Column: Soaked in nostalgia, the best Emmys in years showed how much TV has changed

From the moment it opened, with an homage to “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,” to the moment it ended, with a clip from Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, the 75th Emmy Awards telecast on MLK’s birthday Monday night did precisely what it should have done: Celebrate the art form known as television in all its ever-changing forms, challenges and increasing diversity. Nash-Betts said she was committed to giving voice to “Black and brown women who have gone unheard and over-policed.” RuPaul exhorted viewers to listen to drag queens who want to read you a story “because knowledge is power, and if someone tries to restrict your access to power, they are trying to scare you.” And “Last Week Tonight With John Oliver” writer Sofia Manfredi thanked the host and executive producers Tim Carvell and Liz Stanton “for just how much they backed us up during the writers strike — they wholeheartedly supported all of us, even though a third of us are annoying.” Opening with a Compton choir singing the theme from “Good Times,” the show’s music leaned heavily on nostalgia, as did re-creations of “Saturday Night Live’s” “Weekend Update” by Tina Fey and Amy Poehler and the famous “I Love Lucy” chocolate factory scene by Natasha Lyonne and Tracee Ellis Ross. “We’re killing it tonight; this is like MLK Day and Juneteenth rolled up into one.” On the bitter, seeing actors from classic broadcast shows like “Cheers,” “All in the Family,” “Good Times” and “Ally McBeal” gather to present in categories now dominated by cable and streaming underscored the passing of a TV model that helped create the very cultural touchstones being honored. Even Chandra Wilson’s announcement that “Grey’s Anatomy” is now the longest-running medical drama in television history felt poignant: Shonda Rhimes now works at Netflix, where an original, 20-plus-episode-per-season medical drama is all but anathema.