pop culture, from Tom and Katie to the jailing of Martha.

When the camera flashed to Jon Stewart watching the spectacle, you kind of knew what he was thinking, and it wasn't nice, and it will probably end up on ''The Daily Show" soon.

Then, throughout the show, we were subjected to a series of spots called ''Emmy Idol," in which the likes of Donald Trump and Megan Mullally sang the likes of the ''Green Acres" theme song. How do they say ''Ouch!" in Hooterville-ese? Also painful: Kristen Bell of ''Veronica Mars" singing ''Fame" and Gary Dourdan and Macy Gray performing ''The Jeffersons" theme song. It wasn't even ironic fun when William Shatner stood staring at opera singer Frederica von Stade while she crooned the ''Star Trek" theme. It was just kind of creepy.

Ellen DeGeneres's opening monologue was off, too. She delivered a few requisite comments about the victims of Katrina -- ''Our thoughts and our prayers go out to everyone affected" -- and then fell back on tired, all-purpose material about actor's egos. You know, musing about the humiliations of losing and the fraudulence of acceptance speeches: ''Please don't say you didn't expect it," she begged. Please come up with fresh material, we begged.

Later, DeGeneres momentarily reminded us of her likability factor, as she clowned around with Eva Longoria about being mistreated by the ''Desperate Housewives" folks and yelled for a drink at the concession stand: ''Mommy needs her scotch." But then she disappeared for the bulk of the telecast, returning only to announce the winner of ''Emmy Idol" -- Trump and Mullally.

On a personal note, if you voted in the ''Emmy Idol" contest and supported the idiotic venture, may you spend today completely unable to get the ''Green Acres" song out of your head.

Two of the show's more sober moments were its best. David Letterman paid a smart tribute to the late Johnny Carson, and then the Emmys saluted the news achievements of Dan Rather, Tom Brokaw, and Peter Jennings. Brokaw and Rather took the stage and made nice comments about Jennings, and then Brokaw recalled Jennings saying about the three of them, ''Yes, we are friends -- because we don't see each other very much." It was sentimental, but it worked.

And what of the preshow parade? The cast of E!'s red-carpet coverage just keeps getting stranger. They formed a little carnival freak show last night, as they covered all angles of the ''who are you wearing" beat. Sorry, Joan and Melissa, you are officially no longer weird enough.

If Star Jones Reynolds was the happy puff queen, filling up every celebrity's ego with hot, airy praise, Kathy Griffin was her backstage devil. Armed with a sheaf of sharp needles, Griffin ridiculed every TV star that the purple-draped Jones gushed over.

It was Reynolds getting all mushy about the children of Debra Messing, Camryn Manheim, and Glenn Close, and it was Griffin telling us ''I don't like children. They're selfish." It was Reynolds giving Jennifer Garner a T-shirt for her forthcoming baby, and it was Griffin noting, ''I want her water to break tonight." And it was Reynolds drooling over Jesse Metcalfe while Griffin studiously critiqued the ''Desperate Housewives" actor's ''drag-queen" eyebrows.

No matter what you think of Griffin, she's one of our real Hollywood court jesters. She loves the scene, but only so she can unearth every bit of ridiculousness lurking in it.

Meanwhile, Carson Kressley was pressed into E! service as the ''fashion girl," as Reynolds put it. Looking ever so Donald Duckian, Kressley pronounced the ''Desperate Housewives" actresses ''right on trend" with their dresses, and he called Cynthia Nixon ''delicious." He also introduced Kyra Sedgwick, noting that she ''brings home the Bacon," as if she hadn't heard that one before. He fit right into the E! atmosphere.

Matthew Gilbert can be reached at gilbert@globe.com.