Emmys round-up: A very good night

The 70th Emmy awards, held last week, saw Jewish folks clean-up in the comedy categories and do well elsewhere. HENRY WINKLER, 72 (“Barry”) won the supporting actor in a comedy series Emmy and ALEX BORSTEIN, 47 (“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”) won the supporting actress in a comedy series award. The creator of “Mrs. Maisel,” AMY SHERMAN-PALLADINO, 52, won three Emmys. “Maisel” won the comedy series Emmy and, as a show producer, she accepted the award. Individually, she won as the director of the best comedy episode (the “Maisel” pilot) and best written comedy episode (the “Maisel” pilot). The “Maisel” juggernaut included Rachel Brosnahan, who won the lead actress (comedy) award for playing the Jewish Mrs. Maisel.

 JOEL WEISBERG, 52, and JOEL FIELDS, 50ish (“The Americans”) won the Emmy for writing the best drama episode. I recently learned that Fields’ late father was Rabbi HARVEY J. FIELDS, who served as President of the Board of Rabbis of Southern California. The best drama series Emmy went to “Games of Thrones,” which is produced by, and frequently written by DAVID BENIOFF and D.B. WEISS, both 47.  “Saturday Night Live” won the Emmy for best Variety Sketch series. The award was accepted by LORNE MICHAELS, 73, the creator and principal producer of “SNL.”

 Moving moments: (1) HENRY WINKLER winning his first Emmy after five previous nominations. On stage, he said he dreamed of being an actor when he was 7 years old living in New York City “with short German Jewish parents who did not want me to be an actor…I was 27 when I started doing The Fonz. I’m now 72 and I’m standing right here in front of you with her. Wow.” and (2) GLENN WEISS, 57, who won an Emmy for best direction of a variety special (“The Oscars”), proposing marriage to his girlfriend from the stage. She accepted and joined him on-stage.

 By the way, Benioff’s third cousin (they share a great-grandfather), billionaire MARC BENIOFF, 53, just bought Time magazine. He’s the CEO of SalesForce, a major cloud computing company. He’s also a big-time philanthropist and Democratic donor. David and Marc met for the first time in 2015 at a gala “Game of Thrones” premiere in San Francisco.

New TV Season Catch-Up and Look Ahead

Now streaming on Hulu is “The First,” an eight-episode limited (i.e., no second season) series about the first mission to Mars. SEAN PENN, 58, stars as a mission astronaut. Reviews have praised Penn’s performance and the series, in general (episodes before they get into space are a bit slow).  

 I placed Penn, the always-secular son of a Jewish father and a non-Jewish mother, on my permanent “good list” when, in 2013, he rescued Orthodox businessman JACOB OSTREICHER, now 59, from a Bolivian jail and took him to his home and nursed him back to health. About a year after the rescue, the whole story came out and Penn was praised by every sector of the Jewish community.

 “The Good Cop” is a 10-episode comedy/drama Netflix series that began on Friday, Sept. 21. It is based on an Israeli TV series. The American version was created by ANDY BRECKMAN, 63 (he was the creator of “Monk” and it remains his biggest hit).  Tony Danza plays a disgraced, rule-breaking former NYPD officer. He informally teams with his son, a straight arrow NYPD detective, and they solve crimes.

 Emma Stone and JONAH HILL, 34, co-star in “Maniac,” a Netflix limited series that also premiered on Sept. 21. They play people with different mental problems who are independently drawn to participate in a mysterious pharmaceutical trial. They hope the drug used in the trial will cure their problems almost instantly. Appearing in recurring roles are JULIA GARNER, 24 (“Ozark”) and JEMIMA KIRKE, 33 (“Girls”).

 “Single Parents,” starting at 8:30 p.m. (CST) on ABC Wednesday, Sept. 26, is a comedy about Will Cooper (Taram Killiam), a single father of a young daughter. His friends urge to get back in the dating game. BRAD GARRETT, 58 (Robert Barone on “Everybody Loves Raymond”) has a regular role as Douglas, a wealthy widower with young twin daughters. He urges Cooper to “get out there”.

 ”The Neighborhood,” a comedy/drama, begins on Monday, Oct. 1 on CBS (7 p.m.). MAX GREENFIELD, 38 (Schmidt on “New Girl”) stars as Dave Johnson.  Things get dicey when Johnson, who is described as the “nicest guy in the Midwest,” moves his family to a tough L.A. neighborhood. Many people there don’t appreciate his extreme neighborliness. Cedric the Entertainer co-stars.