The 47th Annual Emmy Award : ‘ER’, ‘Frasier’ Fill NBC’s Prescription : The Show: A Critic’s View : An alarming trend--taste and dignity are creeping into an awards telecast that used to have a certain spontaneity and unpredictability.

Incredible. The global audience for Sunday night’s Emmy telecast on Fox included even viewers in war-torn Croatia.

And they thought Serbs were scary.

There it was, a dummy of NBC Entertainment President Warren Littlefield, catapulted like a flopsy doll onto the stage of the Pasadena Civic Auditorium.

There he was, co-host Jason Alexander of NBC’s “Seinfeld,” patrolling the audience like a daytime talk-show host, quizzing some of the nominees, seeming to wing it and insult Glenn Close and Tyne Daly while pretending to “fill” until it was time to move on. It was awkward. Some of it died. But at least it created an aura of unpredictability.

There was Alexander’s co-host, Cybill Shepherd, getting into a scripted food fight with the chef for the traditional post-Emmys Governors Ball. It was crude. It was messy. It was the exception.

Unfortunately.

What is this growing tasteful trend that threatens to undermine everything that we’ve come to adore about the Emmys?

Produced by Don Mischer, Sunday night’s telecast was entirely too controlled, too cultured, too dignified. The telecast had returned to Fox, the tarty, rouged-up, garter-belted network of “Martin” and “Melrose Place,” which meant it was time to get down and dirty. But what happens? La-de-da-de-da.

The last great Emmy telecast was in 1992--the year that vulgarity was really valued, when it really meant something. The year Roseanne wore feathers, Tom Arnold talked about “kissing a little butt” and Kirstie Alley twisted a mention of the series “Herman’s Head” into a bawdy double-entendre. It was the night that “Murphy Brown” executive producer Diane English counterattacked Vice President Dan Quayle’s assault on her show’s family values by taking a shot at Ronald Reagan’s family; the night that Robin Williams also mocked Quayle.

Those were people who understood that coarseness and aggression belonged on TV.

Yet what did we get instead Sunday night? Emmy winner Mandy Patinkin of “Chicago Hope” defending the industry’s oft-assailed family values by meekly mentioning that CBS executives “helped me value my family.”

We got Emmy winner Shirley Knight of HBO’s “Indictment: The McMartin Trial,” rebutting conservative America’s devaluation of the arts by tepidly pleading: “Take very good care of us. We’re as necessary as the air that you breathe and the food that you eat.” Shirley, please! We got Abby Mann, executive producer of the Emmy-winning “Indictment,” seeming to hold back while indicting TV for stacking the deck against the McMartin defendants.

We got Emmy-winning Donald Sutherland of HBO’s “Citizen X” stodgily referring to drama’s “unblinking” look at the “human condition.” We got cast members from CBS’ “The Piano Lesson” performing a scene from the Emmy-nominated play with such artful aplomb that it reeked of . . . The Stage. What was this, the Tonys?

It was infectious. Dennis Miller, he of the ass-kicking monologues on his HBO series, “Dennis Miller, Live,” which won a writing Emmy, sounded more like Ben Kingsley than Ben Kingsley. And, at one point, David Duchovny of Fox’s Emmy nominated “The X-Files” actually said the I-word: “Indeed.”

Not that the night was a total washout.

Fortunately, Fox began its festivities with a live pre-awards show with Dick Clark and KTLA-TV entertainment reporter Sam Rubin that was something to behold. It was one of those wonderfully camp, lots-said, nothing-communicated half hours of glib gab.

“Love to you both, good to see you,” said Rubin to . . . well, what difference does it make? He and Clark said practically the same thing to everyone they could corner.

At one point, referring to Jerry Seinfeld, Clark seemed to snap. “Good luck to Jerry inside, good luck to all of us,” he said.

It was the kind of show where, at one point, Rubin conducted an interview without any audio and it didn’t seem to matter. Later, Rubin threw it back to Clark at another location so that he could ask Rubin if he had any parting words.

Of course he did. Love to everyone, and good luck.