When was the last time you watched an Emmy ceremony and walked away thinking, “Yep, that’s pretty much right”?

Amazingly enough, it happened Sunday. Although it’s not hard to quibble with a few of the television academy’s choices, the overall impression the 56th annual Primetime Emmys made was one that the voters were actually paying attention to TV this past year, rather than just rubber-stamping the same, safe choices of seasons past.

OK, so yeah, the outstanding drama series award for “The Sopranos” was at least a year overdue. Still, the past season of the HBO show was one of its strongest, and the voters finally recognized it.

Then there’s “Arrested Development,” which despite being hailed – and hailed and hailed – by critics, has to be considered an upset winner for best comedy, given that its competition included three past winners. It won awards for writing and directing early in the show, and few would have been surprised if one of the more established nominees like “Everybody Loves Raymond” or “Sex and the City” won the big award.

But none of them did, and isn’t that just a great thing to see?

The big question now is whether “Arrested Development” can parlay its Emmy victories into bigger ratings. Fox will have to wait six weeks, courtesy of the baseball playoffs, before the show’s second season hits the airwaves, so expect to see lots of “TV’s best comedy” promos during the World Series.

The biggest curveballs of the night came in the lead acting categories for drama series. Allison Janney got her fourth Emmy – two supporting and now two lead – for “The West Wing.” While Janney was arguably the most consistent bright spot on a down season of the show, this win felt like a remnant of Emmys past.

On the flip side of that was James Spader’s win for his work on “The Practice.” It was as big a surprise as any on the night.

Spader beat out, among others, James Gandolfini and Martin Sheen – but it was a pleasant one. Spader’s fantastically oily performance rejuvenated “The Practice” this season and helped lead to a spinoff series, “Boston Legal.”

(Gandolfini and his “Sopranos” co-star, Edie Falco, who lost to Janney, each have three Emmys of their own, so it’s not like their shelves are bare.)

And OK, we probably wouldn’t have gone with Kelsey Grammer and David Hyde Pierce in their respective categories. But as a send-off for a show that was as good for as long as “Frasier” was, it’s perfectly understandable.

Coming as no surprise whatsoever were the seven (well-deserved) awards HBO’s miniseries “Angels in America” won, one for each category in which it was nominated Sunday. We were especially glad to see Jeffrey Wright, who had the least showy role in the extraordinarily deep cast, win for supporting actor.

Expectations for this Emmy ceremony weren’t all that high going into the night; past experience had taught us not to anticipate many upsets. Yet by the time the ceremony ended, it was hard not to think that the academy had done a pretty fine job honoring TV’s best this year.

Maybe – and this is probably asking too much – Emmy voters can even put as much effort into next year’s nominees as they did this year’s winners.