The most surprising Emmy winners ever

The 2019 Emmys were in many ways a swan song for "Game of Thrones." Despite complaints about the final season, it still won Outstanding Drama Series, and Peter Dinklage got another win. Four different "Game of Thrones" actresses were nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actress, and yet none of them won. Instead, Garner rose above to sit on the Emmys' throne for her turn in "Ozark." It proved prescient, as Garner would win three Emmys total for "Ozark"

Three former winners were up for Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series in 2016. The great Tituss Burgess was also nominated. And yet the winner was Baldwin for “Saturday Night Live,” a show on which he isn’t even a cast member. He won for doing a passable Donald Trump impression. Things have gone, um, downhill since.

Do you remember the show “Bloodline?” It was on Netflix for a couple of seasons but didn’t make a splash or really grab people. Mendelsohn still managed to win Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for his role in it in 2016 over notable names such as Jonathan Banks and Jon Voight. Plus, guys not named “Jon.”

Apparently, 2016 was a big year for surprises. Let’s be clear, the late Anderson was great as Christine Baskets, the mother of Zach Galifianakis’ character on “Baskets.” Yes, we said mother. Anderson did the role in drag, but it isn’t played for laughs. The surprise is that this supremely weird, barely-watched show got enough love to get Anderson an Emmy for Supporting Actor in a Comedy.

OK, so now that Malek has an Oscar, which was kind of a surprise in its own right, this feels less surprising in hindsight. That being said, Malek was an unknown when he got the role on “Mr. Robot,” a strange USA show on a network that didn’t do dark drama. That didn’t stop Malek from winning Lead Actor in a Drama for his twitchy performance in the “Mr. Robot” pilot.

In 2013, Lead Actor in a Drama was a stacked category. Bryan Cranston had already won a few times for “Breaking Bad.” Damian Lewis had won the year prior for “Homeland.” And then there was Jon Hamm lurking. None of them won. Instead, Daniels got the win for the largely reviled “The Newsroom.”

There were a ton of great women up for Supporting Actress in a Comedy in 2013. We’re talking Jane Krakowski, Anna Chlumsky and two former winners in Jane Lynch and Julie Bowen. None of them got the win, though, as Wever, who played second fiddle to Edie Falco on the not-all-that-comedic “Nurse Jackie,” walked away with the award.

The award for Lead Actor in a Limited Series in 2011 could have gone to big names like William Hurt or Laurence Fishburne. Or Idris Elba could have won for his strong work in “Luther.” Instead, Pepper won for a miniseries about the Kennedys that aired on Reelz. Here’s the kicker: Pepper didn’t even play John F. Kennedy. He portrayed Robert Kennedy. Greg Kinnear, who was nominated but didn’t win, played JFK.

We aren’t knocking Collette’s acting. This was a bit of a surprise for a couple of reasons though. One, “The United States of Tara” was never a terribly popular show. Two, it wasn’t a comedy. It was a half-hour drama, but that run time meant, for the Emmys, it was a comedy. So in 2009 she won Lead Actress in a Comedy Series over the likes of Tina Fey and Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Collette did a good job, but her win still felt odd.

No disrespect to Ivanek, but he’s not a known name. Rather, he's one of those actors you recognize but can’t identify: a “that guy” type. “Damages” also wasn’t a terribly popular show; it ended its run on the Audience Network. Thus it was a surprise in 2008 when Ivanek beat not only John Slattery from “Mad Men” but also his “Damages” castmate Ted Danson, who is TV royalty, for Supporting Actor in a Drama.

Maybe we shouldn’t have been too surprised. After all, Field is a huge name. She was an Oscar winner by 2007. All that taken into account, Field won Lead Actress in Drama for “Brothers & Sisters,” a mostly forgotten show. Perhaps this was just a matter of wanting to give Field an Emmy. Hey, she never got one for “The Flying Nun.”

A lot of big-time names in animation were up for Outstanding Animated Program in 2004. We’re talking “Futurama,” “The Simpsons,” “South Park” and “SpongeBob SquarePants.” None of them won. Instead, that honor went to “Samurai Jack,” making it the rare non-comedy to win this award.

In 2002, the idea of cable shows winning Emmys was still a new thing. James Gandolfini had broken the dam, but “The Sopranos” was on HBO. Chiklis starred on “The Shield,” which aired on FX. It was not a player in the TV landscape at the time, which made Chiklis’ win for Lead Actor in a Drama truly surprising. Suddenly FX became a network to pay attention to.

