The 77th Emmy Awards opened on a satirical note Sunday night, as host Nate Bargatze brought a bit of Saturday Night Live magic to the stage with a revival of his fan-favorite “Washington’s Dream” sketch—with a TV-themed spin.
Joining Bargatze in the bit were SNL cast members Bowen Yang, James Austin Johnson, and Mikey Day, all playing eager lab assistants helping Philo T. Farnsworth, the real-life inventor of television, envision the future of the medium. What followed was a rapid-fire, tongue-in-cheek history of television that doubled as a roast of the industry—from network stereotypes to streaming woes to the futility of chasing prestige.
As the sketch unfolded, Farnsworth proclaimed that television would someday offer “shows that make us laugh, and cry… and shows about people who, when they go to work, they switch to different people in their brains who only remember what happens at work.” He predicted a future of niche cable channels—“The Travel Channel, for travel. The Food Network, for food. And The History Channel for … no, aliens” — and mocked the evolution of streaming as “a new way for companies to lose money.”
The sketch also skewered Emmy-bait programming, with Farnsworth describing “gripping dramas, like The Pitt, a heartbreaking look at the emotional toll of trauma. And laugh-out-loud comedies like The Bear, a heartbreaking look at the emotional toll of trauma.” Even late night TV got a wink, as he imagined “a world where a woman will host her own popular late-night talk show… not in real life, but on a fictional show called Hacks.”
The bit marked the second time Bargatze has performed a “Washington’s Dream” sketch off SNL. The first came last winter in his Lorne Michaels–produced holiday special in 2024. The Emmy version swapped the Founding Father for Farnsworth, and the future of democracy for the future of TV—but kept the same absurdly earnest tone.
With knowing nods to everything from Stanley Tucci’s travel shows to watching prestige dramas on the toilet, the sketch set a fittingly self-aware tone for a night celebrating television at its highest (and sometimes lowest) heights.
Watch the sketch at the top of this post.
