`ALLY' NO UNDERDOG; CABLE STEWS.

Byline: David Kronke TV Critic

Early on in the 51st Emmy ceremony, David E. Kelley didn't seem to be having a particularly good time - all he could manage was a wan smile at David Spade's lame joke about his presumably frantic work ethic.

Kelley's mood had improved exponentially by evening's end, however, as he had the last laugh. He managed an unprecedented feat - winning Emmys for both the Outstanding Drama and Outstanding Comedy Series categories, for ``The Practice'' and ``Ally McBeal,'' respectively.

Kelley's ``this is for all the underdogs'' acceptance speech was a mite specious - how can any network series that won the Emmy the year before be considered an underdog? - but it underscored the assumption of many that HBO's ``The Sopranos'' was going to win the Outstanding Drama Emmy. The fact that ``Sopranos'' came up short to repeat network winners - Outstanding Actor in a Drama nominee James Gandolfini lost to ``NYPD Blue's four-time winner, Dennis Franz - suggests that the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences isn't yet prepared to honor, on a network TV broadcast, a non-network series. Still, progress is slowly but surely being made: ``Sopranos'' did win for writing, and the series's Edie Falco was named Outstanding Actress in a Drama.

``Ally McBeal's'' win underscores the trend in TV comedy: There are fewer half-hour sitcoms on the schedule this coming season, but many hourlong, predominantly comic series. Such shows used to be called ``dramedies'' until Brandon Tartikoff observed that just meant a comedy that wasn't funny. But hourlong comedies allow writers to develop richer, character-driven humor rather than emphasize shtick. (Oddly enough, Kelley has gone in the other direction and spun ``Ally McBeal'' off into a half-hour series this season - the way his luck is running, he'll be up against himself at the Emmys next year.)

The Emmys may be one of the few places one will see diversity on TV this season. John Leguizamo, ``NYPD Blue'' director Paris Barclay and ``The Chris Rock Show'' picked up trophies, and African-American themed productions ``A Lesson Before Dying'' and ``The Temptations'' won major awards.

And the hands-down most stirring moment of the evening went to Robert Guillaume, who suffered a stroke nine months ago and whose presence and brief speech about appreciating life was the lone moment that didn't seem canned.

It was a fairly briskly paced production, so let us muck up the producers' efforts by observing that enforcing time limits on the winners' acceptance speeches has clearly become problematic. Most of the winners spent a couple of the precious few seconds they're allowed referring to the time crunch, to the uniform detriment of their speeches. Just let 'em talk, and let the Monday-morning water-cooler deconstructors slag 'em if anyone's a blowhard babbler.

And how they do choose to spend those three hours can be awfully head-scratching - trotting out members of the World Wrestling Federation to introduce accountants? An unfunny, multilingual ``Friends'' clip? The ``Felicity'' cast doing wan parodies of ``NYPD Blue,'' ``ER'' and ``The X-Files''; and the ``Dawson's Creek'' and ``Entertainment Tonight'' casts riffing on the ``Felicity'' faux-teen writing scandal? (And people worry that Fox's new series on Hollywood, ``Action,'' may be too inside?)

All this, instead of giving viewers any idea what many of the nominated shows had done to earn these plaudits. ``Very funny clips,'' Garry Shandling deadpanned about the moments - or virtual lack of same - shown from the nominees for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series, underscoring how the ceremony fails to give viewers any insight on what the nominated shows are like. This doesn't give them a chance to sample the shows they don't watch but may in fact enjoy. Another series of clips of highlights from the past season didn't label the shows - again, if you haven't seen the show or telefilm before, how would you be able to seek it out?

Clips of the nominees would be more instructive than the alleged comic bits - remember, even those nominated haven't seen all the work of the other nominees.

Other random observations:

David Hyde Pierce and Jenna Elfman proved an odd-couple hosting choice. Pierce was admirably droll; Elfman didn't make much of an impression. And who on earth talked them into that faintly embarrassing interpretive-dance opening (itself a watery variation on Billy Crystal's Oscar song medleys)?

Emmy voters showed less originality than most TV shows. Helen Hunt won her fourth consecutive Emmy (a feat matched only by John Larroquette in the Supporting Actor category from 1985 to 1988), Dennis Franz won his fourth Emmy, John Lithgow won his third for ``3rd Rock from the Sun,'' and Kristen Johnston won her second for the same show. (It does, however, say something about the show's resilience that it can still cop trophies after NBC's apparent attempts to kill off the show.)

Emmy voters managed some rare Solomon-like wisdom in giving ``The Sopranos'' the trophy for writing and ``NYPD Blue'' the award for Paris Barclay's directing the episode in which Bobby Simone died.

Emmy executive producer Don Mischer showed some brass by running the hilariously nasty ``South Park'' tribute to fallen stars - or, at least, Kennys and Charlie Sheens - near the top of the show (and running the actual tribute that it parodied for the last hour).

As usual, the funniest thing in the show were the fake clips introducing the writing teams from the nominated variety shows ``Late Night with Conan O'Brien'' (all victims from ``When Animals Attack''), ``The Chris Rock Show'' (in a quixotic nod to diversity, all sombrero-wearing African-Americans) and ``Late Show with David Letterman'' (body bags dispatched by ``The Sopranos'').

And what was director Louis J. Horvitz thinking, cutting away to Calista Flockhart when Martin Short made a cosmetic surgery joke?

CAPTION(S):

6 photos

Photo: (1) David E. Kelley and the people from the ``Ali McBeal'' show gather together after winning the award for the best comedy series Sunday night.

TERRY PIERSON/Staff Photographer

(2 -- color) David E. Kelley holds Emmys for Outstanding Comedy Series and Outstanding Drama Series at the 51st annual Emmy Awards.

Charlotte Schmid-Maybach/Staff Photographer

(3 -- color) Dennis Franz

(4 -- color) Edie Falco

(5 -- color) Helen Hunt

(6 -- color) John Lithgow