‘West Wing,’ ‘Happy Days,’ ‘SNL’ Stars Reunite for Emmys Ceremony
The West Wing, Happy Days, Saturday Night Live, Reba and Schitt’s Creek were among the popular series to reunite their casts at the 2024 Emmys.
With NBC’s The West Wing celebrating the 25th anniversary of its series premiere on Sept. 22, 1999, the show’s stars Martin Sheen, Dulé Hill, Janel Moloney, Richard Schiff and Allison Janney took the stage in front of a replica of its Oval Office set. Aaron Sorkin created the program that ran for seven seasons and centered on the administration of President Josiah Bartlet (Sheen).
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“It’s hard to believe that just 25 years ago, Aaron and the writers actually had to use their imaginations to create interesting plotlines for The West Wing,” Janney quipped. Schiff added, “Unlike today, where storylines can be plucked right off the news — storylines that writers would have deemed a bit far-fetched, if not utterly ridiculous, 25 years ago.”
In honor of the 50th anniversary of Happy Days’ premiere episode that aired on ABC on Jan. 15, 1974, the sitcom’s stars Ron Howard and Henry Winkler appeared in front of a replica of the show’s familiar setting, Arnold’s Restaurant. On the Garry Marshall-created series that ran for 11 seasons, Howard played Richie Cunningham, while Winkler portrayed Arthur “Fonzie” Fonzarelli.
“Feels like home,” Winkler said about joining Howard in front of the backdrop. Howard then noted that the series’ memorable theme song was not playing, and he prompted Winkler to do something about it.
When Winkler explained that he was out of practice, Howard replied, “You went to the Yale School of Drama, Henry. You know you can do it.” Winkler then hit the jukebox with his elbow, as his character was known to do on the series, and the theme song started playing.
Earlier in the Emmys telecast, Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Seth Meyers and Bowen Yang took the stage during the Saturday Night Live reunion, and some of them were wildly mistaken about series creator Lorne Michaels’ win-loss record from the previous ceremonies.
Wiig informed the crowd that the group had heard a rumor backstage that Michaels had been nominated for an Emmy 85 times in the past but had never won. She addressed Michaels, who was in the audience, by saying, “You do have value, you are worthy, and you are not and have never been a loser — even though you have lost a lot.”
Rudolph agreed and told Michaels, “Each and every one of those 85 times you lost, you were robbed.”
Yang added, “It gets better. Just because SNL didn’t work, doesn’t mean your next idea won’t. Keep dreaming.”
Finally, Meyers chimed in to correct his fellow SNL standouts by explaining that Michaels has, in fact, won 21 Emmys, with the NBC sketch series having collected over 200 trophies.
Suddenly, the presenters were changing their tune. “That’s too much,” Wiig said of SNL’s cumulative haul. Rudolph said, “I can’t believe you’re complaining about this, Lorne. Not to be rude, but grow up.”
Also reuniting onstage to present an Emmy were Reba co-stars Reba McEntire and Melissa Peterman. The pair boasted that they did not need a teleprompter and had everything memorized in case of any technical glitches.
“We do not phone it in anymore,” Peterman said. “Let’s show everybody that we memorized all of the nominees’ names. Eyes shut.” Needless to say, their memory wasn’t as flawless as they may have hoped.
Also reuniting were the stars of Schitt’s Creek, as Emmys co-hosts Dan Levy and Eugene Levy were joined on the stage toward the end of the ceremony by fellow series co-stars Annie Murphy and Catherine O’Hara.
This story was originally published on Sept. 15 at 6:40 p.m.
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