The Emmy Awards may be a tribute to great television, but it’s always struggled to be a great TV event. It just doesn’t dazzle as much as the Oscars, the Tonys or the Golden Globes.

The 78th annual ceremonies that aired Monday was no exception.

Yes, there were some heart-warming snippets: Humanitarian award recipient Michael J. Fox turning his acceptance speech into a tribute to Bob Hope; Stephen Colbert eschewing the chance to flip the bird to his former CBS bosses and using his stage time to plug his team, notably his head writer Ariel Dumas, after their Outstanding Variety Show win; actor Tom Pelphrey dedicating his win for “Task” to girlfriend Kaley Cuoco and “the baby in her belly.”

But these were moments created by the winners, not by producers who spend weeks writing jokes and planning numbers that everyone will forget by Wednesday.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Here are some suggestions planners may want to consider for next year:

Hire more comedians

John Mulaney delivered just like you want a host to do, lightly roasting method actors before reading an excerpt from a self-help book checked out from the public library. But Mulaney wasn’t the host. Those challenging duties went to Mariska Hargitay. She’s the main reason “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” has stuck around for 28 years, but she’s not known for doing coffee spit-takes or pratfalling over dead bodies.

Hargitay committed to her role, making constant costume changes, getting goofy in musical numbers and making fun of early-career flops. But the writers threw her into the deep end without a working life preserver. Even a cameo from Taylor Swift couldn’t save a prerecorded sketch with the “SVU” cast.

Stand-ups like Mulaney are almost always better choices. NBC, which aired this year’s ceremonies, wanted to promote one of its stars, which is why they turned to Hargitay. But what about the wonderfully unpredictable Tracy Morgan, currently headlining “The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins”? Or why not one of the newer ”Saturday Night Live” stars like Ashley Padilla, who is on her way to becoming one of the show’s all-time greats?

“SNL” castmate Marcello Hernández was the cutest presenter of the night, playfully inviting Zendaya and Harrison Ford over for dinner. Sign him or Padilla up before they become like Amy Poehler and get too big for this gig.

Hire a better party planner

In the last few years, Emmy producers have reassembled casts from beloved vintage series like “Cheers,” “Martin” and “Ally McBeal.” They’ve been great.

So why did they get half-hearted?

Sarah Michelle Gellar and David Boreanaz were on hand to pay tribute to “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” but it would have resonated more by including more members of the Scooby Gang, like Alyson Hannigan and Charisma Carpenter.

The 50th anniversary of “The Muppet Show” got a mention, but the opportunity for Miss Piggy and Kermit to rekindle their romance was squandered. So was the chance to bring back the actors from “30 Rock” and “Hannah Montana,” both of which premiered 20 years ago.

The golden anniversary of “Charlie’s Angels” was recognized with Jaclyn Smith, Kate Jackson and Cheryl Ladd giving out a major award, but the Emmys already did an “Angels” reunion in 2006, when Farrah Fawcett was still with us.

Nostalgia may be an easy button to push, but it’s also effective. It’s almost impossible to press it too hard.

There were tender tributes to Dolly Parton, Catherine O’Hara and Rob Reiner, but each could have been longer and deeper.

A tribute to James Burrows, the most successful sitcom director of all time, could have lasted four minutes with testimonials from veterans of “Taxi,” “Friends,” and “Will & Grace.” He barely got 10 seconds.

Let the people talk

Jean Smart (“Hacks”) and Allison Janney (“The Diplomat”) each picked up their eighth performance Emmy, tying a record set by Cloris Leachman and Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

But their acceptance speeches were so short, you might have thought that they had to go feed the parking meter.

It was clear that producers were keeping a careful eye on the clock. There was no need. Producers smartly limited the evening to just 19 awards, moving five categories to earlier in the month. That extra time should have gone to the speeches rather than Hargitay trying to prove she can do parody songs as well as Billy Crystal.

As it was, the show struggled to fill its three-hour time slot. In fact, final presenters Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey, had to vamp to kill time.

That was another painful moment that should never happen again.

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(Neal Justin is the pop-culture critic of The Minnesota Star Tribune.)

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