Tony Wuz Robbed

It’s all over but the shouting for the 59th Primetime Emmy Awards, and it is time now, literally, for Monday-morning quarterbacking, plenty of second guessing and hindsight-is-20-20 analysis. So I’ll jump right in.

Perhaps it was poetic justice, or karma, when Boston Legal’s James Spader walked away with the Emmy for best actor in a drama, rather than James Gandolfini for The Sopranos swan song.

When Spader’s name was announced, at first I thought I had misheard it, that it was some kind of error or cruel joke. Think of how Gandolfini must have felt, hearing “James” read out, and it then turning out to be Spader, not him.

Even Spader acknowledged that Gandolfini got robbed, when he adlibbed, “I feel like I just stole a pile of money from the mob.”

But maybe turnaround is fair play, since the mob show had us all in the twit with its go-to-black finale, and now the universe was yanking Gandolfini’s chain a bit, in retribution. Edie Falco and Michael Imperioli got stiffed Sunday night, as well.

But as controversial as The Sopranos’ final “Made in America” episode was, overall the Emmy voters liked it, they really liked it. Sopranos creator and Jersey boy David Chase won an Emmy for writing the episode, and of, course, the show walked off in triumph with the best drama award.

There were a lot of snarky comments about the Jersey Boys number at the telecast, a performance whose backdrop was clips from The Sopranos. I thought it rocked. I’m a Jersey girl, so I admit I’m prejudiced. But come on, you tight-butted TV writers, you have to slam that number? Jersey Boys was a refreshing departure from the dozens of excruciatingly boring — and embarrassing — over-choreographed musical numbers I’ve had to endure watching on award shows over the years.

It was nice to then see the whole Sopranos cast then come on stage, to a standing O, but it was odd when the show then quickly cut into a commercial. When the show came back after the break, The Sopranos cast was gone.

The Garden State mob saga failed to sweep the Emmy awards, a disappointment. But it was nice to see cable networks, apart from HBO, walk off with some prizes. Congrats to Ed Carroll, Rainbow Media president of entertainment services — who I’ve had the pleasure to deal with on the programming beat — for AMC’s wins. Those included Emmys for the mini-series Broken Trail, as well as to Robert Duvall and Thomas Haden Church for their performances in that Western.

Maybe we’ll see AMC back at the Emmy awards next year for its dramatic series Mad Men, which has won bushels of critical acclaim but is not drawing bushels of viewers..

As for Current TV’s new-media Emmy for interactive TV, Al Gore and Joel Hyatt may be getting standing ovations in Hollywood, but I have not heard any buzz on their much-hyped network as of late.