Nate Bargatze honored his promise to keep politics and hot button topical subjects out of his opening for tonight’s Emmy Awards, instead jumping into the past – his own, and the television industry’s.
In a nod to the comedian’s hilarious and very popular Saturday Night Live sketches in which he portrayed George Washington delivering (not so) rousing speeches to his soldiers about the wonders of what lies in store for the United States – bewildering systems of measurement and odd word spellings designed mostly “to make Europeans throw little tantrums” – Bargatze took Emmy viewers back to the early development of television in the 1920s: He portrayed inventor Philo T. Farnsworth who regaled his underlings with dreams of a future TV world where shows inform and educate, and in which The History Channel won’t talk about history but about aliens.
“Just as there will be no learning on The Learning Channel,” Bargatze’s Philo explained, noting that the actual TLC will spotlight hoarders and Dr. Pimple-Popper.
Telemundo, Philo predicts, will be for Spanish-speaking audiences and BTV for Black audiences. And will there be a channel for white people, Mikey Day’s character asks. “Yes,” answers Philo. “CBS.”
When one of the underlings asks what these people known as “producers” will do, Philo says, “Nobody knows.”
Joining Bergatze in the opening sketch were SNL‘s Mikey Day (who co-wrote, with Bergatze and SNL writer Streeter Seidell, the Washington sketches and might well have done the same for this opening monologue), Bowen Yang and James Austin Johnson. (Sorely missing was Kenan Thompson, whose role in the two SNL Washington sketches, in 2023 and 2024, was the sole Black soldier whose repeated questions about slavery were blithely ignored by Bergatze’s Washington).
Some other highlight predictions of the opening sketch:
- Something called “streaming” will become “a new way for companies to lose money”;
- And who will star on these streamers? “Murderers,” says Philo. And who will watch? “Your wife, my wife, everyone’s wife”;
- A show called The Pitt will be “a heartbreaking look at trauma.” But don’t worry, there will also be laugh out loud comedies like The Bear;
- And in the future, Philo says, “a woman will host own late night show. Not in real life but in Hacks“;
- In fact, predicts Philo, TV will showcase works “of staggering beauty that people will watch on their phones. While sitting on the toilet.”
Following the sketch, Bargatze soon returned to the stage to give a brief opening monologue in which he gave the night’s ground rule: Anyone who goes over 45 seconds will literally be taking money away from Boys and Girls Club of America. “I’m not trying to take anything away. 45 seconds, that’s what you got. And if you want to do more than that, do it on social media later, that’s more people are going to see it there anyway. So to start the show, I am going to donate $100,000.” And for every speaker who goes beyond their allotted 45 seconds, Bargatze will deduct $1,000 from his donation.
And so it begins…
The post Nate Bargatze Launches Emmy Ceremony With A Dream For TV In A Nod To Beloved ‘SNL’ George Washington Sketches appeared first on Deadline.
