The Emmy Awards have walked right into their own scandal. Adam Klugman, son of the late Jack Klugman, is furious that his father isn’t getting a special tribute tomorrow night. He’s quite right. The tributes are going to James Gandolfini, Jean Stapleton, Gary David Goldberg, and Cory Monteith. Cory Monteith? Dead at 31 from a drug overdose. Actor on one TV series. Never even nominated for an Emmy.
Adam Klugman is damn right. He said, “I don’t mean to say anything disparaging about Cory, but he was a kid who had won no Emmys and it was a self-induced tragedy.”
Also gone in the year since the last Emmy Awards are Larry Hagman, Julie Harris, Jeanne Cooper, David Frost, John Ingle, Dennis Burkley and Cosmo Allegretti (from “Captain Kangaroo”). Each of them had long and stellar career far exceeding Cory Monteith’s brief moment of popularity.
There’s a problem with highlighting of any of the deceased, obviously. One was not more important than another and all of them are missed. Monteith was popular with young people, but no more than Heath Ledger, an Oscar nominee who was included with everyone else the year he died, on the Academy Awards show.
How were the five chosen? Arbitrarily, I’d say. Both David Frost and Herb Kaplow died this year. Shouldn’t a famed TV journalist have been included? What about Dr. Joyce Brothers?
The In Memoriam segment is a mess and the Emmys haven’t even aired. It’s not good. I do think the Emmys should put the special tributes online, and treat everyone equally on the show.
