Kenan Thompson’s Emmys TV Theme Musical Opener Features ‘Brady Bunch’ Reunion & More

There’s always the question of what sort of buzzy comments or biting jokes the host will make during his or her opening Emmys monologue, and that remained the case for the 2022 Primetime Emmy Awards on September 12. This year, Saturday Night Live‘s longest-tenured member Kenan Thompson — he’s an Emmy winner for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics, and a five-time nominee — helmed TV’s biggest night, and many were wondering: Would he reference that Oscars slap?

Well, before we get there, let’s start with where we began. To begin the monologue, Thompson welcomed everyone as “the mayor of television.” “It’s finally here, folks. TV’s most special night where the biggest stars of television celebrate others stars on television while all of you watch at home on television,” he said. “For everyone in this room, TV is more than just how we make a living. It’s also how our agents make a living. So tonight we come together to honor the greatest invention in the history of mankind: television.”

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“If it wasn’t for TV, what we do in our free time? Read books? No one in this room has read a book in the last 50 years. Watch TikTok? You mean tiny, vertical TV? Have sex? Gross,” he continued. “TV is all we have, from Netflix and Chill to Paramount+ and eating dinner alone. and what sound fills us with more joy than the familiar opening refrain of legally cleared TV theme? We’ve always been able to sing to them but we’ve never been able to dance to them until now.”

And then he led dancers in remixed versions of your favorite themes, from Friends (“You ever seen Living Single? I really think you’d like it.”) to The Brady Brunch (the original stars were there!) to Law & Order: SVU (“Put a little Ice T in your lemonade”) to Stranger Things to House of the Dragon. Watch the opening above.

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