Emmys 2018: The 7 best moments, from Henry Winkler's win to a surprise proposal

Plus Betty White's acceptance speech and a particularly good musical moment

Henry Winkler accepts his first Emmy (Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

The 70th Primetime Emmy Awards took place on 17 September, with the great and good of Hollywood patting each other on the back for their contributions to television.

With Game of Thrones and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel taking home the majority of awards, the complete winners list at the end of the night made the event seem like a relatively unremarkable affair.

Fortunately, the ceremony itself contained some notable moments throughout, ranging from a star-studded musical number to a standing ovation for Betty White Here are the best.

A surprise proposal

Glenn Weiss – who won an Emmy for Outstanding Directing for a Variety Special for directing the Oscars ceremony – caused the audience to erupt into cheers and applause as he proposed to his girlfriend, Jan Svendsen.

“You wonder why I don’t like to call you my girlfriend? Because I want to call you my wife,” he said. “I want to put the ring that my mom wore on your finger in front of all these people and in front of my mum and your parents watching from above, will you marry me?” Watch the grand gesture being made above.

Betty White's lifetime achievement award

Betty White, the 96-year-old eight-time Emmy award-winner, took to the stage at the ceremony and proved why she has become one of the world's most-beloved television personalities.

"Somebody said something the other day about first lady of television, and I took it as a big compliment," White said.

"Then came the punchline, 'And then I heard her talking to her daughter a little later, and she said, 'first lady, she's that old. She was the first one way back.'"

Thandie Newton's win

While the majority of awards were unsurprising, Thandie Newton looked shocked as it was announced she had won the Best Supporting Actress award, for her role in Westworld.

Speaking to the audience, the actress was one of only a few people to have ever sworn on-air during the ceremony, saying: "I am so blessed. I am so f***ing blessed..." Realising her error, she clapped her hand to her mouth and quickly moved on to what became an emotional, moving acceptance speech.

Newton beat The Handmaid's Tale stars Ann Dowd, Yvonne Strahovski and Alexis Blediel, Game of Thrones' Lena Headey, Millie Bobby Brown from Stranger Things, and Vanessa Kirby from The Crown to win the award.

We Solved It!

Where would the Emmys be without a star-studded musical moment? This year's came in the form of "We Solved It", featuring members of the Saturday Night Live cast singing about how Hollywood's diversity problem has been fixed, pointing to Sandra Oh being the first woman of Asian decent being nominated for Best Leading Actress as reason to celebrate.

However, as Kenan Thompson acknowledges halfway through: "Oh, there's actually a long way to go?"

Ryan Murphy's speech on LGBTQ+ rights

Another great speech came thanks to The Assassination of Gianni Versace's win for Outstanding Limited Series, which gave showrunner Ryan Murphy a platform to discuss LGBTQ+ rights.

“The Assassination of Gianni Versace is about homophobia, internalised and externalised,” he said, accepting the award on behalf of the team.

“One out of every four LGBTQ people in this country will be the victim of a hate crime. We dedicate this award to them."

Teddy Perkins from Atlanta

While Donald Glover's hotly-tipped FX comedy Atlanta went home empty handed, the series still proved to be one of the ceremony's major talking points - and not just because of the snub.

The Atlanta character Teddy Perkins - a wealthy creep played by Glover, dressed in a bizarre white-skinned suit - attended the ceremony and managed to draw everyone's attention.

It was widely believed that Glover was under the mask, but reports have since clarified that co-star Lakeith Stanfield was indeed under Perkins' skin.

Henry Winkler's win

After over four decades as a regular on TV screens and being nominated seven times, Henry Winkler has finally won an Emmy, for his role in the HBO comedy Barry.

“I wrote this 43 years ago,” he joked, referring to his first nomination for playing the iconic greaser The Fonz in Happy Days.

“Skip Brittenham said to me a long time ago, ‘If you sit at the table long enough, the chips will come your way,'” he said “Tonight, I got to clear the table.”

Catch up on all our Emmys coverage here.