Anthony Anderson began the 75th annual Primetime Emmy Awards on Monday, January 15, with a musical number inspired by the best TV shows over the years.
Anderson, 53, tickled the ivories while singing a medley of TV theme songs. He opened the ceremony with “Mister Anderson’s Neighborhood,” a play on Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, as he walked on stage and slipped on a classic suit jacket. (Rogers was known for rocking a knit cardigan on the children’s program.)
The show, which Anderson said was taking place on “this beautiful MLK Day,” then featured the actor highlighting several iconic TV theme tunes.
“TV shaped the world and more importantly me,” he quipped, noting how much he learned from sitcoms growing up. “[There was] no Blackish, no Grownish, no Mixedish, none of that ish!”
Anderson, whose line subtly shaded his Blackish role and its spinoffs, went on to play snippets of theme songs for the likes of Good Times and Facts of Life.
Blink-182 musician Travis Barker joined him on the drums. “Hey Travis, you can play at my wedding,” Anderson added. “You missed my first one. The second one.”
Monday’s Emmys, held at Los Angeles’ Peacock Theater, were postponed from September 2023 to January 2024 in light of the WGA and SAG-AFTRA labor strikes in Hollywood. (The two groups compromised with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers regarding wages, AI and more in September 2023 and November 2023, respectively.)
Once the awards show was rescheduled, Anderson was hired to be the night’s emcee.
“I said yes to hosting the Emmys, maybe, 15 years ago; they’re just now getting around to asking me to host,” he quipped to The Hollywood Reporter in an interview published on January 9. “Since I’m 0 for 11 in the win/loss category of the Emmys, I figured why not host the award that I covet the most and is missing from my shelf. So, that’s why.”
Anderson has been nominated for 11 Emmys throughout his career, all for his role of Andre “Dre” Johnson on ABC’s Blackish. While he never clinched the trophy before the show concluded in 2022, he sees hosting as a privilege.
“Just growing up and watching them and wanting to be a part of that elite class of presenters and hosts for the Emmys,” Anderson added to THR. “These are little milestones in my career that I set long before I had a career: One day I’m going to be famous enough, one day I’m going to be talented enough, one day I’m going to host these shows along with being nominated. And so that’s why I said yes, and that’s why I look forward to it.”
The actor further teased that the ceremony would pay homage to “75 years of this award show and iconic shows that changed the landscape” of the entertainment industry.
Hosting the Emmys could perhaps open a whole new avenue of Anderson’s career.
“I would love to have my own talk show,” he exclusively mused to Us Weekly in June 2023. “I would love to just talk to interesting people. We would talk about anything that that’s going on within the world and within the community. Nothing would be off limits.”
He added at the time: “And, you know, Johnny Carson had his Ed McMahon; I’m gonna have my mama, Doris … be my sidekick.”
Anderson further theorized that his family talk show “may only last a season” since his mother has a “mouth.”
