The 75th Primetime Emmy Awards, held at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles on Monday, Jan. 15, went into the nostalgia vault and pulled out a few classic TV shows to celebrate during the telecast. The casts of "Grey's Anatomy," "Cheers," "All in the Family" and more reunited onstage at the ceremony to do cheeky remember when? bits — with mixed results. Below, we round up the cast reunions that ranked from merely underwhelming to painfully awkward.
Among the beloved series getting the nod on TV's biggest night was "Grey's Anatomy," which will enter its 20th (!) season this year. Katherine Heigl endured years of bad press for her abrupt exit from the medical drama, so it was good to see her offering up platitudes? Thanking the fans who haven't seen her on the series since 2010? The segment was mercifully short, but we're still wondering what the point of it even was.
Then there was three-time Emmy nominee Calista Flockhart doing a silly dance with her "Ally McBeal" co-stars in a recreation of the show's bathroom set. Is that a tinge of second-hand embarrassment we feel? Not really: Calista is too adorable to ever do anything other than charm. But still: What was the point? Elsewhere, the cast of "Martin," which famously never received an Emmy nomination, did what we hope the cast of "Better Call Saul" (which ended the night with zero Emmy wins across its entire run) will one day do: They complained about it! To rapturous, then tired, reception!
We've rounded up the 75th Emmy Awards cast reunions that gave us the ick—or were just too brief to amount to anything more than memberberries—below.
'Grey's Anatomy'
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It was great to see Katherine Heigl, vilified for years for exiting the show, receive such a warm reception from the room. But this "Grey's Anatomy" reunion was about as dry as the sterile Seattle Grace hospital set on which it was held. Heigl thanked the "incredible" fanbase for making the show the longest-running primetime medical drama in TV history, then the group collectively fumbled their nominees announcement.
'Ally McBeal'
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Calista Flockhart is cute as a button, and who didn't want to see her get her due after Harrison Ford accepted a Career Achievement honor at the Critics Choice Awards last week? Alas, the "Ally McBeal" bathroom dance fell flat. Greg Germann, Peter MacNicol and Gil Bellows joined their leading lady onstage for an under-choreographed jig to Barry White's "You're the First, the Last, My Everything." Need we remind the Emmys that our girl is a three-time nominee? We wanted more. And so did Harrison Ford, who wore a slightly bemused expression when the camera panned to him.
'Cheers'
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The iconic "Cheers" bar will always feel like home, but this nostalgia trip (sans Woody Harrelson, Bebe Neuwirth and Shelly Long) felt tired. Ted Danson, Rhea Perlman, John Ratzenberger, George Wendt and Kelsey Grammer (who reprised his "Cheers" role in the 2023 "Frasier" revival on Paramount+) gathered onstage and mostly just... said hi to each other? It was the most entertaining cast reunion of the night, no doubt. Ultimately, though, it went off like a brief shrug in a lengthy telecast.
'Martin'
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Martin Lawrence and his "Martin" co-stars appeared onstage in a replica of the sitcom's living room set. The bit? They thought they were finally receiving an Emmy. The audience applauded, but there's only so much runway before a grievance joke becomes seriously un-funny. "We should've won an Emmy during our run," Tisha Campbell said before tripping over her lines about syndication and the show's episode count. Still, Carl Anthony Payne II and Tichina Arnold's perfect comedic timing was on full display.
'All in the Family'
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Rob Reiner and Sally Struthers stood stock-still at an awkward distance on the "All in the Family" set to honor the late Norman Lear, probably TV's greatest-ever producer. The duo introduced the In Memoriam segment with a bit of a blunder. "To all of the members of all of our television families who have passed on..." Struthers began, then took a very impregnated pause before nodding at Reiner to join in with, "Those were the days." The same goes for all the 75th Emmy Awards cast reunions: Heartfelt, worthy and ultimately just too squeamish.
