Last night’s Golden Globes were the usual awards ceremony mixed bag, with highlights like Robert Downey Jr.’s wacky acceptance speech for Sherlock Holmes (which is quite enjoyable, by the way, and actually doesn’t stray as far from Conan Doyle as one might initially think, but that’s a whole other blog post) and low moments like several of Ricky Gervais’ jokes that didn’t land well. (The worst was Paul McCartney, who had a full-on, hand-to-mouth look of horror when Gervais noted that McCartney must be trying to save money after spending so much of it last year).

I know, you really care, don’t you? Yeah. It’s hard to work up much enthusiasm for a room full of wealthy movie stars congratulating themselves on their work, and it’s even more awkward when they all put on Haitian flag lapel pins and chide each other about charitable donations. Still, as Matthew Weiner reminded the audience in his speech, it’s great that the Hollywood Foreign Press gives awards for outstanding television, even if the reasoning behind who wins can be a little opaque.

So, a few of the night’s better moments:

Speaking of Matt Weiner, Mad Men won best television drama, an obvious and worthy decision for that category. Glee won for best musical or comedy television, and although I feel like the award is premature for that show, I’m happy an expensive hour-long program is getting some love.

Of course there were several references to the problems at NBC, especially because NBC was the network hosting the whole shebang. My favorite was Julianna Margulies, who won best actress in a television drama for The Good Wife and thanked CBS for “believing in the 10pm drama.” Hulu doesn’t have that clip, though, so instead you get Julia Roberts and Tom Hanks cracking on NBC.

As mentioned above, Robert Downey Jr. has a nice handle on the appropriate tone, content and entertainment value of an acceptance speech.

And finally, the best Ricky Gervais moment was every bit as cruel as the flopped Paul McCartney joke, but because it was making fun of Mel Gibson, no one seemed to mind.

I’m really not sure. Still, the list of this year’s Golden Globe nominations was released this morning, and although the consensus seems to be that awards in general are flawed and the Golden Globes in particular are totally arbitrary, these things still matter a little. Not a whole lot, mind you, but the Oscars don’t recognize television programming, so we’re stuck with this.

There aren’t very many surprises on the list, and there are quite a few I’d be happy to see win. The best drama series nominees are Big Love, Dexter, House, Mad Men, and True Blood, and although my preference would obviously be for Mad Men in that category, as long as House doesn’t win I’d be all right. The same goes for the comedy/musical list – out of 30 Rock, Entourage, Glee, Modern Family, and The Office, I’d be happy with anything but Entourage (which I’ve never blogged about but is so sadly tired and overworked at this point, I’m amazed Jeremy Piven doesn’t just collapse into a quivering heap of sweat and twitchiness). The Office has had a good season, but I’d really love that award to go to either Modern Family or Glee. It’s been a good year for new comedies, and if no one praises and supports new, quality shows, we will all wake up one morning in a hell hole where The Real Housewives runs 24/7 on every channel except CNN and the Food Network.

Of the many excellent shows that didn’t get nominated in either of those categories, a few were represented in the acting lists, including Toni Collette for The United States of Tara, and my nerdy fav Neil Patrick Harris for How I Met Your Mother. I generally care less about the acting awards, but I am beyond thrilled that Jane Lynch was nominated for best supporting actress on Glee. She is by far my favorite non-musical part of that show, and as much as I’ve ragged on Glee in the past, I do it because I’m fond of it and want the show to live up to its potential. I do very much wish Friday Night Lights were on this list somewhere, if not for best drama then at least for Connie Britton or Kyle Chandler. Maybe no one in the Hollywood Foreign Press gets DirecTV.

Nominations for shows that break out of the crime-procedural or reality show molds are good, and although they may have very little to do with decisions about what shows to make and what shows to cancel, I still like to hope it’s a little tiny rebuke to NBC for killing off its 10pm primetime slot. NBC’s only nominations are for 30 Rock and The Office, where FOX, CBS and ABC all get at least one shout out for a drama (House, The Good Wife, Lost). I suppose they’re going with the old line that you can’t lose if you don’t play the game, but from where I’m sitting reading Golden Globes list, it still looks like losing.