Wait, you may be thinking, why is it weird that Lloyd won for “Taxi?” Ah, but we aren’t talking about Lloyd playing Reverend Jim. Lloyd won Lead Actor in a Drama for “Road to Avonlea,” a forgotten show that aired on the Disney Channel. One of the people he beat? Kirk Douglas for a “Tales from the Crypt” episode. That’s just a fun fact.

“Northern Exposure” had a moment, but only a moment. It’s forgotten by almost everybody. It’s not considered a classic TV show. When you see it among the shows that have won Outstanding Drama Series, it sticks out. The CBS show went up against four NBC shows in 1992, including “L.A. Law” and “Law & Order.”

Is there anything worse than an award show honoring another award show? How about when it wins for Outstanding Variety Series? That’s what happened in 1991. All it did was beat Johnny Carson, David Letterman, and, oh yeah, the Muppets paying tribute to Jim Henson, who had just died in 1990. But hey, that award show needed an award, right?

Quick, tell us everything you know about “The Famous Teddy Z.” You aren’t even sure if it’s a real show, are you? Well, it was. It aired for one season. That was enough to get Rocco a stunning win for Supporting Actor in a Comedy, in 1990. Rocco, who you may know as Mo Greene in “The Godfather” or the voice of Roger Meyers Jr. on “The Simpsons,” beat both Kelsey Grammer and Woody Harrelson for “Cheers!”

If you know Broadway, you may know Kiley, as he was a song-and-dance man who won two Tonys. Yet 1988 was a fun year, with Michael J. Fox and Bea Arthur both winning Emmys. Then there is Kiley’s win for “A Year in the Life,” a forgotten show that aired only one year. He beat two “L.A. Law” actors and also Ron Perlman for playing the Beast in the TV version of “Beauty and the Beast.” The makeup did a lot of the work there.

We aren’t surprised because “Barney Miller” is forgotten or not good. It was a well-liked show, popular and lasted a while, and though it's not an iconic sitcom, people remember it. That being said, it’s still a little surprising “Barney Miller” got itself one Outstanding Comedy Series win. It took home the award between three victories for “Taxi” and two for “Cheers.” It beat “Taxi,” “MASH” and “WKRP in Cincinnati.” This was an outlier year regardless of the quality of “Barney Miller.”

Did you know “Private Benjamin” was turned into a TV series? Apparently it was! Goldie Hawn didn’t join the cast of the show, but Brennan reprised her character from the movie. She is a fine actor, but it’s a surprise that she beat Loretta Swit from “MASH.” After all, Swit won the year before and was nominated in 1980 when Brennan got her win as well.

Speaking of Swit, she was also nominated for Supporting Actress in a Comedy in 1977. So was Betty White, who won the two years prior. Julie Kavner was nominated and would win in 1978 for her work on “Rhoda" and eventually would voice Marge Simpson. Yet it’s Mary Kay Place who won for the inscrutable soap opera parody “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman.” Anybody beating Betty White is pulling off an upset.

When you think about “Chico and the Man,” you think about Chico, aka Freddie Prinze. He was the star, at least until his tragic suıcide at the age of 22. However, it was Albertson, the ostensible “Man,” who won Lead Actor in a Comedy. Nobody remembers his character, Ed Brown, but we bet most people remember a couple of the other characters played by nominees: Hawkeye Pierce and Arthur Fonzarelli. By the way, the Emmy gave Albertson the acting Triple Crown, as he already had a Tony and Oscar.

The Emmys were slightly different at this time, this time being 1970, but the medium wasn’t exactly new. Betty White had been in television for a couple of decades already. There are shows that had legs that aired even before “My World and Welcome to It.” You probably don’t remember that show. You probably don’t remember Windom either. This show, for which he won Lead Actor in a Comedy, lasted only one season. He did more episodes of “Murder, She Wrote.”

The Monkees got a lot of flak when they debuted. They were viewed as Beatles knockoffs. They weren’t “real” musicians. The idea of the show was laughable. Apparently audiences, and TV folks, were laughing, but in a different way. The show won Outstanding Comedy Series, beating more traditional shows such as “The Andy Griffith Show” and “Bewitched.” “The Monkees” beat “Hogan’s Heroes” and “Get Smart” as well. It was a competitive year, and the Pre-Fab Four came out on top.